mars Archives - Magic of the Moon Astrology & Tarot

A solar eclipse occurs approximately every six months, so it’s not a rare occurrence. However, each eclipse that happens is unique because of everything else going on in the sky, and this year we have some very interesting “other things” happening in the sky during the time of the eclipse!

Background

First, let’s talk about the Aries solar eclipse in general. If you know what house Aries occupies in your chart, that will be a big help to understanding what area of life you will likely experience the beginnings/endings of this cycle! Aries represents the warrior energy in the zodiac. The desire to fight and to defend. In its best incarnation, Aries is a warrior who is fighting for something. In its more shadowy incarnation, Aries picks petty fights that aren’t meaningful. In modern astrology, Aries is also the first sign of the zodiac, and a cardinal/initiatory sign, which gives it more power to get things started. Eclipses typically strongly facilitate beginnings and endings, but this is even more true when the eclipse is occurring in the “beginning” sign of the zodiac!

With all of this talk of beginnings and endings, though, it’s important to realize that eclipses come in year-and-a-half “series”. We had our first Aries/Libra eclipse back in the fall of 2023, and we won’t have our final Aries/Libra eclipse until March 2025. So the beginnings and endings we see as part of the eclipse on April 8th, 2024 will not bring brand new, unexpected beginnings and endings, but rather will bring the next chapter in beginnings and endings that started in October 2023. Think back to the mental space you were in and what changes you were contemplating. Has your thinking around some of those changes matured now? Do you have clearer ideas around not just what isn’t working in your life, but what you might want to do to fix it? Everything that is unique about this upcoming Aries solar eclipse encourages us to go deeper and take the next step in our journey of beginnings and endings. The eclipse in October was more about dipping a toe in the water; by April 2024, we are all in the thick of it and likely contemplating (or already making!) big changes.

So what is unique about this eclipse on April 8th? Several things, and we will discuss all of them below!

Mercury retrograde

As the solar eclipse is happening in Aries, Mercury is also retrograde in Aries. Mercury retrogrades often give us an opportunity to revisit and re-think. This will help us move forward with eclipse beginnings and endings more thoughtfully. Is the change we are contemplating really the best one for us? Are there other changes we could make that would accomplish the same goal more effectively? Mercury retrograde will help us answer questions like these (although with Mercury in Aries, we will have to fight the urge to just move forward without proper reflection! Mercury in Aries is not known for its patience!).

The connection to Chiron

This Aries solar eclipse takes place directly on the asteroid Chiron. Chiron embodies the archetype of the Wounded Healer. It represents the areas where each of us have experienced wounds. Some of these wounds we have healed from, and we can now use our experiences to help others heal from the same type of wound. Some of these wounds we are still in the process of healing. Still others we have likely buried deep in our Souls and haven’t begun the healing process for them yet.

Regardless of which stage we are at, an eclipse taking place on Chiron will remind us how critical it is to integrate the growth from our wounds into the rest of our lives. Can we help others using our experiences? Is there further deep, shadow work we need to do to heal from our wounds? This eclipse will bring up these topics, especially in the house where Aries falls in your chart.

Mars/Saturn conjunction

Mars and Saturn conjoin every two years, and this cycle they are conjoining on April 10th, 2 days after the solar eclipse. Mars and Saturn both represent challenging energies – Mars represents (among other things) our warrior’s desire to fight for what we believe in and our desire to move forward. Saturn represents the importance of discipline, duty, and work toward our long-term goals.

Eclipses always tend to bring endings and new beginnings, but with Saturn and Mars conjoining just as the eclipse happens, we will be feeling even more energy toward closing out things in our life that don’t contribute to our goals. If we take advantage of this double dose of profound energy – the Aries eclipse and the Saturn/Mars conjunction – we can make changes which echo for years within our lives! What an amazing opportunity!

Visible to many people

This solar eclipse is visible to a large group of people across North America! Even though we have a solar eclipse approximately every six months, eclipses often take place over one of the oceans or somewhere that isn’t visible to many people. When eclipses are visible, their impacts seem to be greater and more profound – we are directly experiencing it! (Please use proper eclipse glasses if you hope to view it – it is too much for our small eyeballs!)

Final notes

It is worth calling out that not everyone is affected equally by every eclipse. In general, if you were born near an eclipse (i.e. if the Sun is near either the North or South Moon node in your birth chart), you are especially sensitive to eclipses.

Additionally, each eclipse affects people differently depending on which part of your chart the eclipse is hitting. If the eclipse is happening in an important house (i.e. your 1st house), or if it’s happening near an important planet in your chart (i.e. your Sun or Moon), you will feel that eclipse much more strongly than others around you might.

Since ancient times, people have been a little frightened of eclipses. That makes sense – evolutionarily humans don’t like change, and eclipses are all about change! However, there is an immense capacity for growth during eclipses. Big changes seem to find us, even if we don’t feel ready for them. And often, when we look back on these times in our lives, we see how eclipse-initiated events were crucial to re-shaping our lives in a positive way. If we can find a way to roll with the energies, to accept what comes, and to lean forward instead of fighting the changes, this can be an incredibly powerful and profound month in our lives. My hope is for all of you to give yourself that opportunity!

Photo by Jongsun Lee on Unsplash

One of the things that is the most interesting to me about Mercury is its ephemeral (dare I say, “Mercurial”?) nature. It indicates matters related to travel, to messages, and to communication. Where people are concerned, it refers to a certain “magician” quality which makes someone a problem solver, a person who understands complex situations, and even a trickster (someone who understands a situation so deeply that they can prank it).

The core signification to me of Mercury is a sense of going from “here” to “there”. That could be physical (as with travel), it could be philosophical (in the way that communication helps us to arrive at different conclusions by gaining outside input), or it could be mental (in the way that messages notify us that something has occurred – like a bill being due!).

Mercury is the fastest planet in our solar system (we are not counting the Moon as a planet in this case, since it is a satellite of Earth rather than a planet fully in its own right). But Mercury zips around the Sun every 88 days. That is a lot faster than our Earth year of ~365 days!

The thing Mercury hates more than anything is standing still. Stagnation. Not moving from “here” to “there” and instead moving “nowhere”!

Mercury moves most slowly around the time of its retrograde motion (there is a good reason why, but that is a topic for a different blog post and is focused on astronomy, not astrology!). Because Mercury was recently retrograde in December and early January, it has been moving more slowly than usual. As a result, rather than catching up with Mars in Capricorn and quickly overtaking it, they have been moving together for the past week or so and will continue to move together for the following week until Mercury starts picking up speed. This means Mercury and Mars are spending more time close to each other than usual. Against the backdrop of Pluto moving from Capricorn to Aquarius (see last month’s blog post), what does this extended Mercury/Mars co-mingling of energy look like?

Mars wants to “go”! A great catch-phrase for Mars would be the Nike slogan “Just do it!” (Interestingly, Nike was founded as Blue Ribbon Sports when Mars was conjunct the Sun in early Aquarius, and Mars was again in early Aquarius, this time Trine the Sun, when its name changed to Nike. Clearly Nike’s history is very intertwined with Mars in Aquarius!)

Mercury and Mars both agree on their desire to move! However, the manner of the movement is very different. Mars says “GO, GO, GO!”. Mercury says “Create a plan, and then execute it!” It can be difficult for Mars to be patient while Mercury comes up with a plan, and likewise, it can be difficult for Mercury to come up with a plan while Mars is breathing down its proverbial neck.

This results in a kind of frenzied energy to move but a struggle to figure out which direction to move in. Without Mercury there, we would feel passionate about moving and not worry too much about which direction we were headed in. But Mercury will feel stressed if there is too much happening without a plan. The best travel, communication, and notifications typically happen when there is some form of planning in place. Most of us don’t quickly type gibberish into an email, click “Send”, and expect something good to happen.

This is the energy of January – feeling torn between a desire to move instantly, but at the same time wishing we had time to get a clear plan in place first! One thing worth calling out is that Mars is exalted in Capricorn, meaning that it does good work there. Earthy Capricorn inherently lends some structure and discipline to Mars’ rash energy. So it’s possible that Mercury and Capricorn will help slow Mars down until we have a solid plan in place. However, it seems more likely that we will have just enough of a heads up of oncoming craziness to brace ourselves for the impact, but not enough of a heads up to actually make a proactive plan. If you have thoughts on how this energy has been playing out in your life, please feel free to add a comment! It’s definitely a dynamic energy to start the year!

Photo by Oscar Sutton on Unsplash

Category: mars

The 2024 Aries Solar Eclipse