A CRISIS OF ATTENTION: SUN OPPOSITE MARS RX
The Sun Mars opposition coming up at 9:41pm PST on December 7th marks a turning point in the Mars retrograde.
This turning point in Mars’ retrograde cycle is a crisis of attention. A crossroads of detail-oriented and big-picture thinking. A quandary of truth wherein truth presents itself close-up as well as from a generous distance, and probably looks different regardless of where you sit.
Dilemmas such as this desire the devotion of our pause.
The spaciousness of our consideration. The practice of believing something “other” is also possible. And the capacity to affirm and integrate varying and sometimes conflicting understandings.
Mars in Gemini is ruled by Mercury. As sharp as it is clear, though narrow in its view. Mars means speed. In Gemini, Mars moves quickly with information, connecting dots, facts and figures into a story that changes completely depending on how one looks at it. This is an important notion to consider going into the next two weeks: the quality of your stance alters the story.
Right and wrong are poised to be centered, but making them peripheral is probably in everyone’s best interest.
Morality is subjective. Perspective is everything. If you find yourself stuck in virtue-based views, being right is best measured by the quality of alignment between our actions and our values.
Mars retrograde in Gemini is like a pinched nerve. Pressure on one tiny point that causes pain to echo along a limb, sometimes even causing cognitive disfunction.
Often the little problems really do make a big difference. But consistently, how we deal with an issue is more important than the issue itself.
Focus on the pain inflames it. The closer you get to a perceived problem, the bigger it will appear.
Mars in Gemini will point to predicaments as a first step to solving them. Sometimes Mars in Gemini ends up like a pinball in the particulars. This transit has the power to provoke our most predisposed triggers. Luckily, there is something we can learn from it.
Usually the crisis is about something happening for the person who’s having it. If you find yourself in the atmosphere of someone else’s reactivity, do your best not to react. Help them locate the source of their irritation. If you or they think the source is you, they probably haven’t found it yet.
As I mentioned in my last newsletter, planetary retrogrades are about said planet’s relationship to the Sun. The upcoming opposition is a Solar moment. It presents the problem in a new light and aims to solve it.
The root of the word ‘solution’ is ‘Sol’ meaning Sun. Meaning centering in self. All-seeing perception. And an extension of generosity.
‘Solution’ comes from Latin solutio (n-), from solvere which means to ‘loosen’.
We must loosen the knots we’ve tied that no longer keep us safe. Or our grip on whatever the thing is. Our attachment to outcomes. Our focus on misfortune. Loosen anything that keeps us from embracing ourselves. Clarity of the way forward comes from owning and being direct about our personal experience.
The center is within. This doesn’t mean that the problem isn’t connected to outside issues.
It does mean that the solution must involve the self, otherwise it’s just insoluble.
The Sun in Sagittarius is ruled by Jupiter.
Jupiter promotes growth. Makes a soil fertile with stability.
In Jupiter’s domains, horizons are expansive. Views are full of deep belly breaths.
The promise of possibility permeates.
Jupiter creates spaciousness. A planet often associated with travel because distance allows us to zoom out of a situation. See the big picture a lot clearer. The main intentions. The primary principles we’d like to expound.
Jupiterian experiences are ripe with metaphor. Dripping with symbolism. Swollen with significance. Jupiter will stretch our most capable muscles and aid us in searching for meaning underneath any distress.
Jupiter also promotes prosperity.
In order to be and do well, you have to believe you deserve and are capable of initiating, securing, maintaining, and propagating wellness.
Subject to the cultural conditioning of our modern world, this is one of the highest and most frequent hurdles we must overcome.
Mars in Gemini can cut straight to core woundings and help us make critical change. It can also crash towards innumerable tangents, distracting us from our intention with slew of snags.
The Sun in Sagittarius on the other hand, hovers far above the storm. Illuminates where we have more capacity than we’ve been allowing ourselves to perceive. Shows us that instead of justifying why we can’t, we might try rationalizing why we can.
The Sun in Sagittarius pulls our attention outside of the problem. Perhaps to land on a bigger piece of it. This element might have more potential to be solved. Might require more effort to undo or adjust. And might also offer untold ease to a situation that has previously lacked alleviation.
When all is said and done, my hope is that our sight can be keen but wide. Our words clear-cut but not caustic. Our pain instructive rather than destructive. And that our actions reveal our central integrity.
If you’d like to talk about how the Sun opposite Mars is showing up in your chart, you can book a December 2022 session with me here. My books will be open until 11:59pm PST on December 3rd.
Acknowledgements
Much of this meditation is inspired by things I've been listening and learning from lately. To name a few important ones:
-this conversation on Myths as Maps with Sophie Strand on For the Wild Podcast
-Diana Rose Harper's Sagittarius Season container By Jove!
-Growing Apart or Expanding? A Spiritual Vision of Love & Codependency with Loren O. Delaney on Magic of the Spheres Podcast
-some preparation I'm doing for workshop on Astrology and Attachment in the Numinous Network at the end of January