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There are many ways that an aspect (angle) between the
Sun and Uranus can manifest. Generally, we associate the
Sun with intentionality and creative self-expression.
Uranus, on the other hand, represents our impulse toward
change, revolution and progress. If these two functions
are in hard aspect (a difficult angle) to one another,
then the individual may show an intention to resist change.
In politics, we call such an individual a "reactionary,"
which means someone radically opposed to progress and
liberalism and, by definition, all things Uranian. In
such instances the solar ego struggles against the Uranian
drive, and finally becomes possessed by it.
Pat
Buchanan: A Uranian Reactionary
A
good example is would-be reform party presidential candidate,
Pat Buchanan (Sun opposite Uranus), who is renowned for
his strident conservatism and rabid Republicanism—so rabid,
in fact, that he has been branded as too conservative
for his own party (hence his Reform Party candidacy).
Note that “reform” is a Uranian word. That Buchanan has
now become identified with “reformers” exemplifies what
Jung called enantiodromia, the tendency for things to
revert to their opposites when they become too one-sided.
In
his fury to defend the status quo against radicals, Buchanan
has himself become one—a shrill voice on the fringe that
few take seriously. Many regard his policy of isolationism
in an era of global politics as bizarre. Called “Crackpot
Pat” for his defense of Hitler and soft-on-Nazism views,
Buchanan has become a radical conservatist, a contradiction
that aptly expresses the lack of integration between his
Sun and Uranus.
Fear
of Change
Fear
of change is a natural consequence of the Sun’s resistance
to Uranus. It may seem that the Sun-Uranus person wants
to introduce changes all over the place, but their desire
to change things is actually a reaction to changes that
are already occurring. A reactionary wants to change things
back, i.e., to return to a simpler, more manageable time.
The
reactionary’s fear of change extends to a fear that one
group or another (Uranus) is trying to change his identity
(Sun)—i.e., his thoughts, values and convictions. If this
fear is strong enough, it can be converted into zealous
devotion to a cause that the individual seeks to advance
with fanatical fervor. In other words, the person becomes
what he fears the most: an extremist who desperately tries
to change another person’s thinking.
Pat
Buchanan’s former role in the television show, Crossfire,
in which he was the impassioned champion of conservative
values, provides a good example of the Sun-Uranus fanatic.
He was one of “those
furious zealots who blow the bellows of faction until
the whole furnace of politics is red-hot,” as Washington
Irving once said. Anyone who has witnessed Buchanan’s
rancorous style of debate will know what Irving meant.
Other
Fearful Uranians
Fear
of change is also evident in Slobadan
Milosevic (Sun square Uranus), the Serb tyrant who refused
to allow various sectors of Yugoslavia—Croatia, Bosnia,
and Kosovo—the freedom to be self-governing. We see it again
in the loathsome former Grand Wizard of the Klu Klux Klan,
David Duke (Sun-Uranus conjunction), who opposed desegregation
and racial equality in Louisiana.
Former Governor
of Alabama, George Wallace (Sun-Uranus opposition), became
infamous in
1963 for defying
a federal court-ordered integration of Alabama schools.
Wallace actually attempted to bar the entrance
of black students
at the University of Alabama by standing at the
doors. Fear of change is likewise obvious
in “unibomber” Ted Kaczynski (Sun-Uranus conjunction),
who was so threatened by technological progress that he
waged a one-man war against it.
More
recently, in Austria, the emerging political influence
of conservative Joerg Haider (Sun-Uranus quincunx) has
Europe in an uproar. When Haider's far-right Freedom Party
was sworn in as part of Austria's new coalition government,
the European Union (EU) immediately imposed political
sanctions to isolate Austria. Labeled by his critics as
a "yuppie fascist" and the "Austrian David Duke," Haider
won international notoriety for his anti-immigration stand
and opposition to rapid EU expansion.
To
his opponents, Haider is a dangerous right-wing extremist
who is exploiting Austria's growing disenchantment with
the current ruling parties to advance his xenophobic,
racist and intolerant politics. Though he consistently
denies being anti-Semitic, his record reveals many statements
utilizing Holocaust terminology that seem to legitimize
Nazi policy. Like Buchanan, Haider promises to curtail
abuses of the welfare state and protect Austria's national
interests from being overrun by immigrants and unchecked
global markets.
In
each of the above cases, the Sun is resisting the Uranian
principle of change, progress and freedom until, ultimately,
it becomes possessed by it—for example, Haider’s “Freedom
Party.” Yet, the possession is not integration, but reactionary
radicalism. The person appears to espouse revolutionary
(Uranian) ideals, but they are unconscious and corrupted
by an over-attachment to a narrow, parochial identity.
Buchanan’s isolationist movement becomes the U.S. against
the rest of the world, Milosevic’s cause was Serbia against
the Kosovars, Duke and Wallace championed whites against
blacks, Kaczynski defended personal liberties against
the proliferation of technology, and Haider opposes immigration
and global economics. This is not true altruism. It is
hostility toward that which threatens the stability of
one’s own fragile identity.
Uranus
and Neptune in Aquarius
With
Uranus and Neptune both transiting Aquarius, change is
in the air. And so we may see an increase in reactionaries
who soar upon the winds of change with the instincts of
a vulture. Right-wing extremists like Haider, Duke, Buchanan,
Milosevic and Wallace feed off people’s resistance to
change and fear of the future.
Certainly,
social and economic progress is not always pretty. Massive
change needs to be regulated in accordance with the needs
of the political organism that is experiencing it. The Austrian
move to the right is an understandable reaction to the thousands
of economic refugees who are flooding Europe. Many people
fear for their jobs, while others are reacting to the upsurge
in crime that often accompanies rapid political change.
The political extremist is someone who overreacts to
change. His fears both reflect and inflame public sentiment
against conditions that are the inevitable concomitants
of progress—for example, immigration, technological proliferation,
racial integration and global economics. The temporary
instabilities that these conditions generate may be regrettable,
but they are the necessary and unavoidable by-products
of an evolutionary impulse that is denied at society’s
own peril.
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