Mars Retrograde: December 20, 2009 through March 10, 2010

Mars is still retrograde, i.e. moving backward in the sky.  Because this is a time when the hero is called forth in all of us, I’m telling stories of heroes from Greek and Roman mythology as examples of heroic virtues.  Today’s virtue is resourcefulness, the ability to face obstacles cleverly and to sometimes overcome them by evading them.  The most resourceful and smart hero of Greek and Roman mythology is undoubtedly Odysseus (also called Ulysses).

Legends of Odysseus:  The Odyssey
Odysseus had finished up with some wars that were happening far from home and the Odyssey tells the story of the many adventures he encountered on his return to his loving and devoted wife, Penelope.  On the journey, he faced many obstacles, some of which required strength in battle, but many of which required cleverness, resourcefulness, wisdom and a pure heart.

Here’s one example:  Odysseus and some of his sailors entered a cave that contained some goat-pens.  It turned out the goatherd was the Cyclops, a terrifying giant with one eye in the center of his head.  It also turned out that the sailors found themselves trapped inside the cave, blocked by a boulder only the Cyclops could move.  It was no use killing the Cyclops, because only he could move the boulder.  So instead, Odysseus sharpened a pole and poked the giant’s eye out with it.  As the Cyclops fumbled around for his enemies, and moved the boulder to find out if they’d escaped, Odysseus and his men escaped by clinging to the undersides of some of the goats.

In another example, Odysseus managed to sail past the Sirens.  The Sirens were beautiful nymphs whose singing was so beguiling that they could tempt sailors to crash on the rocks for love of them.  Odysseus stopped up the ears of his crew with wax so they could not hear the Sirens’ song.  For himself, he wanted to hear it, but didn’t want to be a danger to himself or his crew, so he had them tie him to the mast and instructed them not to release him, no matter how he begged or threatened them (which of course he did).  In this way he was able to hear the Sirens while his men sailed safely past them.

Penelope herself was a fit match for her clever husband.  During the many years it took him to return home, many suiters came to press her to remarry, because surely Odysseus was dead.  Her response was: “Sure, as soon as I finish this burial shroud.”  Every day she worked on the shroud and every night, when no one was looking, she unraveled all she had woven.  In this way she fended off the pressure to remarry and was waiting faithfully for Odysseus when he came home.  Odysseus deserved such a wife because at the beginning of his journey a goddess had told him it would be very hard and offered him herself instead of Penelope.  But Odysseus knew that the love of a true, mortal wife is worth more than the whim of a goddess and he chose the journey with all its hardship.

Heroic Virtue #3:  Resourcefulness
Sometimes a battle is best won not by brute strength or by any kind of force at all.  Sometimes it’s about taking the right approach.  An obstacle is an obstacle and you always have the choice about whether to push through it or to find a way around it.  A clever hero looks for many ways to solve a problem and selects the one that leaves him fit to fight another day.

What Mars is Asking of You
During this Mars retrograde period, Mars wants to know:
Have you been fighting too hard?
Have you tried force when cleverness might win you the battle?
Is there a resource you’ve forgotten about?

Next:  Alliance—Castor & Pollux

Other articles in this thread:
Mars Retrograde:  The Hero’s Journey
Hercules, Hero of Strength
Achilles, Hero of Courage

Mars Retrograde: December 20, 2009 through March 10, 2010

Mars is still retrograde, i.e. moving backward in the sky.  Because this is a time when the hero is called forth in all of us, I’m telling stories of heroes from Greek and Roman mythology as examples of heroic virtues.  Today’s virtue is courage, the ability to face the enemy with a strong mind as well as a strong body.  The best example of that is valiant Achilles, hero of the Trojan war.

Legends of Achilles
Achilles, central character in the Iliad, was one of the best-known heroes in Greco-Roman mythology.  He was considered to be the paragon of manly valor and gorgeousness.  For Achilles, courage was based in fearlessness, because his whole body was literally invulnerable, except for one small part—his heel.  Yet he is known to us mainly by that vulnerability.  In modern-day, we speak of an ‘Achilles heel’ as a person’s chief, or only, weakness.

And how exactly did he come to have an ‘Achilles heel?’  According to the mythology, Achilles was the child of a mortal man and an immortal sea-nymph.  When he was an infant, his mother foresaw his death and gave him invulnerability by dipping him in the river Styx.  The Styx was the river that the dead must cross to get to the underworld.  In bathing the child in the river of the dead, she was giving him an early experience of death and rendering him, if not immortal, at least invulnerable.  But she held him by one heel and so that was the only part of him that never touched the underworld’s waters.  It thus became his only weakness.

Heroic Virtue #2:  Courage
Not much of a weakness for battle purposes, you might think, as perhaps his mother did.  Who would think to shoot Achilles in the heel?  Yet someone did, with a poisoned arrow, and that’s how he finally perished.  But on the way to that death he performed incredible feats of courage, which were bolstered by the kind of fearlessness that comes from repeated experiences of surviving when others around you are falling.  So Achilles stands for courage, because he fought bravely, without giving in to fear.

What Mars is Asking of You
During this Mars retrograde period, Mars wants to know:
Where have you forgotten to have courage?  Have you been listening to your fearful inner voices instead of your encouraging ones?
Are you focusing on your weakness (the heel) instead of your strength?
Have you been whining and complaining, when you could put your complaints aside and meet the obstacle more bravely?

Next:  Resourceful Odysseus

Mars Retrograde: December 20, 2009 through March 10, 2010

Right now, Mars is retrograde, which means it is moving backward in the sky.  Because this is a time when the hero is called forth in all of us, I’m telling stories of heroes from Greek and Roman mythology as examples of heroic virtues.  Today’s virtue is the most basic one Mars has to offer: physical force and pure strength.  And nobody is a better example of it than Hercules.

Legends of Hercules
Hercules was known as the greatest of legendary heroes due to his enormous strength.  He was your typical “big and stupid” kind of guy: he carried a club and once he even held the whole sky on his shoulders.

The best-loved tales of Hercules involve his Twelve Labors.  These started out as Ten Labors, but inflation set in because the king he was laboring for got nervous of the Herculean prowess and claimed that two of the labors “didn’t count.”  So Herc had to do two additional in order to stave off the anger of Juno, the goddess who was the original source of the demand.  Juno disliked Hercules because he was the illegitimate offspring of her hubby, Jupiter (who really got around).  Yeah, apparently old Mount Olympus was a real soap opera.

Hercules’ exploits included:
•    Slaying the Nemean Lion, a fierce creature that was terrorizing the countryside.  Herc slew it and wore its pelt as a snazzy outfit.  Otherwise he was not known for his fashion sense.
•    Cleaning the Augean stables, which were occupied by a herd of 3,000 oxen.  This had to be one of nastiest cleaning jobs ever required in mythology, because the stables had not been cleaned for 30 years.  Hercules diverted a river through the stables, wiping them sparkly in one swoop.
•    Slaying the giant Antaeus, who was a mighty wrestler.  Because he was the son of Terra, the Earth, each time he fell he rose up stronger than before.  Hercules defeated Antaeus by holding him up in the air and strangling him.

Upon Hercules’ death, Jupiter made him immortal, declaring that only the vestiges of his mortal heritage were burned away on his funeral pyre, leaving his immortal being to take his place among the gods on Olympus.  Juno decided Herc was here to stay and forgave him his illegitimacy.

Heroic Virtue #1:  Strength
Hercules was obviously a force to be reckoned with.  The tales of his many doings focus not on wit, intelligence or strategy, but on pure physical strength, brute force and the ability to assert himself and overcome.

What Mars is Asking of You
Strength and force are the most basic abilities Mars has to offer.  A Mars retrograde period is a time to look at your life and ask “Where do I need to use more force?  Where have I gotten weak?  Am I a pansy?  A 98-pound weaking?  Where could I use a burst of testosterone or a shot of adrenaline?  Where have I forgotten to assert myself—or maybe never learned to assert myself in the first place?”

A Mars retrograde period is a time of feeling pressure to draw that line in the sand.  It is marked by anger, irritation, annoyance and bursts of ancient, stuck ferocity trying to get out.

Modern people are uncomfortable with this rough-and-ready god.  Mars was not polite, nor was he cautious.  He was a man’s man and sometimes we need a dose of that.  It’s good to know he’s in your corner.  So if, during this Mars retrograde period you find places in which you have not been defending or asserting yourself sufficiently, call on Mars.  He is always there inside your fierce heart when you need him.

Next:  Achilles, Courageous Hero

This demanding solar eclipse brings out the tough, career side of us.  Venus acts as its Shadow Agent, bringing in themes of relationship integrity and contractual obligation.  During this eclipse, life goes best if you follow through on what you say you’ll do.

Details About This Eclipse

Date: January 14, 2010
Time of eclipse: 11:11 PM PST
Type: annular (weak in intensity)
Visible in: People in Africa, India, Sri Lanka and southeast Asia will see this partial eclipse. At: 25 degrees Capricorn
Shadow Agent: Venus in Capricorn

Does It Affect You Personally?

If your birthday is on any of the following dates, you most likely experienced this eclipse:
January 10-20
April 10-20
July 13-23
October 13-23

Remember, not every eclipse touches everyone, but when it does, it’s usually noticeable.  A solar eclipse is likely to be marked by an external, real-world event (unlike a lunar eclipse, which is mostly experienced internally).  The following script is just one possible way it could go.

You hear a knock at the door.  You answer it.  Venus is there:  she’s an attractive, trim and serious-looking woman in a business suit.
Venus:  Hi, I’m your business coach.
You:  I don’t remember hiring one of those.
Venus:  I come with the package.
You:  What package?
Venus:  The package called “Your Life.”  Freebie.
She sashays past you and into your living room.
Venus:  Where’s your desk?
You:  At work of course.
Venus waves her hand and suddenly you are at your workplace.  She shimmers into existence and tugs her suit jacket down, just like Captain Picard.  She looks so official you decide to pay attention.
Venus:  Ok, time for a drill.  Hup-two-three-four!
You:  What am I supposed to be doing?
Venus:  Working on your relationships.  Your business ones, to be precise.
You:  Why would I want to do that?
Venus:  Because without relationship, you cannot advance in your career.  Tell me about your promises and agreements. How good are you at keeping them?
You:  Oh, pretty good, I guess.
Venus:  Pretty good?  You think that’s enough?
You:  Well, I never really thought about it.  
Venus:  And that would be the problem, wouldn’t it?
She produces a very long document, which drags on the floor as she reads it.
Venus:  I have here a list of all the promises you’ve ever made.  Do you know how many you’ve broken?
You:  Um. . .
Venus:  How do you expect people to take you seriously if you can’t take yourself seriously?  Become a person of substance!
She smacks you on the back.  You stagger a little.
Venus:  Integrity, my dear!  Your career depends on it.  You want people to take you at your word, right?  You want them to take you seriously, right?  You are an adult, aren’t you?
Each question brings her closer to you until she is literally breathing down your neck.  She removes a monocle from her pocket and scrutinizes you closely.  This is an uncomfortable process.
Venus:  Mind your P’s and Q’s!  I’m watching you.
And with that she stalks out.

“Wake up!” says Saturn.  “I gave you a chance to see your responsibility recently.  Now I’m telling you again:  this is a time of testing.”

Today is a Pivotal Day
When a planet turns retrograde it makes a pivot in the sky and also creates a metaphorically “pivotal” experience for human beings.

Today, that planet is Saturn.  It’s as if Saturn is telling us, “You can’t go on avoiding responsibility forever.  Today I’m delivering a wake-up call.”  If Saturn is touching a planet in your chart this year, this message is for you and it will have very specific meaning, depending on what planet that is.  That planet, and the part of you it represents, is being asked to take responsibility.  Today is the peak of possibility of Saturn’s wake-up call, but it could happen anytime within 5 days surrounding today.

Initiation Leading to an Inner Journey
Sometime between now and the beginning of last October Saturn showed us an area of life in which we need to take more responsibility.  What he delivered was an initiation and it was our first chance to catch a clue about the changes coming.  That clue may have been obvious or it may have been subtle, but we’ve been shown a place in our life that would benefit from sustained hard work and a more serious attitude.

Did we notice?  It’s human to go into denial after a clue is delivered.  During the autumn we may have said to ourselves, “Maybe I don’t have to do anything about this.  Maybe it was just a one-time thing.  Maybe I can just move on.  Maybe I can get away without paying attention to this.”

Or maybe not.  Today Saturn turns up the volume and gives us a reminder.  “That responsibility you need to take?” he says, “You’d better figure it out and start doing it.”  This is a wake-up call.  Today, Saturn’s retrograde journey begins and with it begins our journey inward to discover what responsibility we need to take and how it will benefit us to do so.  Saturn’s retrograde journey lasts until the day it turns direct, which is May 30, 2010.

Where must we take responsibility?
The sign Saturn begins its backwards journey in matters, as well as the sign it moves backward into.  Saturn has been in Virgo for the last 2¼  years.  In 2010 it moves forward into Libra.  Its retrograde journey takes it back into Virgo for a few brief months before making the commitment to forward motion into Libra.

Virgo represents the phase of life in which we become a full adult.  In Virgo we assume adult status, enter the workforce and groom ourselves for life as a grown-up.  Libra, falling next in zodiacal order, represents relationship.  In Libra occurs the encounter with the Other, the Beloved.  In Libra we meet our match.

But before we move on to the domain of relationships, Saturn is telling us we need to get our house in order as individuals.  He tells us this by moving back into Virgo for a brief time before then moving forward into Libra.  This will be a period of grooming, cleaning, perfecting.  If you have organized things and structured your health or personal habits over the last 2 years, this is your last chance to complete that process before Saturn shifts out of Virgo’s perfection realm into Libra’s relating realm.  Virgo is a period of preparation to meet the Beloved, a period of finding oneself before entering into relationship with another in Libra.  It is that last moment you spend in front of the mirror before leaving the house.  “Is everything in order?” Saturn wants to know.  The next few months are your last chance (for many years to come) to make it so.

Is this story your story?
If this resonates for you, it may be that you are personally touched by this transit.  Saturn may be triggering a planet in your own chart, thus bringing these themes up for you.  This year Saturn is covering the space between 27 degrees Virgo and 4 degrees Libra.  If there is anything in your chart in 27, 28 or 29 degrees of Virgo, Gemini, Sagittarius or Pisces, you will feel this.  Also if you have anything in 0, 1, 2, 3, or 4 degrees of Libra, Capricorn, Aries or Cancer, you will feel this.  And knowing it can explain feelings you may be having of guilt, seriousness, obligation, duty or feeling trapped or limited.  Saturn may be trying to tell you something important, and if you listen, your discomfort will ease and a clear path to action can open up before you.

What area of your life is being affected?
Good question.  It will have to do with the planet in your chart that’s being triggered by Saturn.  If it’s Mercury, Saturn is asking you to sharpen, hone and focus your mind, so this could be the right time for studying hard.  If it’s Venus or Juno, Saturn is testing your relationships for strength and resilience.  If it’s Jupiter, your hope and faith are being tested.  But whatever it is, that feeling of heaviness, oppression, limitation and the pressure to take committed action are present.  That’s Saturn.  He’s nobody’s favorite planet, but because he lives in each of us, the job gets done.

Want to know more about how this Saturn transit affects your life?
Contact Jamie at pandora@pandoraastrology.com
to schedule a reading.

This December 31st we have an extremely special kind of full moon.  Not only is it a lunar eclipse, but it’s also a blue moon!  A blue moon is a second full moon inside a calendar month.  It only happens in months that are long and that begin with a full moon, allowing room for another full moon 29 days later to still be in the same month, thus the phrase “once in a blue moon.”  Full moons are times of heightened emotion to begin with, but when you add the increased intensity of the eclipse, the rarity of the blue moon and the fact that it’s New Year’s Eve for cultures using the Gregorian calendar, the day of December 31st is outrageously special.

This lunar eclipse brings strong emotions and nostalgia to pressure as the sensitive Moon in Cancer is pitted against the tough-minded Sun in Capricorn.  Saturn and Pluto act as Shadow Agents, bringing in themes of integrity and intensity.

Details About This Eclipse

Date:  December 31, 2009
Time of eclipse: 11:13 AM PST
Type: partial (weak in intensity)
Visible in: People in Asia, Australasia, Europe and Africa will see this small sliver of an eclipse.
At: 10 degrees Cancer
Shadow Agents: Pluto in Capricorn, Saturn in Libra

Does It Affect You Personally?

If your birthday is on any of the following dates, you most likely experienced this eclipse:
December 26-January 5
March 25-April 5
June 27-July 7
September 28-October 8

Remember, not every eclipse touches everyone, but when it does, it’s usually noticeable.  A lunar eclipse is likely to bring up strong emotions.  The following script is just one possible way it could go.

You hear a knock at the door.  You answer it.  Saturn is there:  he’s a serious-looking older man in a dark business suit, wearing a power tie.  Next to him is Pluto, the Alchemist, in a long black robe spattered with various chemicals.  Pluto is carrying a large pot.  Something seems odd about that pot, but before you can argue, both of them sweep past you and head for . . . your kitchen??
You:  wha?
Saturn:  Sit down.  Shut up.  Do as you’re told.
You:  But this is MY house!
Pluto:  You’re not in charge here.
Saturn pushes you into a chair and actually ties you to it while Pluto gets busy at the stove.  Once Saturn has finished restraining you, you can begin to see what Pluto is doing.  He’s put the giant, black, cast-iron pot onto the stove, added a lot of some strange-smelling liquid and is turning the heat up.  Way up.  You notice it’s not so much a pot as it is a cauldron.
You:  You’re not going to hurt me, are you guys?  What did I do wrong?
Saturn:  Nothing.  This is just how we roll.
The pot is now boiling.  Pluto begins to walk around the house and grab particular items to put into the pot.
You:  Hey, that’s my favorite shirt!  I aced a job interview in that shirt!
Pluto:  Does it have sentimental value?  In it goes!
You:  Oh no, not that photograph—that’s the only memory I have of her!  Damnit, will you fiends stop?
Saturn:  Who are you really?  Have you thought about it?  Where’s your integrity?
You:  I don’t know what you mean.  You guys are just torturing me.  What gives you the right?
Saturn:  You are the amalgam of all things that have ever happened to you PLUS the essential ingredient.  The thing that makes you different from every other human being alive.
You:  What’s that?
Saturn:  What you did with what happened to you.  That one single driver inside you that decided what to do with all the things that happened.  Did you achieve or fail?  Did you love or hate?  Were you a whiner or were you heroic?  That moment of decision—how you act under pressure—is the crucial ingredient.
Saturn reaches into your chest and grabs your heart, pulling it out.  You have no idea why you’re still alive as he tosses it into the pot.  Pluto claps on the lid and seals it tightly.  Belatedly you realize it’s not an ordinary pot—it’s a pressure cooker.  As Pluto turns up the heat under the pot, the pressure increases until you think your heart will explode.  All the feelings, sensations and experiences you’ve ever had are suddenly compressed together with enormous force.  You realize there are few moments in which you made the heroic choice under pressure.  You want to die but find yourself alive anyway, and open your eyes.
Saturn:  You must change your life.
Pluto:  Got it?
You:  unh.
They pack up the pot and go.

Today is a milestone in this year’s phenomenal triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius.  Today Jupiter and Neptune form a perfect conjunction for the third and final time.  This month is our last chance to take advantage of the magic these two make together and they really want us to know that.  Here’s a snippet of their conversation:

Jupiter and Neptune are perched atop their favorite cloud, watching the world go by.
Jupiter:  Hey, Neptune, have you noticed that it’s a really jaded world out there?
Neptune:  I had in fact, noticed that.  Nobody seems to believe in anything anymore.
Jupiter:  Why do you think that is?
Neptune:  Actually, I think it’s your fault.  Advertising, your monster-child, has jaded them and they are so glutted with unfulfillable promises that they can no longer hear the siren song of true magic calling them.  MY siren song.
Jupiter:  Oh, I really don’t think I’m the only one to blame here.
Neptune:  No?
Jupiter:  Definitely not.  You, after all, are always trying to get people to believe in ridiculous, ungrounded, unprovable metaphysical principles.  People are tired of being psychologically overextended.  They want reality.
Neptune:  BUT they want reality to go their way.
Jupiter:  True.
Neptune:  Yet they’ve forgotten that being able to imagine the impossible, which is my gift—   (Neptune takes a little bow)
Jupiter: —and having enough hope to carry through the effort necessary to prevail despite the impossibility of the task, which is my specialty—  (Jupiter bows back with pretend gravity)
Both in unison: —is exactly how reality can be bent to human will!
They do a little dance, then collapse in laughter.
Jupiter:  Do you think anyone took notice?
Neptune:  Probably not.
Jupiter:  Maybe we’d better try another method.
Neptune:  Ok, what do you have in mind?
Jupiter:  I’m thinking of a Peter Pan moment.
Neptune:  I know exactly the one.  I’m with you.
Together they lean over the cloud and address themselves to all of humanity, in booming-god tones loud enough to be mistaken for a thunderclap.
Both in unison:  DO YOU BELIEVE IN FAIRIES, PEOPLE?  DO YOU?  If so, you’d BETTER START CLAPPING!  Because right now, this very moment, is the one in which you can choose to make a miracle.  IF, that is, you want one.  So there.
The two of them roll back onto the cloud and listen intently for a moment.  Then, just when they were about to give up, they hear it:  the clapping, coming from all over Earth, of people who believe in fairies and some other people who maybe don’t exactly believe in fairies but think it would be a better world if we had a few.  Neptune and Jupiter are filled with delight and dissolve into a fit of giggles.  With each giggle a fairy is born and flies off to do good in the world, for all the people who clapped, and even for a few who didn’t.

For more on this, see:
May’s Triple Conjunction of Neptune, Chiron & Jupiter
Jupiter Conjuncts Neptune: Let Your Dreams Run Wild

Sunday, December 20, 2009 through Wednesday, March 10, 2010

What is Mars Retrograde?
“Mars retrograde” means Mars is in the part of its cycle where it is traveling backwards from our point of view here on Earth.  When Mars goes retrograde, we are cast upon a symbolic Hero’s Journey.

A retrograde period of any planet is a retrospective of that planet’s themes.  It is a time of moving backward, perhaps of going back to pick up pieces lost in the past.  It can be a retrieval, a turning inward, a letting-go.  A Hero’s Journey is a life-passage in which we retrieve our own heroism.  True heroism involves courage, strength, assertiveness, but also gentleness and appropriate restraint—and during this journey we are tested, in a number of ways, for those things.  While Mars is retrograde, we’ll face many opportunities to be a hero in a deeper, truer sense than we ever have before.

How Are Heroes Made?
As human beings, we feel the tug of the heroic journey because each of us (regardless of our physical gender or age) has a hero inside us and that part of us wants to become immortal.  This side of us, symbolized by Mars in our astrology chart, is drawn toward conflict and righteous struggle as we seek to retrieve the lost pieces of our heroism.  We want to be assertive but we don’t really want to hurt others.  We love a glorious battle, but what’s behind that is the simple desire to assert ourselves against a worthy obstacle, sharpen and hone our battle skills and emerge victorious.  To be a hero is to have at our command all the strength, courage and fortitude that we need to contend with any situation in life and come out a winner.

How Long Will It Last?
Mars will be retrograde from Sunday December 20, 2009 through Wednesday, March 10, 2010.  That’s a long time—almost 12 weeks.  Plenty of time to have a few interesting adventures that will test our mettle.  During this 12 week period I’ll be telling stories from the adventures of Greek and Roman heroes who exemplify certain heroic virtues.

Six Tales of Heroic Virtue

Strength—Hercules
Strength is naturally the first of the heroic virtues and Hercules exemplifies it.  His stories overflow with his vitality, hotheadedness and even his sexual prowess.
Courage—Achilles
The virtue of courage is shown by the story of Achilles and his famous weakness (his heel).  Paradoxically, his is a story of faith in one’s own invulnerability.
Resourcefulness—Odysseus
The virtue of resourcefulness is best shown in the craftiness and guile of the clever Odysseus, for whom the Odyssey (his journey) was named.
Alliance—Castor & Pollux
The famous mythical Twins (who make up the constellation Gemini) are a perfect example of the importance of brother- and sister-hood, the ability to form ties with trustworthy battle allies.
Invention—Alexander the Great
Alexander’s story is a historical as well as a mythical one.  His slicing of the Gordian Knot reveals the power of creating your own original solution.
Devotion—Orpheus
What good is a hero without something worth fighting for?  Orpheus was willing to go to the land of the dead and charm the Lord and Lady of that land to reclaim his beloved wife.

I’m going to have a LOT of fun writing these for your benefit and I hope you enjoy the process fully as much as I do.

Mars, the Inner Hero
Every one of us has a hero within us, and that would be Mars.  Mars is the heroic, strong, courageous, overpowering force that beats fiercely in the heart of every human alive.  When we need defending, Mars steps forward.  When we get into a fight, Mars got us there.  Making friends with Mars, and being aware of the gifts and challenges shown by his position in our chart, is the best way to become a hero.  (Contact me if you want a reading about that.)

What Will You Do With This Opportunity?
Heroes are made, not born.  This is not an easy process.  To become a hero is to exert oneself and likely fail many times before the ultimate win.  This involves not giving up along the way.  You must be able to hope and to imagine how to conquer even seemingly-impossible obstacles.  The tales I’ll be telling over the upcoming weeks involve more than strength—they involve courage, imagination, intelligence and even love and devotion.  A true hero fights for what is right when that is needed and puts down his sword in peacetime.  A hero in modern-day is not only a warrior, but blends all these human qualities into one seamless whole.  To be a hero is not exclusively open to men, but to women also, and children too.

Naturally, this means you.  What will you do with the opportunities this astrological event offers?  Will you see them as opportunities?  Will you take up your sword and follow the flag of your inspiration?  Mars demands not just comprehension, but action.  Mars doesn’t care what you think or feel; he cares what you do.  And when he’s awake in you, you are unstoppable.

Mars is retrograde now.  He’s raised the horn to his lips.  He’s uttered a battle cry.  Will you leap into the fray?

In honor of Sagittarians everywhere, this post is about Jupiter, Sag’s ruling planet, the bringer of joy.

Jupiter is located in a sign in your chart that brings you joy.  Wherever Jupiter resides will tell a story of an area of life or a way of being which brings you sheer delight and happiness.  To do your Jupiter thing is the very pursuit of happiness for you.  The feeling you get when you do that is a sense of expansion, pleasure and lightness.  Jupiter is just plain fun.

Jupiter is also the part of us that reaches beyond ourselves and makes us grow bigger.  This part helps us develop a philosophy of life that answer’s life’s big questions and makes sense of our place in the universe.  When you are in touch with your Jupiter side, life has meaning and you have a reason to live.  You have a happiness to pursue and when you do so, you exude such positive, hopeful qualities that life rolls out the red carpet, tossing you opportunities and making you lucky.  When you are friends with your inner Jupiter, life is an adventure.

How do you find out where your Jupiter is?
If you don’t have your chart, or don’t know how to read your chart, you might want to order your own personal Astrology Chart Decoder.  This is a special tool I’ve invented that puts your chart’s details in English, instead of astrology symbols.  Your Decoder tells you where every planet in your chart is located:  the sign it’s in, the house it’s in and the exact degree it occupies.  When you’ve got your Decoder in front of you, check to see what your Jupiter sign is.

Where’s Your Joy?
When you have Jupiter in Aries, you derive joy from leaping into action.  It’s a little hard to sit still because you’d rather be in motion, making progress or getting somewhere.
Spontaneity delights you and you are never so happy as when your own action is the right one and brings delight to others.  You bounce back fast & learn well from mistakes.  Your philosophy is based on transparency and you get a lot of joy from being your truest self without apology.  To you, mutual honesty and directness are the key to any relationship.

Jupiter in Taurus people love the physical world.  If you have this Jupiter sign, you relish feeding all your senses with delicious sights, sounds, tastes, scents and textures.  Can this lead to gluttony?  You bet.  It can also lead to acquisitiveness.  But such people do generally end up with the nest egg they seek and lots of nice things to decorate it with.  And your love of food leads to natural cooking talent.  Your philosophy of life includes the importance of continuity and the idea that things should go on much the same unless there’s a really good reason to change them.

Jupiter in Gemini?  Ok, you can be a real talker, even a serious chatterbox.  You love being clever, expressing your wit and getting into wide-ranging conversations on a huge variety of topics.  You are a “renaissance person,” pulled in a number of directions, all of which give you equal joy.  In fact, you’re so multi-talented that you don’t know what to develop.  Being involved with several ideas at once brings you delight and your life-philosophy involves the importance of using one’s intelligence and seeing life logically.

People with Jupiter in Cancer are a fountain of love and nurturance for those lucky enough to be around them.  When you have this, you tend to feel emotionally secure and to feel like your emotions are ok without needing validation from others.  You spread your support around liberally and are not easily emotionally depleted.  You are sensitive to the needs of others, but not clingy or cloying.  Yours is an open kitchen and a well-trod welcome mat.  Your philosophy of life involves the importance of family and of treating people like family.

Jupiter in Leo is very expansive and exudes noblesse oblige.  This makes you a really royal person.  Creativity gives you joy and you like to express yourself, but beware of excess self-involvement.  You can bear a lot of attention.  You are a natural leader and role model.  You are sometimes unaware of how your large expression can overwhelm others and stifle their expression.  When you make room for the creativity of others while not diminishing yourself, you are the best role model of all.  Your philosophy is about being an individual and the importance of individual will and expression.

Jupiter in Virgo is similar to Gemini.  When you have this, you can get lost in, and overwhelmed by, the details.  You find yourself trying to pan out and focus in at the same time, which can be frustrating, but on the other hand, having an abundance of Virgoan organizational energy is not a bad thing at all and you like nothing so much as a clean, fresh surface ready for use.  Your health tends to go well because you enjoy putting healthy habits in place.  Your philosophy can put a positive spin on the work ethic, partly because being efficient and industrious just feels good to you.

Jupiter in Libra people truly enjoy relating to others, which may account for your varied and interesting social life.  Your philosophy includes the tenet that life should be fair and this trips you up occasionally, when it doesn’t bear out.  You think everyone’s beliefs deserve room, except where they exclude the beliefs of others.  You can be a social magnet and a matchmaker, introducing the right people to each other and smoothing over social mishaps among your many and varied friends.  Your tolerance for people’s differences leads to a host of good connections that can pay off over time.

When you have Jupiter in Scorpio, you have a dark side that you enjoy.  Sometimes this takes the form of gallows humor and sometimes it’s about a love of the gritty, grimy side of life (a fascination with detective novels, for example).  Your philosophy includes the idea there’s no moment so dark it will not pass and that there is a light at the end of every tunnel.  Because of that, you make a good helper and guide for people who are truly at the end of their rope, because you have a high tolerance for other people’s shadows.  In fact, your sheer delight at seeing someone else being real while in pain is infectious.

When you have Jupiter in Sagittarius you like to stay mobile.  You are a pretty purely Jupiterian person, so you have a strong sense of humor, a large and benevolent presence and you are fascinated with travel and foreign cultures.  You are delighted by that which is different from you simply because it is different—that makes it interesting.  You are sometimes very restless and need to avoid getting tied down.  You have a deep well of optimism and can bounce back from just about anything.  Your life-philosophy leaves room for endless growth and expansion.

Jupiter in Capricorn people are prone to overworking because they love the sensation of discipline and focused effort.  When you have this, you are delighted by discovering what to devote yourself to and you get a lot of energy and joy from working extremely hard at it once you’ve found it.  Achievable goals inspire you and pie-in-the-sky goals annoy you.  While you are not naturally optimistic, once your skepticism is satisfied, you can show tremendous persistence.  Your philosophy is based on the idea that hard work leads inevitably to success—and for you, it does.

When you have Jupiter in Aquarius, progress is enlivening and central to your world-view—thwarting it runs counter to your philosophy.  You have a rebellious streak and quickly spot the places where old ways have stopped working.  You are happiest when there’s a little chaos going on due to a really big change in the works.  You have an abundance of ideas and enjoy taking an intellectual, experimental approach.  For you an adventure is better had in the world of ideas than in the physical world and you secretly like shaking up the old, established ways.

As a Jupiter in Pisces person, you have a deep well of faith to draw on.  You are a profoundly gentle and tolerant person, with warm affection for all living things.  You can be wise and generous with your attention and help make room for smaller beings around you to grow.  If you are religious, you’ve chosen the finest parts of your religion and tolerate or ignore the rest.  This frees you to participate in a communion with spirit that feeds your soul and gives you joy and vitality.  Your philosophy is simple: every living thing is deserving and there is room for all of us to be happy.

I’m not one of those doom-saying astrologers.  I won’t rant about how the world’s going to end in 2012 (or any other year).  But Saturn square Pluto is starting this month and going through August of 2010 and it’s serious.  It really is heavy. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t let you know how serious it is and how to cope with it.

Saturn is the archetype of the Wise Old Man, the Mentor, the Father Figure, the Authority.  When Saturn comes along, he reminds us of our duties, our obligations and the seriousness of the situation.  Saturn brings a reality check, sometimes a harsh one.

Pluto is the Phoenix.  He transforms everything he touches, putting it through a metamorphosis, a long dark night of the soul.  He brings a symbolic death-and-rebirth experience.  He also represents our instincts, that part of us that ferrets out the underlying truths.

These are both heavy archetypes and they are in a square to each other, which astrologers traditionally view as a stressful relationship.  A square feels frustrating and obstructive to both parties.  They are not coming to the table ready to negotiate, but ready to ‘square off.’  They’re in a fighting mood.

Here’s a snippet of conversation between the two:
Saturn: I’m the ultimate authority figure.  I’m strong and solid and I have respect for the wisdom of the elders.  I represent the continuity of culture and its rules.
Pluto: I doubt you.  I think there’s something fishy behind everything you say and do.  I think you have an interest in maintaining your position and you don’t really care about the people you have charge of.
Saturn: I’ve been in charge for a very long time.  The people put me here.  I do what I do to take care of them.  I hold communities together.  I provide the rules people live by and the punishments that keep them in line.
Pluto: You have ulterior motives.  I won’t be happy until I uncover every last slimy thing you’ve ever done and hold it up to the light of day.
Saturn: Don’t even think about crossing me.
Pluto: You know you can’t win.  You have a trail of slime behind you a mile wide.  I can smell it.
Saturn: No way—I’ve kept my past clean.  I am a person of integrity.
Pluto: I think you’re corrupt.  I’ll be watching you.  One false move and you’re out.

That was a view of Pluto obstructing Saturn.  But one can just as easily see Saturn obstructing Pluto:
Saturn: Pluto, I’ve noticed that you love intense experience.
Pluto: Yes, I do.  I like life on the edge.  I like passion.
Saturn: You can get pretty compulsive sometimes.
Pluto: I like the sensation of falling.  I like life pulling at me and I like pulling at others.
Saturn: You become addicted to things too easily.  You get lost in your compulsions and lose your good judgment.
Pluto: Did I ever have good judgment in the first place?  I have only my instincts to guide me.
Saturn: But you muddy your instincts when you involve yourself in addictions.
How can they guide you when you’re continually pulled back towards a substance or habit that makes the pain go away?
Pluto: I refuse to live in pain.  What do you suggest?
Saturn: Discipline.  Because addiction, while it promises to relieve pain in the short term, only amplifies it in the long term.  Eliminate your addictions.  Then we’ll talk.
Pluto: Not till I’m good and ready.
Saturn: You’ll probably have to hit bottom first, maybe alienate everyone around you and ruin your life.
Pluto: If the people around me don’t love me through this, maybe they were worth losing.
Saturn: I see—people are supposed to love you while you are free to abuse them because your life is so hard?  You’re such a baby.  And a victim.
Pluto: And you’re a hardass.  You only pretended to care about me.  Go away.

You see?  Both archetypes have their weak spots and this transit could well bring those weak spots out.

This transit of Pluto square Saturn lasts from November of 2009 through August of 2010.  Today’s post is just a taste of what Saturn and Pluto have in store for us.  I’ll write more about it as this transit goes on, but for now I’d like to leave you with a few interesting questions to ponder:

• In what areas of your life have you been using your role as an authority figure to avoid changing?
• In what ways have you become rigid, adhering to rules instead of flexibly responding to life’s challenges on a case-by-case basis?
• In what areas of your life does an addiction rule you and cause you to violate your own integrity—whether with yourself or with others?
• When’s the last time you lied to someone—or to yourself?  What were you protecting?

These are heavy questions.  But if you’re ready for the very foundation of your life to shift in order to change in truly deep ways for the better, this transit is perfect for you.