Blocked by Saturn

3.29.09


Mars has been in Pisces for a good couple weeks now, doing what he does best in that sign… floating by, wandering through, acting on sensitivities, unclear where exactly any of these motions will wind up.

Yes, flows have been gone with. Passive(-aggressive) assertions have been deployed, moods obeyed.

And all this against an ongoing backdrop of a retrograde Venus in Aries (disposited by Mars in Pisces), who's had us preferring what we personally, selfishly, want over what (or who) someone else tells us we should like. No wonder it's been so easy to hop on the anger train, or the impulsive-decision-to-make-me-feel-good-this-very-second train… or really any other train powered by a spontaneous surge of emotional energy (ours; an influential lover's or pal's; the collective's) that might carry us somewhere we never would've planned to go, had we sat down and reasoned through the pros and cons rationally.

This is not a bad thing in itself, in case you thought my previous paragraph was an indictment against self-centered spontaneity. If anything, I believe such surges can be the ideal prescription to personal spiritual health, particularly for those of us (and there are a lot of us out there) who put others' gratification before our own, obediently heed the rules society has laid down for us (which we're now discovering may have worked against our own best interests), and halt our own pursuit of a passionate (though less 'stable') existence so we may be good little boys and girls. Haven't we needed this celestial kick-in-the-pants to be a little more selfish?

(Of course, on the opposite face of the same coin, we meet the folks who always tend to be a little, or a lot, selfish… and lo and behold, they're the ones who don't seem to 'get' why everybody else is so angry at them for simply pursuing their personal desires.)

But rule-maker Saturn has something to say about all this, rest assured. Throughout the week ahead, as Mars moves gradually into opposition with Saturn, it will become much more of a challenge to go with any flow. Now there will be more questions to answer, details to consider, and Jiminy-Cricket-style voices of conscience to listen to (or to work even harder to ignore). The free-float of movement, forward or backward or round-in-circles, will be impeded. In other words, it's a slowdown moment.

Saturn, may I remind you, is in Virgo, where logic and meticulousness converge to frame rules and regulations for what is, and isn't, correct, based on the precise results one wants to achieve. Need I spell out how little tolerance Saturn-in-Virgo holds for this whole willy-nilly Mars-in-Pisces dispositing- a retrograde-Venus-in-detriment? Let's just say: Very little. Saturn's oppositional presence now insists upon dialoguing with Mars, with the expectation of hearing a sensible explanation for why he's doing what he's doing, before granting a go-ahead. If he doesn't get one, he's liable to become a thorn in the side of any impulsive wanderer.

At this point in the dream, though, an instant to pause and analyze (whether imposed or voluntary) may not be so awful. It's probably a good time to refamiliarize ourselves with the totally unglamorous responsibilities we remain obliged to meet—to our jobs, to our bills, to our families and loved ones, to the humble constraints of being only one person in one body. Where our creative juices and zestful passions have been blessedly stoked, we now must ground them into something sustainable (or at least begin seriously thinking about it). Surely, we all know certain self-important individuals, bigwigs or institutions who could benefit from a little (or a lot) more fine-point regulation to their unbridled me-first recklessness. And where idealism has been permitted to run slipshod over all attention to reality, such a Saturn blockage may be the corrective impetus to screw our heads back on straight. This week's Mars-Saturn opposition should help bring things back into balance, at least temporarily.

The flipside (and naturally there isone) is comprised of by-the-books authoritarians, dusty legal codes and pointlessly rigid bureacuracies, fussy individuals who restrictively pigeonhole or refuse to acknowledge more than one way to accomplish something, and other uptight people and processes… any or all of which seem hellbent on getting in the way. Okay, we must acknowledge it really doesn't behoove us to go around them (unless we're at least 192% sure there will be no negative fallout, which is still nothing more than a gamble). Sometimes you've got to stop at the checkpoint, and hang out there as long as the officials tell you to (often for no reason at all, other than respecting protocol). Give 'em attitude, and your delay just might double… or quintuple.

Like everything, this Mars-Saturn block is a passing phenomenon. As developments slow down and are forced through this restrained astro-moment, so too will the countervailing pressure begin to build up behind it—until the inevitable compensatory pendulum swing back the other way, jet-propelled even further to the opposite extreme (no forethought! no regulation! pure freedom!) by Mars's successive conjunction to shit-stirrer Uranus, which, I must tell you, isn't too far down the pipeline…

This is the Saturn-Uranus opposition playing out, thanks to Mars, in close-up.