Mars in Libra For Nearly 8 Months! Part I

News You Can Use

That’s right.  Mars will enter Libra on December 7th/8th and stay in that sign until July 27th; nearly eight months.  How will you be impacted?  What will be the best use of this energy for you?  Let’s explore possible dynamics together.  You’ll want to get your natal chart out and first look to see where the sign of Libra falls.  That is the area of your life experience where Mars will act as catalyst, trigger, and energizer.  

Here’s a quick guide to Mars through each house.  Just use those three buzz words, catalyze, trigger, and energize to get an over-all feeling for how you’ll experience Mars wherever it moves.
 1st House:  YOU, your sense of identity, how you begin things
 2nd House:  Your values, your development of your resources and gifts, self-worth.
3rd House:  Your attitude, mind-set, ways of relaying information, your peers/siblings, neighborhood, learning skills that later become automatic.
4th House:  Your home, family, personal life, your deepest Soul self.
5th House:  Your heart house of love, creativity, and children, not to mention enjoyment of life in general.
6th House:  Your ‘daily grind’ house of work, health, habits, and routines
 7th House:  Others in your life, especially partners, the ‘Not Self’ house.
8th House:  Merging with others, creating intimacy, going deeper into the mysteries, all the complexities of ‘money, power, and sexual’ issues.
9th House:  Finally expanding out into the bigger spheres through travel, higher learning, and philosophy
10th House:  Handling the world through your career and public life; your Highest Calling.
11th House:  Moving in ever larger circles of groups, friendships, colleagues, as well as expanding forward into the future of your own hopes and dreams.
12th House:  Now withdrawing from the outer world, renewing your connection with Spirit through contemplation, serving others, and gaining deeper understanding of the Whole.

Mars in Libra
Here are some guidelines to understanding how Mars may operate in Libra.  Keep in mind that Mars naturally ‘rules’ the opposite sign of Aries, so the classic astrologers maintained that Mars was in ‘detriment’ in Libra.  But I have good news for you.  Paul Wright wrote an excellent article in The Mountain Astrologer’s June/July 2010 issue entitled ‘Astrology and Courage’.  He studied the Mars placement in 1,140 individuals registered as recipients of ‘The Victoria Cross’, Britain’s highest award for gallantry.  He determined that ‘Mars does not appear to favor the signs in which it is traditionally considered strong.  On the contrary Libra, the sign of Mars’ detriment, is the most heavily occupied……Mars in its detriment or fall, does not appear to equate to an individual who lacks courage.’
There you have it.  Mars in Libra may be just what we need now to help us create a more peaceful, harmonious, and socially just world.  Certainly you can use this energy towards those ends wherever it moves along in your chart for the next 8 months.

Libra favors diplomacy over adversarial tactics.  Libra enjoys genuine socializing rather than isolationism.  Libra is good at mediation where there are disputes.  The strengths which Mars here can foster are fairness, ability to compromise, and cooperativeness.  These are the types of actions we now need in a world mired in conflict.  Libra is an air sign and thus supports communication and peaceful co-existence amongst individuals and groups.  This energy may help to improve racial issues, minority rights, women’s rights, labor rights, and individual rights.  Libra desires to harmonize all polarities by evening the scales.  The golden mean, balance, and justice are all the higher qualities of Libra.  Mars here can champion those qualities.  I think of the genuine Peace Movement as perhaps the highest political force that might be favored by Mars in Libra.

What vocations will be energized with Mars in Libra?  Here are just a few:
Marriage services and related industries such as match-making services, counseling services, event planning, etc.
Forming of partnerships such as LLCs
Politics—-oh yes!
Artistic work and artisans
Brokerage work and firms
The modeling industry
Hair and Beauty services
Modeling
Interior design
Social dancing!  With real partners.
Perhaps you can think of other Libra-related vocations soon to be energized.

The darker shadow side of Mars in Libra
Oh, do we dare hope for nothing but pleasantries and lightness of being with Mars in Libra?  Probably not.  This world is right now full of too many corrupted messes and a real polarization between the forces of light and the forces of darkness.  Mars in Libra can actually mean the opposite of diplomacy; it can mean war.  Libra’s darker side is highly competitive.  That old cliché of ‘the iron fist inside the velvet glove’ does fit rather tightly with the use of this sign in negative ways.

Watch for situations where strife, arguments, and ugly lawsuits are possible.  Be aware of tactics which undermine true fairness, equality, and justice.  Look to how you handle your own anger in situations which feel unfair.  Remember, a blocked Mars may result in impotent rage which then goes underground or turns inward in highly destructive ways.  It is important to constantly clarify ‘What do I want?  What do I have to do to get it?’  Mars in Libra can be used effectively for powerful strategy if you are willing to face what is creating the anger and act according to the higher Libran principles.

The other major shadow of Libra is forever straddling the fence and simply not taking a stand on anything which often equates with shallow social etiquette masking disloyalty.  Just because someone is playing nice to your face doesn’t mean they are truly on your side.  Indecisiveness is also akin to the straddling the fence syndrome and it can drain incentive and stall real pro-active movements that need to take precedence when a crisis is at hand.  Libra isn’t exactly known for taking risks, and sometimes right action must be willing to do so.  We see this increasingly on the planet with the enormous catastrophes that are now occurring, and will continue to escalate with global warming.  The political will is often lacking as the unwieldy bureaucracies within the social structures stall and delay the fast response necessary to save lives.  This is where modern politics drives people to anger and great frustration over and over again as witnessed in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Hurricane Sandy, and now Super typhoon Haiyan.  Will Mars in Libra increase political  stalemates or light a fire to get the job done?  I think of COP 19 just ending in Warsaw and all the delegates who walked out due to the do-nothing, stalling tactics of the more developed nations in addressing climate change.  Peru hosts the next summit.  Will Mars in Libra take the right action by then?

There is much more to explore with Mars in Libra. In Part II I will cover the aspects Mars will be making, the Chart of the United States and how Mars in Libra will exacerbate the Pluto/Uranus square impacting the USA strongly in 2014, and the Mars Retrograde period within the 8 month passage.  I will give you the dates to watch out for with this phase and how Mars will trigger and activate the Pluto/Uranus square in the months ahead.