Saturn square Uranus: tradition and novelty clash.
The old and the new clash: the person learns to choose what to keep and what to change.
An ability to face conflicts between old and new and to decide with clarity.
Swinging between conformity and revolt, or feeling stuck between two demands.
By Thomas Guilhot · updated
In 2021, Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus met at a right angle three times, in February, June, and December, while the world lived to the rhythm of lockdowns and vaccination campaigns.
The previous square, in 1999–2000, set Saturn in Taurus against Uranus in Aquarius, like a mirror image. These periods mark an entire generation; what the square says about a child born then depends on the sectors it occupies and the intimate planets it touches. On its own, it describes a world split between security and upheaval.
If it is relayed in a chart, this square would describe a pull between the need for security and the need for freedom, between respect for rules and the urge to shake them up. The person may alternate between periods of conformity and bursts of revolt. They often run up against rigid structures or, conversely, against changes imposed too fast. These tensions shape them: they learn to decide, to tell what should be kept from what should change.
The possible downside would be a deadlock: feeling caught between two contradictory demands, able neither to leave nor to stay. Rather than sacrifice one of their two needs, they gain by looking for solutions that honor both, even imperfectly. This square then gives a precious clarity in times of crisis, and an ability to guide others when everything wobbles.
The wish for commitment and the need for independence pull them in two directions.
Their relationships may go through abrupt questioning, then stronger reunions. The children of 2021 will share it, and their future loves will not depend on it. In synastry, a Saturn forming a right angle with the Uranus of a much younger person would suggest a couple in which the share of security and the share of adventure are often renegotiated.
This square feeds a precious ability to manage crises, restructurings, and conflicts between old and new ways of operating.
The person knows how to stay calm when an organization tips over. They may also feel trapped between a rigid hierarchy and a need to innovate that stifles them. Choosing environments that leave room for change, or creating their own structure, helps them flourish.
A strict routine sometimes alternates in them with sudden urges to throw everything over.
After a period of order, they feel stifled; after a period of freedom, they miss their bearings. Introducing small, regular changes into a stable structure, a new activity each quarter, a modified schedule, spares them these abrupt swings and helps them find a rhythm that suits them.
Unknown to the ancients, this square is presented in the 19th century as a clash between authority and rebellion, a source of sudden upheavals and trials imposed by change.
In the following century, André Barbault linked the squares of this cycle to social and political crises. The square of 2021, in the middle of the pandemic, revived these comments in the astrological press. These are only comparisons, never established. Humanistic astrologers, for their part, see an inner challenge: learning to change without betraying oneself.
For current astrologers, this square sets order and change against each other fruitfully, and applies to a person only through their personal planets.
Tradition calls it dynamic: the two functions are said to pull against each other and call for an adjustment, without foretelling anything.
Social planet. Greater malefic.
The profile of SaturnCounted between 83° and 97° apart.
The squareTranspersonal planet. Modern planet, discovered in 1781 (William Herschel).
The profile of UranusConservation and novelty collide here: a pull between security and freedom, conflicts between rules and innovation, the ability to decide. Almost all the children of 2021 share it; it takes on a personal color if it joins a luminary or the Ascendant. Honoring both needs rather than sacrificing one frees its strength, and gives a precious composure when everything moves around you.
In 2021, in February, June, and December, between Saturn in Aquarius and Uranus in Taurus. The one before dated from 1999–2000, with the signs reversed: Saturn in Taurus, Uranus in Aquarius. The next square is expected around the early 2040s, in the middle of the next phase of the cycle.
No. Versana makes no predictions. Mundane astrology associates these periods with social tension, but in an individual chart, this square would describe rather a sensitivity to conflicts between old and new, and an ability to get through them with clarity and composure. Many people born this way are precisely the ones who keep a cool head when those around them panic.