Uranus can be both liberator and oppressor. Great for releasing stagnant energy, but not so great for stability. Sometimes this is about the sign in which Uranus is transiting, or what aspects it is making to a natal or mundane chart. For those who want a life where nothing really ever changes, Uranus is an oppressor.

Uranus officially entered Taurus in 2019, after 7 years transiting Aries. Uranus first ingressed into Aries at the end of May 2010, but quickly retrograded back into Pisces until March of 2011. Uranus made it’s first ingress into Taurus in mid-May of 2018. Just prior to the ingress, a petition in France started circulating social media protesting the rising cost of crude oil and fuel prices.

During the months it had ingressed into Taurus, this movement was gathering administrative fuel by collecting more signatures for the petition. By November 17, 2018, Uranus was back at 29 degrees Aries after a million signatures were collected. The physical protests officially began on that day. This was known as the “yellow vest revolution”, or in French, the gilets jaune, as protestors were given yellow vests to wear as they blocked roads and major intersections.

Uranus was exactly square the transiting north node in Cancer on that day, November 17, 2018 at 29 degrees Aries-Cancer. Uranus aspecting the nodes can mean a variety of things. Sometimes revolutionary inventions are discovered (such as isolating LSD in a lab) and sometimes it signals acts of revolution. Uranus is erratic and unpredictable that way.

By the time Uranus officially ingressed into Taurus in early March of 2019, the gilets jaune movement wasn’t exactly over, but it was on the decline. Then of course by March of 2020 it had completely dissolved because of the COVID lockdowns.

The Yellow Vest Protests were characteristic of Uranus in the pioneering sign of Aries, but it’s interesting how they really started to take off once Aries was in its anaretic 29 degrees. We can see this as the initial trigger and then the transiting node square really setting things in motion.

Uranus in Taurus has been encouraging classically Taurean themes: food shortages/rising food costs, market/financial instability and the dramatic increase of consumer goods bought on the Internet. The coronavirus we could also see as the Earth attempting to cleanse itself, with Uranus in Taurus as steward.

The Saturn-Uranus square has set off a cascade of Uranian disruptions since it began in 2021. The Russians invading Ukraine in early 2022 and blocking grain exportation dramatized the structural eruption of this transit. But what about the mysterious fires at food processing plants across the U.S.? I believe there were more than 25 but I can’t get an official count because the Internet has been scoured of dissent or controversy about it.

More news that’s hard to find in much detail on the Internet is what is happening with Dutch and Italian farmers who have recently had their land seized by the government. If it’s really about carbon conservatism, people on the brink of starvation is not a humane time to be implementing this. Why is this happening during a major food crisis instigated by Russia? Because instability (read: crisis) is a powerful bargaining chip. The more unstable issues like food production reach a state of emergency, the more leverage governments have when declaring war.

Uranus was last in Taurus in the late 1930s to the early 1940s. By September 1, 1939, WWII officially began when Uranus was at 21 degrees Taurus. No significant aspect with Uranus was occurring at that time, except for a trine with Mars in Capricorn and Neptune in Virgo. The notable transits at that time were Saturn conjunct the transiting south node at 0 degrees Taurus, square Pluto at 2 degrees Leo. So there were two malefics in hard aspect with the south node.

Uranus ingressed into Gemini for a beat at the middle of 1941, but retrograded back into Taurus for the remainder of the year. The Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in December, 1941 while Uranus was in Taurus.

By May of 1942, Uranus officially ingressed into Gemini, when the war was already halfway over. This is something to consider when looking at predictions.

Uranus in mutable signs like Gemini or Virgo for example are typically more erratic than when in fixed or cardinal signs. Many astrologers are looking at Uranus in Gemini transits as high probability for war. Uranus was also transiting Gemini during The Revolutionary War and The Civil War, so there is strong evidence for this correlation.

If you read my post about the lunar nodes, I mentioned 9th century Muslim astrologer Abu Ma’shar’s theory about transiting malefic planets as more advantageous in hard aspect with the south node rather than the north node, as the north node forecasts the future. Malefics aspecting the future were considered more of a concern.

Can we call Uranus a malefic? I don’t think we can – not consistently. It is a disruptor and at times a liberator, but it doesn’t seem to have the same inauspicious bandwidth that planets like Mars, Saturn and Pluto have.

The start of The Revolutionary War was April 19, 1775. Uranus at 0 degrees Gemini was square the lunar nodes at 2 degrees Virgo-Pisces. Saturn at 3 degrees Libra was quincunx with south node at 2 degrees Pisces. Even though it’s a quincunx, we still have Saturn forming a tense aspect with the south node.

For the U.S. Civil War beginning April 12, 1861, Uranus was transiting 9 degrees of Gemini and was conjunct Mars at 5 degrees Gemini, square Saturn at 3 degrees Virgo and making no aspect with the nodes. Saturn was also opposed Chiron at 0 degrees Pisces.

On May 21, 2023, Uranus will be at 19 Taurus and making no significant aspects (other than widely square Lilith at 14 degrees Leo). However, Mars will have just ingressed to 0 degrees Leo, square Jupiter at 0 degrees Taurus, both opposing and square Pluto at 0 degrees Aquarius and both Mars and Pluto squaring the nodes at 3 degrees Taurus-Scorpio. This looks to me like a red flag.

Pluto will be in Aquarius only a few months of 2023, but that doesn’t mean the drama will be brief. It seems like Uranus transits not in hard aspect with malefic planets Saturn, Mars or Pluto, or without malefic planets in hard aspect with the nodes, are not as explosive.

For example, Uranus was conjunct the transiting the north node at 18 degrees Taurus from August 1-10, 2022, with the first 2 days also conjunct Mars in Taurus. Nothing especially dramatic happened, except, of course, for the FBI raiding Donald Trump’s classified documents. We shall see how that pans out.