Uranus and Your Declaration of Independence

Every year you have the opportunity to break through your old and tired ways of doing things. This occurs when the Sun meets Uranus, planet of shock, surprise, and... break through. Eventually all of us fall into a routine. Routine is good. If you did not have much of our everyday minutiae packaged into routine you would expend all of your energy on such things as figuring out where the corner bus stop is, for example.

But too much routine deadens the soul. From time to time you need to break out just to feel that you are still alive. We could not live together as a society if we did not compromise. All of us make accommodations all of the time. If you are married, you work out accommodations with your spouse.

Unless you are independently wealthy, you probably spend many of your waking hours working to earn money to pay your bills. Even if you have your own business and you have chosen the products and services you want to provide, you have to make accommodations to your clients.

It is too easy to get into a trap of needing to please everyone else--or sacrificing your dreams because they are not 'practical.' But when Uranus is touched off, you are reminded that to really live, there are times when you will need to put yourself first. This is not selfishness, it is survival of the soul.

Uranus is not known for its tact or patience. So when you are feeling its energy strongly you are moved to take actions that some will find shocking or surprising. You are asserting your independence so you can be true to yourself. The more you have 'gone along to get along,' the more your assertion of independence is liable to shock others. But once you have tasted the feeling of acting in accord with your deepest values, it is difficult to accept anything less.

Going 'against the grain' implies doing things or seeing things in an unconventional way and Uranus is associated with unconventionality. And unconventionality is both jarring and exciting, particularly if people in your environment are accustomed to your acting in certain patterns.

But taking the singular path and stepping outside your usual frame of reference is liberating. It is also the seat of genius as it presents the familiar in a different perspective. Since much of problem solving is contingent on how the problem is framed, stepping outside the usual set of assumptions automatically presents an alternative perspective.