The Mars/Saturn conjunction 2012: how afraid should we be?

August 11, 2012 By
Mars Saturn conjunction

clip from the film "Mars Attacks"

Astrologers love to forecast doom and gloom for some reason, and in today’s world of intense energy shifts and change many readers of things astrological tend to filter astrological information through their lens of fear.  I have a mission to dispel this astrological anxiety, and what better time to do this than now.

Mars and Saturn are nearing a conjunction (alignment) in the sky – they will be at the same degree of Libra on August 15th.  Traditional and Vedic astrology consider both Mars and Saturn to be “malefic” – they are seen as promoting danger (Mars) and generally bad things (Saturn).  So when the two come together, this can be perceived as a dangerous time where generally bad things can happen.

Even Richard Nolle, an astrologer I greatly respect, reports in his August forecast “it’s a time to be on the alert for danger due to the haste, recklessness or outright malice of others – including mass shootings and other especially heinous crimes. Be safety-conscious. Steer clear or conflict and danger as best you can.”

There’s no denying that we have seen more than our share of mass shootings over the past few months, but that has had more to do with the alignment of Mars with Uranus and Pluto which began when Mars entered Libra in early July.  Mars represents energy and desire, and when it began to trigger the square between Uranus (rebellion and revolution) and Pluto (destruction and regeneration) in mid-July a great deal of wildness was released into the general consciousness.

Mars and Saturn last united on July 31, 2010, also in Libra.  At the time Mars and Saturn were exactly opposite Uranus, and very close to an exact square to Pluto.  You would have thought that would have stimulated some extreme news, but the news at the time was much calmer than it had been in previous months when the Uranus/Pluto square made its first alignment in June.

This idea that Mars and Saturn are malefic in their nature is something that I am always arguing against.  If it weren’t for Mars we wouldn’t get out of bed in the morning.  Mars is the energy that motivates and excites us – it provides inspiration as well as desire.  When that inspiration and desire is thwarted, Mars can become angry and that can easily escalate into the rage that Mars is known for.  Saturn provides a container and structure for our lives.  It inspires us to make commitments and to set goals for the future.  Saturn’s lessons become difficult when we attempt to ignore the need for rules and structure – then we may get the proverbial bonk on the head from the Celestial Taskmaster.

So when these two planets come together it can be a wonderful thing.  Saturn rules Capricorn, and Mars is said to be exalted in Capricorn, the sign which shares Saturn’s love of rules and order and achievement.  So when Mars and Saturn come together there is the potential to create a container (Saturn) within which our desires (Mars) can take root and grow.  Still, Mars is in Libra which is the sign of its detriment.  In Libra Mars is more concerned with the needs of others which hinders its full expression, and the conjunction with Saturn can add additional repressive force that makes it difficult to put our plans and ideas into motion.

If we resist the structure that Saturn places around our desires, then frustration will occur. We may feel this within ourselves, but we may also feel that others are trying to frustrate and restrict us.  If we understand the nature of the planetary energies we will be better able to utilize this time for careful planning and focused action, instead of wild and unrestrained expressions of desire.

If we feel restricted, we often feel angry and resentful.  The Saturn effect here will limit our ability to express that anger and when anger is not given expression it can turn into rage or worse, become internalized as a health issue in the body.  Physical exercise is the best way to manage a strong Mars event such as this one as it helps to channel the Mars energy more constructively.

Relationships may be stressed during this time because Venus (planet of connecting and love) will be opposite Pluto (intensity and drama).  Watch for power struggles that bring out the Mars side of you, and try to ensure that Mars is expressed in a way that is useful.  Assert yourself appropriately where needed, and be sure that interpersonal combat is as constructive as possible so that it doesn’t degenerate into the emotional violence that we often see with Venus/Pluto.

Mars transits are strongest when they are approaching, so we are in the peak of its effect as I write this.  By the 20th of August or so Mars will have moved far enough away from Saturn that its expression will be unfettered once again.

As an aside, I think it’s an interesting coincidence that the Mars Rover “Curiosity” is landing on Mars just as this conjunction takes place.

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Saturn in Libra meets Pluto in Capricorn: The Marriage Amendment

April 27, 2012 By

gay marriage astrologyHere in North Carolina citizens are voting on a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.  I have been listening to some of the conservative talk radio shows in an attempt to find out the reasoning behind the necessity for this amendment.

It seems to me that if people are so concerned about the sanctity of marriage the first thing to be outlawed should be divorce.  This is really less about marriage and more about the perceived “wrongness” of homosexuality.  But since we are in a Saturn in Libra phase where the Celestial Taskmaster (Saturn) is dealing with issues of relationship and partnership (Libra), it’s no wonder that the boundaries of conventional social mores in relationships are being tested.

Saturn is the ruler of Capricorn, and both share a love for the status quo and The Way It’s Always Been.  The people who are speaking out for this new constitutional amendment tell us that marriage has been between a man and a woman since the beginning of time, so why change it?  (Let’s ignore for a moment the fact that marriage between people of different races was illegal in North Carolina until 1971.) This is where Pluto comes in, because Pluto is the destroyer of things that no longer serve us, and in Capricorn Pluto is knocking the heads off of all of our  sacred cows.

At the same time the square of Uranus to Pluto is creating rebellion of all kinds, and even staunch conservatives are refusing to toe the party line on this and many other matters.  This is a time of change, and change will be inevitable.  Those who try to anchor to  the shore will find their boats shredded in the tides.

 

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More friendship advice from Saturn in Libra

February 26, 2011 By

If you live in North Carolina you can visit me this weekend at the Body Mind Spirit Expo in Raleigh at the fairgrounds (Kerr Scott Building).  We have lots of beautiful rocks and crystals for sale, and I’ll be doing readings and mini readings.

Meanwhile, in other Saturn-related relationship news, researchers in Edinburgh studied 200 students to determine their feelings about Facebook friends.  At least 12% of them were anxious about their Facebook obligations, and that 12% had an average of 117 “friends.”  The remaining 88% had an average of 75 “friends.”  (This is rather astonishing, because I know high school kids who have over 900 Facebook friends.)

You can read more here, but this was interesting to me because I had just received a Realtor magazine with a cover story titled “Overfriended,” in which the writer revealed that he had spent the past year unfriending people on Facebook.  This author cites a study about a “Dunbar’s number” that limits the number of stable relationships a person can have to 150.

I too decided last year to pare down my Facebook friends to a more manageable number of people that I actually know.  To me the beauty of Facebook is keeping up with the people that you know but don’t get to see very often.  My oldest friend who lives in another state and who I only talk to once a year on our birthdays.  People that I have met online and want to know more about.  Astrology clients who want to share more of their lives with me.  Frequent commenters on my blog who always have interesting things to say.

Like everyone else, I was rather thrilled when my Facebook friend number kept rising, but when it reached around 900 I started to feel overwhelmed.  I had no idea who half of those people were, and I didn’t really care what they ate for breakfast.  And then there are the people that troll other people’s friends list and friend everyone on THEIR list to build up their own friends list.  So I started sending (I hope) nice little notes to people if I had no idea who they were.  Now my Facebook list is much more manageable and I can actually keep up with the people that I care about.

Saturn is all about creating limits in life and establishing meaningful boundaries so that we can be more effective.  What are YOU doing to manage your Facebook world?

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Saturn Rx in Libra: Facebook relationship news

February 22, 2011 By

facebook astrology

In Libra, Saturn likes to codify relationships.  Saturn after all is the planet of structure and form, and Libra is the sign of relationships and connections. Saturn turned retrograde a few weeks ago, so it is now appearing to move backwards from our point of view here on Planet Earth, turning our attention back to areas of life that need tweaking and realignment so that they can be most effective.

So it’s not surprising that Facebook took this opportunity to adjust its definition of relationships, adding  ”civil unions” to the list of relationship status options.

And for those seeking relationships, a new app makes it easier to pounce on the newly single.  Meet the Breakup Notifier, your new friend in the dating world, which will tell you when your chosen crush breaks up with their significant other.

Wherever Saturn travels, he demands that we face the reality of the world in which we live, and in the sign of Libra he creates challenges for relationships, but also urges commitment and defined alliances.  It’s comforting to know that Facebook is our ally on the path to relationship success!

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Saturn retrograde, January 2011

January 26, 2011 By

Saturn retrogradeThe other day I wrote about the expansive energy of Jupiter moving into Aries, but we are also dealing with a more contracting influence at the same time: the retrograde turn of Saturn.

(Astrology lesson: Because of the way we view the motion of the planets from earth, they sometimes appear to move backward and we call that retrograde.  When a planet is appearing to change direction, its motion slows down and we call that “stationary.”  At that time its influence is often particularly powerful.)

Saturn governs hard work, discipline, responsibility.  In his guise as Kronos in ancient Greece, he was the God of Time – the one that reminds us “Tempus Fugit!” (Time is passing!)  We don’t have forever, so if our lives are not as we want them to be we’d better get to work and get serious about things.

Astrological Jupiter and Saturn are not naturally compatible.  Where Saturn tells us where we’re not good enough and that we have to do more, always more, Jupiter has faith that everything will turn out just fine.  Jupiter wants to be optimistic and trust that good things are possible, and Saturn won’t let us relax because even if everything is going well, disaster could be right around the corner.

All of the planets serve an invaluable purpose, and no planet is better than the other.  We need Jupiter’s faith to keep us going, even when the light appears to have dimmed.  We need Saturn’s perseverance and retreat into isolation so that we may emerge with our skills enhanced and our resolve strengthened.

Over the next few months Jupiter and Uranus in Aries will fill us with more energy than we know what to do with, making the Saturn retrograde turn just a blip on the radar.  So for the next few days see if you can transmute every negative thought (Saturn) into a plan to achieve something greater in your life, and allow the enthusiasm of Jupiter in Aries to propel you into action to make that happen.

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Saturn in Libra: The Gift of Beauty

December 11, 2010 By

We often think of Saturn as the “Celestial Taskmaster,” and grumble about his tests, challenges, delays and disappointments.  But we sometimes forget that he is also the giver of wisdom and the kind of strength that comes through overcoming adversity and difficult situations.

Beth Owl’s Daughter wrote a beautiful post about the Gift of Beauty in All Things that includes these words of wisdom:

Blessed is your gift of Beauty in all things,
and the beautiful body and spirit you have given me,
With which I am able to celebrate, create and participate.

This bead in my gratitude prayer beads can be a challenge for me. It is often quite difficult for me to say that I have a beautiful body and spirit.  Okay, maybe I can buy into having a beautiful spirit a littleeasier.  But beautiful body?

“Ha!” says the inner critic.  I was never the pretty one. I grew up in the shadow of a young mother who (I am not kidding!) was constantly and accurately compared to Elizabeth Taylor and Vivian Leigh. My sisterhas always been the beauty of the siblings, certainly not me. …

I knew early on, much to my mom’s despair, I was not cut out to be a girly girl, a prom queen, debutante, or sorority chick.  I was by turns a tomboy and a rebel and a hippie and a feminist.  The constraints and definitions of beauty for girls and women were dead wrong in my view, even when I was too young to know why. …

If there is beauty in all things (even the saddest, the grimmest, the most difficult), which I do believe, then there is beauty in me, too. And not only airy-fairy spiritual, but physical beauty.

I have arms and legs that move and do amazing things without me hardly even thinking about it. I have eyes that see, ears that hear.  I have skin that loves to be touched and pampered.  I have inner workings that give me ideas, that teach me and whisper truth to me.  I am able to savor and digest the lovely foods I feed myself.  My body enables me to smile, to laugh, to love, to revel in the great gift of living.

How could it not be beautiful?

Saturn is in Libra in my own chart along with my Sun and Neptune, and the gift of beauty has been a two-edged sword.  My own sister lived under the shadow of the family myth that I was the pretty one, and she the lesser because of it.  A close examination of family photos soon bursts that mythological bubble, but a great deal of psychological damage resulted from this comparison.

As my sister and I age, any differences between our appearance become less and less significant.  She sent me a birthday card once with two old ladies sitting together.  One says to the other, “Are you the smart one or the pretty one, I can’t remember?”

An old friend of mine was designated the smart one in her family, and her sister was the pretty one.  But THAT family valued brains over beauty, and she inherited those values.  She never worried about her appearance because she knew that she was smart and funny and could learn anything almost instantaneously.

I knew a woman once who taught an aerobics class I enjoyed who would have been described by the kindest person as being plain.  But she had the most beautiful smile, and radiated such joy from the inside out, that she was far more beautiful than the prettiest young girl in the class.

The adage that beauty is only skin deep isn’t just a saying – it is the absolute truth.  We may enjoy looking at beautiful people, but that doesn’t mean we want to spend a lifetime with them.  True beauty lies in the resonance of the soul to experience life at its fullest and enrich the lives of those around us.

You may enjoy this previous post about Beauty and Value in the Second House.

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The United States Saturn Return

October 26, 2010 By

US Saturn ReturnEvery thirty years, Saturn returns to its place in the birthchart and that is no less true for national charts than it is for the charts of individuals.  The “Saturn Return” is a time that requires the celebration of Saturnian characteristics: solitude, hard work, facing up to the hard cold realities of life.

Saturn in the US chart is at 14 degrees Libra (see this earlier article for more details about the US chart and why I use the Sibley chart with Sagittarius rising), so the Saturn return cycle will begin in late November/December of 2010.  The second phase will occur in March and April 2011, with the conclusion in August.

Saturn falls in the 10th house of the Sibley chart – the house that in a mundane chart represents the government and the standing of the nation in the world.  The standing of the US has already been beaten up over the past few years, first by a transit of Pluto (death and transformation) squaring the Midheaven of the US chart, and then by Saturn transiting that same point.

The last US Saturn Return occurred in 1981-1982.  Ronald Reagan was president, and his hardline posturing (Saturn) in the world (tenth house) created new alliances (Libra) with the new Russian leader Gorbachev.  Although he had signed the Economic Recovery Tax Act of 1981, reality (Saturn) set in under the US Saturn return in 1982 and he was forced to admit that the nation was in a recession, and that balancing the budget was “not possible.”  As transiting Saturn made an exactly conjunction to the US Saturn, unemployment reached a six-year high and Reagan’s promises of a balanced budget were deemed by his own Budget Director to be a “rosy scenario.”

The current Saturn Return cycle occurs at a time when Americans are already looking at their economic situation with a great deal of negativity.  A Saturn Return cycle is not always difficult: sometimes our best work can come during Saturn cycles.  Unfortunately, it is human nature to resist knuckling down to the kind of reality-testing that Saturn enjoys, and that’s when our butt gets kicked.

The release by Wikileaks of hundreds of thousands of documents that are extremely damaging to the US image in the world (also represented by the Tenth House) caused me to start thinking about the US Saturn Return.  As of this writing Saturn is about four degrees away from the official return – well within the range of influence.

If we look at Saturn as the teacher, then our job during the return is to learn the lesson.   Let’s see whether that will actually happen this year.

This Saturn Return cycle begins just after Election Day and takes us through next summer.

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Saturn in Libra and musings on Mad Men and beauty

October 20, 2010 By

Libra is ruled by Venus, and Venus is the goddess of love and beauty.  Venus bestows the power of attraction, and this includes physical attractiveness as well as personal magnetism.  With Saturn in Libra, our ideas of beauty and our ability to relate to others are tested, and those of us with Saturn in Libra are tested in our individual lives.

I was disturbed by the Mad Men finale the other night in which Don Draper threw aside his carefully crafted veneer of intelligent pragmatism and fell hook line and sinker for what Jungians call a projection, an experience of “limerence” in which one meets a person in whom they see their idealized fantasy rather than a real person.   Megan, Draper’s secretary, is not only a stunningly beautiful woman – she’s smart, loving, great with his children, and most of all, seems to have no needs of her own.  The perfect fantasy woman.

Peggy Olsen, on the other hand, is smart, perky and cute.  She has had a crush on Draper since the beginning, but he is completely out of his league.  And when Draper tells Peggy of his engagement to his fantasy woman, he has the nerve to say to her: “She reminds me ofyou.”   But even though Draper admires Peggy, she lacks the fantasy component that inspires his projection of illusion and anima.

The concept of beauty carries a huge emotional charge.   My latest issue of More Magazine carried an article about Beauty Anger.  Women in particular are susceptible to resentment of other women that they perceive as having more beauty because superficial beauty is prized in our culture over other more substantial attributes.

Now there’s an Iphone app that can reinforce our anxieties about the way we look.  The “Ugly Meter” will rate your photograph and photographs of your friends and tell you how ugly you are.  This product seems to fit right into Saturn in Libra’s criticism and anxiety over beauty.

One of the things I love about getting older is the blurring of the distinctions between the smart women and the pretty women.  We are all seen for the people that we are, rather than the way we look and that is really liberating.

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Saturn in Libra: Testing the boundaries of marriage

October 17, 2010 By

Sister WivesSaturn as we know presides over structures that we create in our world and in our society, such as the institutions of government and marriage, which is a formalized relationship that is sanctioned by the State.  Libra is the sign of relationships between things, ideas, and people.  So when Saturn travels through Libra, the limits (Saturn) of relationships (Libra) are tested.

My generation has Saturn in Libra, and we were the first generation to question the need for marriage – much to the consternation of our parents, the Pluto in Cancer generation who saw their biggest fear come to pass:  the virtual destruction (Pluto) of the nuclear family (Cancer).  Saturn entered Libra in late 1950, a time of post-war prosperity and low divorce rates.  The solid commitments exemplified of the Ozzie and Harriet-type nuclear family became the American Dream: a happy family living in their own homes, enjoying a life of safety and security within the confines of the eternal commitment of marriage.

Saturn entered Libra this time around back in the fall of 2009, and we have seen a resurgence of the discussion over who has the right (Saturn) to wed (Libra).  Gay people?  Polygamists?

A new reality series called “Sister Wives” is bringing the practice of polygamy by fundamentalist Mormons into the light of day, and Utah police have begun investigations into the lives of the Browns, a family practicing polygamy under the auspices of the Apostolic United Brethren, the largest polygamous group in Utah that has worked hard to separate itself and its image from the FLDS, the group headed by Warren Jeffs and depicted in the television series “Big Love.”

Kody Brown believes that his family has not broken any polygamy laws because only one of this marriages are legal; the others were performed through commitment ceremonies, but regardless of whether the state of Utah finds grounds to arrest the family members, there is no doubt that this television show is creating discussion on what does constitute marriage, and who can marry.

It’s interesting to me that when the topic of gay marriage was first raised it was said that if gays were allowed to marry, polygamists would be next.  It appears this horse has left the barn, and under Saturn in Libra (through 2012) we will likely see continued discussion.

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The astrology of Proposition 8

August 5, 2010 By

Yesterday’s ruling by a federal district judge overturning Proposition 8 occurred in the midst of a big planetary lineup involving Mars, Saturn, Jupiter, Saturn and Pluto.  Proposition 8 (the California Marriage Protection Act) restricted the state’s definition of marriage to opposite-sex couples and invalidated all same-sex marriages that had occurred in the state prior to that time.

The election of November of 2008 that passed Proposition 8 coincided with  the first opposition between Saturn (conventional thinking and morality) and Uranus (liberation and the breaking free from the status quo).  This was the same election that voted in Barack Obama’s hope for change.  The pull between the old ways and something new has been exceptionally strong over the past two years as a result of the Saturn/Uranus opposition.

During the nearly two years since that time, as Saturn and Uranus faced off a total of five times, “change” has been in the air in virtually every aspect of life.  Liberals and conservatives alike have become more radical, and an increased divisiveness around the world has been the result.

Proposition 8 was overturned yesterday with Saturn and Uranus having made the final exact opposition last week (the two planets are still just one degree of arc from the exact aspect), and Mars acted as a trigger to instigate the change.

Yesterday’s ruling will not be the end of the question: both sides are committed to press the case to the Supreme Court.  Saturn is now in Libra, the sign of marriage, and the boundaries of what constitutes marriage will continue to be tested and redefined.

But we are in the middle of another cycle, the conjunction of Jupiter (expansion) and Uranus (radical change) which is likely to continue the pressure for increased freedom and liberation in all aspects of global society.  This pressure will continue into 2012 and 2013 when Uranus begins to square Pluto (repression and transformation) when things will really start to get exciting.

Change under the Uranus/Pluto influence is virtually assured.  This, after all, is the influence that brought us the multiple revolutions of the 1960s.  The past does not always die easily though, and as we move into the Age of Aquarius resistance to change will continue to be a constant force as boundaries of social and political structures are shattered and altered forever.

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