Mars in Aries, Venus in Aries, Neptune into Shadow

Venus and Mars by Botticelli (c.1483)

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No sooner do we dive into our second month of Aquarian mental sparking (and barking) which embodies our best and worst mortal and oh-so lunar  instincts than the Sun enters Pisces.

That was yesterday ... February 18th.

And by now, barely twenty-four hours later, it’s already old hat because now we’re not entering the Piscean solar mode, we’re in it. Okay, we tell ourselves. I can make it through ... whatever lies ahead.

We hear our voice telling our Self some form of that. And yet the truth really is ....well, if we didn’t need to hear those words, we wouldn’t be muttering them, either verbally or mentally.

And no, we don’t know what’s ahead - which is one of those special Piscean quirks. Under Sun in Pisces, we either live in the moment and deal with each thing as it comes for what it is ... or we drive our Self (and often enough, others) batty by fighting some inevitability we’ve conjured from some inner fear.

Of Self, that is - specifically of what we might have to experience ... or to put the Piscean twist on it, to feel ourselves experiencing.

Fear of how others feel about you ... or what they could do to you, that’s Scorpio (and you know how we all feel about Scorpio, right?). But fear of what you could do to you - principally through your mind and emotions?

That’s Pisces. People talk about Pisces as a ‘trash can’ ... but if it is, it’s our trash can - it’s where everything we’d like to throw out (but can’t) gets put.

But since it’s out of sight, since we’re refusing to deal with it ... that doesn’t mean that it isn’t true. Or it doesn’t exist. We just don’t like admitting it - which is (in Piscean terms) why it literally haunt us.

The reality here is that ‘it’ isn’t haunting us - we’re haunting us. We’re haunted by those things in and about our Self we dread to know, deal with or embody.

But life is life, so occasionally we have to - and that would be part and parcel of the Sun’s passage through Pisces, a passage which this year is going to be barely a day old when Neptune, the ‘outcome’ ruler of Pisces which determines whether we’ve won, lost or deluded ourselves ... when Neptune enters the shadow of its 2015 retrograde cycle.

Mind you, we haven’t yet reached the end of the 2014 cycle. That doesn’t happen until March 6th (UT/+0), which means we’re still wrapping up a Neptune sub-cycle which began  when Neptune went retrograde last June (2014) ... and which some people will identify better as having begun on April 24, 2013.

Not that we’re any of us in any position to have real perspective on that yet. That’s one of the things about Neptune: while it times out periods of overall clarity, it’s not a fabulous influence when it comes to hard judgments in the moment - unless what you’re deciding is to not care ... in which case, you may care later.

Or not at all.

The practical and positive side of Neptune’s several weeks of overlapping cycles (which ends March 6th) is likely to be an ability to correlate and relate for reasons you can’t quite define. The impractical and negative side of Neptune’s several weeks of overlapping cycles (which ends March 6th) is that we may ignore something which seems obvious to others, but not us. It may be important. Even very important. Then again, it may matter not at all.

Now you know why Neptune is associated with romance. It’s genuine ... if often genuinely naïve and richly innocent. And more to our point here, Neptune is that ‘force of nature’ (read: our nature) which teaches us how unwise it is to romance our Self.

In other words, knowing our Self requires being honest with ourselves about who that Self is, and said quotient - without exception - includes some good and some bad, all of which we have to know, own and work with (or against, or in spite of) if we want to be truly fulfilled.

And here the reason why is simple: life wants us to be whole. For us to think that some point of our nature has no reason for being part of our nature is to question Nature itself - an idea which as curiosity is just fine, but when embodied as a matter of judging or judgment runs counter to Neptunian principle.

Neptune stands as a symbol about the fact that life is always ready and well equipped to prove (to us) that we neither know everything ... nor are we even up to having a full list of things we should be wanting to know about.

Existence is simply bigger than we are. And periodically, we humans forget that.

Neptune’s crossing into 2015 Cycle territory isn’t anything you’re likely to feel, sense or point to as part of your day. It’s something we’re all likely to slowly pick up on (if we bother to, that is) in the week or months to come as our orientations change, as things which were important yesterday fade into our mental woodwork.

However, there is another influence to talk about here - and that would be Kalypso. 

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Kalypso is going retrograde on Saturday, February 21st at 28 Libra, a degree known for the ability to inspire not just listening, but hear what people are trying to say (which is not always the same thing) with something of a built-in ability to discerning fairly well between real and faked needs.

In combination with Kalypso (an asteroid which confronts us with the idea that real love is not about ‘getting’ or being loved but rather about caring about those you love in terms of what they need, whether that makes you comfortable or happy (or not), this points to a period of days (February 19th through the 23rd) when it occurs to you - as it will to others - what projection and judgment really are.

And how terrible (even guilty) we can feel when we see or come to realize that we haven’t been listening.

Or at least we haven’t heard - some of which may simply be about not having any reference or experience with something.

So maybe you’re coming to such a realization about someone or something you’ve been involved in as Neptune crosses into its 2015 shadow. You may feel bad ... and at the same time you may feel inspired because you finally understand what it is you need to know - whether about yourself, something you’ve said, done or felt, or some situation which you have “judged” to be a certain way when maybe everything isn’t quite so cut and dry.

All of these energies sweep into our life and life’s atmosphere as Planet Earth moves through Thursday, February 19th.

And then on Friday (February 20th), Mars and Venus finish their transit of Pisces and head into Aries ... which means Mars will be moving through 29 Pisces (the degree of the March 20th solar eclipse) on the 18th and 19th before reaching the border of Aries-land at twelve minutes after midnight on the 20th (UT/+0 time).

Why is that worth stopping to think about?

Thought (and bearing this Mars factoid in mind) will be useful as emotional things happen on the 18th and 19th as things of this moment fall into two very different metaphysical groups: that which we are owning as our own feeling amidst all ... and that which we respond to, like as not blindly.

'Les Parques' (the Fates) by Alfred Agache (c. 1885)

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Pisces being about the experience of Self, either version can lead us to the reality which is the metaphysical purpose here. But to be exact, that purpose is the exploration of Self, not doing or getting anything from anyone else. With Venus following Mars into Aries at 20:07 (8:07 p.m.) on that very same day, Venus’ presence in Pisces speaks to depth of feeling which is surely genuine even as Mars at 29 Pisces evokes, promotes and provokes our feelings through processes and situations which tend to make us feel more or less ‘accepted’ by some Whole ... some of which will surely stir reactions, responses and a few instances of swallowing-of-one’s-words (or gum) for any of a bevy of unscheduled reasons.

The perfecting of this Venus-Mars conjunction won’t occur until just over a day after Mars hits its symbolic home sign - which, considering this means Mars will be at 0 Aries (a degree Mars is well suited to) as Venus moves through 29 Pisces (which exalts the Venus side of this equation) ... it would seem that we are in for at a day (or so) of personal confrontations with who we really are - and how that may differ from who we think we are, or who we want (or think we deserve) to be.

As noted, the conjunction follows after both ingresses (at 5:15 a.m. on the 22nd, UT/+0) and won’t even occur at 0 Aries, a degree which though thoroughly willing to stand up for what it believes is often not yet fully informed, which can lead to all sorts of ‘iffy’ moments (hence some of the Mars actions we will see on the 20th and 21st). Instead it occurs at 1 Aries, a degree which tends to ‘push’ (or be pushy) simply because there is a recognition that more does need to be known or understood for whatever reason.

And why would we be wanting to know whatever it is we want to know? Given that asteroid Klotho (beginnings) will be at 1 Aries as Venus and Mars meet up by conjunction, it would seem we need to know something or have some information in hand before we start something or commit to some course of action or stance.

And with this ingress also in trine to Saturn and Juno we have a grand trine in process coming into this time which will have begun ‘setting up’ (‘coming into force’ being a more astrological way of putting it) exactly as Mars reached 29 Pisces, from which position Mars would be in an out-of-sign trine to Saturn at 4 Sagittarius.

Alone, Mars-Saturn connections often refer to strengths. Badly aspected, they can refer to a militant attitude which can be violent, but which can also be entirely contained, trained and disciplined through (Saturn) efforts, training or structures which prevent acts an actions being taken ‘out of turn.’
Also alone, Venus-Saturn contacts often refer to  stability and the ability to act or interact in such a manner as to advance one’s aim or goal, particularly in business.

However ... while Mars in Aries is ‘at home’ in its surroundings, Venus in Aries is not - which either suggests that ‘business’ (be it personal, financial or otherwise) may already be... or it may now become something of a problem.

Metaphysically, this is an issue all about Self - you know, that integral and singular Aries Self (or in some cases, the ‘thing’ you identify with). Yet because Venus is a symbol all about what we get back in response to that which we have put out there ... or which we have been to others, there’s every chance that during this ingress-to-conjunction (and beyond) point we aren’t going to be happy precisely because we aren’t ‘getting’ what we want to be ‘getting’ from others - be that the answer we want to hear or otherwise.

Some part of us knows that we’re not in the ‘free and clear’ when it comes to why things aren’t going perfectly at the moment ... but we aren’t going to be in the mood to get all moody and philosophical about such things now. Throughout Venus’ traipse through Aries (which ends March 17th just after Saturn goes into retrograde) we’re going to be asking a lot of ‘why couldn’t things just work - just this once!’ and no doubt muttering other more decorative if possibly less polite commentaries from time to time.

Sisyphus by von Stuck

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And yet, is it really that we aren’t getting what we want to get from others and life which is really at stake here?

In this grand trine, Juno - standing for the ability to ‘manage’ things - being conjunct Sisyphus will ask whether we can ... or can be bothered to avoid our own most perilous nature. Perilous to others? Yes, on occasion - as the story of Sisyphus makes clear, Sisyphus is one of those impulses which says ‘if I can ... why shouldn’t I?’

And the answer there is simple: because you shouldn’t. Not all of Sisyphus’ intelligence and cleverness could save him from a Self which was determined to think he didn’t have to follow eternal and incontrovertible rules - the most basic of which (in the original story) involves the killing of those who are a.) going about their independent business doing nothing to harm anyone, b.) those we are in a previously promised alliance with, and c.) those who we are taking care of or in charge of in some capacity.

In the story, Sisyphus is a person of advantage who uses his advantage to do harm to people. And when taken to task, Sisyphus doesn’t bother denying what he’s done - he just turns to trying to avoid paying the price for what he’s done, working his way up the Olympian god ladder as Sisyphus diligently works to evade and avoid inevitability.

It doesn’t work. For his pains, Sisyphus ends up not merely being assigned to a particularly futile end rolling a rock up a hill it will always roll back down. But perhaps because of Sisyphus' demonstrated love of drama, he's also given a prime position at the entrance to Tartarus (the Greek underworld) where with fellow sinner Tantalus, Sisyphus stands as eternal warning to all who would attempt to and take fate - that which should never be the decision of any human - into their own mortal hands.

Juno-Sisyphus will work both ways in this grand trine: it will represent the (Juno) ‘management’ of destructive (Sisyphus) impulses ... and the efforts and lengths some will go to so as to (Juno) ‘manage’ to do what they want because they (Sisyphus) feel entitled to.

And yes, because they can.

That Venus moves more quickly that Mars is evident if you just look at the length of time it takes each planet to go once around the Sun: Venus takes 224.7 days and Mars takes 687 days (1.88 years) - which is just over three times longer than the Venus cycle. So even though Venus reaches Aries after Mars does, from their conjunction point on the 22nd Venus will continue moving ahead until the orb of conjunction between Mars and Venus ends on March 6th-7th (the date depends on where you are) - which is a couple of days after Mars’ trine to Saturn ends on March 4th-5th.

Most people will experience this as feeling like they have more latitude of choice ... and a lessening of preoccupation(s) with desire-based notions. With Saturn slowing (in terms of zodiacal movement only) in anticipation of taking its station on March 14th we’re all reaching a point where we have to reorganize and catch up with ourselves, all of which is part and parcel of Saturn’s passage through Sagittarius, a transit which is sure to chop a few outmoded items off of each one of our ‘to do’ lists in life.

Some of us will change priorities in the weeks ahead as Mars’ transit of Aries (which doesn’t end until March 31st) continues emphasizing the realities of our day-to-day, life-on-Earth life.
Some will merely ask why others won’t be who we want them to be.

Who we are between these two paths is going to be defined by whether we are trying to base today on yesterday ... or whether we live our todays with an eye to building better tomorrows.

You know ... without killing anyone - including our most precious and preciously human Self.
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