Transiting Uranus in Taurus from May 2018 until July 7, 2025
Transiting Uranus entered Taurus on May 15, 2018, at 8:16 am PDT, where it remains until July 7, 2025. It spends about seven years in a sign, minus some brief retrogradations into the previous sign, such as its return to the late degrees of Aries between November and March. Astrologers call Uranus one of the “generational marker” planets; it demarcates a mini-generation of seven years per sign. We rebel and innovate against and through the energies of the sign that Uranus occupies, which is now Taurus, either natally or by transit. The new and unusual often provoke a backlash, so some people may cling fiercely to the Taurean status quo as long as they can.
Here’s a quick example: the Uranus in Cancer mini-generation seriously questioned the construct of the nuclear family, often describing it as dysfunctional. They created communal or non-traditional living arrangements, had children much later in life than their mothers did, or had them out of wedlock. They also became involved in alternative (Uranus) health (Cancer, healing), and women’s issues (Cancer as archetypal Yin energy).
For the next seven years, we can grow impatient with what may seem like unnecessary restrictions, overly conservative attitudes, and empty conformity related to what Taurus rules. We’ll see a great need for change, increased freedom, and social progress in areas related to Taurus, and a questioning of the status quo in those departments. It’s also possible that we’ll see more extreme manifestations of greed and selfishness, since Uranus rules non-conformists, reformers—and sociopaths.
What does Taurus rule?
* Establishing and maintaining a healthy, easy connection to your body, your senses, your instinctual side, your human primate nature, and Nature herself.
We may see discoveries and innovations (Uranus) about the senses and the body. Perhaps we’ll question the wisdom of sitting in front of a monitor all day, or discover more about the human body’s natural cycles and systems, and how interfering with them may affect our health. We may rebel against the current beauty ideals of extreme thinness and the kind of muscle tone attainable only by hours of daily exercise. On the other hand, some people may resist the Uranian call to change and become very indulgent of their senses, attached to comfort or luxury, pleasure-seeking, and hedonistic. Others may try to decorate the body as if it were an art form, such as darkening the entire iris of the eye or splitting the tongue. Some people may wear more devices: smart watches, smart goggles, Fitbits, VR visors, or even cybernetic or bionic implants.
We may see increased activism about saving the Earth from the effects of global warming, pollution, and overpopulation—there is no Planet B, and our need to save this one may become shockingly apparent. Innovations could occur in agriculture, animal husbandry, geology, human and veterinary medicine, forestry, horticulture, meteorology, seismology, or volcanology. Gardening or cooking may become more experimental or wholistic.
We may see more efforts to move to other sources of energy besides fossil fuels, more “back to the Earth” movements, and experimentation or discoveries about the optimal human diet, including the “Paleo” diet.
We may learn more about the instincts, DNA analysis, the anatomy and physiology of the senses, or human sexuality. We may rebel against organizations or cultures who are extremely repressive about the body, the senses, or sexuality, and since that touches on our reproductive instinct and religious or social constructs at the same time, there may be a conservative backlash against greater freedom or transparency in these areas.
It wouldn’t surprise me if some of our relationships to animals changed, as we discover more about them. People are not the only tool-users, which suggests more intelligence than we’ve attributed to animals in the past. Birds and chimps use tools, and they’ve recently discovered a sea creature using a stick to help it reach some food. Dolphins have been known to help human divers who are in trouble. Octopi kept in labs will sometimes reach out of their tanks to break glassware or otherwise behave mischievously.
* The sign Taurus is connected to acquiring the resources and the security that you need in order to thrive—and that may not always mean money. Our collective (Uranus is an outer planet) instinctual side (Taurus) is being stimulated by Uranus’s entering Taurus, and our strongest instinct is self-preservation.
Over the next seven years, therefore, we may see people trying to get and keep, by any means possible, massive amounts of money, land, material goods, natural resources, or power. We may also see more reactions against conspicuous consumption and unequal access to wealth, food, land, water, other natural resources, birth control, and health care. Global economics and banking (Taurus) will likely face revelations (Uranus) and challenges, as well. Our monetary systems (cash, credit, “digital money,” etc.) may change.
The less safe (Taurus) that people feel, the more unpredictably (Uranus) they may react. Grounding the galvanizing, electrifying energy of Uranus on the Earth and in your body is one good response to this influence. Back to basics: what do we need to survive? Food, water, clothing, shelter, health, and the resources to maintain them.
I think one of those resources is calm, the ability to stay centered, to monitor and stabilize our reactions to stress, to other people, and to our immediate environment. When you’re upset, you may start unconsciously holding your breath. One of the best ways to become calmer is to breathe, deeply. More oxygen means more calm and clearer thinking. You might try exercise, yoga, meditation, or biofeedback to encourage deep breathing.
What does the Earth need to survive? Open-mindedness, honesty, education, compromise, sharing of resources, and action. All easier to attain if we’re calm.
* The sign Taurus is connected to simplifying our lives, to living as close to the rhythms of Nature and the needs of the body as possible. With Uranus there, we may react against the crazy pace and overloaded schedules that Westerners, at least, are expected to maintain. Downsizing our living arrangements, cleaning up our diets, and making sleep more restful may become popular. More opposition to genetically modified foods, preservatives and additives may arise, and we may want to forbid or restrict use of some medicines and chemicals. I hope that the practice of truly integrative medicine becomes widespread. The Internet horse is long since out of the barn, but we may pay more attention to how our online lives are affecting our health and well-being. How could you simplify your life?
