Note — here is the Wednesday edition of Planet Waves FM, covering the charts in the Trayvon Martin case. The charts themselves are linked from this edition’s homepage.
One of the planetary influences we have not yet considered this week is retrograde Mars in Virgo opposite Neptune in Pisces. It’s easy for astrologers to get a little fixated on when an aspect is ‘exact’, but most aspects can be effective long before that moment – especially those involving the slower moving planets like Neptune. So even though Mars does not quite oppose Neptune when it goes retrograde, this is a situation where exact aspects don’t matter — Neptune has a wide field of influence (15 ot 20 degrees, at least), so this entire Mars retrograde in Virgo is happening opposite Neptune in Pisces.
Mars-Neptune in a tense aspect can have a self-destructive quality, and often this brings out the worst of Neptune — deception, denial, drink, drugs, delusion. This is not predictive astrology — all you need to do is observe.
Even those with Mars and Neptune in an easier angle (sextile, trine) must be careful and conscious of their integrity, and direct their creative energy consciously in positive directions. That’s not easy when so many factors in the world encourage us to be negative and to emphasize the negative properties of Neptune. This comes at the expense of the creative and transcendent qualities of Neptune — empathy, transparency, the love of beauty and the expression of beauty.
Said another way, it’s considered cool to drive ‘buzzed’ and tell ‘white’ lies and bend the truth and exaggerate and gossip — and then it’s normal to ponder why there’s so much drama around us. One of the biggest disconnects of our world is the way we divorce words from what they’re supposed to mean. Then we wonder how it’s possible that people who claim to be our leaders open their mouths and say anything they can to persuade us, evoke an emotional reaction or manipulate whomever they can. But this would not work, were it not considered ‘normal’.