I know that a LOT of us are feeling over the top, uber excruciating anxiety lately because of all the incredible upheaval and turmoil on our planet right now.

And some folks have asked what might be going on astrologically to activate these turbulent times.

So here’s my astro two cents on the matter.

The planet Uranus is now the sign of Taurus and has been there since last year.

Uranus is the planet that shakes everything up and DEMANDS radical, uncompromising change. Like NOW. And Uranus rules the energy of SUDDEN change. Everything turns upside down in the blink of an eye. You never see it coming. It creates a jarring sense of instability. Like there’s no solid ground to stand on anymore. When Uranus is in the house, we’re living on the fault line and the earthquake is definitely happening.

It’s akin to the Tower card in the Tarot.

The sign of Taurus symbolizes our basic sense of security. It’s the earth. It’s money. It’s our resources. It’s food and shelter. It’s our material circumstances. It’s our animal body. It’s about what we value and what we think is worhwhile. It’s what allows us to be grounded and calm and relaxed and at home in the world. And ultimately to feel safe.

Uranus IN Taurus is shaking up our core relationship with that fundamental sense of safety that includes things like our finances, our jobs, our food supply, our bank balance, the roof over our heads, our sense of well-being and even bringing into question our very survival.

The shadow side of Taurus is the compulsion to collect and to hoard and to never feel like it has enough material goods. Materialism has become our major religion in the West and having as much money and wealth and STUFF as possible is considered to be an unmitigated good.  Uranus is showing up to challenge those taken for granted assumptions and to have us rethink the question of what IS truly enough?

Uranus is the paradigm shifter and is the planet associated with gaining freedom and liberation from outmoded and oppressive behaviors, systems and beliefs. It’s also known as The Great Awakener and it’s shocking tactics are designed to shake us out of the sleep of a conventional, consensual reality that is choking the life out of us because it’s become an antiquated prison and no longer serves our growth and spiritual evolution.

It’s role is to create the circumstances that lead to the radical destruction of an old order that has outlived it’s usefulness, tearing it out at the roots so that an upgraded order can be born out of the rubble. It’s the rule breaker and the revolutionary. It strips away our predictable and comfortable ways of operating in the world so that we are forced to create something new that is ultimately more life affirming.

Uranus is the disruptor and throws us head first into the jaws of uncertainty where it’s trying to teach us how to navigate the terrain of chaos and the unknown without relying on external signposts. It reminds us that true security can never be based on outer circumstances but needs to come from a rock solid relationship with our true and authentic self.

Uranus’s primary purpose is to radically change our narrative about how we think the world works. And since it’s in Taurus it’s asking us to question on a very deep level our stories about money, about our relationship to the earth itself, and about how we interact with food, shelter and our bodies.

It’s asking us to explore the question of what it is that brings us REAL security and what does it mean to truly be at home in the world. 

There’s a LOT of other stuff going on astrologically that’s contributing to the upheaval. But Uranus is a key player in the meltdown we’re experiencing right now.

The crisis we are facing on this planet is happening on so many mega levels …. politically, culturally, health-wise, environmentally and spiritually.

It then plays out in our individual bodies and lives and hearts as distress, illness, disenfranchisement, loneliness, powerlessness, overwhelm and self hatred. It creates a situation where we don’t feel like we belong to the world. To each other. To our own sweet selves.

And we are actively discouraged by the culture from making the connection between the macro and the micro level of distress.

We are taught to blame ourselves for our anguish. To believe that we messed up royally if we are in pain… physically, emotionally or spiritually. To believe that however we are suffering is a problem that is ours and ours alone.

To believe that there is something wrong with what we think, what we feel, what we want and who we are. And THEN to believe we are responsible to FIX ourselves. To make ourselves better. To make ourselves fit.

To keep the myth of self blame and isolation and self reliance going around and around and around.

But this crisis isn’t something that we can heal on our own.

We can’t get more radiant, more whole, more real, more alive, and more restored one person at a time.

It’s all or nothing. All of us or none of us. We can only heal ourselves by healing the world.