Mars enters Neptune's House of Respect

The second thing I noticed looking at this morning’s chart was Mars in the very beginning of Neptune’s !0^th house. In a very general sense, a planet in the 10^th house of anything is near the midheaven when the ‘anything’ in question is appearing on the eastern horizon. (Click here for page about houses)  But first things second - the first thing I noticed was the Moon entering Aries. I should point out Moon's current ruler, because it took me years to incorporate this consideration in my astrological meditation, and when I finally did the fuzzy lines of connection and demarcation became more focused; when Moon is in Aries it is ruled by the planet that rules Aries – Mars.  (Link to page on Rulerships)   So, though I’m not comfortable with beginning this post (I should probably be resting before going to clean a house) I’m taking an Aries risk and doing it anyway. I’m driven by an urge stronger than the usual caution that holds me on the couch. Mars is ruling the Moon for the next 2 days while Moon passes through Aries.

So let’s get back to Mars, which is currently in Sagittarius.

The chart above is for yesterday when I was at the dentist. I had arrived 10 mins late for appointment and Nikki, the super cool hygienist was working on a tooth with bleeding gum. I’ve lost a few, and she remarked that this was my new problem tooth. She was not cracking as many jokes as she usually does, and I noticed when we were talking after she finished on my teeth that she was yawning a lot. I asked her if she had not gotten enough sleep the night before. On the way, late, to the office I was thinking how wonderful it is to have these people in the world who get up early every work day to be ready to help people like me, who spend so much time on the couch. She had not noticed the yawning and said she would get some caffeine as soon as I left.  Now that I think of it, I guess my customers appreciate the work I do for them, but yesterday i felt humbled by the discipline of the people in the dental office- always having to be on time, and polite to patients who arrive late with bleeding gums.

At that moment I was not thinking about Mars being 1/12 of a degree into Neptune’s 10^th house. I think about these things when I’m on the couch. I fiddle with charts and numbers to get the exact time some event will happen, sometimes I even write it down, and then I forget about it. During recent sessions of playing with charts I have been thinking of Jupiter now in Capricorn. Mars has been in Sagittarius for almost all of Jan, and Jupiter would be ruling it, except that it went into Capricorn a month before Mars passed into its territory. Jupiter rules the gambling sign of Sagittarius. But it’s not there anymore. The year of the gambler is over and since Dec 2019 the high roller is in the austere land of Saturn. And Saturn is home. Saturn (its so called angels referred to as Thrones in old time esoteric theology, maybe because Saturn seems to sit while the other planets from Moon out to Mars race around the snake of the ecliptic) is ultimately ruling just about every planet right now.

It’s kind of a relief isn’t it? The rubber might burn a bit when it first hits the road, but soon enough the tire comes to a steady relationship with the pavement and propels the vehicle forward. The noise and smoke gives way to movement.

But I started out thinking of Mars entering the last quarter of its cycle with Neptune, which is even slower than Saturn, 5 times slower. Now that’s a heavy throne. I wondered when this cycle began, and in which sign.

Well, since Mars takes about 2 years to go around the zodiac, and we’re in the last quarter of it’s cycle with a nearly stationary planet, I figured a little more than a year, but less than two. 

 

Above is the page for Dec 2018 ephemeris from Astro.com. You can see that they met in early Dec 2018 in 13^th degree of Pisces. I thought about how I had realized on returning from my short journey to Maine that aside from the expense of a crown for a broken tooth, I really needed to invest in repairs for my house that I had been ignoring for years. In fact, the day a repair person came I got a long and scary list of repairs that would cost more than $10,000. I was kind of freaked out, and realized this is the kind of situation where people get sucked into spending money they don’t have, in other words borrowing money. The repair person said the value of the house would increase and pay for the loan his company could set me up with. “This is how so many people wind up with houses in foreclosure!” is what came to my mind as I struggled with the panic. I knew I had to get that guy out of my house so I could think things through and find my own way of moving forward with a big problem.

Now, 13 months later it seems like it’s been at least two years since a very competent friend did about $3,000 worth of work and I have no more awful worries about my house crumbling or spewing water from a broken pipe. In the months between Mars meeting Neptune in Pisces I gained a more realistic understanding of what the risks were of letting certain things go, and I was blessed with a new friendship with a person highly skilled in home maintenance. I look back on the dental crown a year ago and another dying tooth that finally got pulled this summer, and think, “Yes I have a new problem tooth, but I know the worst of my dental problems are behind me.” Just like with my house, I put off going to a dentist for years, so the last 5 years have been expensive in that department too. Mars has circled all the way from panicky, what-is-going-to-happen-next Pisces to we-can-do-anything-with-next-to-nothing Sagittarius. Mars knows that’s just a figure of speech, because Jupiter is in sober Capricorn. Remember, Jupiter rules Sagittarius. Saturn rules Capricorn. And both Jupiter and Saturn are now in Capricorn.

Then I went back way further and thought about where Mars was in its cycle with Neptune when my son was born. It was in Neptune’s 8^th house. That’s not as far as the 10^th, but it’s a mature place with respect to Neptune. When Mars gets more than half way into its cycle with Neptune, it’s got Neptune’s number; the worrisome surprises are no longer surprises, they’re things that can be looked back on.

Here’s the chart for today, showing Mars ¾ of a degree into Neptune’s 10^th house. You can also see Moon now in Aries. 

 

Yesterday I cleaned for a couple of former customers that have been in a retirement community for 4 years. I haven’t been for over two years. I’ve been too busy resting and they have been too busy dealing with health emergencies. We spent an hour just talking about their hospital/doctor adventures and my latest news. Then I moved all the furniture in their bedroom to get hidden dust that the community cleaning crew does not have time for. It was like old times from the years when I cleaned their house. I sent the husband to his reading chair when he expressed worry about me moving a dresser.  I said, “Does it feel like old times?”

He smiled and nodded “Yes”.

As I prepare to post this from the library parking lot (free internet!) I'm noticing that Moon was still near Venus and Neptune yesterday when I arrived late and felt terribly grateful for disciplined health care professionals.  This morning it was just entering Aries.  Yesterday morning it was at 19 Pisces.