Notes on Mars/Pluto Dynamics

I began writing this newsletter email on a plane from San Francisco to New York on December 23rd 2024. I finished writing it on December 27th 2024. Some events have transpired since then that were…alluded to in this letter. I hope we don’t see much more of this.

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It’s the first moment of quiet and clarity I've had in a while.

I’ve been sick for a good portion of the month of December, trying to sustain what little energy is left on a diet of cuties oranges and apple cider vinegar-cinnamon stick tea water. I don’t have a palette for much beyond that. 

Mars is retrograde now (December 6th 2024 - February 23rd 2025) and one way or another the Mars Rx period always slows me down. As a Scorpio Sun/Rising my chart ruler is Mars, and therefore, I am very sensitive to the movements of this fiery planet. When it puts the breaks on, so do I. (Aries Sun/Rising/Mars folks may feel similarly.) 

Mars is a planet of passion and drive. It can be aggressive, bold, feisty, reactive, cutting, combustible, explosive, nasty, and slyly manipulative if need be in order to get what it wants. (Cough, cough Mars in Cancer.) When Mars goes retrograde, the collective, and Mars-sensitive folks especially, are forced to slow down and review how we are reacting to things. 

Goodness, my natal Mars has been getting a butt-kick as of late. Positioned at the anaretic degree of 29* in Capricorn, the spirit of my Mars is naturally tired yet still tends to overdo life. Planets at this degree exhaust as they complete the journey through a sign. Sometimes, planets at this degree leave it's native (you/me) feeling isolated and depressed, while there may also be a sense of urgency or anxiousness to follow through with the mastery of the life lessons being presented by the sign the planet is placed within. Planets at 29* experience a push and pull energy with one foot in and one foot out the 3rd decan door.

My Mars in Capricorn is constantly reminding me, “despite the circumstances, persevere, for time is running out.” 

For the past two years (2022-2024) transit Pluto, the planet of destruction and death, has been conjuncting my tired, work-horse of a Mars. Pluto transforms everything it touches, and it has been engaged in a major remodel of my Martian-ruled work habits, anger management, and self-discipline. And, just as this transit was finishing up in November, transit Mars (the Mars currently in retrograde on the sky) joined the planetary party by opposing my natal Mars in Capricorn. (Transit Mars is seesawing through the signs of Cancer and Leo this winter season. Cancer and Capricorn run on the same axis. Leo runs on the same axis as Aquarius - important to know for later.)

A Mars-Mars opposition can lead someone into battle, with themselves and others. The competitive spirit might strengthen, egos refuse to practice empathy, unnecessary conflict can erupt, underlying emotions can be triggered, and/or there is a desire to assert independence. This is a great time to practice responding, not reacting. (Great advice too for the Mars-Pluto transit we all are experiencing right now and through the Spring of 2025.)

(Side note: Mars entered Cancer on September 4th 2024. It then entered Leo on November 3rd. It stationed retrograde on December 6th in Leo. It enters back into Cancer on Janaury 6th 2025. It stations direct on February 23rd in Cancer. It enters Leo again on April 17th.)

Mars and Pluto (in any aspect) make an intense coupling. Sometimes, they are explosive, rage-filled, cutting. Their power dynamics manifest as manipulative control, triangulation, and gas-lighting. While Pluto tries to suppress and demolish, pressure builds within Mars, and it will take impulsive action when it feels there is no way out of a situation. For example...

In the summer of 2023, during one of the three times transit Pluto conjuncted my natal Mars, I was so fed up with something that in a swift and heated moment, I kicked out a car windshield while sitting in the passenger’s seat of said car. My body went from a tight little ball trying to maintain stress and composure into some superhuman transformer busting out car windshields with one forceful kick of a leg. I was stunned. All my life, I internalized my anger until around 2021 when Pluto came knocking at the doors of my Moon in Cancer 28* and my Mars in Capricorn 29*. My Mars is cool as a cucumber, until it isn't, and for the past few years, I've had to deal with the suppressed anger of the first 30-40 years of my life. My Mars in Cancer boyfriend will attest to this as he has had to dodge a few heads of lettuce, teapots, and hampers being tossed across the kitchen. (Cancer rules the kitchen btw. Astrology is so literal, isn't it?)

Mars/Pluto aspects force us to review our strength: physically and spiritually. Sometimes, they ask us to face our mortality.

In our annual forecasting class Stars, Cards, and Numbers last weekend, Briana Saussy and I discussed the grand opening of 2025 with this Mars retrograde in Cancer as a foreshadowing of the turbulence ahead. Bri cautioned that those who are Mars sensitive may be a bit more "hot-headed" during this period. (I know this too well.) Folks also tend to be a bit more "accident-prone." Buckle up, wear your helmet, don't get into any arguments with folks who steal your parking spot, and definitely don't get into it with family during this holiday week/end/season/New Year's night. 

We also covered the fact that 2025 welcomes us to a Universal 9 Year. In a Universal 9 year, endings and beginnings, conclusions and closure, confronting old feelings, and death are highlighted...as well as future technologies and tech launches, events that shape the future, humanitarian work and service, surrender and justice, connections between the past and present revealed, and the underworld. 

One of the last times we experienced a Universal 9 year was in 1998. 1998 also had a Mars-Pluto square occurring in February of that year. While Mars and Pluto squared, there was a stellium of planets, including the Sun, Mercury, Jupiter, Uranus, and Neptune, in the sign of Aquarius. Aquarian energy is especially highlighted at this moment in time too because of Pluto’s recent ingress into the sign on November 19th 2024 after transiting Capricorn for 15 years.

So, in the year 1998, a Universal 9 Year (just like 2025 will be) as Mars and Pluto square-danced (Mars and Pluto are in strong aspect now too), and the sign of Aquarius was lit up in the sky, an event known as the Cavalese Cable Car Disaster occurred. A United States military pilot caused the deaths of 20 people near Trento, Italy, when his low-flying plane severed the cable of a cable car.

Mars cuts. Pluto takes down. Aquarius is the sign associated with high-flying objects.

With the energy of 9 just days away, and Mars/Pluto/Aquarius being lit in our skies, what high flying objects might we see in the near future come down? What in high places is cracking, splitting, and fissuring? Rocket ships, airplanes, cable cars? What is being revealed to us individually and collectively through these incidents?

(I brought forth some of these questions in class on the 21st and in the writing of this letter before the Jeju flight 2216 air crash occurred on December 28th. Furthermore, as I relayed the information about the cable car disaster to our class in the late morning of December 21st, a large crack (hello, Mars) formed in the gondola lift at Winter Park Ski Resort in Winter Park, Colorado. 174 riders were roped to safety. 

What other sky-high objects have been in the news lately? Drones. Over New Jersey. Possibly military related? How Mars-tial!)

This Mars Retrograde season, and Mars opposing Pluto transit, please take it easy. Remove yourself from stressful situations when possible, release your grip on what should and must be, be direct and kind, and find time to work out a sweat in a healthy environment. If you've been thinking about skiing down a mountain, perhaps skin up it first. If you fly a plane, schedule your annual early. And if you ride horses, wear your helmet.

Mars is a natural go-getter, and it will push forth despite the obstacles, but during a retrograde and an opposition with Pluto?... it can get farther with rest built into the schedule. If you know that you are Mars-sensitive and/or are having a transit to your natal Mars like me, be extra safe out there, and avoid rash decision-making. Erect strong boundaries when in environments that trigger. Luckily, Mars moves faster than Pluto so things will lighten up in the Spring. But then come the outer-planet transits into Aries! Fasten your seatbelt.
 

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Now, I don’t want to leave you feeling too depressed about this Mars Retrograde…here are some positive themes I’ve personally experienced over the past ten years of Mars Rx transits:

•General travel and road trips to some place new that offered a glimpse into my future.
•A return to art-making, a deepening of my art practice, and making my best art. (Probably because I was patient!)
•Spending more quality time with people.
•A review of values; a recalibration of spirit.


What might be some positive themes you have experienced in past Mars Rx periods?
Dates and locations of the past Mars Retrogrades:

Mar 1, 2014 - May 19, 2014  Mars Rx in Libra
Apr 17, 2016 - Jun 29, 2016  Mars Rx in Sagittarius / Mars Direct in Scorpio
Jun 26, 2018 - Aug 27, 2018  Mars Rx in Aquarius / Mars Direct in Capricorn
Sep  9, 2020 - Nov 13, 2020  Mars Rx in Aries
Oct 30, 2022 - Jan 12, 2023  Mars Rx in Gemini
Dec  6, 2024 - Feb 23, 2025  Mars Rx in Leo / Mars Direct in Cancer