Going for the 'A' in Accuracy

6.30.08


Time to put away the machetes, the flame-throwers, and the extra-wide Sharpie pens.

For the next spell, with Mars entering Virgo, our operations need be carried out with tiny scalpels, tweezers and a magnifying glass. Attention to detail will be crucial.

And painting with too wide a brush, collapsing important distinctions, or carelessly rushing in? These are recipes for major disappointment. After all, if we didn't care enough to concentrate intently on what we were trying, why should we be surprised to encounter results that fall way short of (or way too far from) what we'd hoped to accomplish?

Mars in Virgo, a transit that begins tomorrow (Tue Jul 1) and spans through Aug 19, asks us to grab the reins of our lives extremely tightly… in every effort to prevent the contamination of our self-selected desires with foreign concerns, sloppy workmanship or emotive red-herrings that dare to tempt our concentration away from the task at hand. Accuracy is everything.

If Mars is how we assert our initiative and will, and if Virgo is the sign of purity and idealism, then naturally we must put on our reading spectacles and look very closely at what we're doing—that is, to ensure we're putting our absolutely finest focus on the situation, and doing our surgical best to maneuver in small careful motions. One foolhardy wiggle of the laser beam, and the project is destroyed; the patient, blinded or maimed or worse.

Coming on the heels of Mars's drama-queen tango through demonstrative Leo, this Virgo effect could come on like a tightening of belts or a closing-in of walls. Where we've previously been celebrating our freedom with hardly-subtle shows of personality, we now must get back on task. Where all that might've mattered before was ardently expressing our joie-de-vivre, now we ought to take our responsibilities more seriously… lest we fumble or fudge an important duty, witness our day-to-day solidity crack and crumble, and lose the luxury of enjoying our 'free time'. If this sounds serious, then I'm getting the point across nicely.

As soon as Mars enters Virgo, he's already within a 5-degree orb of conjoining Saturn… an aspect that forms to exactitude on Jul 10 but remains an influence through mid-to-late July. Saturn's been in Virgo since last September, where his principal job has been encouraging us to pay attention to the details of our lives… and to root out the unhealthy daily habits, lapses in efficiency or effectiveness, and excesses of irrelevant input, so we may refine our practices and processes.

Whether we've been successful or not will reflect in how smoothly and healthfully we conduct our everyday business. If we've accepted the duty, our constitutions (and physical bodies) have become stronger and less susceptible to being sidelined by minor or tangential problems. And if we've been cutting corners or skipping steps, we'll find our fitness tapering away or our immune system letting too many contaminants through its filter, our job security on shaky footing or our undone responsibilities stacking up like parking tickets on an abandoned junkheap of wheels.

With Mars conjunct Saturn for the next three weeks or so, this is one of our best moments all year to tackle the work we've been either unconsciously shrinking from or consciously avoiding. We can muster more patience for the little crap. We'll have nimbler fingers and more focused minds. And for further motivation, we may access the sobriety of spirit that accompanies any Mars-Saturn union. As they'd tell us, 'It's part of your earthly purpose to know when to set aside what's fun or easy, so you can serve the ideals of a job well done or a challenge met.' (Otherwise, wouldn't we have been left to our devices, sipping on white wine spritzers and watching big-budget romances from atop our puffy cloud, thumbing our noses at bodily incarnation?)

This also means, however, that what we don't do over these coming weeks—though we may be painfully aware that it must get done, no matter how we plug our eyes and ears and sing Mary Had a Little Lamb to ourselves 'til we're blue in the face—will have larger than usual consequences for us. Saturn, we mustn't forget, is the lord of karma. The manner in which we expend our energies and act toward our goals while Mars is conjunct Saturn, then, will powerfully affect whatever we reap from such actions and expenditures. Don't feel like attending to your shit? Then you'd better watch where you step for the rest of '08, my shortsighted and ego-indulgent pal.

Mars in Virgo, especially with a Saturn conjunction in tow, wants it clean. If you're responsible for five things, do 'em all impeccably. Don't taper off midway through number four… and please mind your manners with regards to how other folks are handling numbers six through twenty-two. Do your bit the best you can, and keep your eyes keenly fixed on your own paper and the details for which you are accountable. You will be graded on this.