This year sees the peak of the Jupiter Uranus cycle that began with the conjunction in 2010. These cycles coincide with times of discovery and inspiration, when we can expand our horizons and deepen our understanding of the universe and ourselves. The optimistic energies of Jupiter boost the innovation of Uranus, driving breakthroughs in science and technology. While erratic, freedom-loving Uranus forces political change, leading to protests and demands for equality and liberation.

You can remind yourself of the individual archetypes that are being activated in this post: Jupiter Uranus Cycle: Archetypes & History

This alignment coincides with the waning Uranus Pluto square, deepening the revolutionary feel of the time and giving this cycle the same dynamic as the one during the French Revolution, and more recently in the 60s. This is why we’re seeing so many upheavals in politics and multiple crisis points coming to a head simultaneously.

Jupiter and Uranus have been in opposition since October 2016 and things are definitely hotting up. Before we look at what’s going on, here are the dates for your diary:

• 1st opposition: 23 – 30 December 2016
• 2nd opposition: 27 February – 5 March 2017
• 3rd opposition: 27 September – 1 October 2017

The orb of influence for these transits extends out beyond these dates, so the energies of this part of the cycle should begin to fade through 2018.

Jupiter opposite Uranus 2016-17

The pace of change this year has already been bewildering, and the alignment is only just warming up. In politics, the man of the moment is Donald Trump. He won the US presidential election just before the first opposition moved into exact alignment, and since taking office in January, has been the focus and the cause of a lot of chaos and confusion.

Trump is clearly a man who likes to stir things up, and the Jupiter Uranus transit adds more energy to the situation. He’s currently going through a Jupiter Return so the Jupiter Uranus opposition is plugging directly into that, making him feel somewhat invincible.

But he’s not getting everything his own way. As soon as he took office he began firing out executive orders in a blizzard of activity, and overreached in true Jupiterian style with the travel ban. This was later overturned by the Justice Department – Saturn is also opposing Trump’s Sun Uranus conjunction, so he’s probably feeling a touch frustrated too. You can see his chart here.

There have been enormous mass protests, not just in America, but around the world. Everybody is watching and waiting to see what happens next. We’re witnessing the start of the overthrow of the old neoliberal worldview and the rise of neo-nationalism, due to play out in Europe and the UK throughout 2017 and beyond.

The UK voted on the EU referendum before this alignment moved into orb, so the Brexit fiasco happened during the Saturn Neptune square of last year. However, Article 50 will probably be triggered in March 2017, shortly after the 2nd alignment, and the UK will leave the EU in 2019. There are multiple elections due to take place in Europe this year, and the neo-nationalists are on the rise. The EU looks set to break up at some point over the coming years, but it’s not the UK’s fault, no matter what anybody tells you! This post explains why.

We’ve also seen the relatively peaceful overthrow of an old order. In the Gambian presidential election in December 2016, Adama Barrow defeated Yahya Jammeh, who had seized power in a military coup in 1994. Initially, Jammeh refused to step down and declared a 90-day state of emergency in January 2017. Things got a little tense, but then three days later he was gone, to much rejoicing.

Interestingly, Adama Barrow worked as a security guard in an Argos store in London before returning to his home in the Gambia to run for president on the promise of change. He’s now seen as a national hero and has inspired people around the world.

Finally, back in the US, just before he left office in January, Barack Obama commuted Chelsea Manning’s sentence for the disclosure of Wikileaks documents, and she will now be freed in May this year. She was arrested in 2010 during the Jupiter Uranus conjunction at the start of this cycle, so now is the perfect time for her release.

Meanwhile, in the world of science and technology, there have been so many breakthroughs and discoveries it’s hard to know where to begin. There are too many to list, but here are some of the highlights we’ve seen since October 2016:

In October, researchers made a couple of breakthroughs that might prove to be significant later in this cycle, or in the next one: scientists achieved stability in quantum computing for the first time, and there was a breakthrough in the generation of clean fusion energy.

In November, scientists used gene-editing technology to restore the sight of blind animals; meanwhile, ice water deposits were found on Mars. Then in December, more gene therapy was used to reverse ageing in mice.

Since the start of 2017, scientists have created the first semi-synthetic organism, and a 3D bio-printer has created human skin. Meanwhile, the Japanese insurance firm, Fukoku Mutual Life, announced that 34 of its employees are to be replaced by robots – specifically, IBM’s Watson. And the ‘Libratus’ AI beat humans at poker.

So it appears that the future robot uprising may be traced back to this moment!

I should mention that it’s very hard to tell which events will prove to be significant during the time of the transits. There’s a lot going on at any particular time and you only get a sense of the direction of travel once you get a little further down the road. The patterns and synchronicities are easier to see when you get an overview of the whole thing. So we won’t know exactly how this cycle is going to play out until well into the next decade.

Whatever happens, the rest of 2017 should be interesting. I’m not going to try to predict anything (apart from the robot uprising 😉 ), but I think we can expect the unexpected. Things will be uncertain for most of the year but especially when the alignment is at its closest. So brace yourself.

The next part of this cycle will be the trine in December 2019, and then the square arrives in January 2021. The cycle comes to a close and the next one begins in 2024. Who knows where we’ll be by then…

To get a feel for how things tend to play out during a complete Jupiter Uranus cycle, we’ll have a look at what happened to bring us to this moment in another post. In the meantime, it’s important to remember that these cycles don’t happen in isolation. They’re part of a complex tapestry of influences that weave in and out over the years. Discover more about the active cycles here: Astrology of 2017 and Astrological Cycles & the Collective: 2017 – 2024

Images: March; Robot

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