For many, this and the past few weeks have been intense. The eclipse season that vaulted us through October finished on Thursday, November 6, 2014 with the Full Moon in Taurus. Eclipsing through the Scorpio season, news of traumatic injury, accidents, death, and dramatic encounters were up for many. Eclipses are like reset buttons: the lights go off and then on again; and something has changed.
We are not out of the woods yet, or in this case, the proverbial Scorpio swamp. But before our eyes, the landscape is morphing.
Directly at the finale of our eclipse season, we encounter two cycle-launching aspects in the collective sphere. On Monday, November 10th Mars joins Pluto at 10 degrees Capricorn. Two days later Venus meets Saturn at 25 Scorpio. These aspects echo themes of both eclipses and give us a change to crystallize discoveries and put ourselves into motion in response to what has become revealed. What is remarkable about these aspects is how bundled together they are: Mars and Pluto are in Saturn’s sign (Capricorn) and Venus and Saturn are in Mars and Pluto’s sign (Scorpio).
Without getting too technical, I’d like to focus on how this feels. We always feel aspects most before they actually occur, when the energy fresh in our fields and building. Let us turn our lens to Mars and Pluto.
Mars and Pluto: Destruction and Resurrection
In classical astrology, Mars and Pluto were both considered to be “Malefic” planets, meaning their influence on Earth tended to bring in events considered negative or bad. In today’s astrology world, thinking in terms of Good and Bad/Benefic and Malefic seems much less useful. Even so, there is no denying that Mars/Pluto combinations tend to amplify challenging conditions.
When I see Mars and Pluto in hard aspect to one another in a natal (birth) chart, it almost always indicates abuse (usually sexual, often perpetrated by men [Mars rules sex and men]), near-death-experience, or some traumatic event or history that led the individual to discover their inner survival mechanism and true source of Power [Pluto]. This aspect is about raw, primal, life-or-death regenerative energy. It indicated pure sexual kundalini, the life force that remains coiled at our pelvic base until it rises over time to create our completion. With this combination, the energy can be brutal, penetrating, and relentless - and it can also be an incredibly focused and fine-tuned ability to live your will, to heal, and to perform surgery (especially on the psychic level). Mars is our will and Pluto is our deep psyche. This combination together provokes the ability towards masterful manipulation. Certainly we can manipulate for good or ill. Many wonderful things materialize in our lives due to deliberate manipulation, resulting from our conscious use of Desire. Sometimes, however, with these skills of knowing just how to make things go the way you want, there can be deeply ingrained problems with letting go. It is in those times that true surrender is the necessary medicine.
As Mars has been approaching Pluto in the skies above us this past week, many intense things have been taking place. There has been lots of talk about sexuality, trauma, and abuse. I have noticed illness and injury, suicide, and incidents of rage. Frustration, tension, anger, and general discomfort have been building as hidden things are brought to the surface for elimination. In the USA, results of national elections sparked an outpouring of fear, concern, and impending doom for many. In my own life I suffered a traumatic injury and emotionally stirring letdowns stacked one after the other. Doors seemed to be closing.
Capricorn rules politics, limitation, black-and-white thinking, big business, and people ‘on top of the mountain’. Mars/Pluto contains misuse of power, war, violence, and dark motives. When I saw the Mars Pluto aspect forming in Capricorn, I predicted an “action destruction party in the sign of all structures.” In truth, it seems time for many things to pass away from our lives – or at least be reconsidered. Is it really important to us? Do we want to keep continuing onward within the same pattern? Can we summon the will to survive even amidst death’s reminder that he is an inherent part of our lives?
Mars and Pluto in aspect provoke immense strength and endurance. Those with that aspect in their birth charts can pretty much make it through anything. They are the ones who know pain and death so intimately that they are able to forge onward with nothing to lose. As doors closed for me this week, I noticed myself embracing the death of these old structures in my life. New doors opened effortlessly from once-hidden places, and I gazed forward into the mystery of where these changes are taking me. I also felt an immovable resolve forming within me. It isn’t working out for me now, but I will not give up. The spirit of perseverance is wrapping me in its strong arms and not letting go.
As Mars comes to meet Pluto in Capricorn on Monday, a new two-year cycle begins. It is time to listen deeply and discover our deepest passions, our strongest desires. What are you willing to hold on for, no matter what suffering comes our way? What are you willing to fight for? Where do you feel broken in such a way that it only inspires your determination and will to continue getting stronger? Mars and Pluto can beat us down. This aspect can destroy us. And in the waters and the fires of destruction, we find the pearls of our purest life-force energy. We discover the places within ourselves that were ready to die, to leave, to make way for the authentic version of who we really are. And what we are here to Do.
These aspects are training us as Saturn makes his way through the end of Scorpio, which, in late December, will end a major cycle spanning the last 2.5 years. Saturn in Scorpio has been asking us: what is your passion? What can you really commit to? Where do you feel and find your power? What is your deepest, most healing work? Where do you find your essence?
Your charge this Monday is to begin creating structures in your life that support your deepest passions and desires. Before we can build something new, a clearing catharsis must wash out the old. As a collective, we are being prepared to take everything to the next level.
Venus and Saturn: Getting Serious about What You Love
The past several years, relationships have been a major focus of personal work, difficulty, and evolution. Venus rules relationships, and as she comes to join Saturn on Wednesday, November 12th, we may be feeling the ways our relationships burden us. In Scorpio, the task is all-or-nothing oriented. Either we commit to being in the relationship during hard times or we let it go because it is limiting us. This aspect feels like a supporter of the Mars-Pluto conjunction detailed above. This aspect also brings in greater materialization of the need for Divine Feminine amidst the heavily masculine influence detailed above. The importance of softness, gentleness, and establishing harmonic balance is indicated.
Everything is in place to get us very clear and focused when it comes to our desires. Trust in your commitment to your deepest desires. Make a list of things you desire and keep it out where others can see it. Give voice to your desires. Celebrate when your desires are met. Surrender to the grand design when your desires aren’t getting met, and you will discover what needs to shift inside yourself so you may better align with your purpose. And always, trust the softness. Allow yourself to receive directly from Divine.
Together, we journey ever-higher, ever-deeper, L’Chayim