Mars opposition Pluto

Mars and Pluto stand in exact opposition today, Mars at the opening degrees of Leo and Pluto at the same degree of Aquarius, directly across the wheel from one another. The contact reached exactness between yesterday and today and is now just beginning to separate, so its pressure runs across these days rather than landing on one of them.

To see why this contact carries weight, start with what the two bodies are. Sepharial writes that Mars is desire, and that desire is what underlies both will and action. It is the push to act on what we want. Pluto, as we read it, is transformation through what cannot be avoided: what is buried surfacing, what has been held by force being made to loosen. It concerns power, both the power a person holds and the power held over them, and the difference between the two.

These two are not strangers. Astrocábala names Pluto as the higher octave of Mars, and modern practice agrees; on this point the two lines are fully in accord. Mars is direct assertion. Pluto is what assertion becomes when it goes deep, lasts, and stops being personal.

The opposition sets them face to face. Ptolemy puts the diametrical distance first among the configurations that join parts of the zodiac, and he calls it too plain to need explaining. Two points directly opposite each other are fully aware of each other. In this case, personal will stands opposite impersonal force. Mars moves quickly and Pluto hardly moves at all, so for a few days a fast, personal drive runs straight into a long, slow pressure that has been building for years.

At full strength, this tends to feel like pushing against something that does not give, or like being pushed by something bigger than any one person in the room. Hard contacts to a personal body are where Pluto's pressure is felt as pressure. Sepharial warned that those who make force a passion are brought back to account by Mars itself. Yet he also held that the planets affect us only in terms of ourselves. In his view, what was once the destructive side of Mars can be turned into the steady ability of someone who gets things done.

The practice follows from the power question the opposition raises. When you notice yourself pressing hard on something today, pause once and ask whether the force is your own or a reaction to pressure coming from outside. If it is yours, act on it plainly and in proportion. If it is a reaction, say the frustration out loud now rather than letting it pile up. And do not let anyone else's authority quietly take the place of your own judgment.