Mars Retrograde and More on Jack and Jill

The variety of ways people are being affected by the present Mars retrograde cycle is too numerous to describe fully. Some of the more notable events I’ve seen first-hand are motorcycle accidents, an increased number of injuries by athletes, fights with co-workers, medical diagnoses that have powerful effects, inflammations and infections at a higher than normal rate and much more. This is the physical way Mars can affect us. The reason why Mars is amped up at this time is that during its retrograde motion, Mars is closer to the Earth than usual thereby increasing its effect. Other ways I’ve seen depends on what house the Mars retrograde occurs in a person’s chart. One person whose 8th house is affected is getting his Will changed. In one’s 7th house, there are conflicts with friends and co-workers. And in the 2nd house a person is really looking at changing their strategy of investing and earning more money.

However, there are also very positive effects that often occur at this time. This is due to the fact that this is a great time to review our strategies and change the direction we have been taking. Sometimes matters get worse so that we are forced to deal with something. One friend has had harsh dealings with her boss and it turns out that this boss has a lot of anger issues and is being overwhelmed with the number of people lining up against him. It’s subtle but the boss is sick more often than usual and is having to miss work. Hopefully as the cycle continues he will feel the necessity of really examining his behavior and the degree to which he is negatively affecting others around him and ultimately himself as well.

Jack and Jill

The way our two friends are experiencing the Mars retrograde is quite positive and is worth going into in some detail.

“Jack” –  is experiencing the Mars retrograde in his 7th house of relationships. Although he has been going through a tremendous amount of shifting in his consciousness about his parents and family, his relationship is also shifting but in a very positive way. He writes, “While the most dramatic aspects of my life revolve around the drama of dealing with my family and friends, my personal life is the happiest it’s ever been. I have been in a loving 3 year relationship with my boyfriend (my first long-term relationship) and I couldn’t be more personally satisfied. The healing that has occurred as a result of this loving relationship has allowed me to deal with my family problems in an adult and mature way.” Also, his relationship has enabled him to learn that there are times when it is necessary to assert himself (Mars) and express what he needs in order to create a good relationship.

Mars also rules the way we deal with anger and that issue has come up in connection with his mother. In this regard’ Jack’ writes, “While dealing with my mother is hard and emotional for me, I am not angry with her. I love her but I can’t allow her to continue to treat me (or my brother or her grandchildren) in a way that’s hurtful. It’s a grown-up feeling that’s new for me.”

I know that Mars often is associated with physical movement, but there is also a very important psychological component to it as well. “Jack” has been examining classic 7th house issues of co-dependency, especially with his mother and observed the following:  “I’ve have noticed many situations where my need to control (which I always think of as  “helping”) flares up and I take a step back and let people take care of their own needs. I’m very sensitive right now to people around me who I feel are trying to manipulate me versus ask me to do something for them in a direct way. I usually take the bait and they don’t even need to ask because I am so good at anticipating needs. So now I’m working on standing back and not taking the bait forcing them to ask me directly for help or allowing someone else to take up the slack.

And finally, “Jack” has also been looking at his assumptions in life. Mars rules ’surgery’ which includes cutting out unnecessary or outworn belief systems. That’s what “Jack” has been doing as well as he writes- “I have been revaluating everything in my life especially my assumptions, like working too many hours in order to buy a house or working myself to death so that I can become rich (What I thought was the American dream). It feels like a veil has been lifted and I’m starting to see things as they are. It seems like I’m surgically separating the assumptions of what I have always thought my life should look like (A Martha Stewart life with an immaculate house and nice things) from my deepest desires and goals (Living as an artist, creating, living outside-of-the-box). I’ve even been contemplating moving to another country, one that allows gay marriage, national health care, child care, etc. A country that aligns with my values already. In my day to day life I have been focusing on enjoying myself while I do tasks, and not try to rush through them”. All these facets that ‘Jack’ has written about are part of what the Mars retrograde cycle is all about. Now, let’s take a look and see how “Jill” has been affected by the Mars transit.

“Jill” - with Mercury turning direct, Jill’s business has been picking up and her income is improving. Also, she has started teaching classes that are helping her form and coalesce a very new and unusual approach. Jill has a Jupiter/Uranus conjunction and is coming up with a radically new system which combines astrology, yoga, soul retrieval with goal setting. She is combining all of this with her expertise in beauty products and makeup and developing a method for women to invoke new energies and paradigms through the use of color and makeup. This new strategy is coming together now, in the middle of the Mars retrograde. Ironically, as she is re-inventing herself, she is simultaneously developing and refining a system where she can assist others to re-define themselves.

Part of the changes she is making has to do with developing new ways of ‘languaging’ what she is offering, developing new symbolism for her system, which is especially difficulty as what she is doing is so out of the box and eclectic. Yet, this is exactly the fullest expression of her chart which is really coming forward right now.

She expressed her challenge to me as basically one of figuring out how to bring all these different facets together. She knows how to do it herself, but what is not so easy is how to speak about it publicly.

Also, the problems in her life that she is tackling is what she called ‘tying up loose ends.’ This includes paying off debts, getting her financial house in order and discovering how all she has learned in the many aspects of her life are coming together and how they apply to her personally. The internal/external process she is going through right now is incredibly interconnected and quite dynamic.

With Saturn and Pluto also involved, it is not surprising that the primary theme of her life right now is that of re-inventing. The part that the Mars retrograde is playing in this is that she is having to, in a sense, let go of everything that she knows and has learned up to now and give herself enough time so that it can reconstitute itself in a totally new way. This is how Mars retrograde can assist her.

And how it can also assist us as well.

I hope this article helps you understand some of the potential ways that the cycle we’re in now can be used to our advantage. And I really hope many of you will comment on our blog and tell us how you are being affected as well.

Good luck as we move into the Full Moon!

The Solar Eclipse & Jack Part 2

Jack's Transits

 

Purpose of the Jack and Jill Series

Although there are many readers with some degree of astrological knowledge, the vast majority do not have this education. So quite appropriately, I have been asked why I’m presenting articles that go into the transits of what a person is experiencing. It might be helpful therefore to state the reasons for this.     

The first reason is that I desire for my readers to understand what astrology can reveal and to a lesser but still important degree, learn what astrological counseling is and how it can be of assistance. While I don’t believe astrologers are capable of making concrete predictions reliably, I have seen that astrology can reveal the nature of the themes and cycles we are under at a given time. We can describe the “weather patterns”, so to speak and this insight can help us understand the meaning of what is occurring. This, I find, is far more helpful than knowing just what will happen.     

The second reason is that I believe even novices can discover how one can enjoy and benefit by understanding basic astrological principles and see how these can be applied to a specific person. This is the art of the astrologer. Our job is to bridge the gap (along with the participation of the client) between the archetypal universal principles and how they manifest for a particular person in any given time period.     

Today’s article regarding Jack is an example of the second reason because we are going to look at the meaning of Jupiter and how Jack is being affected by its transit to his Sun, Moon, Neptune and Mid-Heaven. Yes, this one planet is affecting these four very important points at the same time.     

The principle of Jupiter is that it expands what it touches. This expansion can be physical, but more often it expands our minds and consciousness, opening us to higher understandings and truths. It can literally bring things out into the open, occasionally in quitea  dramatic way. Often, Jupiter carries with it the need to risk, for any increase in awareness brings with it the possibility that what we discover could destroy old viewpoints and understandings that have confronted us. The fact is that when we formulate a belief system (or better said, it formulates in us), giving it up for a new set of viewpoints, however truthful and helpful to us in the long run, is often very disturbing and uncomfortable.     

Jack is living this right now. He has grown up with certain thoughts, feelings and viewpoints about his father and mother and all of these are having to be thrown out and replaced by an unknown, but much more truthful set of understandings. Transiting Jupiter is opposing his Moon and squaring his Sun. But it also is affecting what is called the parental axis – the Mid-Heaven/Lower-Heaven angles. What is happening specifically is that radically new information is coming to Jack ove turning his belief system about his parents. He is seeing his mother in a new way. Before he was her defender and protector. He described himself as in a co-dependent relationship with her therefore unable to really see her as she is. That is no longer true, as the Jupiter transit, lasting for the past six to nine months has been helping him wake up to the truth of his mother. A veil is being lifted from his eyes. He said to me that “I could not imagine seeing her the way I do now only one month ago.” He is seeing her as unable to take responsibility for herself. During the Mercury Retrograde he spoke to her about her refusal to reach out to him, she denied it.     

He described her as a person who “grabs on to whatever appears.” She has recently married an evangelical Christian who has total control over her, though she has never in the past been interested in religion. He described her past relationships as also being with narcissistic men who controlled her. In his last communication with her he has asked her to enter therapy and told her that if she chooses not to do so, he will cease having a relationship with her as she is too toxic for him.     

Of course, Jack is still in the midst of processing all that is happening and there is a likelihood that his present feelings will continue to shift, but the process has begun and there is no turning back now.     

This is Jupiter in action – expanding Jack’s vision and understanding and pushing him to a new level of honesty with himself and others. By the way, on the other side, his relationship with his father has been improving at the same time as his respect for him has grown. Sometimes Jupiter puts us into a topsy – turvy spin and all we can do is hang on for the ride.     

The Solar Eclipse

Last night at 11:11pm PST, January 14, 2010 we had a Solar Eclipse that occurred at 25 degrees of Capricorn. An eclipse often brings about a shift in the inertia of a situation, breaking a particular pattern in such a way that it allows or even forces something new to develop. There are two ways to analyze the possible effects of an eclipse. One is by looking at the chart itself and the other is by working with the nature of the specific Saros cycle the Eclipse is activating. This is a technical astronomical matter that I won’t explain here, but I will describe its nature. In the system used by Bernadette Brady, this eclipse is called 12 North. She writes about it as an eclipse that can bring  far more responsibility that arises from another person being unable to carry on fulfilling those responsibilities. Although these opportunities may be difficult, they often bring about positive outcomes in terms of self-esteem and harmony.   

This particular eclipse is also conjunct Venus, which further increases the likelihood that the newly emerging forces are favorable for relationships, money and happiness. One student has already begun to experience this eclipse in a way that exactly coincides with this description. She has been involved with an organization with many failings and that organization has fallen apart. She is now considering creating her own organization as she has discovered that she has both the abilities and motivation to succeed where others have failed. Not surprisingly, her birth chart has been lit up by both the Lunar and Solar Eclipses of the past two weeks. How affected we may be by an eclipse will depend on where it connects with our own chart.   

As always, I urge you to write about your own experiences with this eclipse. I will make an effort to answer as many of your questions as possible.   

Good luck!   

Jack – Part I

Jack

Introduction:

Let’s begin by introducing Jack. Right now, Jack is in the process of getting his MFT license so that he can become a practicing therapist. Not surprisingly Jack is very interested in learning more about himself and others. In his interviews with me, Jack was very open and immediately began to talk about the biggest issues in his life. One of the first things he emphasized is his love for writing and singing. But although the creative arts are his passion, he is also frustrated in his ability to be able to express his talents more fully. As he has gotten older, this has begun to improve as he is now singing more publicly. He said to me, ‘I am not willing to do the work” and when I asked why, he said that he hasn’t been able to stick with anything long enough. He then added that “I have many interests but have a hard time choosing one thing, to master it.” 

Early Childhood: Jack was adopted and felt accepted by his family. He developed a strong connection with his mother, but as he got older, that relationship began to become much more complicated. His father was a more ‘blue-collar’ type of person, worked hard to provide for his family, but Jack did not feel close to him. He felt his father didn’t understand him and his sensitivity. For example, when Jack was young he loved to play with dolls and his father, while letting him do so, didn’t like it and seemed to hope he would grow out of it. The most significant thing to Jack was that he had problems learning in school. He felt he needed guidance and assistance, but it was not provided by his parents so he was left to his own devices to try to figure out how to bet by in school. He was diagnosed as ADHD at some point, but was not given the help he needed to work with that. (This is where I have to point out to my readers that as a therapist/social worker/astrologer I have been frustrated for years watching the school system’s attempt to handle problems such as Jack’s. His chart explains a great deal about what is really going on and to simply give him a label and then expect him to conform to the system’s structures is a recipe for disaster.)

Jack’s Birth Chart: I need to describe a few key things about Jack’s chart to begin to put certain things into perspective. He has what is called a T-square between his Sun in Taurus, Moon in Leo and Neptune in Scorpio and they are very close to his Mid-heaven and nadir (often also called the parental axis). On one hand this gives him a tremendous imagination and sensitivity, while also making it difficult to function in our society’s linear, rational and logical way. Were he to be educated in a way that took his nature into account, his early childhood frustrations would not have existed and he might have had a much easier time of it. He also might have never been diagnosed in the way he was, which itself planted seeds of doubt, fear and weakness which, in turn, created a whole host of new problems that affected his self-esteem. Jack is the type of person who can benefit from a very different educational approach. Jack also has a second T-square between Venus, Mars and Saturn. In our discussions, Jack used the word ‘social phobia’ to describe some of his deepest frustrations and it seems to be coming from this complex set of aspects.

An Aside: It is important to stop for a moment to add something about the classic discussion about fate and free will. While astrology does postulate that we are fated in many ways, something our culture strongly invalidates, it remains important to remember that the moment we become conscious of a particular attribute in our chart, that we become freer to explore and deal with it consciously. This can change things for us significatly. Also, it is true that every so-called disability is also something that can be turned to a positive through a variety of means. This is in fact, what Jack is doing. He is working to fulfill his dreams each and every day of his life and has not let his frustrations stop him from making the effort. This is why astrologers often look at a chart such as his and comment that often success comes later in life for this person and is the result of efforts made over a long period of time. There is something positive to be said about this. The Soul can learn a lot from this kind of effort.

Family Life: Whenever a person has stressful planetary configurations connected to what’s referred to as the ‘parental; axis’, difficulties with parents/family become highly likely. This is true in Jack’s case as well. Not only was he adopted, but his connections with each of his adoptive parents have also been a struggle and a mystery. This is a classic Neptune phenomenon. His parents were divorced, but what he was told as to the reason, has recently turned out not to be true. He believed for many years that the divorce was caused by his father’s alcoholism, but that was not true. As Jack has matured, he began to see that his mother was not who he thought she was. While he was her defender, she was suffering from what he called ‘the grass is greener’ syndrome. She lived in a perpetual state of dissatisfaction. It is only now that Jack is discovering that the reason for the divorce is that his mother cheated on his father. This was hidden from him. It is with the transit of Mars slowing down and approaching its change to retrograde motion that the truth is emerging. This disappointment is often ascribed to Neptune and is active now for all of us as it moves toward its last conjunction with Jupiter. For Jack, this transiting conjunction has activated the first T-square I mentioned earlier between his Sun, Moon and Neptune.

More Changes Coming

 There is a lot more to happening to Jack as a result of the coming Mars retrograde and the effects of the Jupiter/Neptune conjunction, so look for the next installment of our series.

I want to thank Jack for his openness and willingness to speak about such sensitive topics for him. The next newsletter will be Jill – Part II.