Today is Tuesday, August 9, 2011. The Moon is in Sagittarius until about 4:38 pm EDT, when it enters Capricorn. But the big news is that Mars in Cancer makes an exact square to Uranus in Aries at about 12:33 pm EDT. This puts it into a volatile grand square that includes Saturn in Libra and, more precisely today, Pluto in early Capricorn. This configuration (which we sometimes describe as the cardinal cross) has gotten a lot of attention on Planet Waves. The Uranus-Pluto square is the astrology at the heart of 2012, and at the root of much recent upheaval on the world stage.
Note that the Mars-Uranus square is classic accident astrology, so it’s necessary to be patient behind the wheel, and drive like a professional. With Mars now involved, the energy heats up the inner conflict and the underlying sense of anger many of us are carrying; in Cancer, we are going to feel it. This has been brewing since well before today — witness the riots in London over the weekend — and it will hold for the rest of the week as Mars makes an exact opposition to Pluto in Capricorn.
When there’s a lot of Mars in the sky, it’s good time to ask yourself: What do you do with your energy? Or more specifically, what do you do with your anger? This is not a simple question for some, given how many are cut off from feeling real rage, or want to be ‘nice’, or fear their own power. Does one or more of those descriptions fit you? You are not alone. Rage is not an emotion we are taught to handle well in many Western cultures. Even the most basic anger rarely finds a home, and is often directed inwardly as guilt.
Nor are we taught healthy ways to deal with our sexual desire and drive — another attribute of Mars. In fact, it is actively held down right now in our society, but done so in a rather contradictory way that serves to keep people confused, cut off from themselves and cut off from true intimacy with others. And this repressed sexual energy is likely fuel for much of the violence we’re seeing.
Complicating the Mars-Uranus-Pluto T-square is the conjunction between Mercury retrograde and Transpluto in Leo opposite Neptune. Eric wrote about this aspect in yesterday’s edition. One characteristic of Mercury-Transpluto is narrow-mindedness and obsession; one characteristic of Mercury opposite Neptune is the potential to be deceived. Given the self-investigatory nature of a retrograde Mercury, there are a couple more questions you may ask yourself. One: Have you stopped to ask what you’re angry about and why? And two: Is it even true?