This election cycle is being played out against the backdrop of a looming Saturn-Uranus opposition. Many elections are fought as battles between the old and the new. But this one is shaping up as an epochal clash between the past (Saturn) and the future (Uranus), between past experience and change. It’s being played out against the background of a widely disliked president (at least among Democrats and Independents), and many of these voters are hungry for wholesale change. Even Republicans seems to be eager for change, although not in the same way as Democrats. So far, change seems to be the over-riding theme in voter preference polls, but it remains to be seen whether voters will go with change or experience as they cast ballots in the early primary contests.

The Saturn-Uranus opposition (with Saturn in Virgo and Uranus in Pisces) will have a real impact on the 2008 U.S. presidential election. I’ve written about this before, but would like to add a few thoughts.

Two years ago, Robert Blaschke’s Earthwalk School of Astrology Publishing brought out a re-issue of the classic Cycles of Becoming, by Alexander Ruperti. This wonderful book discusses the effects of outer planet cycles on the individual and, to a certain extent, the collective. Included is a very good discussion of the Saturn-Uranus opposition. Ruperti writes that with the Saturn-Uranus opposition,

The challenge to become a greater and more inclusive individual is usually felt…At such times, the “greater” initially tends to appear as the enemy of the status quo. Therefore, if the challenge is accepted, one must inevitably break with his traditions on some level of existence…Symbolically, then, he must pit Uranus against Saturn. Habit patterns will always resist change; and when the pressure of some creative challenge is felt, the ego will experience a sense of impending doom, generating fear and resisting change...The more rigid the ego [Saturn], the sharper the break must be in the end. If a crucial phase of the Saturn-Uranus cycle coincides with some overwhelming emotional crisis, the cause will always be the rigid inertia of social customs, privileges, personal habits, or assumed behavior patterns which resist the call of the creative spirit within.

…the current cycles of Uranus and Saturn often have a disruptive effect. The main problem facing the individual during the crucial phase of these cycles is, “How can he constructively use the creative Uranian power which is challenging the inertia and security of his ego?” As a corollary, one must also face the challenge to contribute wisely to this process of social change which these crucial phases of the Saturn-Uranus cycle measure. It will be important, in either case, to avoid the twin evils of either a dependence on or a return to the past, or an over-radical transformation which would destroy that part of the past which is essential to the future.

Personally, I see the Republicans as Saturnine--supporting the status quo--and the Democrats as more Uranian. This astrological opposition will crystallize over the direction of the Iraq War. In fact, the Saturn-Uranus opposition will be squaring the U.S. Sibly Mars, showing right where the political debate will be centered. In last week’s GOP debate in Iowa, all the candidates—except Ron Paul—were in favor of maintaining the U.S. military “surge” in Iraq. Democrat candidates are advocating just the opposite.

The Saturn-Uranus opposition will start to form in September, 2008, not long after the presidential nominating conventions. By election day, the opposition will be exact. It will continue, off and on, until 2010 (by which time both Saturn and Uranus will be in the early degrees of Libra and Aries respectively).

The classic Saturn-Uranus opposition effect took place during the mid-1960’s, at which time Pluto conjoined Uranus, adding to the intensity of the opposition with Saturn. Rebellion/disruption versus the status quo was a basic 60’s theme.

When there is an opposition between two planets, one of the planets is often not “owned” and gets projected onto others. We internalize or own one planet and meet the other one through the oppositional actions of others. This will be especially true when the two opposition planets are Saturn and Uranus, whose energies are so different. One potential solution is to work at synthesizing and blending the energies of the two opposition planets, even when they are Saturn and Uranus. The 2008 election features the rhetoric of polarity and opposition versus the possibility of synthesis and unity.