The Sun Squaring Uranus: 5 Electric Things to Watch for

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/]. Today we are going to take a look at the sun in Aquarius, squaring Uranus in the sign of Taurus. I'm going to give you five electric things to watch for. These are all Sun-Uranus themes that you can notice today, maybe even yesterday, or as the week continues.

 

You can also apply any of the themes we're looking at today to transits from the planet Uranus to the sun in your birth chart, whether it's a trine, a sextile, a conjunction, square, or opposition. The way I like to do astrology is to turn the archetypal jewel in a way that allows you to take a lot of insight from a talk like this, which can be applied to natal transits or any future applications of the two planets in an aspect with one another. So I hope that you will enjoy this today.

 

I've come up with some really interesting themes and some etymologies. I love digging into the history of words because it can really help us. It's like every word is stitched together, and if you kind of take apart the threads, there are little jewels inside of it. So we're going to look at some of the etymologies of words that are commonly associated with Uranus today. I think that'll be a fun way of looking at this transit and turning the jewel.

 

Before we get into it, remember to like and subscribe. We're seeing if we can get to 80,000 subscribers on the channel by the spring equinox. We're over 74,000, so we have about 6,000 more to go. I don't know how far we'll get, but if you listen regularly and aren't yet subscribed, please do so. It's free, and it helps us grow our channel and our community. We really appreciate it.

 

You can find transcripts of any of the daily talks on my website, which is NightlightAstrology.com. While you're over there, one quick promotion: February's webinar. If you click on the events page and go to live talks, you will see that coming up on February 20. My next monthly webinar is on Venus Retrogrades, called *Venus Through the Fire: Unlocking the Mystery and Magic of Venus Retrogrades*.

 

We're going to be previewing Venus's retrograde in Aries in this talk, giving you some more insight about Venus Retrogrades in general. This will also serve as a deeper dive to prepare us for Venus's retrograde in Aries in the month of April. When you register, you get the link to attend live, and if you cannot make it, we give you the recording afterward so you can watch it on your own time. Hope to see some of you there.

 

Now, on that note, let us turn our attention to the sun's square to Uranus, which is happening today, February 11. I'm going to put the real-time clock up, and we'll highlight the transit, talk about its timeline. This transit has been applying for the past couple of days. You may have been noticing anything we talk about today, yesterday, or maybe even over the weekend, like Sunday or Monday.

 

If we give this just a little bit of time to separate, of course, the full moon is tomorrow, and that's going to be engaging the square to Uranus as well. So everything stays Uranian. Yesterday was Mercury square Uranus, which we talked about in the weekly overview. So it's been a Uranian week to start, and that energy starts to die down by about Friday, in time for Valentine's Day, when Mercury moves into Pisces, and we all lose our heads. Just kidding!

 

Let's take this down, and now I'm going to give you five themes to watch for, and we're going to turn this jewel. It is a personal challenge that I take on for myself to find new ways of describing archetypal combinations. It's something that I love. I find that because the jewels of the archetypes are rather endless, there are always new and interesting ways of looking at archetypal combinations.

 

So when the sun and Uranus get together, what can we expect? Let's refresh on some basic things that we know about the sun and that we know about Uranus. Of course, Uranus is the god of revolution. It is a planet associated with breakthroughs, sudden unexpected disruptions, as well as creative originality, breaking outside of the box. It is associated with lightning strikes of sudden events that inspire but can also create a little bit of chaos.

 

Unexpected fender benders might be Uranus, as much as an unexpected moment of inspiration or insight. We also have themes with Uranus about the desire to break free from limitations, habits, or traditions. The word revolution comes to mind with Uranus, as well as things like inventiveness, originality, and a resistance or defiance to authority—only if the authority is somehow boring, tyrannical, or repressive.

 

If Uranus is contacting Venus, Uranus wants free love, innovation in sex or art, or rights for women to vote—very Uranian-Venus type of themes. You could also see Uranus as the moment that something happens that changes everything suddenly, and your life has been revolutionized. It may feel really chaotic and even painful, but in time, we often feel liberated by the process.

 

So Uranus is a complex planet. Depending on which planet you combine Uranus with, we get all sorts of different expressions. It's very different when you're talking about Mars with Uranus, where you can have outbursts that look and feel more confrontational, aggressive, or violent. Of course, there are some constructive things too, but every planet that combines with Uranus inflects upon the relationship with Uranus its own qualities.

 

When we have the sun, we're talking about the sun as one of the primary emblems of purpose and ambition. Purpose, ambition, and meaning are all derived from some basic astronomical features of the sun. For example, the sun rises, culminates, and sets, and in that way, is associated with the arc of a human lifetime. We are born, we rise, we ascend to the top, we take on a public identity, a social identity, an adulthood, and then we set and die.

 

Life follows an arc, an arc that usually brings us into a sense of various desires, pursuits, and ambitions that go along that arc. The sun is also associated with everything that is archetypally ideal. So when you think of something you're ambitious about, what you're really thinking about is an image, an idea, a thought, or an ideal. That archetypal sense of something that is pure, that you want to mold your life to reflect or represent.

 

We're lunar beings, encased in material bodies as spirit souls, and so we can approximate archetypes in the way we live. I want to be an astrologer. I want to be a dad. I want to be a whatever it is. These are just some things that have been part of my path. But each of us has a tapestry of ideal, beautiful images that we seek to embody or become. Some of them are very mundane, like wanting a certain amount of power, wealth, or status.

 

Some of them are egotistical. The sun is not inherently about the ego. It is about ambition. Our ego has a relationship with ambition and a relationship with desire, and things that we seek to become that we think will grant us a certain degree of importance or personal sense of value. But it's not the same as saying that the sun is the ego. This is a major misconception in modern astrology.

 

The sun is not the ego. The "I" is a complex tapestry made up of many different features. Even from a psychological perspective, the chart reflects the ego in all of the various facets that we look at. Anyway, all that is just to say the sun is not the ego. The sun is also associated with things like fame, rank, and notoriety. The sun was rejoiced in the ninth house, the place of higher knowledge and insight.

 

When we become illuminated from within, we understand something—whether it's in physics or a mystical kind of understanding. The sun was associated with the light of an illumined mind. "Oh, now I understand something. I see something clearly." That sense of higher intelligence was also associated with the light of the sun, the Enlightenment. So there are so many different ways to look at the sun, but many of them boil down to creativity, illumination, ambition, life direction, and the expression of light.

 

When we think about our life in terms of the sun, we're thinking of it in terms of the things that we are here to somehow express, pursue, or follow, like an arc or a path. So when the sun contacts Uranus, we put those qualities in contact with the god of revolution, the god of disruption, the god of liberation, and sudden unexpected shifts or changes. This is where it gets really interesting.

 

The following five themes come from this combination, and I have some interesting etymological roots that we're going to look at as we go.

 

**First, we have divine mania.** I say the word "divine" because I want to emphasize that we tend to look at normal behavior and manic behavior and say manic is bad, and you should be stable. I'm calling this divine mania because I think there's a place for fugue states, interludes of divine mania, where even if you are pretty good at staying grounded, there are going to be times in your life where you are completely engulfed in a creative frenzy, a manic state.

 

For some people, that could be problematic. That could be something they have a hard time controlling, and maybe they need help with. Maybe there's some sense of that mania being connected to mental or emotional health problems. Fine. What I'm talking about now, I mean archetypally, as something that anyone could experience, regardless of how we think of the word mania in clinical mental health.

 

I'm thinking about it more broadly. The etymology of the word "mania" is a state—this is late 14th century from Latin—associated with insanity or madness, but also frenzy, inspired frenzy, mad passion, and enthusiasm. What's really important about that is that there's a very fine line between something like madness and something like insanity, characterized by excessive excitement.

 

It was thought of as almost like a state of spiritual possession, which is a fascinating way of thinking about it. I don't know if it's true or not, but that's fascinating. Then you have this other slightly different way of understanding it, which is to say an inspired frenzy, a kind of enthusiasm, or a mad passion. Why is that important? Because the word "enthusiasm" that's being used to unpack this word etymologically—"entheos"—means "the god within."

 

There is a sense, when we talk about Uranus and mania, of spirit possession, of being possessed by a god whose expression is enthusiastic, creative, passionate, and frenzied. It's like getting plugged into an electrical outlet. You've heard me say that at least 100 times on my channel, where that energy can be so creative, so original, so important, and it doesn't always last very long.

 

Sometimes when we're in the midst of it, there might be a way of getting carried away by delusional enthusiasm and thinking that this will do more than it can. But that doesn't mean that it doesn't do anything, or that these bursts of divine mania aren't very purposeful. Especially with the sun, they can offer us a very interesting kind of course correction or inspiration, with inspiration meaning that the spirit within becomes lit up and alive.

 

The word "awakening" is frequently used with this planet to describe one of its effects. To awaken something within—the initial symptom of something that comes to life, like my kids in the morning, crazy energy. All of us, when our spirit is awakened after a period of dormancy, it gets frenzied and passionate, meaning it gets excited to do things.

 

There's no better time than when you're feeling really enthusiastic and full of life and vigor, and you want to change something, to clean out your attic, garage, basement, or the thing you don't want to do. But when that burst of energy comes, you're like, "Gosh, dang, I'm gonna do it!" And then halfway through, the energy phase, you go, "Whoa, what am I doing?" But then you finish it, and you're glad that burst came through, and you got something done.

 

Did the enthusiasm last? No. But did it accomplish something? Yes. So often these interludes of Sun-Uranus are just bursts that we need in order to get something done. Passion—the word "passion" means to suffer with something that we carry because we love it. So when you are passionate about something, you're willing to suffer on behalf of it because you love it, because you find that it has a higher purpose, meaning, or value.

 

The word "passion" has infused within it a sense of meaningful suffering. It doesn't have to be extreme, like harming yourself, but anyone who's ever done something they care about that requires a lot of work suffers a little bit doing it. So this Uranian burst with the sun can create a kind of mania, an enthusiasm, and a willingness to change something or do something that's not easy but necessary.

 

There's an appropriate level of excitement to go and do it, which is fantastic. On the other hand, just to honor and acknowledge the dark side of this word "mania," sometimes this can be really derailing. If you're someone who has challenges with mental and emotional health or stability, a transit like this, if it's hitting something in your natal chart, can be really destabilizing.

 

We have to seek help and ways to ground and secure our body, mind, health, and emotional health. So that's the shadow to be aware of. But I also like to advocate for this word "mania" because I think a lot of the way I hear this word is always problematic and clinical. There's always a way of looking at it as a pathological problem or issue when I think that many of us have interludes like this—Uranian interludes, Sun-Uranus moments—that are very meaningful.

 

So play with that word. See what you think about it.

 

**Let's go on to the next one: meaningful disruptions.** A disruption would be anything that comes out of the blue and disturbs a rhythm, the status quo, a habit, or a common or familiar perception. I call it "meaningful disruptions" because when the sun and Uranus get together, there's almost always a good reason for the disruption that's occurring.

 

If we take time and are humble enough and curious enough to learn something, if we say, "I'd like to be illuminated by this disruptive event, by this chaotic circumstance, and I'd like to receive some insight or guidance from it," I find that that attitude creates a level of insight that's really rare and precious with Sun-Uranus moments.

 

It's as though, if we pray the prayer, "Give me the gift of insight and understanding with this disruption or chaos that's happening around me," and we just stay patient and listen and wait—like you're trying to remember a song lyric—just let it come to you. In the next days or weeks, something will occur, and you'll go, "Oh, wow, that was really cool. Cooler than I am upset about the disruption."

 

That is often my experience with Sun-Uranus. Often, any Uranus dynamics, really, but Sun-Uranus in particular, you can really feel like you've leveled up in your understanding, wisdom, clarity, and insight. It's a nice way of practicing a kind of spiritual jiu-jitsu. The transits are trying to submit us, and we're just like, "Let me just be with you a little bit." And then all of a sudden, you're free because you didn't try to resist so hard. You just stayed patient.

 

I remember when I did a little bit of jiu-jitsu for about three months over the summer a couple of years ago, before I cracked a rib, and then I was like, "Okay, I'm done." But anyway, when I was doing that, I remember just the thing I learned very quickly, being someone who was getting submitted 24/7 in these classes, was that I had to stay patient. The more I flipped out and reacted and tried to get out of the situation I was in, the more quickly I put myself into a position of getting submitted.

 

I think a lot of life is like that. There are so many good lessons in martial arts, and one of these is very simple: if the disruption comes, don't react. Just wait and find the meaning in time, and then all of a sudden, you develop not only insight but also a capacity to work with energies like this in the future.

 

**Alright, let's go on to revolutionary impulses.** This is fascinating because we think of the word "revolution" and immediately think of the French Revolution, the American Revolution, or Tiananmen Square—people standing in front of tanks. But actually, the word "revolution" comes from Old French for the revolution of celestial bodies. It also comes from the Latin "revolvere," meaning "to turn or roll back," and has a connection to cyclical recurrences or the revolving of a wheel.

 

The reason I like to point this out is that we think of revolution in ways that are really super epic, and often we miss the energetic subtlety of what is meant by this word, which is just that you're going along a straight path. Imagine you're driving a car down a straight road. When a Uranian moment comes, it's as though you're hitting a curve, and there's just going to be a shift in the direction of energy, momentum, story, plot, events, and circumstances.

 

There's going to be a shift or a turn—in this case, with the sun and Uranus, it's a shift of plot, a shift of ideal, a shift of information, a shift of understanding, or a shift with respect to things like leaders or fathers. You can take sun symbolism and think about the kinds of shifts that may happen. But I think the word "shift" is so overused, and so too is the word "revolution" when it comes to Uranus.

 

Well, what does it mean? Yes, it can mean that you're overthrowing some kind of tyrannical power structure in your own psyche or all these big, lofty things. But often with transits like this, it's so fast-moving. There are a couple of Uranus transits in a row this week, so it might be a little bit bigger, but the idea here is just to watch for significant shifts of direction, changes of circumstance that reflect, "Oh, the wheel is turning."

 

Often, those things will cloud your entire ability to start noticing the most basic thing, which is the actual rotating of the Wheel of Fortune. The Wheel of Fortune, meaning the world of karmic flux and change, is about being able to simply notice that you're in a moment where things are shifting and changing. It’s about orienting yourself within it and saying, "Ah, I'm in a revolving moment where the wheel of circumstance is turning."

When it turns, it can feel really dramatic. It’s like you're on a wheel that's always rotating. But sometimes, your ability to notice, "Oh, it's really taking a big turn here," is pronounced. So, what I recommend for a transit like this is just paying attention to the very basic fact that this is a moment of the revolving Wheel of Fortune circumstances in one area or another.

Especially look at the whole sign house of Aquarius and Taurus in your birth chart. Those two houses connecting together will create a little wheel of change. There'll be a shift of energy, momentum, focus, ideal, ambition, or plotline. Just watch for it. Notice it. "Ah, okay, there's Uranus." Your ability to simply recognize Uranus in the midst of a turning moment is really important because that is key to learning how to work with planets in a more conscious way. So, just watch for the turn.

Number four is moments of genius. I love this word etymologically because the word "genius" comes from the idea of—we get a lot of words from it—like "genie" or "gene." Some of these root words, the word "gene," means to give birth or beget. There's also a sense of there being a generative power, and also a tutelary or moral spirit who guides and governs an individual through life. From Latin, "genius" means guardian deity or spirit which watches over each person from birth—spirit, incarnation, wit, talent, prophetic skill.

So, this word—we think of genius, we think, "Oh, super special people who are geniuses," right? But what we're actually saying when we refer to someone that way is, "Look at that flashy spirit guiding their life." What we're really noticing is the mark of destiny or fate, that spirit guiding that person through life is reflecting.

There's a great book written by James Hillman called *The Soul's Code*, which is about the daimon. "Daimon" is a similar word or idea to "genie" or "genius," and even the root word "gene," which means that there's a sort of—the way he talks about it in *The Soul's Code* is like, there's an acorn in each of us that has an oak tree, a specific oak tree in mind that it's going to become.

There are really important moments along our path of individuation. By that, I mean that spirit that is guiding us to be here for what we are here for, or to do what we are here to do, or to learn what we're here to learn—however you want to conceptualize it. The path that we're on takes a really interesting turn, and the genie often flashes and appears with some insight or some important turning point or moment of change or transformation for our life path.

So, when we say moments of genius with Uranus, we're really talking about that special way in which each of us has a guardian spirit or guide that is pulling us along a path with a thread in images in mind that are meant to shape and guide our life. And these are the moments of genius with Uranus. They are really the moments at which that spirit and its governance over our life flashes because things happen that feel—we didn't plan these things. They're kind of chaotic and random. It's like flashes of lightning hitting, and you go, "The genie is here. The thing guiding my life is twisting and changing directions for me somehow."

So, watch for that because it's a really interesting moment where you can actually kind of identify your personal daimon and your personal genius, that's a part of the guidance of your life. I mean, to see it—that we have a language that can identify moments where it flashes—is incredible.

Number five would be rebellious or emancipatory outbursts. Now, the need to defy or resist structures, authorities, traditions, habits, anything that gets boring, stagnant, stuck—the impulse to break through or out of molds that no longer work or to be free where we feel stuck or pent up—is a hallmark of Uranus. And when the sun and Uranus get together, that impulse can become heroic, grand, bright, and sort of vivid.

So, watch for that sort of just general rebelliousness or the need to say something. Sometimes we also have to be careful that we don't—we think sometimes, in order to embody this emancipatory break, I have to say something on social media or I have to make a big declaration or something. Sometimes that's appropriate, and other times, it's about internally setting yourself free. And that doesn't necessarily need to be externalized in every situation for every person.

So, keep that in mind. I think that's an important thing I've learned over time watching people deal with Uranus transits of the sun, and having gone through one myself and so forth. Anyhow, that is it for today. I hope this was useful—some good ways of turning the jewel with the sun and Uranus. We'll be back tomorrow for the full moon in Leo. Take it easy, everyone. Bye-bye.