The Signs they are a changin'

Image by Chris Boland

Post by Jane Lewis

Pluto has just moved into Aquarius and before long Neptune and Uranus too will change signs, heralding more big changes for the world.  Before Uranus reaches Gemini, though, it will make an important conjunction with Jupiter in 21 Taurus towards the end of April, which will probably be the most significant transit of 2024.

Although Jupiter joins up with Uranus every 14 years, they occur in Taurus relatively rarely.  Jupiter-Uranus conjunctions mark breakthroughs in invention or discovery, often in the realm of science and technology which, in the long term, help to expand human consciousness.  In the fixed earth sign Taurus specifically we can expect the coming conjunction to push humanity forwards through some kind of eureka moment involving the natural world, perhaps to do with the climate crisis.  Jupiter and Uranus together often bring about a longed-for solution to a problem that’s been getting acutely urgent, finding great relief in some kind of “thank heavens for that!” moment.

The last Jupiter-Uranus conjunction in Taurus became exact on 9^th May 1941 as part of a huge stellium with Venus, Mercury, Sun and Saturn, and just weeks later Alan Turing finally succeeded in cracking the code of the German Enigma Machine.  The effect of a conjunction like this can be felt some weeks before and after it perfects.  On 9^th May the conjunction was transiting Turing’s own Sun-Saturn conjunction, and at the time he was coming up to his first Saturn return.

Image by Mauro Sbicego

Born only a fortnight after the conjunction that same year was Bob Dylan on 24^th May 1941.  He really embodied those Jupiter-Uranus energies, and what a revolutionary change agent he became as his life unfolded and the vibrations of that planetary signature rippled out into the world through his protest songs.  Dylan is much his own man and has remained true to his own self throughout his life, even when his adoring fans disliked some of the changes in direction he made, for example, shifting away from traditional folk music to rock n’roll, and later by suddenly becoming a born-again Christian.  Always a free spirit, he has followed his own heart and travelled down paths he intuitively knew he must take regardless of what others thought, a true signature of Jupiter-Uranus. 

His Sun is in Gemini conjunct Jupiter-Uranus.  Sun-ruler Mercury is also in Gemini opposition ascendant, and Venus, which rules his midheaven, is also strong in Gemini, also in the 6^th.  His Moon, Saturn, Jupiter and Uranus are all in Taurus in the creative 5^thhouse of performance, showing how he uses his voice to communicate what he has to say as a singer-songwriter.  With his Sun in the 6^th, though, he wasn’t motivated by fame and didn’t court an audience, he simply found that people were magnetically drawn to him.  As Leo, the sun-ruler, is intercepted in his 8^th house with Pluto we can appreciate just how deep he goes within himself to draw upon source material from a wellspring of power that would have a transformative effect on America and the wider world.

Image by Jefferson Santos

Success came to him at a young age when his unique style and talent were discovered, and in the early 1960s he would write some of the songs he became most famous for including  Blowin’ in the Wind and The Times they are a’ Changin’.  Brought up in a Jewish family and traditions he lost an interest in religious matters in his early years but made an unexpected conversion to evangelical Christianity in the late 1970s, announcing his new-found beliefs to the world through the lyrics of his songs including I Believe in You, When He Returns, and Slow Train Comin’. 

In true Uranian manner, this was a relatively short-lived period lasting three years between 1979 and 1981, starting as Uranus reached his natal Saturn by transit in 1979 and went on to transit each of his Taurus planets in turn, culminating with his Uranus opposition which perfected in 1981.  Other significant transits were also in force during these three years: transiting Neptune conjunct his ascendant (he literally ‘finds Jesus’); tr Pluto conjunct his midheaven and Jupiter tr con Pluto (he’s born-again).  Moreover, his secondary progressed midheaven and converse ascendant were both in the later degrees of Scorpio opposition draconic Uranus and the other planets in his stellium (Saturn, Moon, Jupiter). 

From this we see that Jupiter-Uranus holds the promise to greatly expand our consciousness and spiritual understanding which, in his case, brought about a conversion of faith.  It isn’t so important which faith he converted to or from, but the fact that it brought about spiritual enlightenment, albeit the exact form it took did change after the Uranus opposition had ended, but nevertheless this episode changed him forever as a spiritual being.