16 October: Mars trine Saturn

Mars is the God of Action, and it’s his job to help us get things done. As a result, he is widely resented by avoidant people everywhere. He doesn’t much care what people think of him, though; he knows his duty and he does it whether he is received with gratitude or denial.

In mythology Mars is most often viewed through his role as a God of War, but this is a restrictive way to understand his role in astrology. Since most of us are not soldiers, we do not see him primarily through his warrior lens. Instead, he shows up for most of us kind of like an athletic coach. He gives us pep talks when we’re feeling weak, urges us onward when we’re feeling strong, and pushes us to our outer limits so we can grow. Those of us who receive his support well and charge toward the direction he envisions for us get to grow stronger and see ourselves win. This is not, of course, how it plays out for everyone, because not everyone steps up.

On the natal chart, our Mars placement gives us information about how we instinctively approach challenges. A well placed natal Mars can make a person proactive and headstrong, sometimes to the point of personality aggression. A struggling natal Mars often evolves into a person who lets challenges steamroll them instead of rising to the occasion. Regardless of the natal placement and its aspects, anyone can choose to either repress or embody the positive characteristics of their natal Mars. The natal chart is only as relevant as what we choose to do with it.

The natal chart is only so important, though, because Mars (like all the others) is a living planet, and his journey through the Zodiac gives us infinite windows to improve the inbuilt strengths and weaknesses of our natal placement – if and only if we choose to seize the moment and apply ourselves to the effort. As the ancient proverb says, the teacher can only open the door; it’s up to each of us individually to walk through it. Mars will never stop handing us opportunities, but to receive his gifts we have to actually move.

In Leo, Mars relates to us through the wounded hero archetype of Herakles. The story of Herakles has been altered in the Collective psyche by Disney’s egregiously mutated retelling in the animated film Hercules. For the sake of not letting this post get overly long I won’t tell the whole story here, but for those who aren’t familiar with the story I”ll say this:

Herakles became famous for being the greatest hero of all time after completing the Twelve Labors for the King of Nemea. But the only reason he set out to do those labors in the first place was because Hera had struck him with madness in revenge for being the illegitimate son of her husband Zeus, and in his madness he had killed his own wife and children. After doing that his self-image was ruined forever; he came to view himself as an irredeemably violent brute who needed to be cleansed of his evil. The King of Nemea was the only person who was willing to assign him difficult enough tasks that they could feasibly make him feel cleansed. But even after all his work was done Herakles never forgave himself.

The constellation of Leo does not represent just any lion – it represents the Nemean Lion, a mythic beast with an impenetrable hide that could not be pierced by any weapon. Herakles killed him instead with his bare hands, and then for the rest of his life he wore the Nemean Lion’s hide as a kind of armor. The hide of the Nemean Lion became his most recognizable attribute, even more iconic than his own face.

While Mars is in Leo, we carry both core attributes of Herakles: the impenetrable hide of the Nemean Lion, and also the hidden wounded heart.

Mars understands that some wounds are too deep to heal by conventional means. During his time in Leo, he tries to take the pressure off the goal of cleansing and healing our wounds through emotional processing and self-rehabilitation. Instead he sets us on the path of making a positive impact on other people in our own way; this is a different and more traditionally heroic form of healing than the introspective, self-focused kind we more often find in therapy.

Mars knows what we may not – that even when we can’t see ourselves clearly, the rest of the world recognizes us by our own Nemean Lion’s hide, the thing that marks us as our own kind of hero. Everyone’s Nemean Lion’s Hide is different, depending on the personal demons they have vanquished in their own healing journey.

Saturn is the God of Time. He is a little different from the rest of the planetary deities in that he is a Titan, one of the primordial earth elementals. Aside from Uranus (his father) and Venus (his sister, kind of), the rest of the planetary deities are his children or grandchildren. When we’re trying to understand the way he functions, we need to understand that his nature gives him a different working modality than the rest. He is less human-like because he is a generation removed from the Gods who resemble us most closely. He’s not entirely unlike us, but he isn’t always as relatable as the younger Gods.

With Time itself as his domain, Saturn’s work with us normally comes through the lens of limitation and inevitability. Things play out over time, and with every decision we make or defer, there come inevitable consequences that set limits on our future choices. In the duration of a human lifetime, every choice we make unfolds the path of our future. The consequences of our actions are Saturn’s gift, and to work with him happily we need to understand that consequences cannot be avoided.

Saturn at his best gives us a strong structural foundation for our personal growth and hands us the fruition of our wildest dreams. But the thing we need to understand about his personal style is that when he isn’t appreciated, he doesn’t stick with us anyway like Mars does. Instead he opts out of supporting us altogether. Saturn reserves his energy for people who understand it and love it. These people, responsible self-starters who choose to own the repercussions of not only the things that go well but also their failures, usually go further and enjoy a better quality of life. They plan for the long future, making practical choices instead of fixating on the immediate payoff or the emotional reward or the validation. They do things the hard way. They are detail-oriented and thorough, and they hold themselves and everyone around them to high standards.

People who love Saturn and people who hate him don’t usually run in the same circles. To make the best of our relationship with him, we usually have to abandon everyone who lives their lives in defiance against his principles.

Aries is the sign of the Golden Ram, who was commemorated in the stars after rescuing a child from unjust human sacrifice. This is the first sign in the Zodiac, and its energy is initiating, forward-moving, and full of raw power. Saturn’s time in Aries begins a new cycle in the structural foundations of our entire Collective through the development of a stronger sense of Self – at least, this is true for the people he works with. It’s less true for the people he’s left behind.

Some people would say Aries is a counterintuitive place for Saturn, but he actually does great work here because his preferred energetic modality is cardinal. For our human Collective, time is always moving unstoppably forward. The forward-moving cardinal nature is often denied about Saturn, who is decried by weaker personalities as plodding, a bit of a slow mover, the source of blockage and delay.

It’s true that Saturn will enforce the consequence of delay upon people who have chosen to live their lives in a way that is disorganized and not very proactive, but can we really blame him? Usually people who experience Saturn through the lens of blockage are emotionally immature whiners who won’t take responsibility for their own behavior. Delay and arrested development are inevitable consequences of committed avoidance.

On the other hand, Saturn enthusiasts experience him the opposite way. Saturn is the builder. He gives us structure and integrity. His support and devotion makes us more resilient, more courageous, more secure.

I’ve written quite a bit recently about the importance of developing a strong Arian sense of Self as the necessary structural foundation for healthy relationship with the Libran Other. This is an important subject of the moment as Venus prepares to regress into her ruling sign of Libra, trading places with the Sun who is there right now. The integrity of our self-awareness is an important theme of this year’s autumnal season, and Saturn is there to give hands-on support to those of us who are willing to put in the work there.

Trine is an aspect of collaborative flow between like elements, in this case activating the fiery parts of our nature. Mars and Saturn are both devoted, committed boys who love to work hard. But even in a collaborative aspect, Mars cannot convince Saturn to work on the behalf of people who have abandoned his entire domain.

So it’s likely that only those of us who appreciate and respect and hold gratitude for Saturn will see the benefits of this transit. Those of us who are in good standing are likely to see progress in both Mars’ domain of Action and Overcoming Challenge and Saturn’s domain of Structural Foundation and Consequence. Because of the nature of these two boys, we will see that progress come through in the areas where we have been consistently applying our effort and intention over the long term. Things will move forward, click into place, or deliver rewards. This may happen in a subtle way rather than a loud way, so it may be a while before we notice the changes.

It’s important to remember at a time like this that consequences are not always negative in nature, but sometimes blessings have a harsh delivery, and both good luck and bad luck always show up in disguise. When in doubt, don’t react – hold onto patience. Observe as things play out. Hold action and hold your tongue – don’t cuss out the Gods before you see the fullness of their delivery play out.

When there is a trine in the fire element, sometimes we feel very emotionally activated, as if our feelings are literally on fire. The best way to remediate this is to think about how you would manage a literal, tangible fire if it got too big. The first step is to remove the fuel – take yourself away from what is making you feel this way. The second step is to slow down the air flow – focus on your breath until it steadies and slows down. Fire is not that difficult to control. It only takes attention and action.