Uranus and the Power of Belief
In my last entry I wrote about how the discovery of Neptune coincided with a rise in alternate belief systems. This movement was part of a general return the emotional and non-rational that is labeled in visual art and literature as Romanticism. It is seen a reaction to the rationalism of the Enlightenment, which is associated by astrologers with the discovery of Uranus.
Like Neptune, Uranus seeks to transcend the ordinary, the parochial; only Uranus does this intellectually, using logic and science. I sometimes think it odd that astrologers associate themselves with Uranus, but at the time that the planet was discovered (1781) astrologers felt themselves more closely aligned with the rationalist and scientists than with dogma of conventional religion.
At that time, astrologers thought of themselves as being on the cutting edge. They were going to take the claptrap out of street vender astrology (about which intellectual astrologer of the period complained loudly) and make it into a science. However, the cutting edge eventually cut us off and for a long time astrology has languished somewhere between science and belief.
Discarding astrology was just the beginning for Uranus. Those answering this planet’s call for transcendence through the mind have continued to separate themselves from the non-rational. The present day neo-atheist movement promoted by many scientists seeks to make belief obsolete by explaining everything in the universe and human experience in purely rational, physical terms.
However, not even the most devoted Uranian can entirely escape a touch of Neptunian belief. All the neo-atheists have done is replace the belief in an ordering principle within the universe with a belief in random selection. They insist that given enough time, randomness can produce order out of chaos.
What makes this so idea so odd is something called entropy, a principle that says at any ordered system will, over time, veer toward chaos. This something we see all around us. It’s why our appliances wear out, our bridges collapse and our bodies age. And yet, in a feat of Neptunian belief, neo-atheists are sure that when it comes to evolution, this process is reversed.
I’m not saying that those who seek to put all their faith in the rational and the physical are wrong. That would be impolite. I’m just saying that they have just as much Neptune in their horoscopes as I do. We all have a point where our observing, Uranian mind ends and our believing Neptunian mind begins. It may be when we are discussing nature of the universe, or it may when your boyfriend tells you that that girl he was with meant nothing. For better or worse, Neptune will do its work.
