Astrology For The Soul Newsletter
Wednesday, June 18, 2003

My dear friends, it’s time to look at the pugnacious and ruddy-skinned man we call Mars. It’s high time, because we’re going to be seeing a lot of him for about the next six months, and I want to talk about the opportunity this gives us. Everything that I discuss below can be considered a kind of guideline to at least some of the major astrological themes of the next six months.

A. Mars Doing That Thing
B. Mars-Uranus in Pisces in the News
C. Do That Thing with Mars
D. Anger, Rumblings, and Grumblings
E. Would the Buddha Play Football?
F. Good, Good, Good

The red planet entered a new sign, Pisces, a couple nights ago (Monday, the 16th) at 10:25 pm Eastern. Any time a planet enters a new sign we see its signature popping up all around us, but this ingress of Mars into Pisces (an ingress is when a planet enters a new sign) is much more significant than usual. For one thing, Mars is very close to the Earth right now, and he will be going stationary retrograde in July; this retrograde will lead him to spend exactly six months, from June 16th to December 16th, in the tropical sign of Pisces. Mars’s first stop on the Pisces train is its conjunction with Uranus (and trine to Saturn), and Mars will be effectively conjunct Uranus until we get to November. That is a lot of Mars-Uranus.

As Mars ambulates his way up to the Uranian world (and they conjoin exactly on next Monday, June 23rd), his fire will burn brighter than normal, stirred up by the electrical windstorms on Uranus. And that means we have the chance to re-envision our connection to our own red warrior spirit, and to raise his warlike and competitive drives into something more spiritually evolved.

Uranus stimulates. It charges. It excites. It forces you to evolve and grow. Uranus is like lightning. And Uranus can bring unexpected shocks. Well what happens when the impetuous Mars gets struck by lightning? You can probably imagine that it’s not all good.

There are plenty of unconscious ways that this powerful transit could act out. Arguments. Accidents. Feet-in-mouth. Impatience. Violence. Ruined reputations. Of course these are not the things we’re interested in. But we’re already seeing such symbolism all around us. I turn on CNN on the first full day of Mars in Pisces and see that “Jane Roe,” the formerly anti-abortion plaintiff in Roe vs. Wade, is seeking to have the 1973 US Supreme Court ruling overturned, threatening a new round of legal battles over one of the most sensitive issues affecting women. Tony Blair (who’s Mars at 3 Gemini is being squared by this conjunction) is being hounded in the UK for the scant evidence of Weapons of Mass Destruction used to justify the War against Iraq. This issue is also making Bush & Co. look worse in the US.

A Priest in Phoenix, AZ has shocked his community by driving away from the scene of an accident where he killed a pedestrian, bringing more scandal and bad press to the Catholic Church. Patience and understanding are in short supply after recent violence between the Palestinians and the Israelis. Very serious riots have been breaking out in Benton Harbor, MI for the last couple of days. Last night an off-shore oil rig exploded off the coast of Texas. In Arizona, numerous wildfires just popped up. In West Virginia, floods are raging. A couple of nights ago, MSN popped up a news headline on my computer reading: “Courtney Love Puts Foot in Mouth” (she has Saturn at 4+ Pisces where Mars and Uranus are right now, btw).

Of course, crazy things happen all the time. But those who understand the language of astrology will easily see the handiwork of Mars conjunct Uranus in Pisces in all of the above events. Keep watching the news, and you’ll have many more opportunities to point out such events, but what I’d rather talk about is what we can do in a positive sense, with this transit. It’s not a transit that is generally positive on its own. But we can make it that way, at least for ourselves.

Mars, while it has its wonderful and spiritual qualities, is also a symbol of conflict, aggression, and warfare. And it is by spiritualizing our connection to the energies symbolized by Mars that we can make this transit into a more uplifting one. Making this transformation will require conscious intention and focus.

Remember, Uranus is a force of evolution. The Martian nature within us is being called on right now to either evolve, or to act out unconsciously. Let’s envision a clenched fist, a pretty decent symbol for Mars. Imagine that fist being figuratively struck by lightning. At that point it can only move in two directions. The first way is unconscious, and that is the way of wild and uncontrolled anger and violence. The second way is conscious, and that is to bring awareness to the anger and tension that is driving the fist, even though there is pain there. Through this commitment to seeing what is happening inside more deeply, we can raise awareness around the real cause of these issues, and literally transform that lightning into consciousness. Obviously this is not an easy thing to do because the first thing a fist is likely to do when challenged is to hit back, or in other words when things are stirred up, the first reaction is to quickly react out of that feeling. We are all learning now about staying with the pressure that we feel and bringing awareness to it, rather than acting out against others or against ourselves. Those who can do this will make very, very significant leaps in self-awareness over the next four months.

So what is it that we can bring more awareness to at this time? There are a number of strong possibilities. Certainly anger is one. Anger is a natural emotional response that arises out of self-protection and self-preservation. I see two important things to “do” around our anger. One possibility is to let it motivate us, to let it be transformed into energy, drive, and focus. Of course if we use anger this way, we want to make sure that our passion is still directed by something on a higher plane than the anger (or revenge) itself. In other words, the anger can provide a kind of kick start, but then we still want to find our driving inspiration in things like love and good humor. Anger can get us moving, but our hearts can only create the most good when they are feeling peace.

The other thing I recommend “doing” with anger is, after we have passed our “pent-up” stage where we do things like scream and punch walls (in other words, after we have “owned” our anger by realizing it is within us), to sit calmly with that anger and see if there is something more tender underneath it. If we keep investigating, I think we’ll find that there is a very sensitive kind of sadness underneath the cover-up of anger, and that that sensitivity just needs to feel its pure sadness sometimes, and shed its tears. In other words, it’s good to find the hurt that is really the root of the anger, and honor that hurting by realizing it is there, and simply feeling it without thinking about who did what to whom. It’s most healing to just feel the sadness or hurt that we feel, and not think of or indulge in our stories of how we are a victim.

There’s something else very Martian that I think we can be more aware of at this time, as well. It’s one of my most favorite, and also least favorite, Martian concepts: competition. When it comes to playing sports or games with people, I absolutely love the experience of competition. Despite enjoying competition in games, I’m not a sore loser or a sore winner, I just enjoy the fun of playing. Years ago I saw a wonderful Buddhist teacher speak at a college in Durango, CO. A man that many would identify as a “frat boy” in the audience asked him what he thought about competition. Sitting there in his bright orange robes, the teacher seemed to really pause and think about the question. Then he said something like, “I think it’s good. When you play games, you need competition. No competition, no fun. But when there is jealousy, then it’s not so good. Competition is good, but not when there’s jealousy.”

In my own perspective, I feel like there is a great place for competition when it comes to sports and games, but that there is no place for competition when it comes to real life. I don’t compete against people in life, as you can probably guess by the fact that I am promoting the work of twelve other astrologers on “my” website. And this brings me back to this time of Mars. With Mars and Uranus coming together in the sign of Pisces, a sign that ultimately aims towards oneness and unity, I believe we are meant to have either a breakthrough or a regression around the issue of competition-versus-oneness. Because Mars by itself prefers the competition side of the spectrum, we will probably have to really concentrate on what is most important to have that breakthrough about our true oneness with one another.

On this subject of unity, there is another important thing about Uranus worth noting. Uranus is also about the power of MANIFESTATION. Manifestation, of course, requires intention. One of the very highest and most amazing possibilities for this entire transit of Mars with Uranus in Pisces—and this is what I most want to say to you in this newsletter—is that of committing to a more spiritual vision of oneness and non-competitiveness, and looking very deeply into the illusion of separation. Dig very deep, look very profoundly, and manifest your intention to realize the oneness of us all, and live radically out of this same understanding. This is a unique opportunity that we have right now, and throughout at least the next four months. If we are resisting this realization, it is quite possible that life will force us to look at this issue. We will have to go forward, or else we will go backward. Luckily, we have some say in the matter.

One of the greatest keys to consciousness that should serve us very well during this Martian time period (or throughout our lives, for that matter) is this:

Be for what you are for, rather against what you are against.

In other words, promote the positive things you want to promote, rather than opposing the negative things your ego wants to oppose. If you want to help the cause of homelessness, help a homeless person, rather than yelling at a politician. If you have something to say, say the positive thing you have to say, rather than negatively attacking any contrasting viewpoints. If you feel you are in some kind of competition, do your own work well, rather than fighting against what you perceive to be the enemy. If you’re going through a break-up, do good things for yourself rather than being resentful about the ex. Be positive, positive, positive. It’s the insurance policy of the soul ;)

Aloha,
Moses