2021: Should I be worried about the Saturn-Uranus square?

Saturn and Uranus are very different planets.  Saturn represents the status quo, and it tries to maintain existing structures.  In this sense, it is a somewhat conservative influence.  Uranus, by contrast, is the planet of revolution and earthquakes.  It wants to break things down and overthrow the old ways of working.  If you think of Saturn and Uranus as a pair, you have the symbolism of a real battle.  Uranus is trying to revolt against Saturn, while Saturn is trying to restrain Uranus’ chaotic impulses.  This gives us connotations of tension and stress.  Two opposing forces battling it out, with cracks appearing everywhere.

Reinhold Ebertin, in The Combination of Stellar Influences, described the Saturn-Uranus combination as “Irritability and inhibition, tension… rebellion, the urge for freedom, a provocotive conduct, an act of violence”.  Alfred Witte and Hermann Lefeldt, in Rules for Planetary Pictures, wrote that Saturn-Uranus was about “Quarrels. Sudden separaton. To part and die. Inflexibility”.

From a historical perspective, there’s some support for the idea that Saturn and Uranus are a difficult pairing.  There was a conjunction between the two planets on May 3 1942.  This was close to the peak of German control over Europe, yet there were cracks in the edifice. On May 27 1942 Nazi leader Reinhard Heydrich  was assassinated in Prague.  It was an act of rebellion, which was followed by suppression and reprisals.  Just over forty-five years later, from February to June 1988, there was another conjunction.  This conjunction kicked off the process by which Soviet control over Eastern Europe collapsed.  We saw the first demonstrations against Soviet rule – for example, in March 1988 thousands of Catholics demonstrated in what is now Slovakia, demanding religous freedom.  The Berlin Wall didn’t come down until late 1989, but the process had started.

The Saturn-Uranus cycle starts and ends with a conjunction.  What started in 1942 ended in 1988, at least in a theoretical sense.  And the next conjunction, which closes the cycle beginning in 1988, is in 2032. Within each cycle, there are critical points.  Half-way through, there are opposition aspects, when Saturn and Uranus are 180 degrees apart.  From 1965 through to 1967 the two planets were in opposition.  In Western Europe and the US this was the peak of the 1960s.  Hippies, freedom, the Summer of Love.  In China there was an opposite manifestation – the beginning of the Cultural Revolution. The next opposition took place between 2008 and 2010.  This coincided with the financial crisis, the election of Obama, and the build up to the Arab Spring.  It was a time of despair and hope.

Looking at 2021, there is a square between Saturn and Uranus, which happens three times, on February 17, June 14 and December 24. This means that we are entering the final quarter of the cycle that started in 1988, and ends in 2032.  The last final quarter square was between 1975 and 1977, and the one before that in 1931. In both these cases the global economy was shakey, but I think we should concentrate on broad trends rather than specific events.

For example, the Saturn-Uranus conjunction in 1988 marked the break up of Communism and the creation of a new Europe.  The protests in Slovakia in March 1988 were the first of many, which led not just to the fall of the Berlin Wall but also to the expansion of the European Union. In 1999 and 2000 there was a waxing square between Saturn and Uranus.  This coincided with the introduction of the Euro – it became the European currency on January 1 1999, when the Eurozone currencies were pegged to each other. The first Euro notes were issued in 2002.  Then from 2008 to 2010, with the Saturn-Uranus opposition, there was the financial crisis, where the straightjacket of the Euro came within an inch of exploding.  In 2021 there is the waning Saturn-Uranus square. You don’t have to be an astrologer to know that 2021 is going to be a difficult year, but there is likely to be clear evidence that the European Union is unsustainable.  However I do believe that the EU will stagger on, until at least the Saturn-Uranus conjunction in 2032.

This brings me to the question of whether we should be worried about the Saturn-Uranus square in 2021.  In itself, it is unlikely to be a single, sudden and dramatic event.  Instead, it is a marker of where we are in a 45-year cycle.  Yet, if we’re expecting 2021 to be better than 2020 we may be disappointed.  The world is already in recession, and we’re now going to have a waning Saturn-Uranus square, like in 1931 and the mid-1970s, when the West’s economies were shot to pieces.  We should also remember that in 1931 there was a banking crisis in Germany, and Britain left the gold standard, leading to a collapse in the value of the British Pound.  Back in 1931 the Pound was the world’s reserve currency and now it is the US Dollar.  The value of the Dollar is already falling, and 2021’s Saturn-Uranus square could accelerate the process.

So we get the picture.  The Saturn-Uranus square is likely to make things worse rather than better, and the world is likely to become more violent.  The geopolitical tension that was held back by COVID is likely to come to the fore. Areas to worry about include Taiwan, the South China Sea, the Sino-Indian-Pakistan border, Nagorno-Karabakh and the Persian Gulf.  Plus a black swan conflict, that right now no-one is  considering.

The destructive potential of the Saturn-Uranus square will be exacerbated by Joe Biden becoming president.  Donald Trump might have been a disaster for the US, but his transactional approach to foreign affairs was probably well-suited for the turbulent times in which we live.  If we look at Joe Biden’s horoscope, we can be more specific about the problem:

He was born in 1942, the year of a Saturn-Uranus conjunction.  In fact, he was born a day or two before the Soviet encirclement of Stalingrad.  His Saturn and Uranus are widely conjunct – with an orb of over seven degrees.  However, both planets are conjunct his descendant.  This means that he attracts Saturn-Uranus events.  And when Biden becomes president his chart will become the chart of America.  Even if there wasn’t a Saturn-Uranus square in 2021 he would be attracting violent events, but with the Saturn-Uranus square his first year in office is likely to be a trainwreck.

But should you be worried about the Saturn-Uranus square?  If you’re an optimist, yes.  If you live a conflict zone, yes.  But if you’re a Trump supporter, with a sociopathic streak and enough money to ride out the storm, you might enjoy yourself.