I’ve been grumpy for a couple of days.
Nothing has really changed in my life in that time. I’m just grumpy.
I’m not usually a transit-checker — that is, I don’t wake up every morning and check where Venus is in my chart, or the Moon, or whatever. I know approximately where the outer planets are, and I try to watch what I say when Mercury is retrograde, but I don’t live and die by my transits.
But this morning I had to check them out. Because the inexplicable grumpiness was getting to me.
Sure enough, there was Mars sitting right on my natal Sun-Mercury conjunction, opposite Saturn: a driving force in my life and personality.
If you’re not an astrologer, that last sentence won’t mean much to you. What’s important to know is that, when Mars energy bursts into a major part of your personality, even for a short period of time, that part of you can get pretty energized — for better or for worse.
If you’re not in full awareness and possession of yourself, as I haven’t been the last couple days, Mars energy can get pretty prickly, pretty quickly. I’ve been snapping at my three-year-old, feeling edgy and tense, defiant and selfish. On the other hand, the whole house is clean and I’ve done more walking and weight-lifting this week than I’ve done in ages.
See, Mars is productive and physical as well as angry and irritated.
It’s a good example of how each planet and sign has both positive and negative manifestations. At the core of each planet is not good or bad but, simply, energy.
Mars contains the energy of output and individuality. It’s like the first yelp of a baby as it emerges from the womb. It can be a yelp of pain and protest, or a yelp of concerted effort, or a yelp of productive breathing, or simply a yelp that says, “Hey! I’m here! Look at me!” The important thing is that the yelp occurs: The baby is bringing individual energy up from inside, out into expression in the world.
Some people feel Mars-like most of the time; it means Mars is prominent or particularly energized in their horoscope chart and personality. (On the other hand, people with a weaker Mars may try to make up for it by adopting Martian habits — but feel woefully inadequate about them.) We see strong expressions of Mars energy in sports figures, soldiers, drummers and Nike’s “Just Do It!” slogan. We also see it in red-faced anger, mouthing off, reckless driving and crimes of passion. It’s no wonder that professional football players, for example, have a reputation for getting into trouble — and that their fans sometimes cross the line between excited cheering and incited rioting. It’s all on the Mars continuum: It’s output of physical, productive, creative, instinctive, freely-expressed energy.
When we feel Mars energy bubble up in our lives — and we especially tend to feel it in our bodies — we might first feel irritated or angry for no reason we can readily identify. Or maybe we can identify the reason, but it’s something that wouldn’t have bothered us last week. Or it’s something that always gets to us but we feel like a hamster on a wheel with it: running, running, running with no productivity, no resolution.
For me, this week, it was my preschooler’s clinginess — an apt example because Mars wants to be free and independent, able to choose where and when to go, and what to do, tied down to no one. The Dragon’s clinging and whining this week made me feel angry and trapped, whereas in other weeks I’m able to take it in stride, address it, soothe it and move on. Not this week: Instead, I felt like a volcano about to explode. I’m actually planning to spend this evening out so I can indulge my need for freedom and independence instead of giving into irritation and anger. I hope I can return a little calmer, having gotten my short spell of freedom.
It’s really important to be aware of when Mars stirs your anger. However Mars is situated in your chart, if you haven’t learned to manage your anger, certain triggers — a child’s defiance, a spouse’s socks on the floor, a boss’s tone — could set it off at the drop of a hat. On the other hand, many people suppress irritation and anger because it’s not considered polite to show it. This can, of course, be just as damaging: Witness the ample evidence that the stress of suppression is connected to heart attack and other ills.
It might seem strange, but both hair-trigger anger and suppressed anger are sourced in the same place: the inability to manage Mars energy productively. Mars is not anger; anger is one expression of Mars energy. But that energy can be channeled into a more productive and creative place. Primal scream therapy is a quintessential example of this channeling, though other activities — like cleaning house, going for a walk, lifting weights, mowing the lawn, drumming, listening to loud music or having (safe and respectful) sex — will do just as well.
Astrologer Robert Hand says:
One way to ensure that a Mars transit will not cause disputes or arguments with others … is to have plenty of hard work to do. The negative side of Mars most often manifests itself when there is no other outlet for its energies. (Source)
Maybe, instead of anger management, we should call it Mars management. That would acknowledge the more productive and creative uses of this wild, unruly energy instead of dissing it completely. Because, like a needy child, Mars gets really, really, really pissed when it’s ignored.
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