by Jim Eshelman on Mon Jan 25, 2016 4:01 pm
(Here are all the years I had a foreground Mars connected to anything. All of these are for approximately October 10 of the year named.)
1956 (age 2): Mars rising < 4°, stationary, in mundane opposition to Jupiter-Pluto just below Descendant. Probably just sibling rivalry, since my brother was born six months later; and, of course, "terrible twos."
1960 (age 6): Mars < 5° from IC, Saturn 3° (other side) of MC, Sun < 2° below Descendant, etc. Mars-Saturn op. < 4°. No damage big enough to remember this long after. I started kindergarten a month before this, so this was my year of getting out into the world (out of the house!), first serious contact with other kids, etc. also, therefore, meant "discovering" catching colds & general "getting sick" politics.
1973 (age 19): Mars 5° off MC op. Mercury < 3° off IC. (Opposition 1°34' in mundo). Began college about a month earlier. This year was the next leap in "getting out into the world" (interesting how both years of "starting school" had this factor). First really active sexual period (college, 19, fraternity... you do the math <g> - averaging more than daily for months). Got married before the year was out, resulting in another "moving out" experience since unmarried students lived in Greek or campus housing, married students lived off-campus).
1975 (age 21): Moon-Mars opposition < 2° in mundo across horizon, Mars < 3° from Dsc, Moon 4° below Asc, Mercury exactly on MC square them, Sun-Pluto conjunction 4-5° off MC square them. So this is a Sun-Moon-Mars-Pluto mundane T-square with a bit of Mercury (and Jupiter distantly foreground). - First birthday after moving to California. Immediately after led to the turning point November 18, 1975 event where I was publically assaulted and "arraigned" by Gene Lockhart in front of the Sidereal community, I answered his accusations and came out ahead, and went home the same night with the double Scorpio with whom I spent the next 21 years of my life. So, lots of conflict up front, turning into incessant sex and reinventing my life all over again, moving up from Orange County to West Hollywood, new blessings and challenges of figuring out another person (a daughter of Mars at that), etc.
1976 (age 22): Besides natal Mars precisely square Ascendant, this was another Moon-Mars opposition across the horizon (not super close). Sun and Pluto were also foreground, but nothing too close; probably the Mars theme is strongest because of natal Mars so close, and the Moon aspect. Moon 65' from opposite Uranus. Continuing the prior year, but in particular this was the year we did the Sidereal Sun-sign project and I wrote The New Instant Astrologer. (The Moon-Uranus is probably best shown in that.)
1977 (age 23): Weak Mars, only mention it because it's there at all. This one is the SSR that has my natal Sun-Jupiter-Uranus minute from the angles. SSR Mercury-Mars mundane square more widely foreground. Very busy, lots of activities too numerous to name, might have been when TNIA came out, very active in astrological community.
1986 (age 32)? Mercury 29' from EP (with natal Mercury-Saturn), partile Moon-Sun square, Mars 13' from square Asc, Pluto 90' below Asc. Already heavily engaged in business enterprise, and probably accelerating it a lot on this year (more specific events to cite in years before and after). A year earlier I'd been 'drafted' for the top position in an international organization, didn't want it, had successfully leveraged the person I wanted getting it instead, had accepted a No. 2 support position, and this year was still making far too many phone calls and trips, involved in far too much conflict, and starting to set myself up for later gastric problems. I was earning my paycheck in the work injury legal field, so pretty much every corner of my environment was Marsy. Either late in this SSR or early in the next, I started taking a couple of work injury cases on my own, but no big thing yet.
1997 (age 43): Venus, Mars, and Pluto clustered around the IC, Pluto closest, Venus-Mars about 3° either side. Moon was conjunct Neptune and opposite my Jupiter-Uranus. A life transition year. I had broken my heal a month before and spent more than the first half of this year convalescing on pain-killers. This was the only time in my life I was ever addicted to any chemical, and it was opiates under a doctor's care (had never done recreational opiates on purpose, but had to undergo a few days of withdrawal). Described this time humorously and truly as "in bed on drugs with my legs in the air" (had to be elevated), which more than one friend said reminded them of their college days <g>. I had substantially worked off the last 500 cases of my work injury practice, and was ready to shut it down, made the last few appearances after I got back on my feet later in the year, and started slowly reinventing the next phase of my life.
1998 (age 44): Mars 45' from MC, Pluto about 1° from EP, my natal Venus-Pluto in the air. Continuing the chapter from the year before. I was surprised how much the job market had changed, had thought I could close my legal practice and walk out the door into a score of opportunities and found I had almost no option. Started a cycle of working temp here and there fore few years and mostly living off savings from the high-earning years. Heavily engaged in the spiritual organization I'd been part of for many years, reached what I then thought would be my last full initiation in this life, began a new round of writing and small-press publishing while I was effectively unemployed and living off large savings, working short-term clerical gigs here and there. Became increasingly involved with online computer support, which eventually led to Microsoft awarding me its MVP award every year for a decade.
2003 (age 39): Mars < 2° from Ascendant, Jupiter < 1° from Dsc, mundane Mars-Jupiter opposition, Pluto 1°27' off MC, Uranus also foreground. the big deal was Mars-Jupiter-Pluto mundane T-square tightly on angles. Live-redefining year. The month before, and the month immediately after my birthday brought a severe conflict with my guru that I thought would sever our nearly quarter century relationship. (Though communication became less, it did not split us.) In the spring she died, leaving to me responsibility for the lineage and the physical organization that supports it (effectively, I became pope under this Jupiter-Pluto, with a multi-day enthronement event about a month before my following birthday). Another interesting event was that I found myself, in the spring, hanging essentially vertically off the edge of a cliff for 2 to 3 hours awaiting search and rescue's arrival, after a foolish move. (Note the 2° Mars-Uranus conjunction foreground: So yes, Arena, it was reckless and foolish, but I got through the year without falling a few hundred feet to go splat on the rocks below me.)
The End (so far)
Jim Eshelman
