Mars has a two year cycle and is in each sign for almost six weeks – and the sharp eyed among you will have noticed that 12 signs x almost 6 weeks = 16 months. That’s right – so what, you may be wondering, happens to the other 8 months?
Well, every two years Mars stays in one sign for the whole of the 8 month period by stopping somewhere along the sign, going backwards, stopping again and then going forwards to leave for the next sign up to his normal speed. This is called going retrograde when a planet goes backwards. Actually, planets don’t go backwards, but appear to do so when our orbit overtakes the orbit of the planet in question.This creates a similar visual sensation that we get when a fast train overtakes a slow train – from the fast train, the slow train appears to go backwards; and if you happen to be on the slow train, it does feel as if you are moving backwards until you reorient yourself.
This weekend, Mars enters Libra and slowly moves through almost to the end of the sign, then 1st March, 2014, he stops and begins a slow roll back to 9 Libra on 20th May. He then begins to slowly move forward and leaves Libra at the end of July. A long and exhausting time for gentle, laid-back Librans to suffer the action, decision and sheer chutzpah of Mars in their camp.
Mars is about action, energy, thinking after leaping, go-getting, argumentative, focused on what he wants, when he wants it – usually yesterday. And Libra is about mediation, indecision, discussion, fence-sitting, ensuring that everyone else is happy before taking action, diplomatic and decent. Libra is ruled by beautiful Venus, who appreciates the finer things of life – Mars rules Aries and can’t hang around long enough to take in the view.
Two totally different energies – yet, Aries and Libra are on an axis, looking at each other across the Zodiac; so they are complementary to each other. Remember the book “Men are from Mars, women are from Venus”? That sort of sums up the quality of each planet. However, many men are from Libra and many women are from Aries – so it isn’t quite so black and white as the author suggests.
Each of the signs has an opposite sign. In reality there may just be 6 signs: Aries/Libra; Taurus/Scorpio; Gemini/Sagittarius; Cancer/Capricorn; Leo/Aquarius; and Virgo/Pisces. Each of the pairs of signs will share qualities between them – Aries/Libra, for example, are about relationships – from the youthful vigour of Aries, to Libra’s even-handed, middle way in any relationship, be it personal or in business. Aries may want something immediately, Libra is prepared to barter for it. They need each other, it seems – as do the other five axes of the Zodiac. More on those another time …..
The next 8 months will bring a formation called a Grand Cross, in which 2 planets face each other across the Zodiac – Jupiter and Pluto, in this case; each planet is then at 90 degrees (square) to 2 other planets opposite each other i.e. Mars and Uranus. This pattern divides the Zodiac up into 4 separate parts – all falling in the Cardinal signs – Aries/Libra and Cancer/Capricorn. As I wrote last week, Venus is also in this mix by being beside Pluto in her own retrograde sojourn in Capricorn, for the following couple of months.
This is a huge combination, the like of which we haven’t seen for many years – since 1930, in fact – also in Cardinal signs with Saturn in that particular pot as well. If we look back at what was going on then, it is easy to suggest further social unrest, financial hardships – more of the same, really.
In my own country, the UK, our Prime Minister, David Cameron, a multiple Libra, with Sun, Venus and Ascendant there will experience this energy first hand. It could come about through the decision of the Scots (where I live) deciding to finally sever themselves from the English and become an independent nation. It’s quite exciting, to be honest, to be living through such a momentous possibility going on all year until the vote in September 2014.
David Cameron’s chart resonates well with the UK 1801 chart – as did Margaret Thatcher’s chart – in that the UK Ascendant is the same as Cameron’s. However, all the action is, I feel, in the hands of the older and more seasoned politician Alex Salmond, the Scottish First Minister, who is spearheading this bolt for freedom by the Scots. He’s a Capricorn with Pluto on his Sun and Mercury and Jupiter on his Cancer Ascendant. Scotland is a Cancerian country so it’s a case of “cometh the hour, cometh the man”.
I wonder if Cameron may experience a “Stalking Horse” situation as did Mrs Thatcher, when her rule came to an end in 1989. This has to be done by a politician who appears out of the shadows and “Stalks” the PM in order to unseat him. This person will not be the one who actually wants to oust him, but a shadowy substitute, making mischief against him. This is described so well by the Grand Cross Mars on his Libra planets. The ruler of Aries, Libra’s relationship sign, in Libra’s face, so to speak, can form a fruitful partnership, albeit argumentative at times – but for a politician, well who knows? They always seem to experience the planetary energies in such a “big” way as they come at them through events that demand their complete focus in the moment, taking their attention away from more important things, perhaps.
His days may be numbered – oh what fun!
This article has taken longer than I expected – I do get carried away sometimes – so the Mars in Libra for the 12 signs will have to wait until next week.
