{"id":62763,"date":"2013-01-02T12:17:22","date_gmt":"2013-01-02T17:17:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=62763"},"modified":"2013-01-02T13:45:13","modified_gmt":"2013-01-02T18:45:13","slug":"focus-mars-square-saturn","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astro-daily\/focus-mars-square-saturn\/","title":{"rendered":"Focus: Mars Square Saturn"},"content":{"rendered":"

The aspect to watch at the moment is Mars in Aquarius building up to a square to Saturn. This is a high-pressure aspect, as if Mars by its sheer force of will is trying to move something much larger than itself. This could be the source of considerable frustration if it’s not handled right. The exact date of this aspect is Monday, Jan. 7, and it’s in full effect up to and a little beyond that time. <\/p>\n

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Saturn as seen from Hubble Space Telescope.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The square is one in a category of aspects, which astrologers call “hard aspects” — that’s a pun, because they do tend to be mentally or emotionally challenging, though the “hard” reference means they are of the 90-degree type: conjunction (two or more planets in the same place), square (two planets at a right angle), opposition (two planets facing one another). They are similar, though with different modes of expression. There are other derivatives of these (such as the semi-square); no need to go into them now.<\/p>\n

Mars makes a square to Saturn about once a year. This is the first time it’s making a square to Saturn newly in Scorpio. (Note, the last Mars-Saturn square was Aug. 25, 2011, and there was a long gap because of the Mars retrograde of early 2012.) One distinctive property of this square is that Saturn is in a sign ruled by Mars; so in a sense, Mars is up against some of its own inner psychological resistance. This is a challenging setup.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This aspect is an invitation to think things through carefully, especially if they involve the assertion of will, the use of energy or force, and even the focusing of intentions. It’s not an accident that this aspect is happening the way that it’s happening; the role of Saturn in Scorpio involves finding places where there are emotional blockages and working them free. Think of Saturn in Scorpio as dredging out the bottom of a navigation channel in a river.<\/p>\n

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Full-disk image of Mars; photo by NASA\/JPL.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The channel is there; it’s just become filled with silt and debris, making it unsafe for boats to pass. Now some extra work has to be done to clear the way. Think of Mars as something that’s getting stuck in the too-shallow channel. <\/p>\n

Mars might be able to push free, but there’s an added dimension to this. Saturn in Scorpio is conjunct a Neptune-like point called Poseidon. This is making Saturn slippery. It’s also frustrating Mars, whose energy is getting dissipated in Poseidon. <\/p>\n

They key here is to be realistic, and to use intelligence and intuition rather than pure force. Mars is in Aquarius, the sign of groups. Where groups are concerned, the whole group has to focus its intentions and work together, or nothing is going to get done. Bottom line here: this is about focusing group intelligence into tangible action.<\/p>\n

One other note: check your natal chart for what you have at 7 to 11 degrees of the fixed signs Taurus, Leo, Scorpio or Aquarius — those planets and points are involved for you personally.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The square is one in a category of aspects, which astrologers call “hard aspects” — that’s a pun, because they do tend to be mentally or emotionally challenging, though the “hard” reference means they are of the 90-degree type: conjunction (two or more planets in the same place), square (two planets at a right angle), opposition (two planets facing one another). They are similar, though with different modes of expression. There are other derivatives of these (such as the semi-square); no need to go into them now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1734],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62763"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62763\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}