angstoic.com Astrologer, Ang Stoic
A slightly tetchy week, not without its fair share of excitement, vigour and bouts of quick-temper over… well, who knows what, exactly. Staying focused, meditative and mild may have to be a matter of utmost importance, especially since we’re all inclined to take ourselves a little far too seriously these days:
✦ Out-of-bounds Mars, exalted in goal-oriented Capricorn continues to pull all wildcards in his bid to get ahead. Ostensibly, we see all kinds of ambitious ploys to scale to even greater heights, push harder, earn greater coin and prestige, often against some pretty fearsome odds. The urge to justify our competence and our civil propriety becomes a dominant theme throughout March. What is your contribution to society? Do you even care?
✦ At the South Node, Mars’ passions can often become purposely directed to try and make amends for past mistakes. Poorly-timed actions, forging ahead in anger, then pulling back with regrets needs to be balanced. Misdirected actions mildly turn into frustrations and irritation, which could potentially snap into some angsty violent or self-destructive behaviour.
✦ Mercury’s pass between the Sun and Earth (inferior conjunction at 06°♓55’℞) forms a sextile to Mars (Tue-Wed). The gentle Pisces Sun, transmitting messages through the reflective retro-Mercury tries to inform our senses with words of compassion, wider understanding and the intention to communicate our desires with greater holistic purpose.
✦ The Moon proceeds through Pisces, entering Aries mid-week. Sensitivities continue to run HIGH; volatility of moods swing from ‘retiring’ to ‘highly reactive’. By the second half of the week, the Moon forms a brief, but feisty triple-conjunction with Venus & Eris.
✦ Venus approaches her square to Pluto (Fri), intensifying the nature of how we make choices of the heart. Uncontrollable tantrums rise when passions and desires are not met, especially in relationships that are basically unsuitable or not serving joint benefits. Watch for mutually destructive and life-sabotaging conduct. Control dramas quickly deteriorate into character debasement and abuse.
✦ Mercury’s Semi-Square to Jupiter (Fri) suggests complex legal problems crop up, especially if we’ve signed up for something without getting all the details. With Sun Semi-Square Pluto there’s a propensity for prodding and bullying. Mercury sextile Uranus will find clever ways to avoid payment.
✦ Pluto is now almost evenly flanked by giants Jupiter and Saturn to either side (exact Mar 6). Their midpoint is now falling precisely on the Pluto/Eris square. Unyielding social pressure to “change or be gone” places great strain on every individual to make extreme lifestyle changes; to transform personal ideas and ideologies about how to fit into the prevailing social reality. We start to observe a dramatic shift in people’s public, socio-political leanings.
Since both Mars and Pluto apply such force in both our personal and public relations this week, it is wise to be nimble and agile in the art of avoiding conflict. Little things may trigger us and we can quickly turn them into bigger issues than is necessary if we allow our feelings to take over and dictate our actions.
Our objective is always to get along with others, but as people are experiencing a deeply subconscious, largely invisible emotional duress, their breaking point may not be far from the surface. When we witness a person suffering a psychotic break, they are in fact momentarily experiencing a harsh, abrupt disconnect from reality. Helping them to reconnect should be our focus, but that may not always be easy.
While there can be various factors which can push someone into psychosis (genetics, history of trauma, substance abuse, physical duress, or mental health problems), from an outsider’s perspective all we see when the break occurs is an individual who is basically in a state of stress overload.
Whilst these extreme, sometimes violent eruptions can be triggered under heavy Mars/Pluto transits, they are made more complex by the current retrograding Mercury in Pisces, when peoples’ paranoid delusions about persecution or of grandeur seem belittled, ridiculed or denied. Signs that someone is about to break could present as prolonged emotional withdrawal, energetic dullness or general apathy towards ‘happenings’, strangely incongruous behaviour, unwillingness to socialise or to self-care, deterioration of personal hygiene routines, a disinterest to engage in conversation, etc.
Obviously we can look out for clues by raising our own awareness and sensitivity to unusual behaviour. If we can sense that others’ nerves are brittle, we must be mindful not to push.
Strangely, we often cannot often know how close someone is to ‘breaking point’. Things may appear to be going fine one minute, even splendidly. Someone could look confident, capable of holding it together, even overly-competent with how they conduct themselves.
The extreme nature of Pluto means one can often suppress their inner tension, mask or hide it well in social settings, particularly in the workplace. Yet tempers can be easily aroused when there are insults, wounds or injuries to one’s ego or sense of esteem. The preponderance of Capricorn energy indicates that people can take themselves quite seriously indeed. Here, any slight offence to what they stand for (real or imagined) can set them off.
Bearing in mind, that Mars is now traversing over the very same degrees where Pluto, Saturn, Jupiter and even the last Solar Eclipse (Dec 26) have been at some point recently. Pent up worldly frustrations, stress and social suffocation are slowly seething, waiting to erupt.
If you are feeling stressed, nervously anxious or depressed yourself, be mindful not to engage with people or activities which may be aggravating to your sensitivities. Avoid becoming angered, seek some solitude, rest and quiet and make a special effort to care for yourself. If you feel you need to speak with someone, then seek professional help.
Helping others to cope could be tricky. If someone becomes agitated or aggressive with you or you with them, then quickly try to give each other space, making sure you return to address the situation when things have cooled down (never abandon the scene entirely). Always plan an escape route if the person becomes unreasonable or hostile. Do your best to gently refer that person to seek help, but don’t persist. Sometimes we may be out of our depth and need to back off entirely.
Of course, this is not guaranteed to happen in your world this week, but the propensities for unwanted drama are higher in the coming days/weeks as the malefic planets (Mars/Saturn/Pluto/Eris) conspire to precipitate events to the point of crisis.
Naturally, we must be cautious during these highly sensitive times, but my intention here is not to strike fear and terror into minds with my astrology. I am merely here to point to the markers of conflict and hopefully advise on what patterns and signals to look out for.
Nor am I here to take the brunt of people’s disappointment about the celestial dynamics. These are extraordinary stressful times for many, our world is changing irrevocably and in ways which many of us may find stressful, grim or even sad. There will be brighter days, and often it is just a matter of perception, fortitude to carry on and stay creative.
Those who follow my readings understand that I have been consistent with the message to release emotional baggage carried over from the past. That will not serve us where we are travelling. Make our peace with our neighbours, forgive our friends and family by speaking our truth with kindness and learn to see the loving intent in others – even those who may have wronged us once or twice.
The next few weeks will see us becoming ever more sensitive to disagreeable matter. We also become more determined to make changes, many of them drastic. This is best done with love and gentle resignation to all that feels disturbing or unkind in our world.
It is our duty to be kind, first to ourselves and then to all those who may come in and out of our lives. We must learn either to work together, cooperate or help one another find their way. It is made especially difficult when our personal threshold of intolerance is so easily breached, broken or defrayed. We must do our best to keep our nerve and soldier on.
Please take special care this week, and help to make each day amazing by helping to make someone else’s day. Blessings xx
