Mars in Aries

[Jim Eshelman]

Mars is now in Aries where it will stay through the end of September (August 19 to September 30). Beginning today, I expect the main day-to-day story to change to something distinctly Arietian, especially in a form that reflects Mars' square with Saturn in Capricorn during this entire time, - During this time, Mars joins Uranus in Aries, though the two never approach conjunction by degree.

Mars' station is 9/9, and it may be hard to filter Mars in Aries results from Mars square Saturn results or the fact that Mars and Saturn are both transiting the Washington, DC Capsolar MC.

In humans with Mars in Aries at birth, we expect the following character (although this approach hasn't been very helpful in other Mars transits):

Strong-willed, independent, confident. Firm in their own opinions, don't back down. Accomplishing, industrious. Knack for business, promotion, making things move. (Building & expanding organizations or industries.) Imperial (bossy?). Some have too much energy pumping through their bodies for their comfort & health.

Other Aries themes that come to mind a priori: military and authoritarian or autocratic issues, aggression, state of emergency, intense economic or fiscal matters, industriousness of business overall, polarization especially between former allies, and any roller-coaster or cyclical rise-fall, expand-contract, or similar cycling through extremes. Major Aries periods feel like transitions between a concluding old cycle and an opening new cycle.

[Jim Eshelman]

In order to sort out what we are seeing as the hallmark tone of this period, here are the leading headlines this morning, the first morning after Mars entered Aries.

More than 70 wildfire zones are burning in 15 states, in addition to the extreme (dangerous) "heat advisory" areas.

At the DNC, Kamala Harris accepted nomination for Vice President and Barack Obama (and others) passionately made the case against Donald Trump.

COVID-19 cases are finally in decline in most areas, though with warnings that this trend will reverse if people are stupid or reckless again.

The Postmaster General put on hold the highly-criticized changes in the Post Office and its resources and capabilities until after the election.

The U.S. economy is in a tailspin and awaiting further stimulus aid that is still bound up in Congress. (Consumer spending is down 8%, 20% of small businesses re gone, official unemployment rate is 10.2% but (based on census data() one-fifth of all working-age adults is unemployed, etc.)

Alexey Navalny, a Putin critic and opposition leader, was hospitalized for apparent poisoning.

[Jim Eshelman]

Still sorting out what the net headline narrative is. What's obvious is that yesterday was about the climax of the Democratic National Convention, Joe Biden accepting his party's nomination, and a collective indictment of the Trump administration's failures.

How this story unfolds through the end of September will, of course, be a day-to-day thing - looking for the obvious themes. It's probably not as simple as the fact that most of last night's top speakers were former military and business figures (Buttigieg, Duckworth, Bloomberg, plus a recent Commander in Chief) - probably something else developing - but I'll take that for starters.

Aries Steve Bannon got arrested yesterday on fraud charges.

Possibly "the battle over police departments" will heat up: Texas' governor said he will freeze property taxes in any cities that vote to defund their police departments (like Austin recently did). NYPD disciplinary reports were just published online by the ACLU.

[Jim Eshelman]

Today's primary headlines include:

The Republican Convention begins tonight.

Under pressure from Trump, the FDA has authorized using convalescent plasma to teat COVID-19 in older patients, on a "possible benefits outweigh possible harm" basis, while awaiting actual clinical testing.

More police violence - Kenosha, WI and Lafayette, LA killings - coming under emotional attack and inviting scrutiny this morning.

Kellyanne Conway is leaving the White House at the end of the month. (She has a good excuse, but I think "it's as good an excuse as any.")

And then there is a background aura of threat, e.g., two hurricanes (now likely reduced to one) heading toward Louisiana and an asteroid approaching Earth one day before Election Day (but with less than half a percent chance of entering the atmosphere and ten near certainty it will disintegrate). The tone seems to be exciting a sense of emergency.

[Jim Eshelman]

To headlines for today:

The RNC continues. Biggest news from there is the First Lady's speech and Secretary of State Pompeo speaking while on a diplomatic mission to Israel, launching a Hatch Act investigation by Congress.

Besides the convention, police violence (and protests against it) is the real hot topic of the week.

Something that does not seem Mars in Aries themed is that COVID-19 cases are declining in most parts of the country. This, though, is probably a fluctuating figure so I'm not going to obsess on it much (and the down side is new cases in children are spiking, 70,000 of them this month).

[Jupiter Sets at Dawn]

There's a CAT-4 hurricane about to land tonight on the Texas coast should be in the news. They're saying the storm surge will not be survivable, because it's going to be twenty feet. (Glad Lance and his parents got the heck out while the getting was good.)

[Jupiter Sets at Dawn]

Hurricane Laura made landfall 12:48 AM at Cameron TX, August 27, 2021. 150 mph winds, 15-20' storm surge being compared with Hurricane Rita in destruction levels. Also with Katrina.

[Jim Eshelman]

Today's primary headlines:

Police violence continues to be a significant story (today the No. 1 story).

Hurricane Laura made landfall in Louisiana as the most powerful storm to ever hit the state and having gigantic storm surge predictions.

RNC continues. Many commentators labelled last might surrealistic and bizarre.

[Jim Eshelman]

There are gigantic stories that aren't making their way into the "top 5" stories (or even top 10) this week. I'm not sure why, except that there are other stories that news agencies consider more attractive news.

But strongly matching the theme of Mars in Aries, much of the West Coast is ablaze with no end in sight for some of the fires. The Bay Area has orange skies resembling the surface of the planet Mars and record-breaking damage is occurring. Also on the West Coast, confrontations in Portland continue, now exceeding 100 days, mostly peaceful but with pockets of violence and continuing the theme of protest against police violence.

The stories that do make it into the top 5 this morning include Bob Woodward's explosive new book (with tapes) documenting that, weeks before the first American death from COVID-19, Trump was indeed fully briefed on the disease, knew it's likely impact, and sat on the information rather than stir a panic. - Meanwhile, there are endless other coronavirus stories (no surprise this continues to dominate the news). -- The Post Office is under more intense investigation (NB - the Mars station yesterday squared Capsolar Mercury). Relations with China are still deteriorating. Oh, and the new Dune trailer is out.

[Jim Eshelman]

Mars is back in Aries as of yesterday, and will remain here until February 23, 2021. Time to bring this thread back into activity for tracking daily primary headlines.

With Mars in Aries in September, news was dominated by fires, election combat, authoritarianism, riots (more peaceful than not) against continuing police violence, and enhanced polarization, so we likely will now experience something similar.

[Jim Eshelman]

I've been waiting for the news stories to settle into a pattern the last few days. That may not be happening. There is a lot of commotion that may be the main characteristic. It would be easy to say that competition and conflict are central to the main stories, but that's not exactly unusual.

Anyway, the main (top, central) headlines for today are:

* Georgia Senate races - election today - These determine control of the Senate. (We may find that Aries themes of polarization and opposing extremes emerge from this.)
* Coronavirus rampage, England in new lockdown until mid-February, vaccines are rolling out too slow and creating problems (is there a "hurry up! hurry up!" theme, or just the basic threat?).
* Trump's call to the Georgia Secretary of State is still disturbing things with lots of discussion about whether he broke laws. A House bill to censure Trump is on its way. Tomorrow's joint session to certify Electoral College votes is likely to be long due to as many as six states being formally challenged (each of which gets two hours of debate in each house).
* Kenosha, WI cops involved in the shooting of Jacob Blake maybe charged with a crime. We'll know within the next two weeks. Unrest is expected in the city this week so National Guard is being mobilized. (Blake was shot 7 times from behind and remains paralyzed from the waist down.) [OUTCOME: No charges will be filed.]
* U.S.-Iran conflict is heating up again. Iran is enriching uranium again. Words like "volatile relations" are being used (keep that in mind for a Mars in Aries catch-phrase).

[Jupiter Sets at Dawn]

The National Guard has been called out to DC because of pro-Trump protests tomorrow. (The leader of the Proud Boys has been arrested because of vandalism and terroristic threats made while tearing down Black Lives Matter banners at a historic black church.

[Jim Eshelman]

The last 24 hours have seen a violent mob assault on the Capitol, complete with vandalism and three deaths, incited by the president's rabble rousing speech shortly before. The certification that two Aries Moon leaders had been elected to the two highest offices in the land was almost a secondary matter.

Most of the observed Mars in Aries themes from last summer are contained here. It would have been more perfect if there was a fire, but I'm glad there wasn't. Before it was over, a Republican congresswoman gave a speech asserting, "Hitler was right" about a thing or two.

Whoo. This is the one big event of this transit so far, it seems.

[Jim Eshelman]

Today's main headlines are essentially the same stories that have been ongoing. These are the themes most occupying mass mind.

1. Capitol Riots. Trump has been banned by Twitter, Facebook, and most social media platforms. Several people have been arrested as participants in the riots. Parler has been nearly shut down by Google and Apple removing the app from their app stores and Amazon Web Services saying they are ending their hosting contract with Parler. The House today introduced new impeachment articles and will vote on them tomorrow.

2. Pandemic. Growing pains on working out supply and demand on the vaccine (so some hospitals are throwing out doses). The virus has undercome multiple mutations and the efforts to track it internationally are encountering difficulties (with the U.S. notably bad about collecting virus samples).

3. White House transition. More violence is anticipated. Plans are progressing and complicated.

4. Sriwijaya Air Flight 182 crash. Some bodies and parts have been found. Searches continue for the rest. The black box has been recovered.

5. Honduras' president. US prosecutors allege he helped a drug trafficker deliver thousands of kilos of cocaine to the U.S.

In other news, U.S. intelligence agencies have only 6 months left to disclose everything they know about UFOs. (Yikes, that's right up to the Cansolar which... might be interesting on this point.)

Notice that all or most of the top five events are consistent with Mars in Aries symbolism and prior behavior.

[SteveS]

Jim wrote:

In other news, U.S. intelligence agencies have only 6 months left to disclose everything they know about UFOs. (Yikes, that's right up to the Cansolar which... might be interesting on this point.)

The world needs a new narrative.

[Jim Eshelman]

I'm noticing that the deadline is under a dormant Cansolar which, nonetheless, has worldwide a partile Moon-Sun-Pluto T-square... that also means transiting Pluto square Cansolar Moon AND CanQ Moon square Pluto for weeks after.

Lot's of "new narrative" possible there with no idea how it will shake out for the pandemic (especially as a world-wide set of aspects), the new president, foreign relations (especially as a world-wide set of aspects), etc. - UFOs would be cool!

[SteveS]

Indeed Jim, that 2021 Cansolar has Worldwide potential for stunning narratives of all kinds.

[Jim Eshelman]

In addition to the obvious ongoing stories, we have the militarization of the capital city: Washington, DC has been turned into a militarized "green zone" in anticipation of tomorrow's inauguration. The FBI has picked up plenty of signals that something volatile is being planned for tomorrow, so they're getting ready. (We astrologers, of course, have known about this for a year or more.)

[Jim Eshelman]

We have nearly a month still to go with Mars in Aries and the top headlines are still:

Coronavirus (with increased sense of emergency from fear that new international genetic variants are leaning to be immune to vaccines), though U.S. cases are dropping and hospitalizations are at a two-month low.

Stimulus money (btw stimulus economics is a great Mars in Aries phrase): Political wrangling over the relief package as moderate Republicans introduce their own counter-proposal to the Biden proposal, spending only a third as much.

Impeachment trial of Donald Trump: The most recent development is that the chief attorneys on Trump's defense team just quit. (He's replacing them, of course.)

Myanmar: This is a new story (in its current developments): Over the weekend the military arrested the country's leader and other high-ranking officials claiming voting irregularities in the election. (Militarization of power is clearly Mars in Aries.)

Russia protests continue, "flooding" Moscow streets and elsewhere, in a second weekend of protests against the jailing of opposition leader Alexey Navalny. Over 5,000 arrests.

[Jim Eshelman]

During the impeachment trial, the presentation of the case against Trump has filled hours each day showing films of and discussing the Capitol riots. This has made them as vivid in mass mind as when they occurred, I think.

These brutal attack stories of almost military-like assault with homicidal intent (joined with the simpler angry uprising of more ordinary, less extreme folks) is as much Mars in Aries as the riots themselves.

(Daily headline themes have otherwise been more or less the same.)

[Jim Eshelman]

Today is the last day of Mars in Aries for the current round. It's been there since December 26. While the pandemic continues and much else is in the news, I think it's an easy call to say that the biggest non-pandemic story of the time is the assault on the U.S. Capitol - as it originally happened, then as we were reminded of it during the inauguration visuals, and then during the constant replaying of it in increasing detail through the impeachment trial. This one violent insurrection event has been the heart and soul of Mars in Aries.

There are other things to dig out when I have time - writing a summary of it as a working definition of Mars in Aries for mundane purposes. For now, I'll put a link to this thread in the major planet sign transit thread.

[Jim Eshelman]

Mars has just entered Aries.