In the mid-nineteenth century, Charles Darwin proposed that biological evolution was due, in part, to the constant variation in life forms over time, an assumption that was held long before Darwin but substantiated by his observations. Although it would take Gregor Mendel to identify the precise mechanism of this variation, Darwin noted that life is inclined to produce novelty and to vary over generations. Nature, in a sense, is inclined to experiment, to find new and better ways of adapting to environments; nature gropes. Scientists and theorists have also convincingly hypothesized that this variation and mutation of form is not something confined to the strictly biological but is also a function in societies, individuals, groups, and systems more complex in organization than biological forms. Societies are constantly mutating, changing customs, and challenging conventions, even when it is not adaptive to do so. On an individual level, we can feel the pull for chance experimentation and creativity creep into our lives, and it often takes great resistance to push down on these experimentations. In astrological terms, this fumbling for new forms and the innate proclivity to experiment is the force of the archetype of Uranus. As astrologer Robert Hand states, "Uranus represents that random element of mutation that is necessary for creative innovation." (1)

To draw further upon biology, a strong but vocal minority of scientists currently believe that evolution is not simply the result of random, arbitrary forces but the result of intelligent design: the complexity of life forms is best explained by an intelligence that directs the forces of creation. Mathematical probability suggests that in-built intelligence is more likely to account for evolution and creation than contingency and randomness. This hypothesis of an engineering intelligence in the universe is another face of the archetype of Uranus. When Uranus's flash of creative inspiration is unleashed, the informing deep structures of mind, the universe, and creation are unveiled. Uranus was conspicuously highlighted at the times when the laws of physics, the scientific revolution, the theory of evolution, and the discovery of the unconscious were ushered into collective awareness. Thus, like a lightening storm at night that illuminates the environment around us, when Uranus is highly active in our lives we are able to see the normally veiled and occult intelligent structure that is operative in the world around us.