Sudden, unexpected disruptions. Breaks with tradition and old patterns to make room for the new. Genius. Eccentricity. Astrologer Seven Forrest considers Uranus the ruler of astrology; Robert Hand calls Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto “transcendental planets” that can be dealt with constructively only with an expanded consciousness. Unless we nurture a larger perspective, Uranian disruptions appear to bring unpleasant and unexpected surprises. In reality, these disruptions liberate us, revolutionize the way we do things, and blow out the old so that the new can flow in.

Uranus, like the other outer planets, remains in a sign for so long that its effect is felt on the masses. In the twenty-first century, this planet's influence is visible in the breakdown of old paradigms of belief within most of the large structures we have taken for granted: health care, medicine, science, religion, lifestyle, education, and social programs. We are at the beginning of a new century with old structures crumbling around us. But in the shadows, the new paradigms are forming, bubbling with vitality, gathering momentum. This is all part of the Uranian influence.

In a horoscope, Uranus dictates the areas of our life in which these disruptions occur and how we utilize this energy. Do we feel it? Think about it? Seize it? Pull it deep within us so that this becomes rooted in who we are? Are we so afraid of it that we deny it? Uranus also indicates the areas in which we are most inventive, creative, and original.

This planet takes eighty-four years to go through the zodiac. Its natural house is the eleventh, and it rules Aquarius. Traditionally, before the discovery of Uranus in 1781, Saturn ruled this sign. But Saturn's rigidity just doesn't fit Aquarius. It governs electricity, inventions, the avant-garde, everything that is unpredictable or sudden.