In my previous post, on Uranus and Neptune, I talked about how the meanings of the planets changed when we added the new outer planets. I want to address the enormous impact in modern astrology of having the outer planet Uranus be in an orbit beyond that of Saturn.
In the first part of this essay I will spell the name of the Greek god as Ouranos rather than Uranus. I want to avoid immediate association with the modern planet of that name. The word in the original Greek means the Heavens or the Sky. Ouranos and Gaia, or Heaven and Earth, together gave birth to a large number of gods, including Kronus, better known by his Roman name of Saturn.
Ouranos/Uranus in Mythology
In the original Greek mythology Ouranos is the father of Kronus/Saturn. Saturn overthrew the rule of his father by castrating him, and Saturn and his wife Rhea gave birth to other gods, including Zeus, also known as Jupiter. Zeus in turn overthrew and castrated Kronus as Kronus had overthrown and castrated Ouranos.
Ouranos/Uranus in Traditional Astrology
If you consider the symbolism of the traditional cosmos, Ouranos, or the Heavens, is the sphere of the fixed stars that surround the planets. Kronus, the son of Ouranos, is the outermost of the planets, the planet closest to Ouranos. The son of Kronus, Zeus or Jupiter, is the next planet in order. Saturn here in the original mythology has his distinctive place at the border between the realm of the fixed stars and the realm of the perpetually moving planets. Saturn is at the border between time and eternity, and that is reflected in the mythology.
The planet Zeus or Jupiter is a lower level image or representative of the Demiurge, the artisan god who crafted the manifest cosmos we inhabit, looking to the planet Saturn for the patterns or templates on which the cosmos is built. Saturn in this symbolism mirrors the forms and patterns of the eternal world down into the world of time and matter.
Uranus in Modern Astrology
In modern astrology the symbolism of Saturn and Uranus has been flipped on its head. The modern planet Uranus, the next planet out from Saturn in the modern cosmos, is cast in the role of the brave freedom fighter and rebel who fights and overthrows Saturn, and Saturn represents everything old, oppressive, outmoded and restricting.
The original mythology has been reversed. Instead of Saturn overthrowing his father Uranus, we have Uranus the freedom fighter overthrowing Saturn. In terms of the traditional mythology it makes no sense.
Switch of Meanings of Saturn
You can see how this change in mythology has profound effects on the meanings of Saturn, and on the system as a whole. In the traditional system Saturn mirrors the eternal law and structure of The Heavens or Ouranos down into our mutable world. Saturn is associated with eternal law and with tradition, with rules that have been passed down over time. There is a respect and reverence for the traditional laws and structures.
With Uranus in modern astrology Saturn now represents all that is outmoded, outdated, restrictive and no longer useful. Uranus the eternal rebel overthrows Saturn and stands for the new, the young, the modern. Tradition is devalued, as is anything old, as are old people, and everything new and youthful is worshiped and highly valued.
In modern astrology the entire system of tradition on which astrology is originally based is devalued and thrown away, to be replaced by the new and modern. This is a common thread running through the writings of many modern astrologers, and it is so common that it acts as a kind of background assumption.
The discovery of the outer planets did not simply add a couple of new moving bodies orbiting around the Sun. It completely changed the symbolic meaning of the structure of the cosmos. I would argue that much of value has been thrown away with this switch of meaning, and I also argue for reclaiming much of the traditional meaning, of the order of the Cosmos in general, and of the meaning of Saturn in particular.
Chesterton’s Fence
“In the matter of reforming things, as distinct from deforming them, there is one plain and simple principle; a principle which will probably be called a paradox.
There exists in such a case a certain institution or law; let us say, for the sake of simplicity, a fence or gate erected across a road. The more modern type of reformer goes gaily up to it and says, ‘I don’t see the use of this; let us clear it away.’
To which the more intelligent type of reformer will do well to answer: ‘If you don’t see the use of it I won’t let you clear it away.”Go away and think. Then, when you can come back and tell me you do see the use of it, I may allow you to destroy it.'”
This paradox rests on the most elementary common sense.
The gate or fence did not grow there. It was not set up by somnambulists who built it in their sleep. It is highly improbable that it was put there by escaped lunatics who were for some reason loose in the street.
Some person had some reason for thinking it would be a good thing for somebody. And until we know what the reason was, we really cannot judge whether the reason was reasonable. It is extremely probable that we have overlooked some whole aspect of the question, if something set up by human beings like ourselves seems to be entirely meaningless and mysterious.
There are reformers who get over this difficulty by assuming that all their fathers were fools; but if that be so, we can only say that folly appears to be a hereditary disease. But the truth is that nobody has any business to destroy a social institution until he has really seen it as an historical institution.
If he knows how it arose, and what purposes it was supposed to serve, he may really be able to say that they were bad purposes, that they have since become bad purposes, or that they are purposes which are no longer served. But if he simply stares at the thing as a senseless monstrosity that has somehow sprung up in his path, it is he and not the traditionalist who is suffering from an illusion.”
– GK Chesterton
I want to examine the stereotyped description of Uranus and Saturn as signifying enlightened youth smashing through old and outmoded structures. This has been a cliche of our culture for well over a hundred years. Orthodoxy is out of fashion, and heresy and rebellion have been the trend since at least the late 1800’s. The idea that the new is better than the old, is now an old idea, a mental rut.
Here within our mutable world no structure is absolute and no finite form lasts forever. No country lasts forever, no organization lasts forever. All structures in the material world eventually fall apart.
This means that no earthly religious structure has an eternal monopoly on the entire truth. No earthly church can ever completely embody and contain the one true church. The challenge of any church tradition is to walk the fine line between being the guardians of a tradition of truths that have been passed down, whil avoiding thinking of themselves as the only guardians of the only complete, final and infallible truth. Any structure we build can only point to truth without completely containing it.
This also means that traditional astrology is not better just because it is traditional. The oldest texts are not by definition superior just because they are oldest. Are they worth respecting and learning from? Goodness, yes. Do they contain much of value, even of divinely inspired and eternal value? I am convinced that is true. Are the earliest texts complete and definitive for all time? No.
That is one side of the question.
On the opposite side, there is the danger of thinking that any system is outmoded and ready to be destroyed just because it is old, and that the new is better by definition just because it is new. There is also the danger of thinking that an old structure that is ready to be destroyed has nothing of value in it to be preserved.
Saturn is not always the bad guy, and Uranus is not always the good guy.
Uranus destroys and disrupts outmoded forms, but it also destroys and disrupts things of beauty and value and usefulness. Bombs don’t discriminate between good and bad people, they just blow up. Lightning strikes don’t choose their targets on the grounds of usefulness or value.
The other side of Uranus, the psychological effect, is that it can manifest as an extreme individualism, a stance of rebellion over against any authority just because it is authority.
Uranus does seem to have a connection with, and a particular attraction for, the young and with innovation. The tendency to inflate importance, to think something new is better and more important than it really is just because it is new, is a characteristic failing of youth, one that can be a source of serious unbalance. It is also a characteristic failing of our youth-oriented culture as a whole.
In an extreme example, an obsession with Uranus could play out as a self-righteous terrorist hurling a bomb to destroy a massive building – and, in the process, killing hundreds of people and destroying priceless books and art works. It can be disruption for the sake of disruption, rebellion for the sake of rebellion. It can be tearing down a system, with no thought for what the system provides or what is to replace it.
Humanity did not immediately become more evolved when Uranus was discovered, any more than humanity immediately became more mature and responsible when the atomic bomb was invented.
As a traditional astrologer, I draw the line of the structure of the solar system with the traditional seven planets. The traditional order of the astrology cosmos was passed down essentially unchanged for over two thousand years. I do not discard such a tradition lightly, and part of the purpose of my current work is to re-think that tradition in ways that are relatable to us in the modern world in the context of modern scientific findings about the solar system.
In Chesterton’s terms, that fence was put there for a reason. I think I understand that reason, and I wish to preserve the best of that reason here.
When you fall into the stereotyped attitude that new is better than old by definition – and our culture leans heavily in that direction – there is a danger of thoughtlessly discarding aspects of the tradition that have real value, in the name of change and progress.
Youth can benefit by learning from the accumulated wisdom of tradition. There is a reason some things were passed down for hundreds or thousands of years as having value. This is accumulated experience, this is material that generation after generation has tested and found precious. To discard that lightly is the characteristic hubris of youth.
Today, in our youth oriented culture, it is the role of Saturn to stand back, in an objective position, outside of the fad of the moment, and advise caution. When the message of modern astrology aligns too completely and closely with the current fad – when we think of astrology as a tool for social change and identify it with the latest popular political platform – Saturn is there to give a warning.
This too shall pass.
(Note: This essay is adapted and edited from two chapters in my recent book, Saturn Through the Ages: Between Time and Eternity.)
Well-said. You’re doing yeoman’s work.