Dedicated to Jessica
I realise that most of these articles require the reader to have a fair knowledge of astrology in order to be able to negotiate their way round them. Recently I have acquired new followers who may be relative newcomers to the serious study of this subject so I will endeavour to explain some of the simpler things in this one.
Most people have a fair understanding of the nature of the Zodiac signs. This is a very useful starting point but it is only that.
If they understood the planets, houses, aspects and transits in as much depth, we would all be happy.
The planets are different energies. The personal planets – Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus and Mars rule different parts of ourselves.
The Sun is our essence or individuality, that which seperates us from everything else.
The Moon is our connectedness to others, our feeling responses and our unconscious habits.
Mercury rules our thinking processes and our ability and desire to communicate these.
Venus rules our capacity and desire to attract other people and possessions
Mars rules our personal drive, our assertiveness and the outward expression of our desire nature.
The next two, Jupiter and Saturn are essentially modifiers.
Jupiter is the principle of expansion, of opportunity for progress. It is the great benefic, the planet of good fortune. Everything it touches it makes bigger.
Saturn is the opposite, the principle of contraction, it operates by restricting and limiting, by holding us back and making us focus on the bare essentials.
So far so simple. And this is an astrological system that seemed to work fine until the late 18th century. It also seems to work fine these days if you are a hipster traditional astrologer with infinitely more hair on your chin than you have on your head.
For the rest of us that prefer to live in the real world, there is the small matter of the discovery of Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and common sense.
Saturn is the furthest planet that can be seen by the naked eye. The above hipster logic means that nothing else can affect us. Perhaps we should export them all to Wuhan and see how they get on with an unseen virus then.
Saturn had always been associated with the outer limits, and the end of all things.
Uranus’ discovery had the same impact for most astrologers, that discoveries in other fields do for most scientists.
They go back to the drawing board, observe and test the new phenomena and when they have found it to work, go about altering their previous view of the world to accommodate the new evidence.
Uranus was discovered in 1781 by William Herschel.
It came at a time of great upheaval in the world.
The French Revolution of 1789 occurred with Uranus conjunct Jupiter in Leo, so obviously something very big was happening to the monarchy ( Jupiter in Leo ) at the time.
The Bastille was stormed on July 14th under a triple conjunction of Venus, Jupiter and Uranus in that sign.
Along with the American Revolution and the Industrial Revolution happening at roughly the same time as Uranus’ discovery, astrologers were fairly quick to see this planet as being linked with change and breaking through barriers that had seemed impossible for millennia.
So Uranus has always been about going beyond, particularly in terms of political ideas. It is associated with freedom and the breaking of old patterns. It often operates in an unpredictable manner and can be unsettling and disruptive if people are trying to hold onto the past.
On the downside, a strong Uranus can make us want freedom at all costs, be erratic and unpredictable. Idealism can also become fixed for the sake of it.
Neptune was discovered in 1846.
Like all things Neptunian, its historical connections are harder to pin down than those of Uranus.
The 2nd half of the 19th century was also a period of change but many of the new patterns of thinking were religious rather than political.
Spiritualism, occultism and interest in the paranormal were all on the rise, but this was mostly occurring in areas outside of the conventional religions.
So Neptune has always been associated with those things that are intangible, penetration into the unknown, going beyond the veil. It is the mystical planet.
Neptune can have its downside. A surfeit of this planet could make someone naive, delusional, impractical, prone to escapism through drink, drugs or other methods.
Pluto was discovered in 1930, a time of massive change, but one which more than anything in human history is associated with the splitting of the atom.
The articles on this site are a testimony to Pluto’s power, but this one is particularly about Uranus and Neptune.
Both Uranus and Neptune take a long time to go through the whole Zodiac. Since these two were discovered they have only been in conjunction once, in the early 1990s in Capricorn ( the last time was in 1821 ).
So the conjunction of Uranus and Neptune would signify a desire to go way beyond what had been considered normal up to that point. It would be dealing with the strange and intangible.
Astrology works on the principle that anything born or begun in a moment of time carries with it the symbolic energy of that moment.
So it’s possible to draw an astrological chart for anything, whether that is a person, a nation, a company, an idea or even a TV programme.
For probably the most out there TV show of all time, Uranus and Neptune are in exact conjunction ( separated by only 9 minutes ).
They are also exactly conjunct the Midheaven when the show was first screened.
They are in exact trine aspect to the Sun in Virgo in the chart.
They are also in very close square to a powerful Mars / Jupiter conjunction in Libra.
The Moon is in Cancer opposing the Uranus / Neptune conjunction and this creates a T square with Mars and Jupiter at its apex.
This is fascinating because the thing that drives agent Fox Mulder ( David Duchovny ) to look into all things X Files is the unexplained death of his sister.
This is perfectly indicated by the Moon ( female ) in Cancer ( family ) in the 3rd house ( siblings ).
Mars and Jupiter are Mulder and Dana Scully working in partnership ( Libra ).
The trine between Uranus and Neptune and the 6th house Virgo Sun is interesting.
Normally you would expect Virgo to have little truck with anything spooky, and Scully certainly applies that detailed scientific approach embodied by the sign, but the exact trine aspect suggests that even this viewpoint would be supportive of the evidence for the paranormal.
Interestingly the chart ruler, Venus is placed at 17 degrees Leo, a very powerful area in the charts of both of the main stars.
Both Mulder and Scully have the Sun in Leo and Moon in Uranus’ sign, Aquarius.
Duchovny as Mulder is the more ” out there ” of the two of them, referenced by the fact that his Sun is conjunct Uranus and Moon opposed it.
Gillian Anderson as Scully has both her Sun and Moon in square aspect to Neptune.
The X Files were absolutely a turning point in both of their lives as shown by the fact that Pluto was creating a T Square to Duchovny’s Moon / Uranus opposition and conjunct Anderson’s Neptune, casting midway squares between her Sun and Moon in 1993.
Just like with people, TV programmes can have their own transits too.
The X Files first show chart had its only Pluto / Sun transit ( a square aspect ) and turning point in 2002 when it was taken off air after 200 odd episodes.
The X files was unique. We will probably have to wait until the next Uranus / Neptune conjunction of 2164 for anything comparable.
But they’ll probably be still showing reruns of it then anyway,.
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