The 9 degree Virgo Solar Eclipse (New Moon) on 1st September is in a Saros Series, described by Bernadette Brady as “about realism, a coming down to earth. The individual will become aware of an old situation, and see it for what it is rather than what he or she thought it was. This can be a constructive time for tackling the truth.” (The Eagle and the Lark). It occurred before in this series in 1998, 1980, 1962, 1944 and 1926, so worth looking back to see what happened in your life then.
This particular Solar Eclipse has the New Moon conjunct the North Node opposition Neptune squaring onto Saturn Mars in Sagittarius – so quite a potent and confusing mix of energy, which will trail on in effect for a few months. The Eclipse effect tends to linger.
Mars is speedy, go-ahead, pro-active, argumentative and aggressive. When it meets slow-moving, rigid Saturn, the energy gets blocked. One result can be accidents, and broken bones, or bad-tempered irritation at setbacks and delays. It usually feels like a test of strength and indeed can be most usefully deployed towards highly disciplined tasks, requiring perseverance and attention to detail. You need grit for Mars Saturn and the ability to accept that what you want (Mars = I am) probably won’t happen or at least not without a massive amount of effort.
It does have military overtones, which out in the world isn’t great. But a soldierly frame of mind will help in individual lives – do what needs to be done, obey authority, fit in, pull together, forget personal indulgences for a while.
What will undercut Mars Saturn’s determined and utterly pragmatic drive is Neptune, which will waft off into dreams and delusions. The risk of Neptune in aspect to an Eclipse is self-deceit; the opportunity is for deeper spiritual understanding. If Mars Saturn’s armoured-tank mentality can be harnessed to a Neptunian vision, it could make it come real – though that’s probably hoping for too much.
Saturn square Neptune, at absolute best, is about painstaking effort and steady working towards a goal. But it tends more often to produce a neurotic sense of worry (about things that often are never going to happen), low energy and sometimes illness or depression. So generally dissatisfied and changeable in mood.
Mars Neptune is also weak-willed and low energy, feeling paralysed or inferior. Its better side, though tricky in a square, is glamour, publicity and artistic pursuits.
Mars in aspect to the Eclipse normally activates a zippy, argumentative, even sexual mood. But given that, in this Eclipse, it is stockaded on two sides by Saturn and Neptune it will have problems being as upfront and straight-up-the-middle-of-the-road as it likes. In mythology Mars (Ares) was the god of war, who on meeting his father in a narrow tunnel, killed him to clear his way ahead. At worst, it’s an insensitive, almost infantile energy – what I want is what I want and I intend to have it, no matter how others suffer.
The Pisces Lunar Eclipse (Full Moon) on 16 September at 24 degrees Pisces/Virgo has lost the aspect to Neptune and Saturn but is still closely square Mars. So it is likely to produce more of the ambitious, competitive, no-compromise, passionate (and selfish) Mars effect. For those who are normally under-confident and averse to confrontations, it might bring them out of their shell to become more assertive. Given that it is in Sagittarius, that might mean crusading for personal beliefs and causes.
Marjorie, Thanks for your illuminating — as always — insights. It would indeed be great to harness the discipline and focus of Mars/Saturn to a Neptunian vision.
Grace