Leslie over at Karmic Knowledge has posted a very interesting article about Jerry Falwell’s karmic choice between fundamentalism and freedom. She posts a quote from writer Steven Pressfield that I found particularly potent:

…The human being isn’t wired to function as an individual. We’re wired tribally, to act as part of a group… We know what the clan is; how to fit into the band and the tribe. What we don’t know is how to be alone. We don’t know how to be free individuals.

It is this individuation that Uranus has come to stimulate. We could argue that in the past 2000 years, until the discovery of Uranus in the late 1700s, there was very little if any focus on the right of the individual to follow his or her own path. Humans were members of tribes, or clans, or religious groups, or subject to the rule of royalty. Individual liberties were accorded only to the royal or privileged classes. The discovery of Uranus correlated to an international revolutionary fervor that demanded these liberties for the common wo/man as well as for the monied few.

As Leslie points out, in Jerry Falwell’s chart Saturn is in Aquarius (ruled by Uranus) where it creates a discomfort (Saturn) around issues of individuation (Aquarius). Saturn is the planet of rules and restrictions, of governmental law and conservativism. Those of us born in the early 1950s and the late 1970s have Saturn and Uranus square in our charts, creating conflict between the urge for freedom and individuality (Uranus) and the drive for convention and safety (Saturn). This can lead to wild swings between individualistic behavior and conservatism and depending on the rest of the chart can create a real fear of freedom that keeps one rooted in conservatism.

As in any inner astrological conflict, the key to resolution is in creating balance between the two dynamics rather than swinging from one extreme to another. Sometimes this takes a lifetime to achieve!