Firm or Stubborn?

6.16.09


Over the next several days, we have a ripe opening to display our firm resolve… to plant our feet tenaciously on the spot or viewpoint we've chosen and refuse to be unduly influenced.

We also could be tempted to flaunt our inflexible stubbornness… to resist all potentially productive compromises and hold childishly to our closed ears, eyes and minds.

Plain as the noses on our faces, these are two sides of an identical coin. There are no guarantees as to which perspective is the more accurate. Nor is it immediately clear whether the consequences of such iron-clad determination—firm and/or stubborn—will help or hinder, support or sabotage, our bigger-picture desires, efforts and intentions. Each situation has its own specifics, just as each of us has our own lessons to learn.

Are you trying to master your ability to firmly assert yourself, to identify the option best suited to your own needs, and to hold the decisive stance—no matter what anybody else has to say on the matter?

Or ought you attempt to temper your stubborn unwillingness to consider the alternatives, to accept a wider outlook, and to find some middle-ground solution—otherwise risking the loss of an ally or teammate who'd also like to be included in the decision-making process?

Throughout the week, Venus and Mars, both presently in Taurus, approach a conjunction (exact on Sun Jun 21), which means the yin and yang of personal planets are essentially operating in unison. In other words, it's like we're a child trying to go to Mom and Dad separately (perhaps to play 'em off each other, to get from one what the other won't give?) and having both parents on exactly the same page. There is no getting around 'em. Whether this makes for (1) consistent boundary-setting behavior and healthy disciplinary practice or (2) unnecessarily harsh restrictiveness and the shutting-down of the child's individuality depends merely on where the parents are coming from.

When Venus and Mars are conjoined, we possess an unusually unwavering focus. What we're putting out there (Mars) and what we're drawing to us (Venus) are in step. But any planetary conjunction symbolizes both a concentration of energy and a possible blindspot, since it spawns within us a decrease in internal conflict… making it that much harder to see beyond the one scenario we expect to see. A Venus-Mars conjunction in Taurus, perhaps the most stable-footed and averse-to-change sign ('I ain't budgin' until you show me exactly why I should, in non-fancy, ultra-pragmatic terms!'), only emphasizes this quality—for better and for worse.

To add even more structural integrity (or is it unyielding rigidity?) to the picture, Venus and Mars are also both moving into dual supportive trines to Saturn in Virgo. On the positive end, this support from Saturn ensures that most, if not all, possible loopholes in Venus-and-Mars's project will be easy to defend against, thanks to the extra attention to fine-print specifics. (Saturn in Virgo is a guru of details.) On the negative end, however, this detail-orientation can also be used to block out legitimate objections on the basis of minute technicalities… much in the way that laws are sometimes deployed as an excuse to bypass the need to 'do the right thing' according to an ethics of compassion. Saturn basically strengthens the case—which says nothing, either way, about whether the case itself is broadly defensible or merely short-sighted and punitive.

My job is to point out the astrological situation—currently one in which lots of tenacious earth-sign energy is at our disposal, for 'holding firm' or for 'stubbornly refusing'—not to assess what you ought to do with it.

You may need to block out the manipulative anglings of others, the opposition or the contaminating presence, in order to stabilize your own agenda and ensure you stay on the right track for you.

Or you may need to moderate your excessive resoluteness, demonstrating your awareness that other people may also have valid considerations, out of respect for the relationship or the broader social matrix implicated in your doings.

Whatever the specifics of your situation, the duration of the week ahead is chock-full of 'brick wall' behaviors you ought to remain conscious of.

Are you banging your head against the wall? building a new one to ward off the undesirables? trying to dig a 'tunnel of peace' through the middle of a too-entrenched one? or merely strengthening the foundation stones?