Moe... Er, Mars Draws Close

8.18.03


Howdy, readers. Astrobarry here, your favorite broken record, ready to draw your attention back to… you guessed it… Mars retrograde in Pisces, just in case you forgot about it, although I don't know how that could be possible! There is no overlooking the influence of this particular astrological happening, with Mars traveling in an apparent backward motion and reapproaching conjunction with Uranus.

If you can't find enough examples of confusing reversals and re-reversals of action in your own life (e.g., duststorms, misdiagnoses, runarounds from health insurance companies and cellular phone providers), then how about a carnivalesque recall campaign (and anti-recall campaign) complete with a bizarre slate of replacement candidates? California's sudden governor's race promises to break a governmental stalemate (Uranus) by undoing last November's election of Gray Davis (Mars retrograde)—but only by putting state voters through a confusing (i.e., who will run? who will drop out? who will win?) circus-full of high emotions and a vague miasma of issues that reeks of the worst elements of Piscesness.

Another strikingly coincident Mars/Uranus-retrograde-in-Pisces event of the past week is, of course, the largest electricity outage in North American history. This "Great Blackout of 2003" couldn't be a more fitting manifestation of what can happen when Mars and Uranus join forces—abrupt discharges of energy, surges that can create enormous power failures (or smaller ones that crash certain people's computers), jumpstarting the process of radically overhauling an outdated system.

Even more interesting to me is the mystery surrounding this blackout's cause, which is still not quite clear days later, the hard-to-trace origins and constantly-shifting assignment-of-blame, both poignant symbols of Pisces-brand uncertainty. Indeed, we were all surprised that a small snafu, likely somewhere in Ohio, could have such a far-ranging effect, knocking out power to 50 million users. And yet the notion of such invisible though real interconnectedness is a primary theme of Pisces.

For anyone who questions my repetitive insistence on Mars's recent importance, let me add one more factor to the mix—on Aug. 27, Mars will be nearer to the Earth than it has been in about 60,000 years. Due to the varying rates and irregular orbital paths of the Earth and Mars, the exact distance between these two planets (and between any planets) changes all the time. When a celestial body is at the closest point in its cycle to the Earth, it is said to be at perigee. (At its furthest point, it is at apogee.)

About three days later, Mars will also be at its exact perihelion, or the closest point in its orbit to the Sun. And this lineup is such that the Earth is situated in a direct line between the Sun and Mars—astrologically known as the aspect of Sun opposing Mars. Due to this exceptional alignment, Mars will appear to be brighter and larger than usual in our earthly sky.

Astronomers may stop short of attributing any "meaning" to the fact that Mars is so near to us earthlings, but our intuition tells us that when something of Mars's magnitude comes closer to our individual lives, it can't help but have a greater influence, whether this is a gravitational or electromagnetic or psychological one.

In providing an astrological interpretation for this close encounter with Mars, I equate the red planet with any character of big personality that we may know—someone named Moe, for instance. Whether or not we interact directly with Moe or even see him with our own two eyes, when he enters the crowded party, his presence is felt from across the room. We might be sitting at the bus stop minding our own business, nose deep in a magazine, but if Moe approaches from behind and stares at us long enough from a close distance, we feel his eyes ("how?" we may never know) and it stirs us from our reading. Maybe we forget about Moe until we pass him on the street. Maybe we see an object in a store that reminds us of him. Nevertheless, we are more likely to think of Moe when he is in our imminent physical scope, though the energetic reasons behind this remain somewhat of a mystery.

Mars, despite its retrogradation and its presence in the sign of Pisces, is still an active planet. And it's not surprising that next week, as Mars reaches its closest perigee since the Neanderthal era, is a very active week astrologically speaking. You'll have to wait until then to hear my take on the details, but for those who want a sneak peek, let's just say that a New Moon in Virgo, Mercury turning retrograde, Jupiter changing signs for the first time in a year and then opposing Uranus, along with the Mars perigee, are all in store for this single seven-day period. Wowsa!