Thursday, August 11, 2011

Mars Out Of Bounds!

Mars OOB 2011

Ideally I'd have posted on this topic a little sooner but since Mars' OOB continues through August 21 I will write a bit about it. What inspires my paying more attention at this time are the Mars inspired events that have been occurring at a seemingly stepped up rate since Mars went OOB. These events especially coincide with Mars' "triggering" the nearing and extremely potent aspect that will be seen as defining these times, the developing ninety degrees between Uranus and Pluto. Mars squares (90°) Uranus about August 9 and opposes (180°) Pluto about August 10 ("about" due to time zone variations).

To take a moment for a reminder as to what OOB is . . . Due to the tilt of the earth as it orbits the Sun we get seasons and the latitude markers of the tropics of Cancer and Capricorn that are 23° 28' north and south of the equator.  Imagine the equator and those north and south limits extended out into space.  Most of the time the planets stay within those limits set by the Sun.  But sometimes, some of the planets swing beyond the limits that the Sun sets.  The Sun, Saturn and Neptune never go OOB, but periodically the rest do.

When a planet is OOB it doesn't relate normally to other astrological factors.  For the time it is out of bounds it is a bit of a wild card, a bit eccentric, and independent. Mars goes out of bounds in 2011 from about July 23 to August 21.

Without any special research but just recalling some recent events that fit the model, we have the disgusting "war" in Washington over the debt ceiling and the disastrous results of that. Then there have been mass shootings both here and especially in Norway, fiery riots in England, the largest single day loss of US soldiers with the downing of a helicopter in Afghanistan, extremes of heat setting temperature records, horrible famine in Somalia, and on and on. Of course all of these are not "caused" by Mars out of bounds. What they are is reflections of how Martian events have been pushed to extremes. That is the astrological meaning of a planet out of bounds, matters that are linked to the symbolism or archetype of the planet, show more extreme manifestation.

I've written elsewhere about the rare and dynamic current relationship of the planets Uranus and Pluto, how we are reaching a developmental crisis in their cycle, the force of which began in the nineteen sixties. See this post in Gather and scroll down to the "Dear Claudia" commentary for an important continuation of the article. http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474977413046 
The reason I am taking note of Mars OOB now is on account of those aspects by Mars pointed out in the first paragraph to the developing Uranus/Pluto square.

"Classically" Mars is regarded as a "malefic", the lesser malefic to Saturn's "greater malefic." In certain contexts Mars fulfills that ascription quite nicely but it is important to recognize that Mars is also beyond good or bad. The astrological function of Mars is also represented by the blood that courses through the veins of many creatures filling the function of distributing nutrition and handling waste. Mars represents the immune system that protects the body. Mars is the figure linked with action in general, the ability to move, to work, to make any sort of physical effort. It is the planet of athletes and athleticism. Mars is fire and as such represents all sorts of energy that is linked with heat that powers our vehicles, our manufacturing, our phones and computers. So Mars isn't inherently a bad (or a good) guy. Mars is energy and action.

What you will want to do is to look or have your astrologer check for how transiting Mars is moving through your horoscope, where it is and what aspects (looks, contacts) that it shares with other factors of your horoscope. That will point to the areas where you may experience Martian "extremes" to utilize as cautions or to ride the wild energetic tide.

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