Mars in Taurus Square Saturn Rx in Aquarius: Suicide Prevention Through Astrological Awareness

Mars in Taurus square Saturn Rx in Aquarius at 22 degrees - August 7, 2022

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Transiting Mars in Taurus, still conjunct Uranus and the North Node of the Moon, moves to an exact square to Saturn Rx in Aquarius on August 7. Mars-Saturn squares are notoriously tough aspects, and this one will be exacerbated by all we've experienced over the past couple years. The global "lockdowns" have thrown hundreds of millions more people into a state of acute financial distress, and this aspect indicates a time when financial worries and difficulties are weighing very heavily on people. With the authoritarian social engineering schemes playing out in layer after layer, the future might look particularly bleak under this square. I've outlined some of the challenges associated with Mars-Saturn contacts in this article from March 2021: 

 

Suicide Prevention Through Astrological Awareness: Mars-Saturn Contacts

http://willowsweb.blogspot.com/2021/03/suicide-prevention-through-astrological.html

(Blogger won't let me hyperlink this article for some reason, but you can copy and paste the link or click the 'Mars-Saturn contacts' label at the bottom of this post to see the article.)

 

The energy is ramping up under this Mars-Uranus-North Node in Taurus square to Saturn Rx in Aquarius as Mars and Saturn form the exact square on August 7. The effects linger into mid-August. Under this aspect, people might be feeling squeezed and stressed past the point of what they can tolerate. Holding in mind that the intolerable conditions associated are temporary in nature can provide some relief. Just hold on, cut yourself some slack, and this too shall pass. We're all feeling this one - some more than others - and it's best to navigate the conditions, especially social conditions, with this in mind.

Suicide Prevention Through Astrological Awareness: Mars-Saturn Contacts

This is a Plutonic awareness article discussing suicidal tendencies associated with contacts between Mars and Saturn and particularly square aspects between those two bodies. This article will not be everyone's cup of tea, but as a Plutonic astrologer, I do think the exploration of this topic is valuable if done with love and respect.

I've been writing about Mars-Saturn contacts and the increased risk of suicide, particularly for men, since 2011. You can see all Mars-Saturn contacts articles here. 

Mars-Saturn Contacts: Notoriously Challenging

Mars-Saturn contacts, and particularly the square aspect, indicate the potential for acute challenge and difficulty. If placements in the natal chart are being aspected, a person can feel as if he or she is being held or trapped within tremendously tough circumstances without a viable route through them. Pressure, frustration, and despair can build to extreme levels under these contacts, and this has been shown in the past to increase the risk of suicide. A permanent decision (Saturn) is made, perhaps impulsively (Mars), that cannot be taken back. This most permanent of decisions is made in an attempt to deal with difficulties that, no matter how complex or challenging, are most likely temporary in their acute severity.

Under Mars-Saturn contacts, and particularly a Mars-Saturn square, we can feel as if our forward-ho motion is being stalled, blocked, or restricted in despair-inducing ways. We can feel as if our will is being thwarted and our movement painfully restricted. There can be a feeling that any action taken is pointless or that it will not bring about the desired result. There can be intense fear related to taking any action at all, creating a feeling of being stuck in the circumstances or problems with no outlet or solution. Our responsibilities, obligations, and challenges can seem tremendously heavy and exhausting under these contacts to the point that we doubt our ability to deal with them successfully.

Saturn can convince us (erroneously) that our problems will be this tough forever, that we've made no progress, and that there is no way out, no solution. 

Mars-Saturn contacts, and particularly squares, have a tendency to stir "between a rock and a hard place" frustrations. It can seem as if any move we make will be inadequate. Extremely uncomfortable conditions can arise and be prolonged under these contacts. 

Mars and Saturn are the two malefic planets of the zodiac. They can be really nasty buggers. When Mars and Saturn form a 90-degree square aspect, the two bodies are interacting in a particularly frictional, tense, and frustrating way. It may seem, under this aspect, that we've been stuck with the same set of problems for our entire lives, never able to gain satisfactory traction toward a long-term solution. We may be rubbing up against certain aspects of our circumstances in frictional ways, stirring feelings of anger, impatience, frustration, dread, fear, self-doubt, or defeat. 

Mars-Saturn contacts are an indicator that we’re being challenged to do things we don't really want to do, things we don’t feel we have the strength or energy to do at that moment. The feeling of being forced to make a move then kicks up anxiety, fear, and dread.  

Mars-Saturn contacts, particularly the square aspect, can indicate extreme or even intolerable frustration. These contacts can indicate restrictions being put on our ability to take action or our ability to achieve outward success within given conditions. The difficulties associated with Saturn - fear, dread, self-doubt, depression, low energy, lack of motivation, financial or career challenge - are inflamed, activated, and stirred up (Mars). There can be a feeling of not being up to the task at hand, of not being equipped to fulfill our obligations and responsibilities or the requirements of our public facades. 

In my observation, the Mars-Saturn square can be particularly harsh for men. It may be more difficult for men to talk about their challenges, especially with depression or mental/emotional health. Failure, especially career failure, may be an all-pervading fear and could lead to feeling like a failure as a person. 

Under transiting contacts, the most acute challenges are most often temporary, and things generally seem more difficult than they really are. Giving things more time is often a good strategy.

Saturn relates to fear and self-doubt, and the influence of Mars inflames or exacerbates these difficulties to a point where they might not seem manageable anymore.  

There is an intersection between anger (Mars) and depression (Saturn).

Of course, there are many beneficial elements to the Mars-Saturn contact, as well. It indicates the drive and the will (Mars) to tackle tough challenges step-by-step (Saturn), challenges under which others might buckle. Working through difficult emotions and learning new strategies for dealing with those emotions allow us to make solid progress that puts us in stronger long-term position. These are contacts that can help us to face our fears and take action in our lives. These contacts create the energy and impetus to overcome even long-standing problems and obstacles. If the (sometimes extreme) difficulties of these contacts are worked with patiently over time, we can make very substantial and satisfying progress. We can come into a new level of authority, self-control, and self-mastery by meeting their challenges. Elements of our lives that seemed outside our control can slowly come under our personal dominion.

Global "Lockdowns" Under a Prolonged Mars-Saturn Square (2020/2021) Lead to Mental Health Crisis

We experienced a prolonged square between Mars and Saturn in 2020 and early 2021. This coincided with "lockdown" restrictions around the world that put many people in very precarious financial and emotional/psychological territory. Suicides have been reported regularly throughout this period, but official statistics in most countries will not be available possibly for years. We will have to wait for the statistical data to see whether lockdown measures coincided with increased suicides, along with related deaths like overdoses. Anecdotal evidence indicates that this is the case.  

The Potential for Intense Challenge, Particularly For Males

Head's up: what I'm writing about here isn't pretty, but it is real.

I've written on the blog before about Mars - Saturn contacts and the increase in the likelihood of (in particular) male suicides.

In my own little sphere, I've heard about two male suicides as well as an attempted suicide this summer with Mars (actions) transiting late Scorpio (death).

This isn't limited to men, but men would be affected in particular, as both Mars and Saturn are masculine symbols. 

We've had extended interplay between Mars and Saturn, the two malefic bodies of the zodiac, during the Mars retrograde period (April 17 - June 29).

Mars formed a loose conjunction to Saturn as it stationed retrograde, drawing the challenge, the dread, the fear, and the intense pressure associated with Saturn into that entire process. It inflamed (Mars) all those difficult Saturnine challenges, making them seem - at times - insurmountable.

This inflammation continues...

Mars has just re-entered Sagittarius (August 2) and is now closing in on an exact conjunction to Saturn at 9 degrees of the sign (August 24). Saturn is also stationing direct August 13 in square aspect to Neptune Rx in Pisces, indicating that our responsibilities may seem more difficult/heavy/intolerable/unworkable than usual.

The situation is: many people are under an intense amount of pressure now. This reaches a peak August 24/25 with the exact Mars-Saturn conjunction and Mars-Neptune square. Luckily, we will also have a pile-up of Mercury, Venus, and Jupiter in late Virgo at that time to keep things functioning. This conjunction of the two benefic planets (Venus and Jupiter) works to offset the conjunction of the two malefic planets (Mars and Saturn).

Coming out of the Mars retrograde period as we are now, there are changes in personal direction necessary that may be upsetting to people who have gotten used to the way things are. Previous trajectories may have to be abandoned or at least transitioned now, and this may involve commitments that we were expecting to keep over the long term. There are potentially major "structural adjustments" underway in our lives, and under the current aspects, these changes may seem impossibly challenging.

There just isn't energy for these older goals, trajectories, or structures anymore. And if we pretend, if we try to carry the deadened shells on our backs just because we can't face making a different decision and potentially letting people down, we may not even be able to sustain the will to go on.

Understand the pressures that people are dealing with now. Understand the pressures affecting you and your own mental/emotional state.

When I say astrology saves lives, I'm not speaking in hyperbole. It absolutely can and does. Using astrology to understand the pressures and challenges we're under can help us to eke our way through them. In particular, the understanding that the intolerable difficulty of our challenges is temporary can help immeasurably.

I've re-opened the comments section on the blog, so if you'd like to share a comment or a laugh, please do. I think it helps to know that there are other sensitive and thinking people out there, other people who know what's up on Planet Earth. I know it helps me.

The Urge to Create Comes into Tense Aspect with the Urge to Get the Fuck Out of Here

Photo: Willow

Love, beauty, and relationship planet, Venus, entered Leo, the sign of the performer, the artist, the showstopper, and the drama queen, in the wee hours this morning where it will remain until September 5.

Venus is currently forming a gorgeous "Conjunction of the Benefics" with Jupiter, which will be exact on August 17 at 7 degrees Leo. This conjunction of the Lesser Benefic planet (Venus) and the Greater Benefic planet (Jupiter) indicates a potent creative surge that is gaining steam and will be almost unstoppable as we hit the middle of the month. This is big, bold, creative energy, and it's looking for an outlet through us.

At the same time as the benefic planets are coming together in the zodiac, however, the malefic planets Mars and Saturn are coming together in conjunction at 17 degrees Scorpio on August 25. Venus in Leo will square Saturn and Mars in Scorpio August 26/27.



This is an excerpt of the article "The Urge to Create Comes into Tense Aspect with the Urge to Get the Fuck Out of Here." It is available in its entirety to Willow's Web Astrology patrons, or it can be purchased for $5.50 by PayPal or email money transfer. 

Please Note: I send these articles out myself (no automatic service), so there may be a short delay after paying before you receive your article. This is especially the case if the article is purchased over the weekend. I'm sorry for any inconvenience. 

Suicide Prevention Post: You are Loved & You Are Needed. Stay Here With Me.

Photos: Willow

We are in the thick of the Pluto (corruption/death) in Capricorn (business/hierarchy) years, and people are being placed under layers and layers of manufactured stress. These manufactured stresses often stem from corrupt institutions that are being accepted by people as normal, sane, and legitimate.

These corrupt institutions include the money system and stock markets, as well as business and governmental models.

People feel forced to play roles and to keep up in structures that are increasingly insane, inhumane, illegitimate, violent, deadly, and devoid of soul.

People are being ruled through fear, coercion, and artificially-stimulated adrenaline - a very weak foundation, indeed, which works to break people down over the course of time.

Many are unaware of the extreme emotional and psychological violence being perpetuated by these institutions and blame themselves solely for the troubles they are encountering.

All this can break the human psyche down pretty quickly. In fact, the manufactured pressures are designed to do just that.

In an attempt to cope, people are taking pharmaceuticals for which suicidal thoughts or actions are known side effects.

There is also a covert use of energy weapons and electromagnetic frequencies underway that is creating suicidal thinking and actions in people.

If you are feeling suicidal or are having suicidal thoughts, please know that you are not alone in what you are experiencing. It is a widespread phenomenon. Also know that you can move out of the most detrimental suicidal thinking with enough time, awareness, and support. It may require some changes in your life and in the way you think about things, but you can do it.

Suicidal thoughts are temporary - even if they last off-and-on for years. The problems you are experiencing are not as big or impossible as they seem to you, and many of them have been intentionally manufactured by forces outside yourself.

Please know that the pressures being intentionally heaped upon you are not of your doing. You have not created them. You have not done something terribly wrong. You are not a failure.

Hate the state, and hate its violence against life. Don't hate yourself.

Don't allow the state to trick you into hating yourself.

From a previous post:

"In a great many instances, institutions want you to fail. They train you to fail. Because they benefit from, make money from, your failure.

Institutions destroy people. They sometimes destroy people quickly. Usually, however, it's a slow, eroding, toxifying collapse over the course of time...

The current constructs and power dynamics have lost legitimacy in the minds of all but the most conditioned.

What you have to do, pretty babies, is destroy its importance in your mind before it destroys you.

Get out from under the psychological weight of it however you can.

Step right out from under it.

Annihilate it.

Because it will crush you if you give it the chance.

Whatever is oppressing you so heavily right now doesn't matter.

Whatever is stressing you out doesn't matter. It's bullshit. Take responsibility for what's yours and get rid of the rest. Give it up to the universe, your higher power, God.

You're what matters.

You are loved...

To a great extent, our institutions are devoid of humanity. But that doesn't mean we have to be...

One of the ways they crush us is by isolating us. They make us feel as if we're the only ones going through it, as if we're irretrievably damaged goods, as if we'll never have access to what's good in life.

Understand that whenever Pluto is involved, the roots of the situation are immensely complex. Each individual struggling is part of a massive Plutonic network struggling with the same thing...

We have to work to connect with each other, even though it's hard, and to love and care for each other, or they've got us. They've stripped us of one of the primary things that makes life worth living on this planet - our loving, compassionate humanity, given and received...

Understand, if you're going through hell, there are hundreds, thousands, millions more who are going through it right alongside you. They're living almost the exact same story...or worse.

You're never alone. Please reach out when you need to. Express what's going on to those you trust, even though it's hard.

They keep us isolated in shame and embarrassment. Feeling like damaged goods. Feeling abnormal. Don't be ashamed. There isn't one thing we need to be ashamed of. It's the ones enforcing this violence who should be ashamed."

The personal planets are now moving through Taurus and will make tough oppositions to Saturn Rx in Scorpio from the end of April through mid-June. This indicates a time period that could be quite rough on the self-esteem and self-worth.

"These oppositions indicate a time period (late April to mid-June) when resources are tight, money is tight, and accumulation is difficult. We are aware of this tightness even more than usual, and this can create points of acute frustration." You can read about this in more detail here: A New Moon Eclipse in Taurus and Themes of Complex and Hidden Value.

As we move out of the intense stresses of the exact cardinal Grand Cross configuration (April 20 - 23) and into these tight Taurus-Scorpio themes, it will be easy to feel crappy about our finances and our material insecurity. It will be easy to tie our self-worth to our dwindling earning potential or bank accounts. It will be easy to forget our inherent worth.

So we must buck that trend.

Please know that you are loved, and you are needed on this planet. You are worth so much more than any amount of money or material goods. You are so much more than a paycheque.

Please do not forget all the people who need your presence in this world. There are people you don't even know who are glad you are alive. You being on this planet makes life easier and better for so many - even people you have only met in passing, even the slightest of acquaintances, even people you haven't met in the flesh. You don't have to earn any money or live the high life to please these people. All you have to do is be you in the world and keep being you in the world.

Don't forget how much you are loved and how devastating it would be for you not to be here anymore.

And please check in with other people - even those you do not know well. A random kind word or light conversation can make all the difference in the world for someone feeling isolated and miserable.

You can write about anything you are experiencing in the comments section of this post or at The Wicked Web. Both these places are safe for people to be honest about what they (and we) are going through.

Suicide Risk Alert Through December 2

Please Note: This alert is not meant to scare anyone. It does not mean people will be randomly committing suicide. It means that for people already at risk of suicide, this month is potentially very difficult.

We're moving through a time period when concentrated, complex, and multi-layered problems are surfacing from the depths. These problems often have no immediate solutions, and this can drive people to thoughts of suicide or to actual suicide attempts.

There are times when the universe heaps too much upon us, and this is one of those times.

As Mercury (the mind) stations direct November 10 in the sign of death (Scorpio), people are under a great deal of mental, emotional, psychological, and psychic pressure, and it may become impossible for them to see beyond their problems.

This Mercury station coincides with a very emotionally and psychically heavy day for the collective - Remembrance Day in Canada and Veterans Day in the United States November 11. This is a time when the collective psyche is drawing up memories and realizations of mass death, war, pain, destruction, and unresolved trauma related to those things.

This exacerbates the difficulty for individuals, as they also have this heavy collective layer sitting on them at this time.

There is a great deal of collective denial at this time about the true state of things on the planet. This collective denial is always difficult for Scorpionic/Plutonic types who often do not have the luxury of turning a blind eye. The intense cognitive dissonance in the collective at this time can also break individual psyches down.

Currently, we are under the influence of multiple difficult transits and aspects:

We're opening out of a very challenging Scorpio New Moon eclipse, conjunct dreaded Saturn, on November 3, which brought many underlying issues to the surface. We don't fully come out from under the weight of these issues until the Sagittarius New Moon on December 2, just before Mercury leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius December 4.

The fourth Uranus in Aries - Pluto in Capricorn square is just past exact (Nov. 1).

We have a stellium of planets (Mercury, Sun, Saturn, along with the North Node of the Moon) in Scorpio, a sign associated with deep trauma, concentrated fear, and emotional and psychological hell.

Saturn is moving through an area of Scorpio in one pass, indicating a time of potentially intense challenge when we can be pushed out of our comfort zones in a big way, required to do heavy excavation in our lives related to multiple trigger subjects.

As stated, messenger planet Mercury is keeping all this difficulty on our minds as it slows to a stop in the zodiac November 10. All this can prey on people's minds in excruciating ways, and it's possible that they are seeing no way out at this time.

Wounded healer Chiron is stationing direct in Pisces November 19, stirring points of intense hopelessness and psychic overwhelm. Again, this is a "nowhere to run, nowhere to hide" type of theme, problems with seemingly no solutions, and people can simply give up under the difficulty of this.

Venus has just entered Capricorn and is activating the almost-exact Uranus-Pluto square. Venus squares Uranus in Aries exactly on November 14 and conjuncts Pluto in Capricorn November 15. The conjunction to Pluto November 15 is particularly harsh and can result in people feeling cut off from any love or social support. These conditions make it much easier for people to contemplate ending it all.

Chiron in Pisces will be at its most painful point in the direct station at the time of the Venus-Pluto conjunction, as well, indicating themes of isolation, grief, and a desire for escape.

Mercury conjuncts the North Node in Scorpio and triggers the degree of the September 18 Venus-Saturn-North Node conjunction on November 18/19. (I was asked when this suicide risk period began, and I would say around this time - equinox, coming out of the Venus-Saturn-North Node conjunction in Scorpio sextile Pluto stationing direct in Capricorn.)

Mercury will then conjunct Saturn in Scorpio for the final time November 25.

November 18/19 and November 25 (the dreaded Mondays) are dates when things are potentially pushed to a head, reaching crisis points.

The Sun enters Sagittarius November 21, and there will be some relief from the deep and troubling themes of Scorpio starting at that time.

As stated, Mercury leaves Scorpio for Sagittarius December 4.

Understand the month of November as a month of potential emotional, psychological, and psychic crisis. Much of the disturbance is going on beneath the surface, as well, with collective roots, and we simply do not see or perceive everything people are dealing with at this time.

Keep an eye on the people in your circle and beyond. Extend your loving humanity to those who are struggling, and do not heap any more on people already at their breaking points.

The business structures and "business as usual" ethic have to come much lower on the list of priorities now. Maintaining emotional and psychological health, assisting those in crisis, and saving lives are most important at this difficult time on the planet.