Mars-Uranus in Gemini: Unsettling American Epistemology aka Colonial Brain Disorder Pt 1

The anxiously anticipated Mars-Uranus conjunction is upon us, perfecting early morning on July 4. This is a recurrence transit for the United States, which was established 250 years ago on this date under a Mars-Uranus conjunction in Gemini.

Sibley inception chart for the United States

The US recently concluded its Pluto return in November 2024 when its 16 year stint in Capricorn came to an end. The chthonic extrusion of the US Pluto return stripped away layers of denial to expose the truths about the founding of this country, on stolen land with stolen labor by the same kind of cannibalistic deviants running it today. Built on the dual genocides of Native Americans and the transatlantic slave trade, the inception of this country was fueled by the distorted thinking of Colonial Brain Disorder. Colonial Brain Disorder is an epistemology grounded the illusion of separability from the natural world and our human and more-than-human kin, allowing for dehumanization, exploitation, and extraction; arrogance and delusions of grandeur; and insatiable greed. The term was coined by Indigenous scholar Michael Yellow Bird, who argues that “… when a colonizer (a person of the colonial society) is ‘brainwashed’ to believe they are the right color, have the right values and beliefs, live in the greatest country on earth, and are from an exceptional class of people, they will have extreme difficulty engaging with this brain region [orbital frontal cortex] — which of course means that they will lack the ability to mindfully and honestly critique their privilege, culture, beliefs and values, and their nations own failures and weaknesses.” (Yellow Bird, 2005) The rising authoritarianism this July 4th is the fruit of 250 years in a country build upon Colonial Brain Disorder, fruit borne from the rot at the roots of US empire.

Different Indigenous cultures have various names for Colonial Brain Disorder, some of which are not be spoken, so I’ll use here a version without that restriction: gringismo. (Young, 2020) This name alludes to the construct of whiteness as a mechanism for enactment of social hierarchy, undergirded by intersecting systems of oppression upheld through violence in a Global Matrix of Power, for the purpose of hoarding resources and power while shifting costs and burdens to marginalized groups. The ‘Characteristics of White Supremacy Culture’ further elucidate American epistemology: perfectionism, urgency, defensiveness, quantity over quality, push toward “bigger, more” as evidence of progress, paternalism, power hoarding, individualism, exceptionalism, centering of white comfort and fear of open conflict, either/or thinking, and belief in one right way. (Okun, 1999) In My Grandmother’s Hands, Resma Menakem describes such epistemic modes of being as “trauma masquerading as culture,” stemming from hundreds of years of violent colonization of Europe before Manifest Destiny. (2017) As such, untended trauma and fear as well as culture loss and disconnection from land are root causes of Colonial Brain Disorder.

The epistemology of gringismo is not unfamiliar to Black and Indigenous people, while it remains invisible to many Americans still clinging to the illusion that the ruinous effects of US empire could never affect them, here. I anticipate that the events unfolding around the time period surrounding this Mars-Uranus conjunction spark awakening that further crumbles the tower of denial.

Promotheus

Uranus is the Liberator, the Promethean impulse toward freedom through sudden breakthrough. Prometheus, the mythological Titan who took mercy on humans and gave them fire stolen from the gods to help them survive, is credited with cultivating technology and civilization through this act of care for humanity. Richard Tarnas has argued that the archetypal meaning associated with Uranus is more akin to the Promethean mythic figure than that of Ouranos, and that “Prometheus Unbound” a more suitable moniker. (2009)

The translation of the Greek name ‘Prometheus’ is ‘forethought;’ a quality of forethought shaping technology in end-stage capitalism emerges from Colonial Brain Disorder, evident in the proliferation of data centers, technologies that nonconsensually capture attention and data, and technologies of surveillance and warfare. Uranus in Gemini will form a trine with Pluto in Aquarius, a configuration associated with the militaristic use of technologies like AI, surveillance, and drones domestically and/or internationally. Between 2026-2033, Mars meets with Uranus in Gemini a total of four times, combining aggressive force with the explosive Promethean bolt of lightning. In Gemini, a sign associated with mental activity and thought processes, perhaps increasing awareness of and unsettling American colonial epistemologies. What if more people awaken and divest from these habits of mind that perpetuate suffering?

In Part 2 of the Mars-Uranus posts we’ll explore the antidote for Colonial Brain Disorder proposed by Indigenous scholars, most prominently Yellow Bird: Neurodecolonization.