by Robert Wilkinson
At 11:12 pm PDT on March 30, 7:12 am BST on March 31, Mars will enter Gemini. What does this mean?
It means that how we generally “attack the problems of life,” or how we “take the initiative” is now expressed through the airy juggling of ideas and tasks via the mutuable energies of Gemini. This heralds the coming Superior Conjunction of the Sun and Mercury on May 21, which sets the “forward fusion of Life and Mind” for the period of late June through January 2020.
Mars continues to accelerate, having danced between late Capricorn and mid-Aquarius between April and October 2018 allowing us to undo, re-do, or re-plan our lives with an eye to leaving behind old projections. We navigated deep feeling waters and saw the need for closure in old parts of our lives during its time in Pisces in November and December.
January and the first half of February it transited its home sign of fiery Aries, so we had more energy helping facilitate direct action. This led us to its transit of Taurus between mid-February and now, stabilizing our forward momentum and helping us find more enjoyment in simply doing what we have to do. I know it’s helped me relax into getting things done, and looking back, I’ve accomplished a lot using a slow, steady, enjoyable rhythm in doing the things I had to do.
Mars in Gemini also means that any planets or angles we have in Aries or Scorpio have moved out of a fiery expression into an airy expression. This also impacts the houses where we have these signs, and puts a huge focus of activity in the house where we have the first 20 degrees of Gemini through April, and the last 10 degrees of Gemini in the first half of May.
When Mars was in Aries, it brought new beginnings to those with Sun or Ascendant in Aries, and new emergent developments to those with Sun or Ascendant in Capricorn. It puts the focus on relationships to those with Sun or Ascendant in Libra, and fulfillment to those with Sun or Ascendant in Cancer.
While Mars was in Taurus, it brought new beginnings to those with Sun or Ascendant in Taurus, and new emergent developments to those with Sun or Ascendant in Aquarius. It put the focus on relationships to those with Sun or Ascendant in Scorpio, and fulfillment or public activity to those with Sun or Ascendant in Leo.
In the coming weeks, it will bring new beginnings to those with Sun or Ascendant in Gemini, and new emergent developments to those with Sun or Ascendant in Pisces. It puts the focus on relationships to those with Sun or Ascendant in Sagittarius, and fulfillment to those with Sun or Ascendant in Virgo.
While Mars now initiates a new time of activity wherever we have Gemini, as noted this will be vitalized and “lived out in the real world” beginning the end of March for 7 weeks to come. Still, because Mars is the “herald” for the inner planets, we may not understand, appreciate, or see the Light and value of our Mars in Taurus experience until late April through early June, when the Sun, and then Mercury, and then Venus transit Taurus.
This begins a new cycle of expression related to what we learned or embraced as a greater life path between June 2012 and June 2013 when Jupiter was in Gemini. As there was no Mars conjunct Jupiter in Gemini, there was no overarching 12 year theme set by that transit.
The larger themes of Jupiter in Gemini energy was set into motion by Mars’ transit of Gemini in June-July 2013, renewed in May-June 2015 with Mars’ next pass through Gemini, and renewed yet again between late April and early June 2017 during the last transit of Mars through Gemini.
That means all the truths, potentials, opportunities, and visions of the future we had during the period between June 2012 and June 2013 revisited in 2015 and 2017 can now be acted upon in new ways, or ways that renew that pulse. It can also bring completion to those things set into motion during any of those previous periods.
We’re now going to experience the renewed Gemini promise yet again in April and May. As there are some extraordinarily favorable quintiles and sextiles in play from mid-April through early May helping us transmute Mars opposition Jupiter, I’m expecting we will all find a more harmonious life rhythm by then despite feeling the tension increase due to the expansive nature of Mars in Gemini opposed to Jupiter in its home sign of Sagittarius.
We will see a time of extreme tension in the last 9 days of April due to Mars squaring Neptune as well as the Mercury SD degree, simultaneously semisquaring Uranus, trigging the Rhombus Diamond effect and putting pressure on everyone with planets near the early degrees of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius, as well as the middle degrees of Pisces, Gemini, Virgo, and Sagittarius. Because it’s a highly agitated time, practice skill and be “calmly enthusiastic” in your approach to things, since new beginnings are already being made manifest at that time.
As it approaches the opposition to Jupiter, Mars will be the key to finding skillful “focused activity” because it will be the nozzle for all the other planetary energies. This continues during its oppositions to Saturn and Pluto while in Cancer in May and June, so we’ll all get a huge series of Mars opposition tests to help us be more skillful in transmuting dysfunctional Mars energies into healthy Mars expressions. Different Mars oppositions require different skills, since the “Tension of Opposites” between the planetary expressions in the signs they’re in entirely determines the spiritual tests to learn and demonstrate.
As I noted in Chapter 2 in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend,
Mars' duality is Grace/Sin. This is the aspect of consciousness that shows whether our responses are manifesting error or truth, maladjustment or beauty. By our Martian function we force things before their time or confront abrasive, aggressive, or hostile energies in ourselves and others, and thus we learn how to sever what must be severed, and further what must be furthered, quickly and directly. (As an aside, the original meaning of “sin” had nothing to do with moral failure. It was an archery term meaning “to miss the mark,” or not hitting the center of a target. I use it here in that sense.)
Remember that as Mars makes various oppositions, it marks the mid-point of those planetary cycles begun when Mars conjuncted the outers. Mars conjuncted Jupiter in Jan 2018 at 18 Scorpio, a “transfiguration” degree. It conjuncted Saturn at 10 Capricorn in early April 2018, and since then we’ve been learning to overcome fear. It conjuncted Pluto in late April at 22 Capricorn, and since then we’ve all had “apparent defeats that spelled spiritual victory.” This run ended in Feb 2019 with Mars’ conjunction with Uranus at 30 Aries, showing a) we had TWO Mars/Uranus conjunctions in late Aries, and b) we can settle into the new beginnings, content with reasonable limitations as we “play on our duck pond.”
So May begins an extraordinary period of Mars being “full phase” in its relationship to the outer planets, expressing, adjusting, and bringing those spiritual energies to the surface of Life in various ways. As the inner planets begin to transit Gemini and Cancer in June and July, they’ll also make oppositions to Jupiter, Saturn, and Pluto and give texture and awareness to the previous Mars oppositions. During this time we’ll experience a “See Saw” type of energy which will continue as the inner planets close in on their conjunctions to Mars in early Virgo.
Anyway, after last year’s Mars retrograde, we should be moving forward in all Mars’ dominated areas of our charts and lives. This also moves the emphasis away from Earth and into Air, adding curiosity and a sense of discovery to our efforts. As we’ve been short on the Air element for quite some time, this should bring more interactivity and diversity to the atmosphere. This promises to be a very unique and productive time for those who know how to multi-task!
“Light fun in the Springtime…..”Copyright © 2019 Robert Wilkinson
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