Title Image

Mars square Neptune Tag

Genesis—Aries New Moon—March 21st.

If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot? ― Gloria Steinem.

On March 20th, the Sun slips into the initiatory sign of Aries, marking the spring or autumn Equinox. The quality of light is different now. A vigorous Sun blazes across the skies, moving faster, rising earlier, lingering later now as the year begins to tip and turn and balance briefly between light and shadow. As V-shaped flocks of migrating birds trace ancient pathways in the skies, searching for places of rest and refuge amidst the spread of human settlement, the astrology heralds a significant shift in the collective consciousness. A new aeon is birthed.

The Equinox marks the start of the new astrological year. On March 24th, Pluto moves into the fixed sign of Aquarius, marking the start of a new epoch, the Age of Aquarius.  This is the genesis of a new spirit of the time that will be more deeply concerned with self-questioning, with understanding what it means to be human. As we face into a dystopian future, there will be socio-economic upheaval, financial and political change, symptomatic with the deeper changes within the collective consciousness. Pluto’s passage through Aquarius will dredge up all that is putrid and rotting in politics, technology, and in the structure of our societies. It will be tempting to project our collective shadow onto the Frankenstein Monsters of Big Tech and AI, to make technology the new bogeyman, yet already Pluto’s shadowy presence has sent ripples of fear through Silicon Valley. Just days after the demise of Silicon Valley Bank, Credit Suisse shares plunge to record lows. As Pluto edges to the final degrees of Capricorn (big business, corporations) SVB is biggest bank collapse since the 2008 financial crisis that marked Pluto’s entry into Capricorn. There’s more to come.

On April 20th the first procreative new moon Solar Eclipse of 2023 squares Pluto, a Collective and personal meeting with Fate.

The Nodes of Fate will be moving through Scorpio/Taurus till July 12th, shaking our attachment to what we value, purging and pruning all that it no longer fit for purpose, all that is toxic and hidden, in financial instiutions, insurance companies, pensions, joint investments, while Uranus in Taurus continues to rattle and shake what is established, what we thought was safe and sure. The Eclipse season lasts till October 28th, with a partial lunar eclipse square Pluto (back in Capricorn then) and the Nodes will have slipped backwards into Aries and Libra. Leaning against the weight of worldly concerns (pension funds, banking, insurance, stock markets, those material things we value) how we relate to others during times of tension and change will need to be re-evaluated particularly if you have planets or angles between 27-29° Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn, or planets or angles in the early degrees of Aquarius, Taurus, Leo, or Scorpio. “We’ll never solve the feminization of power until we solve the masculinity of wealth,” Gloria Steinhem once said.

Few of us go willingly into the kind of initiation that accompanies a Pluto transit. When Pluto stirs up all that has fermented, all that has been banished in the dark basement of our psyches, we emerge irrevocably transformed. For many of us, the events of the next months will instigate life changing choices, a deepening  capacity for compromise and cooperation.

Mars entered Gemini in August and has been making a debilitating square with Neptune (fogginess, confusion, misinformation, lethargy, and confusion) in October, November, and finally March 14th, which for many of us has felt like a long time at sea. Mars, the war-god finally leaves Gemini on March 25th.

Mars in sensitive Cancer collides with what is harsh or resistant and symbolises an uneasiness in an unsteady, confusing world, and we will need to tend to our psychological bruises, listen with compassion to our own repetitive soundtrack, be brave enough to soften our defences.

The Sun and Moon meet on March 21st in the fire sign of Aries. Aries is a Mars-ruled sign, an energy that accompanies assertiveness,  individuation, new beginnings.

We may notice Mars energy all around us this month. Survival and procreation are embodied in the natural world as the urgent thrust of spring spills over the land in a cascade of colour and the sweetest song. When the Sun enters Aries, a flash of light shines through an aperture—igniting the hero/warrior archetype, and its shadow, the destroyer. In myth and in fairy tale, the hero/warrior archetype is typically masculine. The old heroes slaughtered nine-headed dragons and defeated degenerate villains. The destroyer lives amongst us, tattooed in the distortion of the Hero/Warrior depicted in the media, enacted in our homes, behind closed doors, or in the shadowy realm of cyberspace.

This is Aries’ shadow. Self-centred. Brutal. Depicted today in the callous anonymity of trolling, the persistent violence of stalking and digital voyeurism, the misogynistic harassment and assault that is endemic in our culture. As the bedrock of our civilization shifts and cracks, revealing a new landscape, we will need new myths. Heroes who collaborate, relate and share. For most of us, our hero’s or heroine’s quest is not a muscular or spectacularly heroic response to the challenges of life. So often, it’s the austere grip of necessity that wrenches us out of our ordinary lives and gives us no choice but to dare greatly. Financial ruin, illness, the noxious fallout from a ruined relationship may ignite within our hearts the courage we never knew we had.

Cheryl Strayed writes, “you go on by doing the best you can. You go on by being generous. You go on by being true. You go on by offering comfort to others who can’t go on. You go on by allowing the unbearable days to pass and by allowing the pleasure in other days. You go on by finding a channel for your love and another for your rage”.

For some of us, an ordinary life lived with as much consciousness and courage we can muster is heroic. Our quest is cyclical, not linear: we so often face the same obstacles and foes along the way. And even though there are times when it takes every last spark of courage to unearth something positive, anything hopeful, to hold onto, we go on. And we do the best we can.

Please get in touch if you would like a private astrology consultation: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

 

2

Guardian Angel—Saturn in Pisces—Virgo Full Moon—March 7th.

We would like otherworldly visitations to come as distinct voices with clear instructions, but they may only give small signs in dreams or as sudden hunches, insights that cannot be denied. They feel more as if they emerge from inside and steer you from within like an inner guardian angel. And most amazing, it has never forgotten you, althrough you may have spent most of your life ignoring it —James Hillman.

Two planets change sign this month, signifying a new design in our collective and personal story line. Pluto enters Aquarius on March 23rd, and today, we enter a liminal space of Saturn/Neptune energy that lasts till 2028. Saturn’s co-presence with Neptune (2023–26) is a significant celestial event that will shape our lives over the next few years with an astrological reset in March 2026 as these two planets meet in Aries and will journey together until the spring of 2028.

For the first time in 30 years, Saturn plunges into the transcendent waters of Pisces, and tonight, an ethereal full moon in Virgo pulls at the tides, an augury for the deepening and development of our inner life.

Pisces is the last world-weary sign of the zodiac, and Saturn represents boundaries, structure, endings of those things no longer needed. This is a once in a 30 year invitation to dive deep, retrieve pearls of sorrow, rusted remnants of guilt, sharp shards of anger that have lain too long in the depths of our psyche.

Old structures will collapse like sandcastles washed away by the tide as Saturn moves through Neptune’s sign. We may discover our muse, our daimon, the duende that prompts a new iteration of creativity, we may sense a prompt from our guardian angel that elucidates our faith.

As Saturn moves through Pisces, ego-boundaries, rugged individuality, even our sense of identity may be infused by a force beneath awareness as we soften our defensiveness, as we remedy the dull ache of estrangement from our heart.

Pisces is boundaryless, and already there are hints in fashion, art and literature that presage Saturn’s sea odyssey, as dividing lines blur in the sea-mists.  In his new book, IntraConnected, Dan Siegel speaks to what indigenous people and contemplative teachings have taught about the oneness of things, to a “deep honouring and respect for what makes us different while at the same time, we’re connecting to what is our intraconnected shared fabric.”

As refugees in threadbare clothing risk their lives in flimsy boats, and millions of homeless people seek rough shelter in the aftermath of floods or earthquakes, Neptune reflects a facet of the collective consciousness that calls for some kind of sacrifice accompanied by boundless compassion. Saturn calls for realism and practicalities.

War-god Mars confronts the full moon in a square tonight; an aspect that is often associated with irritability, even anger, as tensions surface in our relationships. The sharp sword of Mars slices and wounds, often quite literally, with cuts and accidents, and in Mercury-ruled Gemini, with words that land painfully. Lunar symbolism encompasses women’s issues, and this lunation mirrors rampant misogyny, violence and cruelty that is directed against women, and on a more subtle level, the violence we inflict upon ourselves, our bodies. If we choose to embrace the symbolism of this full moon, we could use the heated energy of Mars like a poultice, to draw deeply on our courage as we reach out and repair a rupture in a relationship, sending life-affirming Love energy to all living things. The square also carries the ambiguous energy of the Mars/Neptune square which has been active since October. This is the third and final square which has a slippery, scattered quality, that chaperones Saturn’s entry into Neptune’s sign.

Virgo moves us to engage in practical ways with the world around us, to be present and willing to do what we must to serve others as the collective consciousness pulsates with profound sadness, amplified as melancholic Saturn swims through watery Pisces.

Tonight, the symbolism of the Virgo archetype is strong medicine if we align ourselves with what must be healed within ourselves. The Sabian symbol for this full moon is a volcano in eruption: catharsis. Release of emotional blocks. As we reconnect with the essential life force within us, as we tend to our own vulnerable places, we may be able to soften our eyes, attune to the invisible as we move between the sacred and the mundane. As James Hillman once said, “to see the angel in the malady requires an eye for the invisible, a certain blinding of one eye and an opening of the other to elsewhere.”

May we feel the presence of the guardian angel who has never forgotten us. And prepare to swim.

Please get in touch if you would like a private astrology session: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

 

1

Happy Days—Sagittarius New Moon—November 23rd, 2022.

“We have seasons when we flourish and seasons when the leaves fall from us, revealing our bare bones. Given time, they grow again—Katherine May.

A weakened sun lies lethargically on the horizon. Here in the north, the sky story speaks of a season of falling leaves. As winter winds blow this year to a close, glittering party clothes beckon from shop windows; bright lights distract us from the darkness for a while.

This week, the UK government announced a recession as postal and rail strikes reveal the bare bones of collective frustration and discontent.  Authoritative Saturn is still square unpredictable Uranus in earthy Taurus (banks, money, climate crisis).  Strikes and civil unrest in many countries depict the existential angst and a general dis-trust of authority.  “The present convergence of crisesin money, energy, education, health, water, soil, climate, politics, environment and moreis a birth crisis, expelling us from the old-world order into a new,” writes Charles Eisenstein, author of The Coronation.

For so many, this has been a challenging month. The New Moon Solar and Lunar eclipses in Scorpio and Taurus may have culminated in an ending of a way of lifethe sudden news of a retrenchment, an illness that initiates us into a new way of being, a divorce that reveals our bare bones. Taurus brings us down to earth—money, property, and those things we value—Scorpio dredges up those things we prefer to keep hidden from view.

The luminous lives of public figures portray the astrology of the moment. Prince Charles became Charles III during this eclipse season, and he will be crowned on May 6th during a Mercury Retrograde cycle and the day after a lunar eclipse—two celestial significators that suggest he will not settle comfortably on the throne. Charles was born on an eclipse, and will be familiar with this energy, so it’s unlikely that he will be beheaded like his predecessor, or banished to Europe. His Solar Return in 2023 (Sun/Mars conjunction in the 3rd house and Neptune on the Descendant) also suggests that his reign will not be an easy one as ghosts from the past return. Already truths blend with fantasy as the acerbic effect of the Mars/Neptune square can be seen in the “dangerous lies” peddled by the media, portrayed in season Five of The Crown.

Jupiter moves Retrograde at the poignant final degree of Pisces until December 20th and will make its third and final semi-square to Uranus on December 23rd, so the cult of progress and growth continues to take its toll on our ailing  planet. The astrology describes big wheels spinning, capricious dice that wobble and roll for those who fail to observe the cycles of life and death. Joe Biden celebrates his solar return on Sunday as Mars rises and squares Neptune, he attends to the nation’s petroleum reserves. Jupiter’s Wheel of Fortune turns for nations and humankind, as bellicose Donald Trump thrusts out his chin and turns his best side to the camera. An inflated Jupiter squares his Moon/South Node, and a battle-weary Mars takes a long shot, opposing his Moon, and moving back and forth over his Uranus/Sun/North Node in Gemini until March 2023. Saturn in Pisces will square his luminaries between May 2024-March 2025, not a great omen for a despot.  This week, Elon Musk’s fortunes plummet. Rotund Jupiter, purveyor of big dreams and big talk, opposes his power-over Pluto.  A disenchanted Mars Retrograde in Gemini conjoins his Venus (money, ruptured relationships, angry words) as his imperious demands for “a loyalty clause” raise mutiny and mass resignations.

The Mars/Neptune cycle began in on May 18th, 2022, and will peak with an opposition in August 2023, coming full circle with the next conjunction in Pisces in April 2024. The shadowy side of Mars Retrograde in Gemini erupts in hate-speak; language that severs bonds of relationship, switchbacks and U-turns, confusion, and utter exhaustion, and when Mars meets Neptune things become murkier, our will may be thwarted, our heartfelt desires swept away by things we simply can’t control. Mars is the war god, and this archetype describes battles, divisons, desire and action. This cycle may escalate a silencing of free speech, more emphasis on the currency of information, data and misinformation; cognitive dissonance, or pivotal events that challenge our beliefs as we defend or assert our version of the “truth”.

Yet the Sun joins Mercury and Venus in optimistic Sagittarius on November 22nd, Jupiter stations direct in Pisces, indicating a shift in circumstances, or perspective is possible. When the Sun moves into Sagittarius, we raise our hearts, our glasses, our vision, find magic in the mundane.  The New Moon on the same day escorts us into the season of goodwill and thanksgiving for Happy Days.

 As we pare down our expectations of how things “should be”, redefine what is truly important, we can practice being content, even happy, with the way things are. This New Moon wraps endings and new beginnings in the darkness of the heavens, so let’s toast to changing the old stories, finding what is possible within this new normal. As we review this year almost gone, may we celebrate how far we have come. May we give thanks for those bonds of friendship and heartfelt belonging that holds us to what really matters.

May we take time to reflect, to rest and restore, as winter draws us into the crucible of change. And in the intimacy of darkness, may we hold our loved ones close, find hope in hardship, opportunity in obstacles.

May we engage our imaginations in the darkness of the year almost gone, and re-discover joy and abundance in life’s simple pleasures. Here’s to Happy Days.

For a personal astrology consultation, please get in touch: ingrid@trueheartwork.com

1