Ancient Uranus, heaven's Titan of old,
Gelded by Chronos with one stroke so bold.

CHAPTER 0: THE FOOL
URANUS

Uranus is the original evolutionary impulse. The story of Uranus is rooted in the Greek Creation Myth. It speaks to us from the remote depths of the unknown, before the birth of human consciousness. It represents an aspect of the universe which appeared before space and time. In terms of personal experience it represents experiences from conception through growth in the womb (space/time) and emergence into independent existence. It is pre-conceptual consciousness, pure creative consciousness emerging from the fount of CHAOS.

Uranus is a god of the starry heavens, and was not the first force to appear in the Universe. According to this classical myth, only Chaos existed in the beginning. The seemingly random element produced Gaea, the deep-breasted earth or matter, from within infinite potential. For matter to exist, the force of attraction also had to appear (super-celestial Eros). Uranus, the starry heavens, is Gaea's first-born child.

In other words, the first descent of matter into the threshold of concrete existence came from a chaotic matrix. This cosmic trinity of chaos, matter, and attraction lies at the heart of modern chaos theory. It bears directly on another Greek archetype that we all share--the psyche.

Scientists have found that the principle of underlying chaos deterministically conditions many of the patterns of physical existence. Chaos is found in our brainwaves, heartbeats, the fractal structure of our breathing, circulatory, digestive, and nervous systems. We see chaos in all natural processes from the weather to evolution. And the turbulence in our lives reminds us that "we are that."

Just as the ancient pantheon provided a foundational orientation for the Greeks, so chaos theory can provide us with a model of consciousness for constructing cognitive maps of the psyche and experiential consciousness journeys. Uranus-consciousness is experienced as drifting and floating in vast expanses of starry space, or identification with galaxies from the barely formative stage to full spirals, and feeling that spirally motion until letting go to primordial chaos.

By embracing the chaos in our lives--learning to re-honor the principle--we can begin balancing out millennia of identification which held that only order equates with "good." Part of our cultural heritage is the programming that we should stave off chaos and disruption at every point. But the continual dynamic interplay of chaos and order is fundamental to our well-being.

Uranus represents deep subconscious forces which operate well below the normal state of awareness. It is nonlinear, free consciousness which emerges in unexpected, bizarre ways like dreams and intuitions when the ego is asleep or preoccupied. In terms of states of consciousness, it is a non-ordinary perception of oneness with deep space.

Uranus is the first patterning of matter once it emerges from total chaos. In embryonic development it means the stage from conception to that where all cells are still completely undifferentiated and full of all potential. There is no brain development, so the experience is totally raw, impressionistic and visceral.

Sometimes it is psychologically more fruitful to "let go" of control, pass through the chaotic de-structured state, and discover what happens on the other side. Chaos is definitely part of the process of creation and creativity. It generates the new order spontaneously from deep within itself.

What makes it imperative for us to embrace the new scientific paradigm implied by chaos theory? By rejecting chaos, we reject Gaea. And she is not only the Earth, the love of the planet, the integrity of life forms, but all matter in the universe including your own physical body. Returning to these deep states of consciousness, the well-springs of our being, fosters a new kind of love of our own physical embodiment. This new image of self arises from the most primordial level.

Whatever the essence of chaos is, we are that. By rejecting it, we run the danger of rejecting our selves. Chaos is the essence of life. Chaos is essential to health. Chaos describes the structural growth patterns in nature. Chaos theory leads to a new vision of matter, one no longer passive, but one associated with spontaneous, creative, nonlinear activity, and a healing state of consciousness.

PHYSICAL FORM

We repeat the creation myth when we are conceived as living beings from the raw material of atomic substance in interaction with the universal consciousness field. Scientists tell us now that we are made of same stuff as the stars. Our elements were forged in a supernova explosion. The material of the universe is constantly recycled through many forms. The interaction of positive and negative elements results in the force of attraction, variously termed gravity, electromagentism, or love, or conception. Thus the force of generation arises, or is born.

Uranus represents a grossly unconscious condition. We might all be said to begin in this primordial condition in the womb, where we are united with the ocean of the subconscious, or primal mothering principle. When awareness first develops, it is on a grossly material level. All signals come from the physical body, with no awareness of "out there," the world of space and time.

As we grow older, signals still come to us through our bodies, materializing in the form of psychosomatic disorders. These come to us through Uranus who fathered our prototypical instincts in an incestuous union with his mother Gaea. The birth of the children of this pair, the Titans, marked a golden age for mankind's awareness. The age of the Titans meant that mankind lived in harmony with his instinctual nature, since he had no awareness to set up a conflicting point of view. There was no dichotomy.

The Titans were the forerunners of astrological signs of the Zodiac and included Theia, Rhea, Mnemosyne, Phoebe, Tethys, Themis, Oceanus, Coeus, Hyperion, Crius, Iapetus, and Cronos, plus assorted monsters. But, Uranus, had a curious relationship to his offspring and sought to repress their appearance. His method was to push them back into their mother, or imprison them in matter.

This repression of instinctual energies seeking a form in matter results in a blockage or obstacle which manifests as a psychosomatic disorder. That which cannot achieve spiritual birth is condemned to manifest in matter, since it can achieve consciousness no other way. The repressed instinct confronts the human awareness in such disorders as asthma, allergies, and colitis. No wonder the body gets indigestion from these "children" being shoved back down its throat. The body is forced into hysterical over-reaction and peculiar immune system response.

Uranus represses his own power of creativity, or at least its manifestations. The result is the seeds of rebellion sprout in a plot between Gaea and Cronos. Time and materiality conspire to limit the domain of Uranus. The genetic pattern is continuing to unfold and more and more structure develops in the fetus. Over time, corporality creates a more developed central nervous system which develops qualitatively different perceptions from the undifferentiated organism. When Cronos or Saturn solidifies as the ego, the Uranus consciousness is recalled as a pre-egoic state of intimate identification, undifferentiation.

Cronos castrates his devouring father, emasculating him and freeing his siblings. Archetypal patterns repeat themselves over and over. Archetypes function in the psyche like the magnetic strange attractors of chaos theory. They are the center around which certain patterns gravitate. Time and matter eventually limit the manifestation of the archetypal instincts. We become conditioned to some patterns over others. Our total potential becomes limited to a finite portion of fate or destiny which our brief lifetimes afford. They return to their mythic dimension when we die, and our atoms are transformed back into their primordial elements, perhaps to recombine in vastly different bodies.

The main issue or myth theme of Uranus is the tendency to drastically limit his own potential for engendering and procreation. There are many forms of physical creativity. With no foresight or hindsight, and no perspective on time, he fought against the actualization of his own creative potentialities through self-destructive reactions. When we engage in self-defeating, self-sabatoging efforts that nip our creativity in the bud, we are acting like Uranus. This hostile ancestor was a reluctant progenitor, who paid dearly when time finally caught up with him.

Some of the paradoxical nature of Uranus is conveyed by his occupations:

grandfather
godfather
ancestor
inventor
revolutionary
hypochondriac

EMOTIONAL IMAGE

There is an interesting expression of the paradoxical nature of the wholeness or unity of consciousness represented by Uranus in our modern culture. The cosmological Uranus is a malicious, ferocious power who thwarts even his own progress. This picture of conservatism is directly opposed by the image we find of Uranus in modern astrology. Since Uranus was only discovered in 1781, it has no ancient Chaldean astrological tradition like the bodies lying within the "ring pass not" of Saturn.

When we look to the astrological descriptors of Uranus, we don't find a model of conservatism, but just the opposite. Here Uranus is the random element or creative innovation, as well as erraticism and rebellion. Uranus reveals the underlying matrix of Chaos at work in the universe. It is a structure-annihilating force.

This paradox embodies the fight against one's self, symbolized by the eternal battle between youth and old age, the generation gap. The polarity of this situation stems from the different archetypes motivating the participants. Youth resolves to live in a liberal manner, different from the traditional collective values of the ancestor, and the battle is on! The "old guard" would like to control and direct the youth into fitting into his world, but the youth would create a unique future development of his own.

In our life experiences, we are sometimes the youth and sometimes the conformist, the liberal or conservative. Our position at any given time is relative to our social position, age, and relationships. Those locked in the Uranus perspective are unconscious of their attitude and lack any self-awareness or psychological insight. This yields an unconscious identification with herd instinct or group consciousness, with no room for individuality.

When we move into structure, we tend to become more and more rigid, the patterns become more fixed. This order is self-generated from chaos, but when it becomes too rigid, the process moves toward chaos once again--death, decay, total de-structuring. It happens on the physical level to our bodies, to our emotions in our ups and downs, in the creation and destruction of our thoughts, and in the transformations within our belief systems. We embrace and identify with a pattern which emerges from the creative chaos, but eventually we must sacrifice it, let it go--for no pattern is our true essence.

Specific keywords for Uranus include:

creation
repression
impotence
gross materiality
psychosomatic
paranoid
obstacles
constipation
conventional

INTELLECTUAL IDEA

In participation mystique, the consciousness is identified with the environment through projection. Through the psychological process of individuation, we do not become indifferent to the material world, but the nature of our involvement with it changes. As the projections of our instinctual or archetypal natures are gradually recognized and assimilated, the character of an individual's relation to the world undergoes a profound alteration. When we get these projections returned to the organism this time, it is on a mental level, and we can digest them rather than letting them make us ill.

The identification with an object (a role, another person, a possession, etc.) is known as participation mystique. It means part of oneself is "projected" into, or becomes invested in something other than oneself. The identification is pre-conditioned by the primal self image and subsequent experiences.

Uranus creates some bizarre twists in participation mystique. For example, the third-world wife of an "UFO abductee" began to have her own confirming experiences. Simply put she had two choices--to reject him and his reports or join in. At the end of a prior marriage, having no skills, she was forced to stay over a year with her ex-husband because of financial and dependency issues. Still in the same boat, her subconscious colluded in providing her with common bizarre UFO experiences with her husband. They live in an isolated world with no identifiable boundaries or sanctuary; it is just the two of them against the disbelieving world and the unknown, invasive, violating force.

In a more mundane, yet typical example, a couple of lovers involved in this level would allow one another to symbolize their unlived aspects of life (contrasexual side), instead of developing a consciousness which perceives all individuals as having both male and female qualities. There is an unconscious fascination which comes from seeing oneself reflected in the "other," whether the other contains this quality or not. It appears to contain it when we are under the influence of participation mystique. Another example is investing an object with "magical" powers to influence a situation, like a love charm or talisman. This type of thinking perpetuates an illusory conviction concerning "the ways things are."

As this fascination dissolves, the individual's attitudes and reactions to situations becomes freer and more objective. The projected contents "return" to their proper home in the psyche, and are realized on a conscious level. They are perceived as psychological reality, instead of physical reality. We are no longer at the mercy of the actions and moods of another person or the environment. The source of feelings is known to exist within ourselves. Participation mystique is the original unconscious condition of psychological ignorance.

The gods and demons in Jung's writings were not regarded as psychic projections of the unconscious, but as self-evident realities. In the Age of Enlightenment people "discovered" that the gods did not really exist, but were simply projections of our unconsciousness. Thus, they were promptly dismissed as lacking religious value, and deposed from their thrones.

But the corresponding psychological function was by no means ended by this over-rational analytical rejection. It was Uranus rejecting the children once again. The activity of the collective patterns was repressed into unconsciousness where it became mental and physical diseases, such as tumors and hysterical reactions. Modern man has been poisoned by this surplus of libido or psychic energy which once was contained in the cult(ure) of the divine images.

Our conscious awareness can assimilate, understand and elaborate its relationship to projections of the unconscious contents. It can come to know various autonomous portions of the psyche as personified archetypes. All the archetypes are the generations of the primordial ancestor Uranus. All patterns come from the archetype of patterns descended from matter. These personifications appear as guides, demons, gods or goddesses, etc.

Failure to voluntarily acknowledge them may result in consciousness being overwhelmed by a somatic reaction or disturbance of the body. Or mental illness and disorientation may be the result of a flood of unconscious psychic contents.

Personification helps the conscious ego create a dialogue with these inner beings. It is the multiple consciousness form of I-Thou dialogue. We experience them as "Other" or "Not-I". Yet, they are a part of ourselves. These dynamic mythological images, when neglected, may lead to psychosis or physical death in extreme cases. They are psychological and behavioral imperatives.

Taking up a conscious relationship with them leads one out of the unconscious pitfalls of the original condition of participation mystique, where their influence is unduly exaggerated.

Further reading on Uranus in Jungian literature may be found in:

1) FATHERS AND MOTHERS, James Hillman, Ed. "The Devouring Father," by Murray Stein, Spring Publications, Dallas, 1973.

2) "Uranus and Prometheus," SPRING 1983, Richard T. Tarnas, Spring Pub., Dallas, 1983.

SPIRITUAL MYTH

Uranus is a variation on the theme of Sky Father, and shares this in common with Cronos and Zeus who are his descendants. As a sky father, he represents a spiritual impulse. The Greek creation myth shows the negative issuing into manifestation reflecting the Spirit in search of experience.

Chaos, the gaping maw of open space is a pure cosmic principle which has no god-form. Gaea, on the other hand, was represented as a primal woman of gigantic proportions. Uranus had no cult in Greece, even though Uranus and Gaea are considered the grandparents of the world. Uranus certainly wasn't a benevolent parent, perhaps indicating that the original spiritual impulse was reluctant to manifest at all, and didn't seem to like the idea of regeneration. Its tendency was to remain abstract, but its method of repressing itself created a reactionary revolutionary, which Uranus self-generated from his own pattern.

This revolution created the dimension of the experience of space and time, with several of its concomitant qualities, including absolute justice or karma, also termed natural consequences. This is known as the law of action and reaction, or thermodynamics. This furious expression of Cronos is not tempered by Mercy until the appearance of his offspring Zeus.

Thermodynamics (Cronos) and matter (Gaea) led to the manifest universe. Gaea also created the first race of gods, and gave birth to the first human. She contained within herself the gift of foretelling the future. She contains all the potentiality for manifestation, as is therefore a prophetess. Also she is the guardian of the sanctity of oaths, including the marriage oath. This is another arc of the relationship among polar opposites.

The spiritual myth which exemplifies the cosmological nature of Uranus is that of the ANCIENT OF DAYS. There are a few variations of form for this cosmic man, depending on the level of functioning in the creation. It has different names on different planes.

The Most Ancient One, or Ancient of the Ancients creates and produces the essence of light (Zeus). This primordial Being, also known as the Vast or Great Countenance gives birth to the Lesser Countenance or primordial Man. The image is one of the Father of All Things, the Sacred Ancestor, "The White Head."

In the Hebrew text THE ZOHAR describes the ancient one as wearing white robes. His face is vast, luminous, and terrible. He sits on a throne of flaming light. The white light streaming from His face illumines four hundred thousand worlds.

Thirteen thousand myriads of worlds come into light from His skull, which emanates a mysterious dew that has the power to awaken the spiritual dead into everlasting life. This "Great Face" or "Long Face" is that of the Aged of Aged who has been before the beginning. He generates the "Short Face" which is this Creation.

The hair and beard of this Ancient of Ancients extends to the uttermost parts of the universe. From His skull hang down a thousand myriad worlds, seven thousand and five hundred curling hairs which are not mingled lest confusion exist. In each curl are four hundred and ten locks of hair and these hairs radiate into four hundred and ten worlds. In the hollow of His skull is the supreme hidden Wisdom. His brain extends by the thirty-two paths of the Tree of Life. Thirteen fountains flow forth from His beard. His hands pour out the Mother and Father rays.

As the Ancient of Days, God issues from his concealment. The abyss of Deity is the body of Macroprosopus which gives birth to Microprosopus, the god-image in man. In the Qabala, the primal sphere Kether emanates forth from the vast ocean of spirit.

This god-image of the ANTHROPOS has come back in mythic form as the scientific theory known as the Anthropic Principle, which alleges that the universe is vast living being with intensionality. He is the cosmic counterpart of the living Earth, Gaea.

EXAMPLES

It is difficult to think of examples of Uranus that are not better accounted for under Cronos or Saturn, being closer to human behavior. However, as Uranus was founding father, he might have inspired the American Revolution, and our founding fathers. Negatively, repressive leadership such as Ayatola Khoumeni and Saddam Houssein.

KEYWORDS: Aquarian Conspiracy, New Age, revolutionist, superconscious, irrationality, non-linear determinism, occultism, sudden, unexpected, vision, originality, reform, set-backs, anti-authoritarian, disruption, personal expression

DIALOGUE WITH URANUS

Seek the counsel of Uranus about the effects on you of the Devouring Father complex. Perhaps it happened in your family that father swallowed up or superceded the needs of other personalities in the family. Or, maybe society has suppressed you through outworn paternalistic pressures.

The higher aspect of Uranian consciousness is known as cosmic consciousness or superconsciousness. When you imagine Uranus in profile at the center of a flaring galaxy, his hair and beard become cascades of stars, strewn through space in gigantic spiral arms. Become that image of vast Uranian being, experiencing universal consciousness for yourself. Express this awareness through a more fulfilling life.

Dialogue concerning your faith in Divinity. What is the primal basis of your feelings of security in life. Do you feel secure, even when it seems irrational in light of current events? Can you look at the panoply of past and future events as a wondrous gift of God?

URANUS IN YOUR LIFE

1. Spontaneity is linked with intuitive perception of divinity within. What is your perception of this force?

2. Do you take an interest in occultism, or the hidden matter of life?

3. Describe the extent of your spirit of adventure. Remember, divinity is the spirit of adventure, always working towards greater awareness and self-experience. Describe your experience of superconscious perception.

4. Have you had an visionary experience? Are you creative, progressive, intuitive, or original in your thinking? Do you follow vision with action?

5. Do you act according to your own inner promptings?

6. How do you facilitate letting your latent genius come to the fore?

7. Describe your popularity and influence with others.

8. How do you react when tested with unexpected set-backs and disappointments? How do you respond to accepting rules and regulations?

9. Did the Uranian force or consciousness ever BLOW YOUR MIND out of uncreative routines of action and thought, forcing you to establish a new way of being?

10. How do you accept disruption in your life? Do you tend toward emotional unstability and tearing yourself down? How could you gain perspective?

11. Describe your inventiveness and originality as personal expression.

12. Are you open to new opportunities, new situations which break the monotony of daily routine, new fields to conquer, new heights to scale?

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