There is more to say about the topic of the previous post, and I’m sure more will be said later. But in this post I would like to zoom in a bit from this grand cycle involving the stars to some nearer-to-home cycles. These are still long cycles, in most cases, longer than one human life. But they are much shorter than the precessional/yuga cycle.

What cycles am I referring to? The outer planets! Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.

These planets, as you likely already know, were only discovered in the last few hundred years. They are arbingers of change. The Gods of Change, as Howard Sasportas named his book on these planets. As a student of Vedic and ancient astrology, I am aware that it is possible to do good natal and predictive astrology without the outer planets (since the ancient systems did not have or utilize outer planets, not to mention the many asteroids and other bodies that have been discovered in recent years).

Of course, I also know that the best and most open-minded Vedic astrologers do refer to the outer planets, at least when considering transits. Because to anyone who paid them any attention, they are hard to ignore. In the astrology readings I do, the starting point is where are the outer planets impacting your chart, with the inclusion of Saturn. From this alone you can have a good idea of what a client needs to know, diving into whatever areas of life are being affected.

In terms of just looking at the natal chart, you can get away with ignoring the outer planets. But they have a major effect there too. They are a major part of one’s personality even if they are not under conscious control.

Uranus

Uranus is the Great Liberator. He is a bringer of newness. The energy is electric and sudden. If you know the Tarot, I think of the Tower card with Uranian energy:

It’s not necessarily doom and gloom, but it is a lightning strike. Sudden insights, doing things you wouldn’t normally do (but are things that deep down you would like to experience), these are likely to arise with transits of Uranus or to natal Uranus (Uranus in your birth chart).

As the Great Liberator, I find that Uranus transits bring things out and to the surface. For example a transit of Uranus to the Moon is likely to surface buried emotions. It is like to ignite you with a sudden electric impulse to revisit old places and memories. A transit of Uranus to the Sun is going to liberate your being. The more you hide yourself, the more you will be forced out of hiding.

In any case it is good to be aware of Uranus, what he wants and represents, because then you can consciously choose to follow his impulses, rather than resist. It may not make an essential difference. It may just make the process more pleasant. For example, if around a Uranus-Sun transit, you have an impulse to take a dancing class, which is something you have never done before and feels very much outside your comfort zone. Or, let’s take an even more outside-the-comfort-zone example—if you have the impulse to visit or join a nudist collective—then I would say, generally-speaking, the proper action is to follow that impulse. 

You can push the impulse down, and many of us might do that with such fear-inducing impulses, but if we do that, then the impulse to get us out of the comfort zone will come suddenly, externally, and we will have no control over it.

This is much like the quote by Jung: “Until you make the subconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

With a proper relationship with Uranus, his transits are quite invigorating and inspiring, even though they are always scary and uncomfortable too. The total transit around the zodiac lasts 84 years.

Neptune

Neptune is illusive. I feel now that words would not do justice. We would need sound or visuals or direct brain connection. So let me attempt that… 

Neptune transits are a little bit like that. Neptune in your chart is a little bit like that. Since Neptune moves so slowly, a 165 year orbit, it is like that in major, transformative ways.

Neptune is the planet that will make your wildest dreams come true. It is also the planet that will reveal those dreams to be just dreams with little truth or substance to them. Always when Neptune is involved there is some truth involved—the truth of what our soul yearns for. But what Neptune reveals is whether we are willing to work for it, whether we are willing to let it go and let it be, whether we are willing to accept what is.

It’s very likely, during a Neptune transit, that we will fall for something that is “too good to be true”. We’ll most likely hear our inner voice saying “this is too good to be true” or something of that sort. There is a good chance that we will ignore that voice, though the less we ignore that voice the better. And at the end we will learn to better trust that voice or knowing.

Neptune is the dreamweaver and also the knife that cuts straight through the dream, revealing everything beneath. Where our lives have substance and lasting value, there is little to be feared. Where they do not, there is much to be learned.

Pluto

Pluto is the outermost planet in our solar system, if it can be called a planet. In any case, it is an astrological force to be reckoned with. It is the revealer of shadows, the ego-destroyer, a planet of death and rebirth.

To return to the Tarot, Pluto is like the Death card:

Many people are frightened by the Death card, but I always view it positively. It is about new beginnings, and you can see the Sun in the distance, as painfully as the crown at the bottom of the card may have fallen.

Pluto to me is deep, dark, Divine Feminine energy. It may be androgynous, but if we think of Pluto as Lord of the Underworld, we should not forget Persephone, the Queen of the Underworld and co-ruler. Pluto is the goddess Kali in Hindu mythology. At least that is one face (a frightening face) of Pluto.

Pluto only wants total honesty, total nakedness and acceptance. If we have this, if we are willing to look and accept all the deep and dark places of our soul, Pluto is a gentle, even loving force. But if we live on lies, Pluto has no-holds-barred in bringing out the truth and bringing out justice.

If we survive by means of abuse, as is the case, for example, with America and industrial economies, Pluto is ready, when the time comes, to lay waste to the abusers, to bring about justice and divine retribution. To all the spiritual bypassers who, while participating in abusive systems and organizations, claim that we should all “just love each other”, Pluto has some wisdom to offer. As I said before, Pluto reveals the shadow. It brings us face-to-face with fear that we can become fearless speakers of truth. The orbit of Pluto lasts 248 years.

Final Words

None of the outer planets are enemies. In fact, they are here to help us. But their ways are often strange (in the case of Neptune), uncomfortable (in the case of Uranus), and brutal (in the case of Pluto). The more we become who we are, become “right-sized” as my teacher, Elden Vala, would say, the more these planets and forces will be friends and loving guides.