2008 Year in Review: Cultural change is here

December 28, 5:03 AMAstrology ExaminerMaria Barron

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Uranus is primordial sky, bringer of lighting

Here’s the thing about this 2008-2010 Saturn-Uranus opposition: I love this energy. I like the tradition, the structure, the weightiness and the rules of Saturn and I like the electric, emboldened, erratic and revolutionary ways of Uranus. This opposition of Saturn in Virgo directly across the circle of sky from Uranus in Pisces is my kind of see-saw. But maybe I’m a total freak.

Because here’s the other thing about the Saturn-Uranus opposition: it’s supposedly painful and annoying and will knock you on your backside and make you feel like there is nothing solid anywhere in the whole world. So then you turn into a little dictator to try to regain control, or someone else you know does so … and things proceed like that. Or maybe you become a flaming revolutionary and get yourself arrested for a cause.

The real thing about this transit, which perfected in degree on Election Day 2008 and will come back into degree four more times before dissolving in 2010, is that it’s a reliable sign of cultural change. Think 1965-1967. If this return of the Saturn-Uranus opposition does nothing else to our culture, I dearly hope it will work some of that incredible 1965-1967 music magic in our currently listless music scene. During the campaign, this astrological transit certainly provided planetary backup for President-elect Barack Obama’s political message of change.

The times they are a-changing. Again. I guess we all know, that’s life in the solar system. So, it’s time to take stock of traditional (Saturnine) ways that work, that are worthy and strong and helpful – and ditch the ones that are really just slag (worthless rocks from a mining site) that weigh people down. Move lightly and quickly with Uranus, but not so erratically that you lose sight of Saturn touchstones worth keeping.

If you happen to have natal planets at or near 20 degrees Virgo or Pisces, you’ll feel the tension of this general cultural change much more personally, and I don’t mean to make light of the conflict you may experience. My best advice on this one is to go ahead and root for both sides – look for what’s good in structure and what’s good in freedom and find ways to allow them to co-exist within and around you. Things will break and things will re-form.

Culturally and individually, we will change; we have to change to make progress in protecting our world. It’s worth putting a point on the fact that this is a more harmonious version of the change-agent sign than it was when it appeared in the mid-60s. Saturn in Virgo is really quite a bit more helpful to humanity’s structured, practical thinking that was Saturn in Pisces, which is frankly far more deluded. And Uranus’ revolutionary fervor is slowed and calmed a bit in the Piscean sea so that it’s less combative and more transcendent.

The planets are in the same Virgo-Pisces axis as they were in the ’60s, but now their positions are reversed, which is elementally a more comfortable fit. The planets and their signs also make a good mix of practical, inventive, dreamy and realistic tendencies that should be good for the competitive development of green technology.

Really, this stuff is great energy. I hope the new administration really does call people to rise into their better natures and work together for the good of all. I may be a total cock-eyed optimist on this one, but with this sort of energy around, people might consider it.