Mars Retrograde In Leo and Cancer 2024-2025: The King is Dead, Long Live the King
Collectively, this retrograde coincides with escalating political battles, where leadership struggles become public spectacles, and displays of force are used to intimidate competitors back into the dark. Disputes over claims to positions of authority are likely to devolve into ugly, protracted bare-knuckle brawls. The U.S. presidential election, already marked by divisiveness and thinly vailed threats of violence, will be a source of conflict which may extend well beyond the ballot box.
In Leo, Mars fights for the Crown, but may mistake its golden luster for the Kingdom itself.
Mixed Martial Artists and the Essential Dignity of Mars
However, less supported by traditional astrological thinking is the proportion of Mars in the sign of its Fall among the ranked Male UFC fighters. Mars in Cancer tied with Mars in Scorpio, with 17 out of 129 each, or 13.2%, both coming in at a close second place to Mars in Capricorn (18 out of 129). Mars in Cancer also comfortably surpassed Mars in Aries, which only showed up in 12 out of 129 Male Fighters. However, perhaps the most striking result was in the contrast between the male fighter data and the sample data. While Dignified Mars increased in prevalence from 30.34% and 31.15% in the sample groups to 36.5% in the male fighter group, Mars in the sign of its fall nearly doubled in prevalence, increasing from 7.3% in both sample groups to 13.2% in the Male Fighter group. The plot thickens when we narrow the data to just the top fighters of each weight class, the belt holder, and top 5. In this group, Mars in Cancer was the most common Mars placement, representing 10 out of 70 fighters, and Mars in Capricorn came in 2nd, with 9 out of 70.
Solar Dispositions - The Sun through the 12 Signs of the Zodiac
The essential nature and function of the Sun in astrology, is that which the Ancient Greeks call Gnosis - knowledge, or the state of knowing. Epistemology is a philosophical discipline which is concerned with the study of the nature of knowledge, how to define it and on what basis can a thing be justified as known. Epistemology would likely hold little utility for the core archetype of the Sun, as the Sun represents the state of knowing which emanates from within. To know is to exist, and to exist is to know - it warrants no justification because it is derived from the truth of one’s own experience. From this place of Gnosis we become aware of ourselves and the world around us, and from this awareness choices are made and actions follow.
Planetary Remediation - The Moon
When the Moon is doing well, you are aware of the signals your body gives you and you are willing and able to respond accordingly. You get proper sleep, you eat nourishing meals when you are hungry, when you feel sad you cry and when you feel affection toward someone you give them a hug. You’re also appropriately tuned to the emotional and physical needs of others. By appropriately, I mean you respond to the needs of, say, your 5-year-old child differently than you do those of your cousin’s real estate agent.
Building a Better Birth Chart - A Practical Guide to Planetary Remediation
So, you’ve become familiar with your birth chart and learned that some of what it describes relates issues you struggle with in your life. While there is plenty of information available describing issues surrounding difficult placements and their associated negative outcomes, it can be a little more challenging finding resources on what to do about it. Let’s face it, we all have problems. Whether its relationship problems, poor spending habits, anger issues or bad breath, we all have something about ourselves or our lives we’d like to improve. But there are things you can do address the problems described by your chart and in your real life. Planetary remediation offers the tools to be able to turn your birth chart into a source of solutions, rather than a story about how your life is going to suck.
New Moon in Cancer -6/28/22-
This New Moon Cancer features a tight square with Jupiter in Aries. The well-meaning nature of the planets involved in this square softens the harsher nature of the aspect, but Jupiter is nonetheless demanding something from this New Moon. Jupiter is a planet of abundance, wisdom and justice. In Aries, Jupiter becomes a bold and audacious activist, never afraid to kick the door down to advocate on behalf of what they believe to be right and true. Jupiter in Aries wants you to confidently stand up for what is rightfully yours, but perhaps with some healthy consideration for the rights of others, and a little bit of tact and charm given Jupiter’s sextile with Venus in Gemini. The luminaries may be a little reluctant to break their cushy summer plans, but Jupiter’s message strikes a chord with both the Sun and the Moon.
Sun in Gemini
The Sun takes on a dynamic and a multi-dimensional perspective when it’s in Gemini. Gemini Sun’s have the traits, opinions, and behaviors of several people rolled into one personality. The Swiss-Army-Knife of Sun Signs, they can adapt their persona to best suit their social environment.
Mars and Jupiter in Aries
There are times when opportunity knocks, and its up to you to answer the door. Then there are times when it bursts through the wall….
Military Inceptions and the Russo-Ukrainian War
In astrology, an inception defines any important point of initiation marking the beginning of something. Whether it be a human life, or other significant event, the idea is that if you cast a chart for the inception of a thing, the chart will describe some the true about the nature of it and its future trajectory.
This is the chart I cast for the inception of the ongoing war between Russia and Ukraine. I set the time for the moment Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the beginning of a “special military operation” against Ukraine. Within minutes of the announcement, Russian missile strikes against Ukrainian were reported, and Russian forces began pouring across the Russo-Ukrainian border.
Mars In Capricorn
In Astrology, Mars represents our 'Fuck It' energy.
Mars has been transiting through the sign of Capricorn, where fuck it energy is of an especially high-grade. This means that we'll be a bit more inclined to apply our fuck it energy in more constructive ways. This also means, the things we say fuck it to now will likely have a more lasting and enduring impact on our lives.
Eclipse - Full Moon in Taurus -11/19/21-
The Scorpio-Taurus axis highlights the tension between breathing life into new form, cultivating, maintaining and refining it - and the pruning of excess, the decay that comes from stagnation and the will to cut ourselves away from it. It’s easy to get stuck in the failures of the past, and allow them to inhibit our progress. This eclipse is not asking you to confront your private museum of failures and disappointment, it’s demanding it from you
Venus Retrograde in Capricorn
Venus isn’t out to get your relationship, she’s out to define it. She wants to sort the fair-weather flings from the committed companions. She wants to know if your in, if your serious, and if so, what does this look like going forward? Venus wants to know where the real love is in your life, and how to to protect and fortify it to endure any hardship.
Full Moon in Aquarius 2.0 -8/22/2021-
Sometimes, in the process of doing the noble work of owning our flaws, we beat ourselves down into helplessness. Saturn, being perhaps a bit too good at it’s job just now, can have a way of stripping off the fat necessary for building the muscle needed to get back on our feet. Fortunately, Jupiter’s re-appearance in the sign of Aquarius sends the luminaries off with a measured, but none-the-less welcome whiff of hope. It is all well and good to be precise in the assessment of the reality of a situation, but there’s nothing wrong greasing the wheels a little when you want that reality to change. Jupiter offers a healthy dose of potential to wash down all that reality with, and while expectations may have to be lowered, timelines extended and enthusiasm curbed, there is still enough fire within you to carry you through the night, however long it may be.
New Moon in Leo -8/8/2021-
This is the second in a rare three part series of lunations taking place on the Leo-Aquarius axis, emphasizing the themes of this period of the astrological year as especially significant. The spirit crushing grind of the Mars-Saturn opposition has past, and Jupiter has returned to Aquarius to help clean up the mess. But Jupiter’s help comes at the cost of the buoyancy and optimistic spirit of his short but sweet stay in Pisces. It’s all hands on deck now, as the sailors return from shore leave, and there will be no more parades until the war is won.
Full Moon in Aquarius - 7/24/21-
...competing for the recognition you crave seems like an exercise in futility. Perhaps now is the time to make a sober assessment of your expectations, and what it is you are and are not entitled too. Are your goals unrealistic and your efforts a pointless struggle, or are you just putting the cart before the horse?
New Moon In Taurus -5/11/21-
…the Buffalo herd of Taurus is moving uncharacteristically fast, a theme further emphasized by Venus’s recent ingress into sprightly Gemini. The usual grazing pastures won’t do in this radically shifting landscape, and we have to move fast if we want to capitalize on this rare opportunity to establish a new path to prosperity. There is in an undercurrent of chaos and unease as we are confronted with the need to expand outside our comfort zones.
Full Moon in Scorpio -4/26/21-
With the Full Moon in Scorpio, there is a sense that the fruit that has grown is in someway unsafe, or perhaps even rotten. This may be a time where it is hard to find joy in our accomplishments. We may feel regret for the ways we were not cared for, or that we did not care for others the way we feel we should. We may question the purpose of our labors of love, and have to grapple with the sense of futility that comes with the knowledge of impermanence.
