Cosmic Catalyst Uranus runs in seven year cycles. It’s probably the true origin of the so-called Seven Year Itch.
Initially referring to a particularly virulent sexually transmitted disease or skin mites, it morphed into a 1950s psychoanalytical theory about infidelity. That became a Marilyn Monroe vehicle and the term stuck.
Married or not, seven years is a Uranus cycle and a chronological increment when many of us organically crave change. It’s an ‘itch’ until we scratch it. There is an evidently untrue but popular idea that every seven years the body cells have totally transformed and renewed – that resonates.
And snakes are terribly itchy before they slough their skin. It’s part of their metamorphosis. Exfoliating can be cathartic. Try it out for yourself by jotting down your largest life morphs and seeing if you can spy a seven year pattern. Of course there are dozens of cycles within astrology – nine year eclipse cycles, the five-eight year Venus pentagram, Solar Minimum to Solar Maximum and more.
But seven also pertains to Saturn, in that it’s a quarter of the 28/29 year Saturn cycle. But Saturnine resonance tends toward the slightly austere stocktake – the ‘where I should have been by now‘ personal gloom-fuqer.
Uranus is more skittish and fun. Uranus moving into Taurus is a distinct new Uranian phase, even if it is not moving into a new house in your personal astrology – it’s a new backdrop.
May 2011 I was trapped in the cardboard box of a 20 year marriage, trying to carefully unfold the lid of the box from the inside, not wanting to rip the tape. Ended up shredding it. Escaped. Scarred, bruised and leaving a trail of wreckage in my wake. Best decision of my life, but executed very badly. For the next year I actively sought out a different kind of life, with people (OK, one person) who, ordinarily I would never have chosen. Major life journey and a very rocky road to realisation about who I really was and want I really wanted. Also, what I really didn’t want. That led me to meeting my 2nd husband – my reward, or so I thought, for forging my soul in the fire of 2011-2012. Cancer dx in 2013 meant that any long term happiness wasn’t to be. I’m now 51, widowed, new career and finally in place where I can look back without crying (mostly), to see the road I’ve come. Acceptance can be brutal but I can finally say I’m at peace with the wild ride of the last 7 years. I can’t wait for the next 7.
7 years ago I started an entry level job at a start up. The first year was brutal: underpaid, overworked, actively lied to and manipulated by Ivy League-degree holding narcissists who nearly ran the company into the ground and lashed out when I tried to tell them about the off-the-charts employee dissatisfaction. In retaliation, they laid me off and sparked a mass quitting of 10% of the company. Desperate, they asked me to stay and I demanded far more money which I got. The board fired and pushed out the leadership. I am a director now & the employee who has been there the longest. I learned to be fearless in speaking up about inequities and demanding the money I deserve. Learned a lot of other lessons in these 7 years, and now I am happily single with a lovely apartment and 2 dogs in one of the hardest cities in the world. Feel like a warrior.
Wow.
So much suffering, so much heroism.
So much spiritual strength, so much wisdom.
You guys freak me out.
2010 2011 I just finished college, and my ex passed d/t brain tumor. His mother cursed me for breaking his heart, which only took me the whole 7 years to decide was only just her story. I had to hold on to the truth I saw in his eyes before he departed. I got to know better the warrior within and the desire to know…the seeker. Now Im finishing up grad school for the most perfect profession for me. This triple taurean/aquarian mars is ready for Uranus… Ready for light-speed!
Xox
May 2011 was the first time I gave up on something I really loved. I couldn’t bring myself to finish my graduate writing thesis or ask for support from friends or family. I was terrified and mask of pretty, prefect, independent woman was cracked. I never even told anyone I just stopped. I spent the next 7 years STRUGGLING to find a sense of self outside of writing and repressing/ transferring all my creative energy into the artistic projects of boyfriends. In fact, I spent 6 of those years trying to disappear into a relationship.
I also lived a life, had adventures, tried things, succeeded or failed, studied the occult, and slowly rebuilt a me that could recognize. It was brutal for me and some people I accidentally hurt along the way.
But I can finally look in mirrors again.
Uranus was in my 7th house and sq my sun/ ACS and moon/ Jupiter (as always).
aahhh 🙁
I am glad you can look in mirrors again….
As a Cancerian with Libran moon and natal libran Uranus…I cannot wait for Uranus in Taurus. since May 2011 there have been miscarriages, surgeries, diseases, marriage separation, so much death, trying to stay afloat with dodgy job, moving…you name it the universe has thrown it at me. The feeling that never again in my lifetime will there be another Uranus in aries is what is keeping me going!
May 2011 I was in a very similar place I am in now, although I am a totally different person. I just wanted to focus on myself, join the peace Corp or a missionary and travel. I was at the end with dating guys and said the next man I date, I’ll marry. Well he came along two months later. We almost married. I followed him like a homesick dog for almost 5 years and left & found myself and magick. Here I am again, no man & celibate but I have magick.
Advice for my May 2011 self. Listen to your initial plan, it’s there for a reason. Travel, focus on yourself, go to school. And don’t settle for a love you hope for.
In 2011, I realized that, while I was scared of my mentally abusive husband, I could finally make a move. I had to try and do it on my own. When he was at work, I packed my things, aided by my sister’s and a friend, and didn’t look back. Got a divorce, got promoted to a great job making mad cash to ensure I didn’t need any assistance, bought a car, bought a house on my own, got promoted again…..the last 7 years has been FULL of learning to trust in myself. That I am good enough. Not just good enough, but great. I am so grateful for it. (Aries sun, Scorpio moon)
Good on you for trusting in yourself. Did the same. And, interestingly I’m Scorpio Sun, Aries Moon.
I had realised I was in an unhappy marriage, my husband was a narcissist I can see now but not then
My life now is quieter and even though I live alone it is not lonelier. I am probably still healing and not sure I can trust my judgment so have not connected with another man since.
The cosmic weather is changing and I am getting my gumboots on cause the drought might be breaking
In May 2011 I was planning and embarking on my first experience studyind abroad alone for my third year of college. I spent the entire year living abroad and loved and needed it badly. Since then, I graduated college and have been on a menadering journey to figure otu what i want to do with my life. in 2015, i broke my ankle and it caused a series of health issues and the diagnosis of a chronic illness that i may or may not have my whole life. i dont know adulthood without uranus being in aries. my sun and merc are in aries. my moon is in pisces so before uranus was in aries it was near my moon. So my teenage years and my twenties have had heavy uraniun transits. I have no planets in Taurus except my descendent (scorp rising). Not really sure how to prepare for this transit or what it will bring.
2011 was the year I finished college, graduated and entered a new phase as in start working. I guess it makes sense since Uranus during that transit changed from 5th house to 6th house. Leaving me with weird relationships with people from different cultures and long distance and when it moved to the 6th I lost a lot of weight and work hasn’t been stable.
You’ll get clean and sober. (Within a month!) You’ll be celibate for years at a time. You won’t meet any decent dudes for THE FULL SEVEN YEARS (just about). Any dudes that you do fixate on, it will be driven by bullshit and delusion and you will thank THE GODS you didn’t actually act on it once you come out of it. You’ll think love is something that other ppl get to experience, but not you, you’re too damaged. You’ll meet the best man in your whole life riiiiight at the end of 2017 and you’ll ask him out and he’ll say ‘Fuck yes!’ Just like that. No games, second guessing or hot and cold baiting. You’ll go back to study and get your degree. You’ll lose nearly all your female friends. Don’t worry-
you’ll get kinder, steadier ones that don’t emotionally abuse or manipulate you. You’ll go on a trip that will be amazing as well as awful (in parts), but you’ll do it on your own and you’ll come home whole. You’ll work in a hard, dreary job until you’re forced to look for a better one, lack of self worth be damned. Through all of this you will keep working on yourself. You’ll take care of little you and see Drs and counsellors and ppl who have emotional intelligence and care about your wellbeing. You don’t have to keep going back into the lion’s den with your family to get your hat. Don’t measure yourself using their yardsticks. You are enough. Tell little you that you love her and you’ll always protect her. Tell her every day. Know that god loves you, is proud of you and has your back. Always did have your back. Always will have your back.
Holy heck, I could have written the first half of this as of it were my own life! Cheers
beautiful
Don’t be afraid of work. Don’t take your anger out on your loved ones. Be discriminate when shopping for clothes – don’t buy the cheapest, don’t care about lables – care about fit, quality, and whether or not it makes you feel good wearing it. Jealousy is useful. TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF FIRST. (Scorpio sun, Libra rising)
I was about to birth my intense (scorpio-rising), super gemini (south node, mercury, sun, venus) kiddo (born mid-June). About a month before his birth the roof of our building flooded and we had to move very abruptly. I had recently reconnected with my dad (while pregnant) and he ended up moving to our city. The past 7 years involved me healing my relationship with him, I was also really unclear on my career direction, I was really mulling and working on that too (Saturn was in my 9th house). The other biggie is my relationship with my son’s father, we broke up in 2014 but the birth of my son did seem to mark a new phase of the relationship and its eventual end. Through this I had uranus going through my 3rd house, and pluto going through my ascendent.
June of 2011 my father died and I moved into the role of executrix of his estate. After 13 years living in the Western U.S., I moved back to where I grew up.There began many years of painfully waking up as I came to see how the role I had always played (Fixer, Mother, Giver) was simultaneously relied on, and taken for granted by my mother, two siblings, and to a lesser extent, extended family. During the settling of my father’s estate, I made a big effort to make sure that my siblings and I came out of the experience still talking to each other. What I discovered subsequently was that if I wasn’t making that effort to hold the family together, no one else would. And I realized that I didn’t want to play that role anymore. So I stopped. And grieved, I guess.
But, I also married, and as Uranus moves out of Aries and into Taurus, husband and I are about to welcome our first child into a safe, cozy, loving (he and I both being Moon in Cancer :-D) home. Uranus in Aries has meant the breakdown of my family of origin, and the building of my own little family – dog, husband, and now daughter. All this included a tremendous up-leveling of skills and awareness on the interpersonal level.
Also in 2011, I completed a 2 year degree, and now in 2018, I am completing my Bachelor’s degree via a program that allowed me to use the 2 year degree as my foundation for a 4 year degree, and stretch the final 2 years of classwork out over nearly 7 years (!) while serving in society as a working adult. Pecking away, a few classes at a time. I’ll be glad to have that done!
Love this – what a great exercise!!!
Me to me: Oh, the places you’ll go! You can’t imagine all the twists and turns life has coming your way (OK, I lied; you’ll have insight on major prevailing trends thanks to astrology!) and many of those journeys will be subterranean, but I promise you’re really going to like how we turn out!
At this time seven years ago, I had just undergone a seismic shift for the better in my career and life was seriously looking up. This post has made me look at the pattern of my old life and see the seven year liberations. This is fascinating and I’ll spend some time looking at this.
I am FEELING THIS big time. It’s a HUUUUGE shift.
New era and then some.
There was a big breakup ahead of me, and it would turn out to be my liberation and the beginning of a whole new trip.
This time 7yrs ago I was madly in love with the second love of my life. It, unfortunately, was only a 4mth relationship (albeit a 2yr frienship lead in), but OMG I loved this guy. We had a total thing for each other. I loved him then and I love him still. We still bump into each other often (through our jobs) and now as friends I can honestly say he still makes my toes curl. I do still love him.
<3
2011-2017 was all about shifting professions for me. I’ve wanted to return to the area where I grew up for a couple of decades now, and in my new role, it’s much more likely. Maybe Uranus in Taurus will activate me moving to where I want to set up a permanent-ish nest.
To the me of May 2011, I’d say, this year will be pretty dull but after that you get the change you’re craving. Beyond that, I wouldn’t want to spoil the surprise!
Advice I’m giving myself now, based on the last 7 years? Try to stop procrastinating. If you’re not going to move, fix up your house. If you want to do something, either make it happen, put concrete plans in place to make it happen, or accept you don’t actually want it enough to make it happen and move on without beating yourself up about it. Get a clear picture of who you are, so you don’t lose sight of it altogether in the fog of a relationship (Neptune transits). Take responsibility for your health. Consider whether you need a fulfilling career, or are better off with a low stress day job that allows you to seek fulfilment in other areas. Carry on prioritising your freedom while your instinct tells you to, and never mind societal norms.
I love this advice. I’m listening!
me too.
I like the way you’re thinking of advice you’d give yourself now based on the last seven years. has given me much to think about, thank you!
Seven ears ago when Uranus entered Aries
was hell on a stick for the first 3 years.
My psyche and soul were really challenged
in such a way the adage ‘if it doesn’t kill you it makes you stronger’ seriously applies.
Feels like a whole new era. Making it so
with a ‘we need to talk’ to the chief of my housing organisation instead of the usual emails.
This is a put on a ‘suit and heels’ situ, so it’s about money…of course.
Maybe they will hire me.
Hell on a stick from 2011 to mid 2014 here too. Then things have gotten quieter, but no new project, no new era to have love relationships.
Just a quieter warrior era.
“Hell on a stick” is a great phrase. It should be married to “fuqability in a can.”
Champagne, or an alternative spiritually suitable libation, for your tenacity and sustained joyous existence on this plane, pegasus xox
My youngest son – an Aries was diagnosed with Autism and I had to send my older son – also an Aries to live with his father. I left my demanding job and went on a healing journey with my special boy to get him better.My eldest moved betweenhis father and I several times and finally settled with us andwent on finishing school and graduating as interio designer.
Fast forward to today – my yongest is doing well in the mainstream High School and my eldest left 2 weeks ago to live in London.
As for me – I kearned how to let go of expectations and just let go of people, places, lovers, jobs, anything really.
I feel lighter now. And its my 50th at the end of month.
You rock !
Thanks! xx
Looks like the number one cause of relationship breakdown is children. Is that right? (Or is it the existence of relationships themselves, lol)
Are these two things forever incompatible? serious question from a moon in capricorn native.
“What would the you of today have to say to the you of May 2011?”
Relax, hurry up, trust yourself, suspend ALL judgement, be open to people, your father will be dead within 18 months, travel light, spend a year out of the country, get more sleep, … and much more
That was the time that Neptune went into my 9th house, that I enrolled in the new Academia, that I spent in remote AU and fell for the Outdoorsy Piscean (the first of very many Fallings-For in that era, hmm)
the month itself marked the time that I chose to leave my former career, as a secondary feature of sun-uranus transit, although U would not cross my MC until 3 years later
word to the would-be wise though. If you’re going to can your nice stable job for uncertainty: try instead to scale one into the other. Financial stress by choice, in adulthood, is not the best idea – socially, materially, mental health. Work harder out of hours to persist in both fields to a point where you can feel pretty-OK about expanding the new practice and cutting back on the other one, if that’s possible. Maybe like learning to swim there is that trust-point where you do let go and hope you won’t sink, that’s when you work like mad..
Develop support networks slowly and honestly in your new field, there will always be people who are just right for you.
Be kind and generous, trust your intuition, make an effort to connect with the people who you genuinely like, who can intelligently reflect, where there is simpatico – that’s where the gold is
Nourish friendships so that people who genuinely know you and who you can trust, are there for you – and likewise.
my 2 cents.
likewise – i meant vice versa.
Good advice! x
dunno, hope so Lotus Flower… i read somewhere (IG) recently the phrase ‘intimacy destroys empire’ , i do think in someways i’m moving from a paradigm of empire to one of intimacy which i think is part of a 10th house node to 4th house node journey. Its hard to explain, but what i think i mean is that i have hopefully got a bit better at people-ing, these last few years, an the notion of ’empire’ simply feels a bit exhausting and stressful. maybe this will change after a good sleep,,.. maybe not
xx
Back to May 2011: my father was diagnosed with vowel chords cancer and got a permanent tracheostomy which made him survive cancer. At exactly the same time I had just got fired from my job. A job that was my only way to survive, since my divorce was in place, a job that was a nightmare and the textbook definition of mobbing and that I would have never left, just like you sometimes cannot leave a toxic sentimental relationship because it has intoxicated your self esteem so much you think you cannot do better.
Oh and obviously my heart was broken from a recent breakup from a guy I was crazy about, though mostly from what I thought he was giving me than from what really was.
I the past 7 years I had to learn the hard and lonely way the Aries lesson: individuation, fighting for survival, being on my own and only counting on myself but also what my real value is.
Just like you said in monthly scopes “It’s that you are actually emerging from a seven year era of your very own scorch trials, complete with pointed lessons about shared values, shared $$$, shared sexual energies, shared damn well everything.”
As I watch and wait for Uranus in Taurus I realized that I have completely forgot what it means to have a partner: to look on the other side of the bed and see someone you care about and love. To share ideas, ideals and future plans, or just run an idea by him and see what you could not see and instead he can (and the other way around). To have something real, solid and fulfilling.
Really (really) waiting for this “And whether you lost money, your self or some ground – you are about to claw it all back.”
I mean I have lost ground on a lot of life goals.
I forgot that you can actually have them AND reach them.
I want that cake and I am ready to eat it.
I had an intuition, in May 2011, that I had to get to Portland, OR by the first. I left college six months from graduation, broke my lease, moved, and met the man I was to marry on May 5th. We got engaged, pregnant, got married, had our daughter. I went crazy – unconscious mediumship out of control. Had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome getting worse and worse until 2016. We thought I’d be disabled my whole life – on a good day I could spent some hours awake, maybe even sitting up in bed.
But then I got healed, and divorced. Finished my first degree, also became a nurse. Now I work in labor and delivery, do spiritual works on the weekends, have the best daughter ever…a well enough to hike! Still wondering when close friends or a lover might come back into my life (I want more kids! And as an Aries moon, do not want to wait) but I have some stuff to heal in my relationship with my father first, I think.
I accidentally embarked on a journey to free myself from a self-harming behavior. While not completely free of it, it has lessened to magnificent degrees. I have learned how to love myself. When Uranus first jump into Aries, 3 important beings in my life died in a span of two weeks and I had a meltdown “spiritual awakening”. Everything in my life went into upheaval and then I found myself in an abusive “relationship” with a much older man that I had to extract myself from, which took years. It’s been wild.
Wow yes. I was trying to give up my profession and start a company. It involved some of my work. It totally tipped me on my head, broke that and then sat me on my arse to struggle. This last seven years have been isolation poverty and soul searching. So now it’s a total change I’m after, total break from it. So you’ve just been a lightening bolt for me. Drop my profession completely and be totally authentic me. Thanks you
yes, don’t hang on to a mistake just because you spent a long time making it, as I read on Danielle LaPorte’s page at some point. how to evaluate when it is a mistake though. and .. are there really such things as mistakes?
I hold that view too. Not about your ex but about the mistake thing. Every thing is a learning experience.
Wow in May 2011 I was a new mum with a brain-injured partner who was falling apart. I had to go back to work early due to a household income of zero. Our relationship was dying and pressures were immense. I was crying every day and had no idea what to do or how to cope.
I have learned and grown so much since then! 6.5 years of single parenting, taking over a mortgage solo, working so hard building my business to support my son and I, being forced to sell then finding a wonderful new home and securing a loan based just on my business income. I have learnt to ask for help & support and have found a very strong circle of women around me. And looking back I realise that I have now achieved all the goals I was dreaming of then. Amazing journey of growth…
Congratulations. Your story resonates.
Is aries your 4th or 10th house?
10th house yes
This so resonates with me.
❤
amazing.
He had surgery to remove a massive brain tumor the month our son was born ( late 2010 ). His personality was changed and it brought up all his deep anger & darkest traits, with no filter or buffering. We had a violent, traumatic end to the relationship.It took 2 years of minimal contact to for him to get some equilibrium and now we co-parent and have a healthy friendship. He still can’t keep a job for long due to disinhibition, and the tumor could return at any time…but he is a good Dad and our son loves him with all his heart.
Strange times. March was probably when a big shift occurred. I was 6 months pregnant by May. I’d never EVER wanted to have children. EVER. It happened. My relationship at the time (with a Piscean) I now believe was probably the only person on the planet to make me feel at ease with the idea. I was feeling good about it by May. Having amazing ‘other worldly’ psychic type dreams. Other things I would just ‘know’ became almost prophesy around the child. Am grateful that I followed through and had/am having this experience. It adds a whole new dimension to the state of awareness.
Life changed dramatically after child was born. The roles we fall into are there to bust our ruts. I became incredibly ill by the following May, and the world came crashing down a little over a year after that.
Many lessons/events/realisations around Being the Parent, The Mother, a person and human, and the Child whose father was dying (my father died in 2014, but I got to spend every day of his last 7months with him.) We were very close friends.
Writing a book. Starting a new relationship with a high functioning alcoholic (didn’t know it at the time) and then leaving to start life again. Realising at the time – I’d probably phoenixed my life a dozen times or more. It was/is now second nature.
Interesting to look back at the last 7 years in relation to Uranus (my 1st house sun ruling planet) and which house. Had never made the connection until now. WOW.
My father died unexpectedly on May 1, 2011. I left graduate school before publicly defending my dissertation (returned much later to do so). I moved my young son & many cats back to my hometown, to take care of my mother & my father’s estate.
Life changed dramatically. I became “The Fixer”, taking my father’s place as head of the family. And I was never able to secure a post-doc position in my field (could not move away from area). As such, irreversible deficit on academic record. Does not trouble me anymore. Have learned to accept life as it unfolds & ride the waves of change.