The new year begins with the Mars-Pluto opposition (see November and December SkyWatches) perfecting — i.e. reaching the exact minute of arc — for a second time, at 1° Leo/Aquarius. Any of us with charts featuring the first degree of fixed signs are getting it between the eyes.
Maybe it’s showing up as a conflict that feels like a life-and-death battle. Or maybe the intensity you’re feeling doesn’t link up any single event. One way or another, our buttons are getting pushed.
We’re certain to have stories around why the situation is getting under our skin, but it’s useful to keep in mind that however we explain what’s happening, it’s the transit’s way of getting our attention. Gut-deep impulses are very effective that way.
Pluto is like the devil in a morality tale. He shows up in different forms for everybody. The way to forestall defeat is to look him in the eye.
You won’t really die, but something will
Mars heads back into Cancer on Jan 6th, retrograde until next month. This is an invitation to focus inwards, not outwards. Even if the friction afoot seems to be coming from someone else, as oppositions often do, it’s still essentially about you.
Whatever’s going on in your life in the houses Mars and Pluto are transiting, don’t try to wish it away or sugarcoat it. If a taboo issue is rearing its head, don’t deny it.
Name (at least, to yourself) what wants to be exposed and allow it to die.
Pluto-Mars contacts often signify obsession. You may have an irrational sense of wanting to hold on for dear life to an incident that is, by any objective measure, totally innocuous. You probably know, intellectually, that the episode isn’t going to kill you, but your intestines don’t know that.
The episode may be about a control trip that you’ve kept hidden from yourself, which is now trying to 
become conscious. Be your own skilled PTSD therapist: and dive into the deeper meaning, carefully and lovingly.
Power plays
If power struggles are simmering in your personal life, the best way to work through them is to get beyond blaming — of yourself, or of the other guy. Watch what’s happening as pure energy.
Collectively, too, ego-driven wars are pervading the airwaves. These two levels of reality are related, though not in a causal way. Both the group dramas and those in our private life are manifestations of the same archetypes.
They illustrate the As-Without-So-Within rule: Events outside of ourselves are meant to tell us about the ones going on inside.
Skittering around
The mutable clashes we talked about last month are still spinning. On the day of the Mars station (Jan 6th), Mercury squares Neptune. This clash — between the linear mind and the imaginal mind — can be confusing, but also inspiring. You may find your seeking mind (Sagittarius) soaring with imagery.
Venus, which will have moved into Pisces by this time, squares Jupiter in Gemini on the 14th. This is another soulful transit, but one which can be confusing if you’re not grounded. When Venus conjoins Saturn on the 18th, you’ll probably find out whether your attempts to stay centered have been effective.
Saturn conjunctions mark when the karma of over-reach hits home.
Saturn’s last gasp
These are the last couple of months of Saturn in Pisces, which will ingress into Aries this May. Right now, before its conjunction with Neptune — to be discussed in upcoming webinars — is the perfect time to try to reconnect with our natal Saturns. Let’s spend these remaining months adjusting our attitude towards this much-maligned planet.
Saturn points out the flaws that make us human. Its swan song in Pisces is a lesson in self-forgiving. It can justly be called the planet of neurosis, but the fact that everybody has a Saturn somewhere is evidence of the fact that everybody has neuroses of one kind or another.
If you think you know people who don’t, it’s either because they’re managing them better — good for them — or suppressing them — not so good for them.
Images:
15th century alchemical manuscript ascribed to Rabbi Simeon Ben Cantara, British Museum
