The Apprentice Generation in the Crucible

All this month we have a chance to see Mars up close.  It rises in the east by 8pm and will glow deep red, like a bicycle tail light tracing a slow motion arc across the night sky.  Saturn comes up behind Mars at about 11pm.  And our favorites Venus and Jupiter illuminate the early night this month for at least two hours after sunset; they are the first lights in the west, visible as soon as the sun goes down.

Mars has been in Virgo since Nov and will not leave the sign of the apprentice till July 3.  This six month period is an opportunity that might not be fun, but will certainly train us to be the best we can be.  Think along the lines of a drill sergeant taking over Miss Manner’s School of Practical Perfection.  Where Mars is, is where the adrenaline flows.

For anyone with a planet in Virgo, fidelity to an ideal matters, and with Mars there now, anyone with a planet in the middle of that sign is put on the spot; that includes the people born form 1960-1967.  Pluto is currently at the beginning of Capricorn which is actually fun for non-Capricorns born in the 60’s; they are like student masons showing off how good they are at combining the infinitely differing shapes of stones that make humane institutions.  The problem is adjusting to this more aggressive level of operating. 

Imagine you are an apprentice stone mason working on a walkway to the governor’s mansion, and some veteran points out a few stones that are elevated from the rest.  Sure enough, when you stand away from the path you can see that they stick up so far above the surrounding stones you will have to take up all the stones, sand underneath, and landscape fabric to dig away another layer of soil.  Discouraging work, but necessary, in order to make the stones waiting to trip a guest, level with the rest.  When you try to remove another layer of soil, you uncover the roots of a massive Maple shading the pathway, and realize the depth of the problem. 

The Virgo experience is about reaching for perfection and coming to terms with the impossible nature of that goal.  So ultimately it is about becoming our best selves and in the process accepting the aspects of who we are that we want to change, but cannot.  For the Pluto in Virgo generation that means reaching for a perfect society and learning to adapt to the roots in the way.