Mars/Mercury Square Saturn: embracing resilience and surrender as one

Mars and Mercury recently joined together in a square to Saturn…. 

…on our path toward the lunar eclipse that’s occurring Friday November 19…

…an eclipse that will be magnified by a T-square with Jupiter and a trine to Pluto...

...along with some provocative Uranus/Mars/Venus interactions...

...so, yeahhhhhh.

Go easy on yourself and others right about now. 

We’ll talk more about the eclipse, but this setup, the square between Saturn in Aquarius and Mercury/Mars in Scorpio, is itself worth staying with for a hot minute before we get there.

Fast moving planets—fire and air, drive and mind—together meet the constraints of reality: earth, time, body, boundaries, our own resistance...

​How do we respond?
Will we push through to destruction or exhaustion?
Will we recoil in fear, slump down in defeat, withdraw?

What does resilience look like?

What about a healthy sense of surrender to that which is beyond our capacity or control, without diminishing ourselves or relinquishing the power that is ours to wield?

When is the resilient choice one of surrender and when is the surrendered path one that requires our resilience? 

This transit calls for a practical reassessment of our vision and goals, or at least a thoughtful reconsideration of the way we pursue that vision and the pace we take toward our goals.

Is it sustainable?
Have we established a solid foundation?
Are there ways in which gotten carried away with inspiration, ambition, and desire, getting ahead of ourselves on a path that may indeed be for us, but in a timing or order that is not? And how do we now draw ourselves back in without withdrawing from the path altogether?

Sun, Mars and Mercury in Scorpio set us up for radical honesty as we survey our overwhelmed calendars and nervous systems, allowing us to consider those questions we might normally shy from. We can be calculated and ruthless now in our release of what isn’t meant for us and the things we took on too fast or too soon.

The mounting pressure of this season is not an obstacle to our desires. Just the opposite. It’s an insistence that we find balance, ease, efficiency, and peace so that as we go along, our capacity expands and our pace quickens, delightfully and without disruption or depletion.

We’ve over-relied on effort, gotten too enamored with the hustle. This transit shows us the consequences of that imbalance and highlights the sacrifices we’re just not willing to make anymore in service to a goal that feeds segments of our soul, yes, but leaves other portions to fend for themselves in bleak, malnourishing conditions.

At the very least, with the help of Sun trine Neptune, this recent square has begun to clarify a more holistic understanding of our desires and shed light on how we want to feel as we move toward the material fulfillment of our goals. 

Can we accept that the external, tangible things we want—relationships, time, money, positions or places—are merely representations of an internal experience we deeply desire? Better yet, can we allow the experience to come first, no longer refusing joy, confidence, peace, and fulfillment unless and until we arrive at our desired destination, but understanding satisfaction as the prerequisite for the arrival of all that we desire and more?

The shadow side of Scorpio, where Mars and Mercury shared a moment and continue to travel now at their own pace, is to get what you want—feeling or form—at any cost, often at the expense of others. But here again, Neptune steps in to remind us that we cannot create harm or disparity in the world without harming ourselves.

A more integrated expression of Scorpionic drive is to embrace the truth of our inescapable intimacy with all of creation and thus to devote body and soul to holistic satisfaction. Satisfaction that’s independent and relational, sensory and emotional, present and arriving, unconditional and enhanced by our conditions. 

Some of us will be called to a more spacious life right now. Others may be called to greater engagement. All of us, though, will be invited to blend drive and surrender, integrating our resistance and transforming it to ease.

This is astrology to work with, not white knuckle your way through. 

The ultimate gift of these transits, confronting though they may initially be, is liberation and acceleration. This time has the potential to deliver you onto an easier and more rapid path, one of greater joy and satisfaction. A transition that will unfold quite naturally if you have faith that Life wants even more for you than you have the will and capacity to want for yourself.

Trust that whatever you lay down at this time, be it an obligation or a refusal to meet your obligations, the space you create will be instantly filled with all the goodness Life has in store for you.

Work with this astrology, but let it be light-hearted, soul-nourishing work. Let it be the work of resting in Divine Order, wielding power that's yours to wield, honoring responsibilities that are yours to honor, and letting all else go, knowing that the universe leaves no loose ends untied, no space empty, and no desire unfulfilled. 

Stay Wild | Stay Rooted