AQUARIAN TURF WARS, part 2 of my series on Saturn/ Uranus archetypes

Bearing down further upon the relationship between  Uranus and Saturn,  the problem of rulership of Aquarius immediately raises its head, particularly because transiting Saturn is in tropical Aquarius as it looms over Uranus in tropical Taurus. The fact that Saturn was traditionally assigned rulership of this sign, and later, modern astrologers chose to reassign it to Uranus’ dominion allows us the opportunity to directly compare and contrast these 2 archetypes as the rubber hits the yellow road, so to speak, both mythically and in practical astrology, and get a much clearer picture of what Aquarius really is about. It also affords an opportunity to look more deeply at how and why astrology works.

Aquarius is a humane sign, represented by a human figure, it is the sign of fixed air (an interesting  paradox), it is cold and dry, it is social and intellectual, visible and masculine. The tropical fixed signs happen in the middle of the season, so Aquarius represents the dead of winter, not the Cardinal beginning nor the mutable conclusion and transition into spring.

 Aquarian planets and angles have an inclination toward being eccentric, analytical, detached, alienated or removed, polarized, striving toward objectivity, always seeking the higher ground and devising novel approaches to human organization and relations. This is the sign of the psychologist, the astrologer, the anthropologist and the HR professional, the scientist whose mind is in the clouds and  may be somewhat lacking in social skills themselves. Aquarians may be passionate, dedicated, and powerful, but there tends to be a degree of emotional detachment and a desire to create order via methodical deconstruction and reduction that needs to find balance. The tension between the individual and the collective is an important topic for the Aquarian. This brings forward questions of social engineering, socialization, social and legal contracts, and the conflict between centralized utopian idealism versus theories of free markets and anarchism or agorism. Here ideas become organized and fixed into ideology, and potentially into dogma. To understand how Aquarius finds balance, one simply needs to look across the zodiac at the sign which it opposes: Leo, the sign of fixed fire, ruled by the Sun. 

If one thinks of vision as being the Solar polarity, re-vision and revisionism are the Saturnian Aquarian pole. Leadership belongs to the Solar archetype, while ministry or administration belongs to the Saturnian Aquarian archetype.

This polarity is once again an echo of the metaphorical Saturnian lead and solar gold.  The lead can protect us from radiation, it can contain excess, but it can also stultify and tamp down creativity, it can create useful conceptual boundaries but these can become rigid and rote, leading to cul de sacs and “in the box” thinking. When out of balance, this can turn into a cerebral form of emasculation, and Saturn can become intellectual the proxy of Gaea. In traditional astrology, the Sun is considered to be in detriment when in Aquarius, because it is too cold, too dry, too alienated, too cerebral and detached.  The heart-based inner fire of the soul is quietly resting in Aquarius while the intellect reigns, and organization and mental discipline are achieved. 

While many of the Aquarian keywords fit the Uranian archetype very well, Uranus does not energetically or alchemically oppose the Sun. Uranus is a creator god archetype from whom the Sun came, who also fathered Saturn. Uranus has the detached nature of a primordial creator god as is evidenced  by his willingness to banish his children into a hell realm, but this does not mean it is diametrically opposed to the Sun: in fact Uranus and the Sun are very well matched to support one another.  The axis  of Aquarius/ Leo does not find balance if Uranus  and Sun are placed in opposition.  Saturn and the Sun are in opposition, and this essential conflict is built into the zodiac in all oppositions. Mercury and Jupiter are opposed, Mars and Venus are opposed, and the Luminaries, the Sun and Moon, both oppose Saturn.