Mars-Vesta in Sagittarius Square Neptune-Chiron in Pisces: Keeping the Motivating Flame of Truth Alive

 Photos: Willow

Mars is currently transiting Sagittarius until it reaches more solid ground in the sign of its exaltation, Capricorn, on March 17.

As warrior planet Mars moves through philosophical Sagittarius, we're truth-applying missiles, following the motivational drives of our own truth, ethics, and beliefs. We're seeking the quickest and most direct route (Mars) to greater understanding, meaning, and purpose (Sagittarius), but this path is not simple or clear-cut.

As Mars works its way through Sagittarius, it is retracing the steps of Saturn in Sagittarius (December 2014 - December 2017), which means it is activating/inflaming the themes of the Saturn in Sagittarius square to Neptune in Pisces (in effect late 2015 through 2016) and then the Saturn in Sagittarius square to Chiron in Pisces (in effect late 2016 through 2017).

Many found the years 2016 and 2017 to be highly challenging under these aspects, and we're now going through a (relatively quick) re-cap of the associated themes. 

Mars is in some pretty thorny territory with many quagmire areas in which we could get emotionally or psychically bogged down.    

Mars can have an inflammatory effect, and Mars transiting Sagittarius indicates a time period when people following their own truth may come into frictional contact with other people following an entirely different truth.

Frictions may be particularly acute in the days surrounding these exact squares:

February 13 - Vesta in Sagittarius square Neptune in Pisces at 13 degrees (along with Mercury in Aquarius square stationing Jupiter in Scorpio at 22 degrees)
February 17 - Mars in Sagittarius square Neptune in Pisces at 13 degrees
February 25 - Mars conjunct Vesta (18 degrees Sagittarius) square Venus (18 degrees Pisces)
February 28 - Mercury in Pisces square Mars in Sagittarius at 19 degrees
March 14 - Mars in Sagittarius square Chiron in Pisces at 28 degrees
March 28 - Vesta in Sagittarius square Chiron in Pisces at 28 degrees

We may be moving through some murky confusion about which way to go now. We're stepping into the backwash of some broad collective problems that seem to have no easy solutions. Under the sensitizing, immersive influence of Neptune/Chiron/Pisces, the pain and problems we face (personally and collectively) can seem particularly daunting and intolerable, and we can experience acute points of frustration, followed by depression or despair, about the way forward from here.

Motivation may be dampened somewhat under these Mars-Neptune and Mars-Chiron squares, and we may have to fight to keep our spirits buoyed and to stay on task. We may have to force ourselves to forge on, to stay on track, despite the energetic remembrance of disappointment and futility, hanging around us like stale fumes. 

We're working through some energetic lulls, some points of inertia, and some points where our footing seems to drop out from under us, and this may have us questioning the effectiveness and meaning of our current path.

These aspects are in full effect around Valentine's Day, a day which creates a big, old void of sucking misery at the best of times for a lot of people (honestly, for couples and singles alike). 

Pallas Athene in Aries, Exposing Rape in the Military, and Control of Women's Sexuality in Mythology Connected to the Feminine Asteriods

The asteroid related to the female warrior, Pallas Athene, is currently very strong in the zodiac. It has been on Uranus in Aries like white on rice for a few months now, moving retrograde with it in tandem, and has played a prominent role in the first and now second Uranus-Pluto squares.

The female warrior asteroid is infused at this time with the energy of necessary, radical change and re-direction as we enter a new astrological era (Uranus in Aries), and it is coming into tense, clashing square contact with the patriarchal power structures as they exist (Pluto in Capricorn).

These symbols indicate a theme of women fighting for change in all aspects of society, coming into contact with corrupt, unjust, and downright abusive power structures - the Pluto in Capricorn "accepted way of things."

These symbols are also playing out very literally with female soldiers fighting for justice and change in relation to the male-dominated power structures of the United States Armed Forces.

The horrifyingly high incidence of rape among female soldiers by male soldiers in the United States Armed Forces is an issue gaining traction at this time, as are the cover-ups and miscarriages of justice associated with those crimes.

According to a study released on April 13, 2012 by the U.S. Department of Defense, 3,200 rapes are reported to the military annually.

Since an estimated 80 percent of rapes go unreported, the annual total is closer to 19,000.

Of the 3,200 rapes that are reported, only half are deemed worthy of pursuing in military courts, and of that half, only 6 percent result in a conviction. One out of three soldiers convicted of rape is retained by the military, keeping his job and his place on the payroll.

Many of the women who report being raped are then harassed by fellow soldiers.

A Veterans Affairs Administration study found that nearly 1 in 3 female U.S. soldiers is raped during her service, more than double the (also horrifying) 15-percent risk of rape for civilian women. This means nearly 500,000 military women have been raped since the U.S. Armed Forces first began accepting female soldiers in 1948.

The fact that the military investigates and prosecutes itself has long been problematic, but an attorney named Susan Burke is hoping to get around this by suing the Unites States military on constitutional grounds. The claim is that the military violated her clients' constitutional rights to due process, equal protection under the Fifth Amendment, and First Amendment free-speech rights to report sexual assault without retaliation. Three lawsuits involving multiple women in each suit are either in progress or are soon to be launched against the U.S. military.

These women are truly the embodiment of Pallas Athene in Aries in action. 

Saturn Retrograde in Libra Opposite Sun in Aries and A Watched Pot Never Boils

From a previous post:

"The Sun in Aries opposes Saturn Rx in Libra April 15, and the relationship re-structuring going on has to accommodate our whole blazing selves, or it might as well be scrapped."

This is the case, pretty babies, and there's no getting around it.

As the Sun in Aries pushes into an opposition to Saturn Rx at 26 degrees Libra April 15, the asteroid Vesta and true Black Moon Lilith placement form a conjunction at 23 degrees Aries, also opposing Saturn. The soul-level investment here is in being ourselves and being true to ourselves within relationship right down to the last, rough edge. Honouring individuality beyond what the constructs of the relationships say. Honouring our fight and our scrappiness and our will to survive, even when those things are seemingly down to their last embers at this, the end of the astrological Piscean era. This is the flame we won't let die. This is what we bank on. 

In Aries, our money's on us. 

The investment here is in going deep into ourselves, loving every last secret corner where the shame, hatred, rage, grief, and deviation from the norm live. This is our fuel, what keeps us sharp, what edges the competition. Fighting for ourselves down to last breaths. Fighting to be true. 

It's an investment in only those people and those relationships that can contain this version of you, the whole version - no fibs, no lies, no cheating around the edges. This is the exertion of whole self, all chambers firing, and we stretch right out into it with these oppositions. Standing up when we have to. Letting fly when we have to. 

Black Moon Lilith and Vesta are here to make sure we don't compromise ourselves detrimentally one iota, that we don't try to squeeze ourselves into a relationship two sizes too small, that we don't attempt to dull any of our feisty edge or whitewash any of our colour as Saturn tries to convince us that we're running out of time, past our prime. 

There is no moment but this moment, and every day, in every way, we're getting better, truer, stronger. This is what Black Moon Lilith and Vesta are whispering, together, in our ears as we bloom into weird and wild Aquarius. 

Invest in yourself, in this moment. This is the most important relationship you'll ever have. 

The Aquarius Moon sextiles the Aries bodies/points and trines Saturn retrograde in Libra on April 15, the day of the Sun-Saturn opposition. We're willing to set ourselves apart, to risk it. It's the refusal to be anything but ourselves, the refusal to be dimmed or dulled that re-builds the world. 

The Moon continues on its way, meeting Vesta in exact conjunction in late Aries April 20 with both bodies in exact opposition to Saturn Rx in Libra. The themes continue. 

Saturn retrograde in Libra reminds us that, when it comes to relationships, a watched pot never boils. The worry and heaviness and sense of arduous delay brought to the topic of relationship by Saturn dissipates only when we're too busy doing our own thing to concern ourselves with it. 

And all this Aries opposing gives us the perfect opportunity to stop watching. Stop waiting. Just go.

Vesta Conjunct Pallas Athene in Aquarius: Fighting for Our Investment in the Future

Asteroids Vesta and Pallas Athene are currently conjunct in Aquarius as Pallas slows for a retrograde station May 31. Under this aspect, we're fighting for the soul-level investment we've made in the future direction of life on this planet. We're fighting for a free humanity, and the effort takes all we have this week. 

Pulling into the retrograde station, we're starting to tire. The fight has been long and hard, to say the least. Working for a broader vision of freedom, justice and equality on this planet has kept us battling, on the outside looking in in many ways. We knew the direction we had to go. We saw the path laid out in front of us. And we followed it, come what may. We've accepted our outside-the-mainstream status as bizarre, eccentric, odd, weird, misunderstood, and we've stood apart while holding the vision. 

We held the vantage point and kept driving forward because we knew what existed on this planet fell far short of where we needed to be. 

But with Vesta and Pallas Athene in tense square aspect to the Mercury-Venus-Mars conjunction in Taurus, we're starting to wonder if it's even worth it anymore. We're starting to question whether we have it in us at this point. We're starting to ask, where's the incentive? 

Don't let up. Don't give in. We've put too big a personal investment in (Vesta) at this point to let it slip away now, so close to the tipping point. 

One foot in front of the other gets the job done this week as Pallas Athene inches forward, inches forward, planting the flag at 15 degrees Aquarius before falling back into a retrograde that goes all the way back to 27 Capricorn. Pallas will go direct again September 24. 

With Pallas Athene, the fight is a creative fight, so find whatever creative outlets and creative mojo you can find to eke out those last bits of driving feminine warrior spirit energy. Join with others of similar mind if you can and draw on the energy of the groups of people who also fight these fights in their own ways. 

Pallas stations as we experience the Gemini New Moon partial solar eclipse June 1, kicking off triple eclipse season and the Cardinal Grand Cross summer of 2011. The battling, never-say-die feminine spirit infuses the proceedings. 

Vesta, too, soon goes retrograde - June 21 at 19 degrees Aquarius until turning direct again September 16 at 6 degrees Aquarius. 

Vesta represents a great soul-level investment. It is the flame we continually tend, keeping it alive and burning despite the personal sacrifice and diligence that entails. In Aquarius, it relates to the future of humanity on this planet. It's the direction taken right out of the Aquarian era gate. It's our own vision of the future that we tend, outside the carefully manufactured options presented to us that take us into more of the same. 

Use the energy of the Taurus squares over the next two weeks to dig in and commit fully to your own version of the Aquarian future, staying grounded within some very bizarre and ungrounded societal and planetary scenarios.