Star Struck Style

One of the unexpected benefits of the COVID-19 pandemic is that the Canadian border is closed to American trophy hunters. Those slack-jawed, cousin-marrying yokels are going to have to find something else to shoot at for a while.

Anyway, the sheep around here are pretty well-behaved this time of year. Most of the ewes have babies, and the rams are busy eating in order to get big and strong for rutting season in November. The reason I was thinking about mountain sheep, and the reason I posted a photo of ram, is that Mars moves into Aries tomorrow.

Aries is ruled by Mars, so it’s a comfortable place for the planet to be. The energy associated with Mars is applied directly in Aries, often with a single-minded focus. Lots can get done when Mars is moving through the sign.

However, Mars is going to be in Aries for more than six months! Its upcoming retrograde phase is contained entirely within Aries. In fact, the red planet’s station in November is going to be at 15°14″ — smack dab in the middle of the sign.

That’s sort of bad news for someone like me with a cardinal sun sign just minutes away from that critical degree. I’m going to spend the entire month of November with Mars square my natal sun. The interpretation for that aspect is literally the same as what I would predict for the rutting rams here in my home province: time to fight for dominance. “Cafe Astrology” defines the transit as follows:

“You are taking things quite personally now, and something that someone says or does now can easily rile you up. Challenges with those in authority or with males could figure. Impatience and impulsiveness tend to rule. You are in no mood to compromise just now. A tendency to be more accident-prone could be due to stress or physical exhaustion.”

The same thing happens for about month when the planet goes retrograde in September. Anyone with 28° in the cardinal signs featured prominently in their horoscope should also heed the warnings implied in the passage I posted above.

It’s a big change, and considering what kind of year 2020 has been, it might be an unwelcome change for many of us. I suppose the best advice that I can give anyone right now is to ride out the rest of the year without butting heads at every opportunity. Saturn moves back into Capricorn — the sign of the mountain goat — in just a few days from now, and Jupiter and Pluto meet back up again in the sign, too. Take those celestial events as a warning to proceed with caution, no matter what Mars in Aries is telling you. When this is all over, only the sure-footed will be around to bid good riddance to this star-crossed year.