Ouranos
and Gaea
The
union of Ouranos and Gaea produced the Titans, the Hekatoncheires,
and the Kyklopes (must be what happens
when
you marry your own
mother). There were 12 Titans, created in couples (boy meets
girl kind of thing). The Titan children didn’t like Ouranos'
heavy-handed rule, and so they rose up in a great rebellion.
Kids will be kids... but Ouranos easily quashed their youthful
rebellion
and threw all of them into Tartaros (sort of a Greek hell).
Meanwhile, mother/wife Gaea - unhappy with the harsh treatment of her Titan children - arranged for the death of Ouranos at the hands of their youngest son, Kronus (Kronus was known to the Romans as Saturn). Gaea showed Kronus how to irremediably "wound" (castrate) his father, Ouranos, with a curved knife (or a sickle) that she'd made just for the special occasion.
I’d vote for this being a seriously dysfunctional family! This story also explains why: "it's not nice to fool Mother Nature...."
Prometheus
and Uranus?
Some archetypal astrologers that like associating the differing
planets with the mythology of their namesakes are a wee bit:
Richard Tarnas, one of the current "big dogs" of archetypal astrology, seemingly long ago abandoned the crotchety, cantankerous Greek god, Ouranos, for the rebellious Greek Titan god, Prometheus, the "bringer of fire" and friend of humanity. Maybe a campaign should be started to officially rename Uranus to Prometheus (it might, at least, get more respect that way).
The
Four Fold Face of Aquarius
Anyway, I can't resist taking this concept
just a wee bit further. You
see... Prometheus (son of the Titan god, Japetos) had three brothers:
Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoitios. And each one of the 4 brothers
appear to have a unique and different affinity with the rebellious,
independent energies
of Uranus, Aquarius, and the 11th house.
Getting Back To Ouranos
Lest
you leave thinking that I've been a wee bit too harsh and dismissive
in my treatment of the mighty Ouranos and his unique role in
Greek mythology... the Greeks did revere the shock and awe power
of Ouranos, mythologicially representing
the very first
lightning
bolt
creating the universe out of nothing.
And what can I say... as Quantum theory now appears to be backing up the ancient Greeks' story (along with other ancient traditions) as to how our universe came to be created out of nothing.
The
Inventor, Creating Out of Nothing
Neptune and Uranus being compensatory to each other, the two "personifying" archetypes
of these two outer planets are the Magician (Neptune) and the Inventor
(Uranus). The
process of Uranus has to do with intuition, freedom and invisible
energy - creation out of nothing. The
process of Uranus is "electric" and is naturely balanced out by
magnetic and trendy Neptune.
Uranus questions every status quo. And cries out, "Why not?" Uranus cries out, "Give me liberty or give me death!" Uranus cries out, "CHANGE!"
The
Great Awakener
My best guess is that the archetypal "Great Awakener" associated with this planet
is both pleased and amused there’s controversy surrounding its very naming (as
well as its pronunciation). This is because Uranus enjoys and absolutely revels
in being different and unique!
For instance... had you ever noticed, that of all the major planets in our solar system, only Uranus was given the name of a Greek god (having no Roman counterpart)? Yep, all the other planets were given names of Roman gods.
Change!
Distinguished author and astrologer, Alice O. Howell, reminds
us that when Uranus travels through a new sign, the effects
of
that
particular
sign will show a marked change:
"When in Libra, art and marriage customs changed; when in Scorpio, sexual mores changed; when in Sagittarius, religious outlooks; and so forth. Neptune ushers in trends, but Uranus brings abrupt changes."
Did humanity's hopes, beliefs, dreams and aspirations drastically change during the long Uranus journey (1995-2003) through Aquarius?
While it's pretty much a no-brainer that Uranus' journey through Aquarius didn't usher in a time of much hoped for peace and harmony throughout the world - it's difficult to say (with any authority) what the long term effects of the Uranus journey through the sign of Aquarius will be. Much of the time we can only somewhat objectively judge such things when having the advantage of retrospect and hindsight; being able to look back in time at least 10 to 20 years.
Astrological
Uranus, the modern ruler of Aquarius, represents
a shockingly different and unique way of looking at things.
Named for
the greek
god,
Ouranos...
Ouranos was the first of the Greek sky gods and the
grand-daddy
of the thundergod Zeus.
He (Ouranos) was created out of his mother Gaea (the great Earth goddess, nowadays known to us as Mother Nature). Ouranos later married his mother, Gaea (try to relax... the gods did a lot of that stuff).
Uranus -
Rebel Without a Clue
(with affinities to Aquarius and the 11th house)
BTW - It's Pronounced: Your -Ran - Us
