Today the Moon is in Gemini, separating from a magical square to to Neptune. Five bodies in water means we can both be a bit bogged down in sentiment and emotion while also being in a better position to access the soul. To me, this feels balmy, if heavy and “low and slow”, as I imagine water winding and looping close to the ground.
Let’s talk about Mars opposite Pluto today. Mars is in Cancer, and Pluto is retrograde in Capricorn. By the time the Moon is new (9:24 PM EDT July 16th), the Mars-Pluto opposition will be exact. For now, this configuration is growing in its influence.
Mars is in Cancer, which in traditional astrology means he is “weak” by sign. Authorities generally say weak does not mean lacking strength, but unable to act in a strong martial way — in the way Mars finds ease of action: Expressing anger, assertion, aggression; taking direct action, acting independently, expressing strength, showing brawns, and so on. When Mars is in the sign Cancer, Mars activities are cloaked in a certain sentimental consideration, predilection to feeling before acting, going inward to determine what is needed before taking action, considering the family, the heritage or the clan in order to derive energy and initiative, acting in the interest of the clan as opposed to acting from self interest.
Whereas Mars in a fire sign, where Mars is stronger, would assert himself into the environment and expect that energetic output to have direct influence, Mars in Cancer might prefer to zig or zag around the objective.
Defining Mars’ strength here as weak would mean in part that we’re privileging direct action in order to obtain an objective, rather than indirect action. We might consider how each approach is a strategy, and that different outcomes require different strategies.
So that brings us to Pluto in Capricorn. First, Capricorn is trained (in the school of hard knocks) to see the long term picture. Such sight favors something like having a strategy to accomplish an objective. Let’s pause here to notice how dry “strategy to accomplish an objective” sounds. That’s an indication we’re in Saturn-land.
Pluto itself is that invisible force that compels. Compels what? It compels causes, actions, events. Pluto makes things happen outside conscious scheming or direct planning. It’s lawless and outside moral scheming. We can surmise that Pluto disintegrates things into their raw forms for some purpose. To be born again we can say. But I wonder if Pluto is so easily defined.
At any rate, Pluto is in the sign that is ruled by the planet of definition. So until 2023-24, Pluto takes on Capricorn vestments, and compels decay of calcified structures, structures overgrown with hardened detritus such that their potency is diminished. Then, the way Pluto seems to work, in broad swaths of time, a subsequent building occurs with materials we can say are beating, pulsing, shining, and alive.
The opposition aspect is a faceoff. It’s a meeting of a pair of view points that have something in common, but which differ in fundamental ways.
So with Mars in Cancer applying to oppose Pluto we have:
* The will to transform
* Indirect action within family/clan unit
* Matters of property, home, legacy
* Fighting the family legacy
* Resolving to act differently
* Re-structuring the home
* The menacing face of tradition
* Challenging tradition
* Acting with discretion
* Secret actions
* Re-building the foundation
* Timid approach to power
* Strong hands shaping clay underwater
* Hidden assertive actions
* Emotional strongarm
* Lancing a wound; draining fluid
* Facing a powerful appetite
* The desire nature with much thrust behind it
And all this in the background of some major social level restructuring as we’re seeing in Greece and Puerto Rico, reflected in the Jupiter Saturn square. Saturn in Scorpio is pronounced in the astrology through mid-September. With squares from Leo, the call is to shine the spotlight on the hidden inner patterns. Through the time of this New Moon in Cancer, there is transformative magic in the Mars-Pluto opposition for the wielding.
Take good care!
Warmly,
Ichrak
