Uranus - From collective to individuation

Uranus is often associated with individualism, manifested by a tendency to radically distinguish oneself from collective norms and to be driven by a need for limitless freedom.

At the same time, Uranus represents a collective ideal with which the individual identifies and by which he goes beyond his own individuality to serve values greater than himself.

Individual versus collective

Does the need to extract oneself from the collective reveal a need for individuation and a need to be fully individuated or a need to associate with other people who share the same ideal to break the limits imposed by their environment and inherited from their past?

In other words, does Uranus correspond to an impulse to become an individual with the associated solitude or to a desire to merge into a collective movement with people who share the same vision of the world?

This questioning comes from my own experience. In the spiritual group I was part of for many years, the leader Elias was on one hand a lonely wolf and on the other hand he was the guide of a group where the bond of belonging was very strong. In his birth chart, he has Pluto in Leo in the 11th House square the Sun in the 8th House. This aspect clearly indicates the will to be a leader and at the same time the will to be part of a collective. Uranus is in Cancer conjunct the South Node, which reveals a hidden emotional insecurity that explains his need to create a group to which he felt he belonged but which implied a strong dependence on it. Outwardly, he claimed that what mattered most to him was freedom, but he refused to see the dependencies he had created and which were perceived for example in his way of ignoring his financial dependence on us or rejecting the lunar aspects of life: vulnerability, nature, belonging…

Isn't this a contradiction experienced by many Uranians? A conscious aspiration for radical freedom but an unconscious need for belonging associated with the Moon. The radical freedom corresponding to Uranus is so high that the basic needs of a human being can be crushed or denied. The Uranian despises the lunar needs which thus become difficult to identify. However, when basic human needs are ignored, they act in the depth and lead Uranians to defend principles which do not correspond to their way of life.

In my birth chart, two planets are square the nodes of the Moon: Uranus and the Moon. So I am talking here about an inner contradiction, between freedom and belonging. My core knot is expressed by Pluto in the 4th house, which can be summed up as follows: how can I find my emotional security without external dependencies? The key is to look more and more at my dependencies so as not to let myself be drawn into them.

More generally, in the zodiac, Aquarius is opposite Leo. Uranus is in some way opposite the Sun, which suggests that Uranus tends to thwart the sense of individuality indicated by the Sun. This archetypal opposition helps to perceive the contradiction experienced by many people when they belong to a group or movement that breaks with collective norms. Uranus is a transpersonal planet, which by its very nature does not facilitate the individual expression linked to the Sun. The synthesis of these two opposites is in fact crucial when we seek to individuate ourselves while participating in the world.

The Ideal

With Uranus, we are searching for a higher truth, which is central to spiritual teachings. It is often said that the ego must surrender and disappear so that the disciple can open up to a larger plane of reality. And it is true that there is no spiritual awakening if the little self does not fade away, at least momentarily, to make way for a reality greater than oneself.

Being part of a collective transformation movement or connecting with a spiritual guide are ways that allow a transpersonal reality to enter within oneself. There is an abandonment of the little self that recognizes that it cannot do everything and that agrees to surrender to a reality that surpasses it. But in the name of this vision, many disciples can deny their own solar expression, believing that they are on the path.

In my experience, when the disciple surrenders to a spiritual guide, any egotistical expression is perceived as an obstacle on the path. The ideal is to become a devotee totally dedicated to the master. Consequently, any resistance is perceived as negative and the temptation is great to repress any contradiction between inner feelings and what is supposedly requested by the master. When this functioning becomes a regular unconscious strategy, it leads to a comfort zone that short-circuits the real inner work.

Nevertheless, the disciple or devotee is convinced that he is living an ideal life. But he is actually living in a crystal palace, an ideal world disconnected from the real world. The desire for liberation represented by Uranus or Neptune has become a dreamland. Feedbacks from outside in the form of signs or warnings are systematically rejected.

We could say that the transformation of a group animated by a Uranian ideal into a community of people imprisoned in their illusions comes from a Saturnian tendency to freeze what has been a living reality, or a Neptunian inclination to create mirages, or a solar compensation to identify with the originality of a group.

I think that all this is true but should not mask the fact that there is a natural Uranian orientation to consider that ideas or consciousness are the only reality. The detachment that is rightly associated with Uranus can become a disconnection when it leads to neglecting the personal and unconscious components of being. People who practice a philosophy of non-duality such as Vedanta are subject to this risk of disconnection. This philosophy is very Uranian when it reduces the world to objects or the personality to a character, but a systematic application of this vision can lead to repressing uncomfortable feelings and emotions, thus creating new divisions while the person believes himself to be in unity.

Uranus is often considered the planet of individuation, which seems questionable to me. By helping to detach oneself from the family past and the cultural context of origin, Uranus can be a very important starting point on a path of individuation. But Uranus is not always the Great Liberator. The reality principle is not Uranus’ strong point, and yet it is necessary if we wish to look objectively at our unconscious mechanisms. And this ability to look at ourselves as an anatomist of our inner workings is crucial in the process of individuation.

I think it is important to clarify the way we look at Uranus and its role in a spiritual perspective. It can even help us better understand what a spiritual path is. Astrologers tend to idealize Uranus, perhaps because they identify with this planet. But we can become prisoners of the limited world of Saturn as well as the ideal world of Uranus or the illusory universe of Neptune. Each planet has its dark side that it is important to clearly identify.

Another important aspect of Uranus is its connection to trauma. This connection has been developed by Jeff W. Green in his book on Uranus and by Mark Jones in his book "Healing the Soul". It seems that the individual's attempts to free herself/himself from collective frameworks are a major source of trauma, because these are often accompanied by reactions from society that seek to stifle or repress what appear to be new and unfamiliar behaviors that endanger existing balances.

Jungian psychologist Donald Kalsched has described how trauma can cause a person to become lost in their fantasies or, on the contrary, to become very serious, organized and efficient but cut off from their soul. It can be the same person expressing these opposing tendencies at different times. I think we could describe the person rigidified in a stereotypical behavior as a dissociated Saturn and the person who systematically takes refuge in their illusions as a dissociated Uranus.

These extreme behaviors allow us to perceive tendencies present in most of us, in order to be able to undo the traps they represent and thus realize the potential for awakening and liberation that Uranus symbolizes.

Pierre Mevel