The U.S. presidency is in trouble. I’m not just referring to the deadlock in the current election. Our sitting president was indecorously impeached, and whoever eventually emerges victorious from the Sunshine State Smack-Down is in for a rough term. Half the country is going to hate him. Something strange is afflicting the executive office. The usual suspect in all things unusual is the planet Uranus.

Astrology can seem arcane and otherworldly, but its most important principles are beautifully simple and direct. Consider, for example, the natural antipathy between the Sun and the planet Uranus. The timeless conflict between these two unyielding forces not only forms the crux of the matter at hand, for the Sun and Uranus were plainly at cross-purposes on November 7, but it has also driven the development of our political system from its very inception.

Long Live the King

Think of the Sun as the king of our solar system. By virtue of its size and nature, the Sun governs the workings of the system, and in turn is affected by the various meetings and partings of the planets in their orbits. The Sun, with its golden light, is considered the natural ruler of the royal sign Leo, the king of beasts.

As it manifests, the Sun represents the king, leader, CEO or father figure in any situation; it even represents the ego as the organizing principle within each personality. That is all well and good, for every system needs a hierarchy of authority to function properly. Ideally, power supports order, and vice versa. But there invariably comes a time of imbalance when power begins to serve itself, and disorder follows. This is when the nature of the planet Uranus comes to the fore, to rise up in rebellion against the status quo, to redistribute power from the one to the many.

Rebel With a Cause

Uranus is considered the natural ruler of the sign Aquarius, which is found opposite the sign Leo in the zodiac. Opposite signs complement and complete each other, like the two poles of the same magnet. If Leo/the Sun is the king, Aquarius/Uranus is the people, especially as they are represented in a legislative assembly. If Leo/the Sun is the boss, Aquarius/Uranus is the union. If Leo/the Sun is the parents, Aquarius/Uranus manifests as rebellious teenagers with green hair and jewelry stapled to their faces.

The stage is set for an unending drama. These two opposing forces perpetually clash, reconcile and evolve into the next level of their conflict. In time, congressmen become presidents, workers are promoted to management and teenagers are blessed (or cursed) with children of their own. We all experience some combination of Sun/Leo and Uranus/Aquarius within our own personalities and lives, in accordance with our unique birth charts.

History of the Republic

The idea of a modern republic led by an elected president is a fairly new one, and sprang up at the same time as the discovery of the planet Uranus. We can look to ancient Athens as an example of classical democracy, but at the time of our revolution, there was no contemporary parallel to the American experiment. Thomas Paine, the herald of the revolution, compared the colonists’ rejection of the English king to children outgrowing the need for a father. A government by the people and for the people, with no hereditary nobility or monarchy, was a radical innovation, a response to the habitual abuse of power by the European monarchies. It marked the beginning of the emerging new age of Uranus.

William Herschel’s discovery of a trans-Saturnian planet in 1781 shattered the boundaries of the known universe, igniting revolutions in science, industry and government. In the conscious discovery of Uranus, the attributes and qualities that astrologers have come to associate with it, (i.e., inventive genius, eccentric individuality, disruptive rebellion, etc.) were unleashed throughout society, forever changing the world order. We can trace the persistent influence of Uranus and the sign Aquarius throughout the charts of the major events and personalities of that era.

The American Revolution worked; the French were not as fortunate. Every major turning point of the French Revolution coincided with tight planetary alignments between Aquarius and Leo, Uranus and the Sun. The upshot of the tragic overthrow and execution of the Bourbon king was to pave the path to power for the biggest, baddest Leo of them all, the Emperor Napoleon. Napoleon’s ambition, in its turn, was laid low by the combined forces of the resurgent European monarchies. The upshot of the American Revolution is that the duly-elected American president is now the most powerful ruler in the world.

Why Now?

Currently, Uranus occupies its own sign, Aquarius, where it is free to express its iconoclastic nature. Obviously, this is not good news for the most powerful ruler in the world. There’s just something in the air that makes congress want to rebel against him. The last time Uranus was in Aquarius was during World War I, a conflict that resulted in an apocalyptic sweep of the royal houses of Europe, dethroning the Romanov, Hapsburg and Hohenzollern dynasties. Fortunately, America is pretty comfortable with that whole Uranus vibe, so I think we’ll survive.

Getting back to the crux of the matter, our recent election was held as the Sun at 16 degrees Scorpio formed an exact 90 degree square to Uranus at 16 degrees Aquarius. Not only are the rulers at odds with the people, the people are at odds with the people. This unprecedented modern crisis should ultimately revolutionize the way we choose our leaders. It should also serve as a lasting reminder of basic astrological principles in action—simple, direct, obvious and written in the sky for all to see.