Uranus smells bad.

Look, I had to get that out of the way. It probably will not be the last but, if you have ever known an Aquarius, wordplay involving this mispronunciation is absolutely appropriate. Uranus rules Aquarius, by the way (if Aquarius would ever admit to anything ruling it). This is another one of those outer planets we can’t really see without some help. Discovered in 1781 by William Herschel, it again denotes things nobody really wants to admit but everyone knows are there. Like that odd smell in the open office. Is someone cooking fish in the microwave again or did you just indulge in a milkshake at lunch when you knew you probably shouldn’t? Who knows?

Similarly to the sign it rules, Uranus’s wheelhouse is invention, innovation, technology, and electricity but also, the unique. Sit down, Stirner fans, you should probably look into the irony of said fandom. But anyway, Uranus also happens to be the coldest planet, so truths and what not uncovered by it might come across as a bit robotic and cold. More or less the mad scientist of the universe, you might think this means that more esoteric topics are out of bounds but they’re not.

Uranus doesn’t particularly care what you think. In fact, this is the planet of pure rebellion, enlightenment, ingenuity, and pretty much putting a finger in the eyeball of tradition.

Unpredictable, but also infinitely resourceful and imaginative, where you might think of Mercury as the more or less nerdy intellectual of the planets, Uranus is his highly idealistic big brother: wanting results, now. Wanting to liberate the truth, now. Breaking the rules, throwing aside established structures or patterns and sudden change are all things Uranus is good for.

The Retrograde

Uranus retrogrades about once a year, for around six months. Now, it’s common enough to see it in your chart, but when it happens in transit: it’s a little more significant.

Spazzing out is a pretty common thing during a Uranus retrograde because self expression seems much more important. The thing is, while standard pat advice is to “be yourself”, nobody actually wants that. Sometimes, this is because you’re just a jerk but other times, it’s because they’re not comfortable. Is that really your problem? Well, that’s a question you need to answer, not someone else.

At other times, it may be that you’ve been more or less stuck in a role because you thought you had to be. During Uranus retrograde, you may find yourself being alerted to this in the most jarring of ways. Unfortunately while that sounds like a good thing, other times it may just be that a part of the way you’re doing things isn’t working for you and under this influence: everything feels stifling which can lead to an abrupt and more explosive change than you really had to make.

The basic gist to dealing with these retrogrades then is impulse control and whether or not its actually needed, but, as with the others, reflecting on why you feel the way that you do and what you can do about it is a safer and smarter bet. You might have felt the rumblings of Uranus for a while and you might think you can just eek it out without anyone noticing. That’s probably not the case.

24 August 2019 at 19:54 GMT