Sun in Aries: Courage, Change and Challenges

Taken by Japan's Hinode's Solar Optical Telescope, the photograph used in this

blog header is an image of a plasma limb flare on the surface of our Sun.

(photo credit: Hinode/JAXA-NASA, January 2007)

With the Sun’s moving into Aries, our pent up feelings break through and the inward intensity of all that Pisces energy begins draining away. The cracks felt days ago with Mars entering Aries now become an engine of self assertiveness.

It’s a bit like a chick breaking out of an egg. We’re seeing who we are. We seeing what’s possible in the world…and what we can make of ourselves. With Mercury still in Pisces, the possibilities are pretty much pouring in – and so are the things which need doing.

If Mercury was also already in Aries, we would look at this near-infinite myriad of options and need and see what needs doing first. And what needs doing after that. But Mercury isn’t in Aries. Mercury’s still in Pisces. So as the Sun enters Aries on March 20th at 11:03 in the morning UT/+0 it will usher in spring in the northern hemisphere and fall in Earth’s southern hemisphere and we’re still in something of an echo chamber of personal making…or at least human habituation.

For those who don’t realize it, this solar ingress is also the clockwork for Easter. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first Full Moon following the Aries ingress. So…since that (Libra) Full Moon will be on the 27th, Easter falls on Sunday, March 31st this year. And yes, whether you’re Christian or not, that means it’s time to stock up on chocolate bunnies!

(Who doesn’t like chocolate bunnies, after all?)

A display of Lindt chocolate Easter bunnies

(photo credit: Bryan, March 2007)

While Venus remains in Pisces (a sign Venus is astrologically ‘exalted’ in) it’s a good time for being who you are while interacting with to others IF you are willing to not be agreed with 100%. Then again, though you may not like what others have to say, if you have some difficult conversation which needs having, this may be the time to have it, since once Venus enters Aries (this coming weekend) there’s less adaptability in the air.

And after that? Well, you may not like everything you hear, though that doesn’t mean it isn’t true! Once Venus, Mars and the Sun are all in Aries that’s a lot of willful Aries energy – in your life and the lives of those you deal with. But remember…Mercury is still in Pisces. And that sets up an astro-situation which is just ripe for (and which is likely to be rife with) defensiveness…if not out-and-out defensive-aggression.

And don’t you just hate that? People do snarky things under this sort of combination. And that means we’re likely to see a lot of fair amount (even a lot) of posturing and uppity-ness in the weeks ahead. For those who used to watch Happy Days it’s going to be like dealing with many a Fonz who just can’t admit they’re wrong. Or that they’re in the wrong. Or that they made a bad choice.

If (when, actually…) this happens, try to remember that it’s not you this person is resisting listening to. No, it really isn’t you. The problem we’re going to be dealing with on and off for these next few weeks is the fact that no one wants to hear that critical little voice in their head. You know, the one which on occasion haunts us all, causing us to feel doubt or self-critique or even shame.

Mind you, with Mercury in Pisces we can choose to listen to each other. And when we listen to each other with understanding and compassion for where the other person is coming from – as opposed to making it all about ourselves, that would be harnessing Mercury in Pisces on the high or plus side, and that will support all the Aries solar energy into allowing us to see how things really could be fixed. Or work better. Or become what we want them to be.

Every sign is a passage, one which asks us to understand the universality or universal precepts of the sign which precedes it – which in the case of Aries would be Pisces. In understanding the plus and minus of that previous sign – which we’ll shorthand with regards to Pisces as being vulnerability versus compassion to the degree that we incorporate that in our thinking, the sign we’re in (Aries) becomes empowered more to its high side than otherwise.

And in Aries, that’s the difference between being courageous, noble and productive…and being willful, selfish and probably put-upon or frustrated.

Granted, we’re likely to feel a bit of each. That’s the way life works. But this is the name of our current challenge-of-the-month: to not exclude understanding where others are coming from. There will be lots and lots of opportunities to do your own thing and be your own person now, which is easier, granted. But even then…to hold somewhere in your heart or soul (or wherever you hold things) that there are other people in this world and that your life is made better by considering their needs? That’s the Aries ace.

Mind you, Aries can go overboard in this direction too. Aries energy can be super-directed and super-directive, and that’s not useful either. It might be easier to do it yourself or to think you should run the show so you don’t have to put up with anyone else’s less-than-perfections, but that can very quickly get into the Aries domineering thing.

With Mars and the Sun in Aries, we’re likely to see a lot of insistence as a side dish to that posturing thing. When someone is doing something so that others can have the opportunity to flourish that’s one thing. But to just do things your way because you can’t tolerate thinking that there’s any other way? Whether you’re doing that in an office, as a matter of regard for ‘your family’ (and nuts to any other family) or your culture, your company, your tradition, your nation or national party, that’s patently unproductive if you do not allow for the needs of others.

That’s the tricky relationship between Pisces – last sign in the zodiac – and Aries, first sign of the zodiac. Not meaning to pick on men, but the males of our species (and many species, come to think of it) are famous for wanting to ‘fix’ things. Well, sometimes you can’t. And this is exactly what we’re talking about as the dichotomy between Aries and Pisces.

When the Sun was in Pisces, Aries was the 2nd derivative harmonic. That means it was the next sign in zodiacal line. In that position, we needed to value our Self enough to get things done. We had to feel our fears and learn how to do things anyway. We had to feel our losses and recognize what they said about us, and grow from that ouchy emotional knowing.

Now the Sun is in Aries and Pisces is the 12th derivative harmonic, which means it’s the sign just before Aries. In this position, Pisces represents all those squishy fears we have. All that ambiguity or maybe even guilt we don’t want to feel.

Tough. Feel it anyway. You’ll be a better person for admitting that you’re human. And yes, I AM speaking more to the men here than the women. Why? Because as little boys grow up, they rather quickly get sent into ‘male society’ where they’re taught to suck it up, to achieve, to be the leaders. And that’s all well and good, but while they’re exercising those mental pre-macho muscles, they’re not continuing to exercise the more receptive, more tolerant-of-their-own-emotions which astrology associates with the yin signs.

And that’s where guys (and women) tend to polarize. The more that she learns to play the femme fatale, the more likely she will be to attract a male who is domineering. And in such pairings – be they intimate or friendships or business partnerships, once we find the person who ‘feels on a level’ with us (meaning they fill in the yin to our yang and vice versa) we buck and kick if anybody tries to grow any more beyond that.

Once we understand how this works, it becomes plain to us why our Sun signs…and the sign the Sun is currently in…plays such a strong role in astrology. The female born into a yang sign (Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, Aquarius) will have a naturally self-assertive quality a female born into a yin sign will never have. She may act like it if (for instance) she has a yang sign rising, but there is a quality to what I call cross-gender signage which is really useful to many women because it compensates for the standard societal “conditioning.” And the same goes for men. Men born into yin signs (Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, Pisces) tend to be more receptive and understanding. How they handle that is another matter.

So we all have this natal quality we live and deal with. And that natal yin or yang-ness, against the question of our gender, is pushed and pulled as if by celestial magnetism as the Sun (and other planets) move through yin and yang signs.

The Sun is exalted in Aries. Aries is the sign of existing and of being aware of our potential, and the astrological qualities of the Sun (conception of what to do with our lives) ‘shines’ when passing through Aries because the Sun is all about life and our existing.

Then we add in Mars. Mars is going to be in Aries (it’s primal ruling sign) for the whole of the (yang) month of Sun is in Aries.

Without knowing anything else, we know this is a metaphysically energetic time, a time with muscles.

Then again, sometimes those muscles may come on a bit strong – for others and for our own good.

That difference…the knowing when to do and with what kind of strength to do it? That’s where our ability to be conscious (Sun in Aries) of others and understanding (Pisces as 12th sign to Aries) of who they are and their feelings, aims and needs.

This is NOT about coercion. This is NOT about having to stop and baby someone who may or may not be perfectly capable of doing for themselves. And whatever else it is, this is NOT about doing what you want because you simply want to do it or because it’s “your way” of doing things.

This last goes to the fact that after Aries comes Taurus. And when we consider Taurus as the 2nd harmonic TO Aries (in other words, the sign right after Aries in the zodiacal order)…that tells us that the things we do now, while the Sun (and Mars, and soon to be Venus) are all in Aries are in the end, about our ultimate sense of security and satisfaction and ability to feel respect for who we are and what we do in this world.

And that has to take into account those ‘others.’ Pisces being the BIG universal others (like, the whole-of-the-planet others), this lesson becomes a vital education in why we are only snug in the bosom of our family or our business or our culture or nation when the rest of the world is also secure.

Remember a couple of years ago when that huge earthquake and tsunami hit Japan? There for a couple of weeks we were suddenly all aware that we’re on this planet together. Suddenly all those prideful ethnic arguments didn’t seem so important. Having the latest IPhone or car wasn’t first on our list.

Our concept of survival was.

That event coincided with Uranus moving into Aries. Uranus is still in Aries. And wherever we see Uranus go, we know that’s the level at which we are going to get shaken so that we will understand exactly what we understood during those weeks: that mankind may be mighty, but we are only as mighty as our humility and willingness to work together and mind our limits allows us to be.

Sun, Mars, Uranus all in Aries is a time when we have an opportunity to change our ways and to break through the false limitations we have allowed to become our limitations. We are living with structures which may have at one point been our support, but which at this point have become our weakness. What once inspired us is now proving to be maybe a sham, maybe shameful. But that too is an inspiration – it’s an inspiration to think beyond that to bigger and more boundless ways of thinking.

As Uranus moved into Aries, Neptune entered Pisces. That’s the sign of the shift, the sign that we have to think more globally, not just in the physical here-on-Earth sense, but also in the human sense.

Planet Uranus (partial, at left) and some of its moons. Left to right are Puck, Miranda, Ariel,

Umbriel, Titania and Oberon in this composite made from Voyager 2 photos

(photo collage: Vzb83, original photo credit: NASA-JPL)

As the Sun enters Aries, Uranus is positioned at 8 Aries, a degree known for impatience, even violence. At the core of this degree is the need to use our lives and the energy which is our life and which we have in life for the betterment of life. Unfortunately, we are likely to see and hear of many who simply insist on having things ‘their own way,’ particularly during the first part of this month.

Things are going to build during the next few weeks. You’ll see it in your own work. You’ll feel it in your relationships. You’ll hear about it on the news. If you do nothing more than recognize this energy and how people tend to project it onto (or against) others instead of owning it as a force which they need to use in their own life, you’ll be doing well. Some examples will be totally present-tense. Some examples will be the playing out of things which have already happened, the reality of which are now becoming apparent.

Life teaches us in many ways. Sometimes that involves making it plainly – even painfully – obvious that someone did the wrong thing. You’ll see that. And hopefully, you’ll learn from that. The natural reaction being “I’ll never do that,” many of us will see what happens in this next little while and automatically turn to investing in what we can do, what we can learn, what we can achieve which makes for a better life and a better world.

That would be Uranus at 8 Aries manifesting to the positive.

It is to be noted however, that 8 Aries is obviously in opposition to 8 Libra. And 8 Libra is one of but a few degrees in the zodiac to have such a distinct lore that it’s earned itself a nickname: “the Widow’s Degree.” Here’s a piece I wrote on that degree a while ago:

(link to post)

To the Degree: 8 Libra

With Uranus at 8 Aries, the 8 Aries/Libra ‘doorway’ is opened. Some of us will experience losses, and some of us will finally begin coming to grips with losses already incurred but never really grappled with.

This is an opportunity. But to get the most out of this opportunity, you’re going to have to be willing to feel your loss, experience the sense of aloneness or personal defeat or angst or even guilt or shame which goes with that loss, then from that move forward.

This can be a healing time. But it is not one which is very Florence Nightingale. There is a cracking down which must happen within before your hard shell can shatter and a bigger, better you can come forth like that brand new chick.

But think of it this way…if you renew you, you can have new peeps! (Marshmallow and otherwise!)

All this is going to rev up in the first half of the Sun in Aries month. More to the point, there is a ‘critical mass’ point which will occur with the Full Moon (March 27) and during the couple of days thereafter. Those who have been working on their challenges will either get past them at that point, or bounce off their hard-headed ego walls then…rather as a handball would.

For those who do get past their ego sticking points (which is about as gracefully as I can put it!) the rest of this Sun in Aries month will be all about moving on towards personal goals.

For those who don’t get past their ego around the time of the Full Moon, you’ll face some new challenges in the lee of the Full phase and either deal with the fact that others aren’t cooperating or learn what you have to do to get along in this world, a lesson from which you will then begin to build.

There are, of course, the shirkers in the crowd…those who don’t think they have to change, those who think that all is just fine and dandy and fabu.

Maybe you’re right. Then again, maybe you’re not so right. Here’s the clue: if between now and the Full Moon you start getting dribbles and crumbs of disapproval from others…IF you recognize that you aren’t having the effect on others (and the world in general) that you want to have – or that you thought you were having, then you really have some reconsidering to do.

And for those who don’t want to reconsider? Well, for them there’s always the Uranus Effect.

Oh…and Pluto. Did I mention that Pluto is going retrograde next month, just before we head into a full-on eclipse season composed of one solar and TWO lunar eclipses? Heavens! Where’s Bette Davis when you need her to announce the impending bumpy ride?

A publicity still of Bette Davis with fourth and final husband Gary Merrill (her fourth and final husband)

who worked with his wife on the 1950 Warner Brothers film 'All About Eve,' from which

the (in)famous 'bumpy ride' comment is taken.

(photo credit: Warner Brothers/publicity department, 1950)

Wherever she is, she’s probably laughing at all of us, hoping we’ll get to fixing what needs to be fixed.

In any case, Pluto is already in the degree (11 Capricorn) that it will be sitting in not just at this month’s Full Moon, but all the way through the April-May eclipse season.

11 Capricorn is a complicated degree that we’re going to talk about going forward. At the moment what we need to understand is the idea that Pluto in 11 Capricorn is about the power of leadership and the responsibilities which go with that. Certainly we see examples of this energy being used in all sorts of ways even as I type.

The more important thing now is the natural square between Aries and Capricorn, which asks you how you are using your life to demonstrate – not just to others but to yourself – the benefits of leading and growing through working through our challenges.

With Uranus in Aries with the Sun, changes are due. Fortunately, with Sun (and Mars and Uranus) in Aries, the energy is at hand. As are the opportunities, if we are only courageous enough to own them.

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