Mars in Aries Square Pluto in Capricorn

Ouch.

This aspect is exact at 10:14 a.m. MT tomorrow, but we're already feeling its effects.

For me, it's coinciding with some quite unpleasant physical processing (as Pluto aspects generally do). My joints feel like an elderly woman's right now. I have a tonne 'o Scorpio in my birth chart, so this is pretty much a constant state for me, but this aspect currently going down certainly takes it up a notch.

Our bodies and physical energy/drive (Mars) in tense aspect to the slow and sometimes painful Plutonic gutting and transformation our structures are going through. What we want personally coming into check by what is desired on an evolutionary level for the planet and humanity as a whole. Powerful processing going on as we're informed on a cellular level about what needs to happen next...

We haven't gotten much of a break from Pluto's all-encompassing, relentless crawl since mid-March when it started stationing retrograde. The atmosphere has been permeated with its heavy vibe, demanding all we've got. It sometimes feels as if it's demanding more than we've got, actually.

We had retrograde Venus in Aries squaring Pluto in Capricorn April 3, just as Pluto went retrograde itself. (This square colours the entire Pluto retrograde - getting clear on personal and relationship priorities, making ourselves and what we truly desire count (and putting it first) within all the structural transformation and change...)

Venus and Pluto have basically been in that square formation (within 4 degrees of being exact) since then.

Venus was stuck on 29 degrees Pisces for two weeks, just having re-entered Aries early yesterday morning.

I was having a little happy dance about that, but then I realized we had Mars square Pluto and then the second Venus square Pluto aspects to look forward to.

Venus in Aries will square Pluto again Saturday, May 2, this time with Venus moving direct.

So things we first unearthed around April 3 will be coming up again. Again, related to exerting our will and our identities successfully within the backdrop of Plutonic restructuring. Setting off in new directions more suited to who we are now based on what we truly value while working within the evolutionary imperatives laid out by Pluto in Capricorn. New set-ups. New ways of doing things. New structures.

At this point, we have the full benefit of Venus' wisdom, imparted to us during the retrograde. If we stayed true to ourselves during that first square and listened carefully to Venus as it tried to wrap up dynamics of relationships past while informing us about ourselves and how we interact in relation to others now...this square should bring some positive movement.

If we avoided or denied what that Venus - Pluto square was trying to show us then, we could have some nastier experiences as Pluto gets a little louder and more ruthless in bringing certain things to our awareness. We have to sever the dynamics Pluto asks us to sever for our future survival. We have to purge the old emotion we're holding or risk bringing more of the same crap into our lives.

It's a matter of survival right now...physically (Mars) and on a soul-level (Pluto), so we have to make the commitment to doing whatever it takes. We have to put ourselves first here. It's important. I can't stress enough how important this is, actually. Put yourself first and fight for yourself. Stand up for yourself. Make yourself count in every situation. Say "no more" to those dynamics you can no longer tolerate in your life...and mean it. Sever ties and move on.

For me, the time before an aspect becomes exact is usually an antsy, pressure-building time. That's how it feels right now. Sort of like, will this ever end??

It will, but for those of us who are sensitive to Pluto vibes, this next week might not be ever-so-comfortable. Even for those who aren't, I think this next week could be on the angsty side.

The Moon enters Cancer on Tuesday at 4:38 p.m. Mountain Time. At 7:07 p.m. it squares Venus in Aries, and at 9:52 p.m. it opposes Pluto. Bing, bang, boom.

The Moon creates a cardinal T-Square here (Venus in Aries, Moon in Cancer, Pluto in Capricorn) and kicks up some detritus from the past that we need to deal with in order to move forward into fresh Arien territory. With Pluto involved, it's probably archetypal stuff. We're purging for the collective as we deal with things personally.

So as things proceed this week, just be aware of the Plutonic undercurrents...

We have to go as deeply as Pluto asks us to this week, to look at everything and leave no stone unturned, or it will start demanding rather than asking...and then taking it out of our hands completely and forcing the issue.

This all sounds a little heavy, but if we do our best to honour the hardcore motherfucker within, we should be able to navigate our way through these energies successfully.

Aries is, in part, about the battle to be ourselves and to chart our own courses, so we can expect a bit of a fight as Venus and Mars transit the sign together throughout May. But we're really and truly blazing new territory, and it's pretty exciting. I can't even express how much I need the renewal of a new, better-suited direction in life. More than anything. I think we all do. I don't know what specific direction it's going to take, but we need to follow our impulses here and take the direction that feels fresh and energized.

That long-awaited spring renewal of physical energy should start now...held off while Mars and Venus were in Pisces and we dealt with our "last days of winter" themes. Well, they're in Aries now, and we can walk out of old dynamics related to painful self-sacrifice. No more being the sacrificial lamb. This is really possible now, so let's use this energy wisely and move on from enervating past dynamics. Things have changed. Finally, the energy is there to help us move into new territory. I could cry with relief.

We all want to get going now, and after the initial tempering squares to Pluto, we should make progress...

One other thing of note at the moment is that we are in the shadow of Mercury's upcoming retrograde. Yeah, another retrograde!!

Mercury will dip into Gemini on Thursday, April 30 and then go retrograde at 1 degree Gemini on May 6. It will retrograde back to 22 Taurus (where it was April 22) and then go direct May 30. So we'll be going back over the intellectual territory we've covered since April 22.