Astrology is rarely rinse and repeat, but it’s easy to trick ourselves into thinking that it is. Just as time spirals on, inexhaustibly offering up a sea of endless “Aprils” to come, astrology echoes the same misty aura of familiarity with the recurring arrival of different sun sign seasons. We’re currently knee deep in Aries season- the sign concerned with re-emergence from the primordial Piscean soup. The definitive, separative thrust forward into solitary existence. Aries speaks to our intimacy with aloneness, the cultivation of healthy self importance and a sound ego, and the “me in here” experience of inhabiting our own body with a self determined soul.
I don’t know about you, but I haven’t been feeling ~fiery, pioneering, self-focused, or courageous~. I haven’t felt Aries’ enthusiastic, motivating furnaces kick on from below. Instead I’ve felt worried, deflated, and concerned for humanity. Why? Well Aries season alone doesn’t automatically thrust us into the experience of the sign’s neutral, baseline traits. What we really wind up experiencing is the trajectory of Mars. The month of April doesn’t promise left and right “fresh starts” to me. It promises hard work, perseverance, and slow, persistent problem solving. Again, just because something is in Aries we’re not promised the orchard of opportunities bestowed by the innate potential of the sign. Not when Mars, this season’s ruling planet, answers to Saturn’s stern beck and call.
When Mars inhabits a Saturn ruled sign, we can’t use Mars in it’s unabashed, raw, go getter form. Saturn demands patience, a plan, and a steady hand. Saturn casts its harsh, mature eye on Mars’ eager energy and erratic impulses, pointing all of the flaws in its half baked ideas, opinions, and philosophies. The Aries new moon chart answers to Mars in Aquarius, (a logic first, Saturn-ruled Mars), who is currently imprisoned by a growing union with the structure-seeking planet itself. As the Mars/Saturn conjunction builds in coming days, we find ourselves either finding fresh solutions to scaling our blockages or sitting at their base, blinded by the breadth and depth of the wall.
While Aries season in its natural form calls for courage and independent action, keep in the mind the source of Mars’ energy circles back to Aquarian values. The group, the community, the collective. Keep personal responsibility in mind. Keep seeing what you can do to help others. Keep in mind that everyone is hitting their own heavy Saturn wall right now, and try to be brave enough to offer gentleness, compassion, and communication in the midst of it all.