By Len Wallick
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Today (or tomorrow, depending on where you are) is the literal red letter day. Mars has returned to the same place it occupied way back on Oct. 17, one day after it first entered Leo. No matter where on the Earth you are, sometime [in most time zones, on] Wednesday Mars will begin moving forward again after being in retrograde since just before the winter solstice. The exact station direct of Mars takes place at 12:08 pm New York time and 5:08 pm London time.
This has been a long time coming. The retrograde began at the Capricorn solstice, amidst many other complexities. But it is as fresh and immediate as the aspects of the last few days. The key here is to find balance and perspective so as to integrate the season just passing with the season just emerging.
The mediation involved will be largely internal but will not take place in a vacuum. We can all help each other to find wholeness and prepare to fill in the details of the big picture being sketched by the outer planets. The youthful passion of Venus in Aries will now be joined by the re-discovered will of Mars as their fire sign trine (120 degrees of separation) which exacted this last weekend finds its full energy of expression.
The Sabian symbol for the first degree of Leo is a tableau of caution. Depending on your reference, it describes a person getting red-faced either due to emotional stress or frustrated intent. The way Dane Rudhyar puts it, the image is of blood surging to a man’s head, as the vital force surpasses the ability of the ego to hold it down. We might welcome these moments, when what we could welcome more warmly is the release of resistance they imply.
We have a choice. Choice is indeed the word, or one of them. In the words of the late, great astrologer Rockie (Rachelle) Gardiner, patience is the key to heaven. After all, we have over two months before Mars emerges from its echo phase on May. After that we have another full month — until June 17, before the long chapter of Mars in Leo comes to a close, right around the time that the Jupiter-Uranus conjunction occurs in Aries. That is a reference back to the Mars process we are in now.
Then at the height of summer will the preceding six months be brought full circle in the midst of a new beginning.
Perhaps the Kozminsky Symbols for the astrological degrees, which pre-date the Sabian by a generation, can provide a parallax view. Again depending on the reference, the image is of a head of state being petitioned by a group of citizens. Here we find potential for symbiotic balance rather than self-involved frustration.
The ruler steps down from his carriage to receive, the citizens acting in unison give their participation in the form of an expression of their will. There is an exchange, an act of integrating the two sides into the greater whole that they both participate in. There is a tacit recognition of where the power is for the short run as well as for the long term. There is an internal mediation based on external trust.
Informing this process, today Mercury in Pisces squares the Great Attractor in Sagittarius. Will the planet of intellect and communication and the sign of resplendent emotion (and creativity) be able to find a symbiosis as they confront the polarizing power of the the great unknown? That is the feeling of the Great Attractor, a prodigious gravitational force that bends the universe toward it. That synthesis will require that we each be self-aware rather than self-involved. The luminaries (the Sun and Moon) provide hope, if we look to them.
Today the Moon reaches the north lunar node in Capricorn. There, it will sextile the Sun as it rises above the ecliptic on its way to their conjunction, the Pisces New Moon in less than a week. This augurs well. In sixty degrees of separation, there is encouragement of the potential that the future holds. There is leverage and momentum. All aspects are useful; the sextile is one of those tools you can use for nearly everything. No doubt there is work to be done. That, too is the nature of a sextile. The potential for achievement is nourished but it is not a foregone conclusion.
If we are to make the most of the cardinal T-square that the generational planets (Pluto, Saturn Uranus and Jupiter) are forming, we will need to do it together. The personal present can be brought into harmony with the collective future. In unison we can co-create a solid and sustainable new beginning. In conflict, a fate will be served upon us to the satisfaction of none. The choice is there. The time is available, our time. Patience and will — GOOD will — can get it done.
Offered In Service. Some edits/clarifications added by Eric at about 8 am ET.
Cheryl – That sounds like a tough lesson for anyone (well to me it does), but one well worth getting. And well done for beating the crap out of it – virtually! The universe seems to set off accidental phone calls like that just when a person really needs to know something. Don’t you think? Love.
My father celebrated her 86th birthday. The sibs all gathered together except me, I could not make the trip. I experienced being the fly on the wall when my brother’s cell phone rang me accidently, and I got to listen to my sibs trash me without knowing I was listening on the phone. The strange thing was I received 3 phone calls dialed without their knowing so I got to hear a lot, even the discussion that occurred when my brother realized that I had been on the phone for 12 minutes (that was only one call; this one was the third one) so I got to hear how they would spin what they throught I heard. I was so angry I took a foam baseball bat and beat the crap out of my bed until I was exhausted. The good news that Mars brought me was an end of my attempting to fit into my family. I have finally released myself from them. I feel such relief right now, and free. Classic perfection!
Wow, so glad I’m not the only one!
Jere, I’m so on the same vibe! I was thinking of the movie Office Space where the guy goes crazy with a bat on the office printer.
Then later today I was reading this article about Glenn Beck and how he said recently on his show that if your church teaches social justice you should leave it. I no longer practice Catholicism but think the social justice thing is a great thing about Catholicism. In addition I found out the Glenn Beck is coming to my city on Saturday as a guest speaker for a pro life group with an affiliation with the local Catholic church. I’m having the biggest WTF moment, more rage & anger. These people are hard core Catholics and yet are having a guest speaker who is telling them to leave the church. The inconsistency of it all is driving me MAD!
Ok, off to find an old printer now!
I can feel it and it is damn uncomfortable. I have felt glum anyway since my friend left and since our prospects look so down but this intense, tense, angry, but also fearful energy is almost unbearable.
I want to DO something, kick something, throw stuff, yet I my physical energy is waaay down for some reason. I feel a bad crying jag coming on and I can’t do it in front of my son; that would spoil the happiness he is feeling about his birthday.
The worst part is, my beautiful son’s 8th birthday is tomorrow and though I am very happy about that, this Mars crap is making it difficult to enjoy that happiness. I feel so tired for some reason, as though some inner workings are sapping all my energy with nothing to show for it. How long will this Mars BS last anyway?
I feel isolated and tired. You know that awful tense feeling of knowing you are going to face an untenable ordeal and you are afraid of facing it? That tight-in-the-pit-of-your-stomach feeling like somethign BAD is about to happen and you are bracing for it? That is how I feel today. For the first time in my life I am wishing there were some natural herb I could take to calm this; and I hate taking anything for things like that.
Shan, hell yeah, I’m freakin’ pissed off! I’m one angry mother fucker right now. The vibe is a bit edgy, no? (I know my words are intense, but you can slap the b.s. out of me anytime you want..)
None of my shit is ever meant for you guys. Unless you feel it, then good, and fuck you!
Laughingly,
Jere
I knew Mars was stationing direct today and within the last two hours I noticed my mood change angry and intense. This morning I was in a fine mood and all the sudden a yuck mood. I double checked the time and it coincides perfectly with the stationing direct. It’s a beautiful day here 70’s out and sunny, with the promise of spring finally here. I feel like I’m spinning my wheels, getting angry about nothing and have no place to direct this intense energy.
Patty,
Thank you for your comment and question. Western allopathic medicine does have its heroic procedure component that would seem to be compatible with Mars direct. Direct what sign or house would depend on whose chart. Follow the surgeon’s judgement becaue that’s her job. Use the astrology for a 20/20 hindsight evaluation. That’s the safe course.
Len, Tell me what what you think of today as a surgery date? I still like Marc Edmund Jones symbols because they speak to me intuitively. The other versions feel slightly tainted. Leo 1 feels happy to me, like you realize a truth and won’t settle for less. Determination is a good thing, but you can also be blind-sided by wishful thinking that is lurking behind the scenes, the negative partner of determination. Something invisible, like a karmic condition, might be in the mix if you don’t play your cards just right. Don’t forget to be a bit humble and thankful tomorrow and tonight. Not you Len, you are always humble and thankful.
Leo 1 A fat and normally good-natured little man of affairs is bursting with determination to have his own way.
wandering_yeti: You have a very, very, very good point. We are in need of new symbols, new part of fortune, new astrology. Where do we find such a woman? She would need to combine the formidable pendant with the imagination of prodigy. Show me this person and i will carry water, cut wood, wash dishes, do laundry and clearn her bathroom so that she can focus upon her work.
Jere – you are a very gentle and kind scholar. It is a pleasure to serve you. Thank you.
Len, excellent. (All, but especially the last paragraph.)
My Saturn’s at 2 Leo, sitting on my 24 Cancer ascendant,.. so I’m feelin’ what you’re sayin’.
Peace to you bro. You’re a damn good man.
Love
Jere
People gathering medicinal mushrooms…
People inoculating a pile of toxic waste with fungus that metabolizes toxic waste…
Fossil fuels are so 20th century. I need a new part of fortune.
The Sabian symbols are already out of date. My part of fortune resides on 6 gemini which is “workmen drilling for oil.” I can put symbolic spin on it, but oil really does provide the backbone of the civilization that is leaving more garbage and poison for its descendants than any before it. How about work people planting trees?
Thank you.
Eric – thanks for today’s piece and the signposts therein. Peace be.