This week, and today especially, is a day to keep perspective; keep the big picture in view at all times, and make sure your greater vision for any projects or situations is guiding your actions. This is sound guidance most days, but today’s astrology, featuring Mercury and Mars (in each other’s signs, incidentally) makes it especially important.
![Photo by Amanda Painter](https://i0.wp.com/planetwaves.net/news/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/400+frost_leaf_nov2013IMG_9210.jpg?resize=400%2C267&ssl=1)
Usually this column is concerned with planets making aspects, but occasionally it’s the lack of aspects being made by a planet that calls for attention. That’s the case by Mars in Virgo right now: it’s not making any major aspects to any major planets.
Superficially, that sounds like no big deal; with some planets, it might not be. But Mars is the planet of drive, action, libido, aggression — it’s an especially energetic archetype, and energy needs to have a conduit or a purpose to be useful rather than chaotic or destructive. Mars not making any aspects means there are no boundaries for its energy; no clear, productive way to engage with it. There’s an element of danger to the situation — though in Virgo (a sign ruled by Mercury) this is more likely to manifest as an obsession with details that never really leads anywhere.
Hence the need to keep perspective and keep one eye on the big picture; the idea is to make sure all the little things you’re fixing actually add up to a sum that’s greater than the parts. You don’t want to step back at some point and realize you’ve chopped and tweaked and snipped things into an inchoate, mushy mess. If Mars in Virgo is a power tool, it’s one to be used with precision — and frequent looks at the blueprints rather than sawing away at everything you can get your hands on.
As long as you can tap into creative vision (represented by Pisces, opposite Virgo) Mars in Virgo is a real asset. You have to remember what you’re doing and why, and stay tuned into your intuition along with the facts.
The Sun in Sagittarius lends a hand with the whole ‘broader vision’ thing, too — which is good, since Mercury’s conjunction to Saturn in Scorpio (ruled by Mars) is exact today at 8:54 pm EST. Mercury-Saturn can provide some great stamina for seeing projects through to completion and a certain depth of mind. Unfortunately it can also be an aspect that lends itself to depression, small-mindedness and pettiness.
Mercury-Saturn echoes aspect-less Mars in Virgo in its ability to get lost in the details (in this case, of one’s emotions or thoughts about those emotions). On one level, depression is a loss of emotional and spiritual perspective, and it has a kind of obsessive quality in the way it can suck a person down.
You might not have that kind of experience at all. You may find that since this is the third Mercury-Saturn conjunction related to Mercury’s retrograde in Scorpio, you’re meeting the third stage in a project, or in a series of emotional insights. The other two Mercury-Saturn conjunctions were Oct. 8 and Oct. 29, in case you’d like to review events in your life around those dates.
If you do, just watch for any tendency to get lost in the details and forget the purpose of your review. If you encounter problems to solve, be sure they’re the ones that matter to the overall flow of your life and what’s important in the wider constellations you’re part of. Don’t let others steer you into trivial details, either.
With Mercury-Saturn in Scorpio and Mars in Virgo, it’s entirely possible to get so emotionally caught up in ‘fixing things’ that it backfires and you ‘fix’ to the point of making things broken in some new way. Again, it comes back down to perspective, a broader vision, creativity and purpose. Every time you feel yourself drawing in to get a closer look, pull back a few steps and look up. Repeat as necessary — or call a friend for a mutual ‘perspective check’.
With research and additional writing by Eric Francis
speaking of “the big picture,” these sound like some very perspective-broadening places to vist:
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/travel-tips-and-articles/sights-to-make-you-feel-small?affil=EML_EDITORIALNEWS_47
(couldn’t resist indulging in a little fantasy travel — after all, the sun is in sagittarius!)
Amanda – Thanks so much for bringing our attention to the idea that unbound energy has the potential to scatter in minutia, as an undirected Mars can tend to dissipate.
But -somewhere within that ‘open’ thinking (and challenging engagement) that ‘big picture’ persevered! …Your mention of the past dates and now our third Mercury-Saturn conjunction related to Mercury’s retrograde in Scorpio, was extremely helpful. Appreciate it!
Appreciating the reminder, Amanda. Mars in Virgo has come off conjunction with my natal moon (that happened at the solar eclipse!) but is still activating my lunar energy, as long as he’s traversing Virgo. Also sextile natal Uranus/Jupiter and square natal Saturn, so Mars in Virgo is energizing my chart, and has been all during Sun in Scorpio. Whew!
Mercury conjunct Saturn tonight, just as I have some important communicating to do. OK!
All good though none of it is Pisces’ favorite you know. Pass the whipped cream please.
grateful to know this post is resonating and helping others — though i do have to say that one reason eric got a writing/research credit at the bottom of the piece is that i was a little too focused on some trees (and not all the right trees) and was missing the forest when trying to plot out this article.
🙂
Thank you Amanda. This was bang on the money for me and wishing that I had read it at the beginning of my day rather than the end. I am in the midst of packing and moving with list overload and helpfully this Virgo Mars is moving through my 4th house, but I slipped into mental excess today… so a big step back now.
Thanks Amanda, so glad you see the value (as well as the possibility of problems) with Mercury in mutual reception with Mars (in each other’s sign) and that you called my attention to Saturn and Mercury conjunct in Scorpio today. Saturn is also in mutual reception with Pluto (the other ruler of Scorpio) in Capricorn so it’s almost like having 4 planets conjunct each other! Great for research (Scorpio, Virgo) when you need stamina (Saturn/Capricorn + Mars), quick and clear thinking (Mercury/Virgo) and relentless searching (Pluto/Scorpio), and I have the perfect project in which to use these energies today. Oh, and timing too!~ Timing is everything (at least in my project) and Saturn rules time. So glad to be past the Neptune phase (Sun was square him yesterday), which was invaluable as an exploration of possibilities but not very productive. Today we git ‘er done!
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Thank you. I was losing perspective and your words brought me back from the mush pot. A few words, well placed is all that’s needed to reel me in…thanks so much for providing them this Monday morning.
This Monday morning has become a little more bearable after reading this! Many many thanks. Gorgeous photo, Amanda.