Mars in Aries and the challenges to individuality

I hope you are all well, mentally as much as physically as the last few months have been a strain for all of us. It is almost impossible to overstate the enormity of what has happened and what is set to continue for the foreseeable future. The biggest pressure is on our mental and emotional life and that is where we need to exert most effort to get through this crisis individually and collectively. Emotionally, the main challenge is to overcome fear and anxiety. Mainstream media is constantly pumping out propaganda about the threat posed by the ‘Covid Pandemic’ telling us we must comply with the official recommendations and mandates to avert a disaster. Alternative perspectives can make us equally, if not even more, afraid, not of the virus itself but of our own governments, the WHO, the erosion of basic civil liberties, Agenda 21, ID chips and mandatory vaccinations etc. The media is also talking of the prospect of a catastrophic worldwide recession with many millions facing unemployment, poverty and homelessness. So the need to deal with fear and anxiety is something we must all contend with and given the scale of emotional stress we are facing, some essential oils and a bit rescue remedy, while somewhat helpful, is unlikely to be enough. Instead we are going to have to go to deeper places within than we have gone before to find the inner resources and spiritual strength that we need to go forwards. 

Taking a step back from the Coronavirus and surveying society more widely, a harmful trend can be seen among governments, big business and the media (conventional and social) and that is telling us what to think and feel about specific issues such as health, gender and racism etc as well as on more general subjects such as the mechanical laws of the universe and what it is to be human. The concepts and ideas being peddled are certainly dubious and largely advantageous only to the agendas of those organisations that are behind them. However, what is more concerning is the way these ideas and feelings are being presented to the public. They are all designed to bypass the rational part of the brain and to work directly on the less conscious parts of our mind. Advertisers and politicians have been doing this for some time but the combination of subliminal manipulation becoming ever more sophisticated and our lives becoming ever more saturated with information, especially through the internet and social media, the problem has certainly grown in recent decades. One aspect of this subconscious influence termed nudge theory or micro-nudging has even become an accepted practice of numerous governments and the EU as it appears openly in their published policy documents. There are several reasons why all this is harmful. Firstly, and most importantly, it runs counter to the requirements of the human spirit in the modern age. What the human mind and spirit need most during this time is to be more conscious and more autonomous. It is therefore imperative that all ideas that are presented to the public are done via the more conscious rational mind and for people to be encouraged to scrutinise these ideas, to wrestle with them, to tear them apart and see what is underneath them and then to accept them or reject them accordingly. The conscious mind is like a voluntary muscle, if exercised it grows strong and if not it begins to atrophy. The large scale use of these subconscious techniques only serves to weaken the mind of collective humanity and for some groups that would appear to be their main goal. These methodologies are harmful even if the ideas themselves were to be positive ones. It is similar to parents giving their child the answers to their homework. The answers may be correct but is the child strengthened or weakened by having its parents do the homework instead of them struggling to understand it for themselves? Giving guidance and advice to people is sometimes necessary but it should always be given to their conscious mind for consideration, even if there might be a good chance that advice will be rejected, than to be directly implanted into their lower mind. We should also therefore be aware of when we might be the manipulator rather than the manipulated. There are many scenarios with friends, family and at work when we might feel we could influence the behaviour, or even major life decisions, of an individual or whole group of people for the better, through subtle suggestions especially if we feel their conscious mind is resistant to the idea and we think we know better. The more we honour the autonomy and freedom of others the more we notice when our own freedom is in jeopardy.  

The antidote to all this is, of course, simple and straightforward and that is to think about things and encourage others to do the same. Thoughts are very powerful forces that have tangible effects in the external world as well as in an individual’s life. What people think is often far more important than what they do. We must challenge all the ideas that certain interest groups are pushing on us, whether they are ideas about infectious diseases and the measures needed to deal with them or ideas on race, gender, identity politics, free speech and cancel culture etc. However, it would be naïve of us to presume that none of these subconscious notions have not already influenced us one way or another and therefore compromised our objective rationality. Added to this are all hidden biases and prejudices that we may have picked up from our family or environment while growing up as well as the sympathies and antipathies that are unique to us alone. So the search for truth is made difficult by obstacles from both outside and from within. However, being difficult is not a bad thing, in fact, if anything it is a good thing. Engaging in difficult things is good for us in so many ways for we must activate deeper parts of ourselves in order to achieve them and the act of struggle and effort strengthens inner muscles of will, courage and individuality. Being deprived of such struggles and of self-responsibility is a terrible loss to humanity. 

The second concern is that the ideas that are being promoted are in themselves harmful, notwithstanding the method used to get them adopted in people’s minds. The idea, for example, that any perspectives that do not conform to the official line are in some way dangerous and unless they are censored they could do real harm to the public. This reinforces the push for state paternalism whereby only the state’s determination of what is good and healthy is allowed, leading to further enfeebling of the people. Another concerning idea that is altogether more pervasive as it has been promoted for at least two hundred years, and so is getting ever deeper in the psyche, is that we live in a purely material universe where only material forces operate. This has influenced all areas of society from astronomy to economics and perhaps most of all our understanding of the human body in sickness and in health. For a disease to be brought about in an individual a material cause must exist and that is the only cause. People get sick in a pandemic because of tiny material viruses. However, it is fairly well proven that anxiety and fear weaken the immune system, not seeing, laughing with and hugging loved ones will also weaken the immune system and feeling disempowered and at the mercy of the government will no doubt do so as well. For the power of the mind and emotions on the body’s own defences and susceptibility to disease can be far more important than exposure to any coronavirus. But rather than put forward the idea that an individual can strengthen themselves inwardly, the idea is promoted that we are all powerless and defenceless and so must wear masks and take vaccines. I am not suggesting that everyone who works for the government, the WHO, media companies etc are all deliberately wanting to weaken the minds and bodies of the public. I am sure there are many well meaning people out there who are genuinely trying to ensure the best outcome for everyone. Nevertheless, we still need to retain our critical faculties and to see the implications of the ideas that are presented to us. 

So how does all this fit in with the astrology of the times? Well in my last post I discussed the Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto triple conjunction in Capricorn as signifying the top down imposition of restrictions and control of the population. This conjunction is still there and will continue to be so until December, although its influence will be felt for a significant time to come. A more short term but still important configuration is the planet Mars moving through the second half of Aries over the next five months. Mars progresses to 28° of Aries by early September and then retrogrades back to 15° Aries before going forwards again and finally leaving Aries and entering Taurus in early January 2021. During the majority of this time it will form a square (a 90° angle) to the Jupiter/Saturn/Pluto conjunction. What does this all signify for life on Earth? Mars is the planet of will and assertion and Aries is the sign that most emphasises individuality and independence. In other words it is an opportunity for us all to work hard to fight those inner and outer obstructions to freedom and truth and strengthen ourselves in both mind and body. We need to discover and express our individuality not as an unthinking rebellion against the state and the powers that be but simply as an expression of the inviolability of our unique soul and spirit. There may be attempts to agitate for violent uprisings or for direct conflicts with authority but one should be wary of these for not only do they achieve very little but they again draw us into group identities of them and us in which no freedom can be found. The real fight or struggle with Mars in Aries is to be a free individual for only a free individual can possible arrive at the truth.

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