Psychic Boundaries and Self Defense — Mars Conjunct Neptune in Aries

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology [https://nightlightastrology.com/].

Today we're going to take a look at a transit that's occurring over the weekend, and that is the upcoming conjunction of Mars in Aries to Neptune in Aries.

We've had a lot of coverage on the channel this week of the things taking place in the whole sign house of Aries. Yesterday, I did horoscopes. You should definitely check those out for a deep dive into where in your birth chart all of this Aries action is taking place, and what that might mean for you.

We also looked at a few other things taking place in Aries this week. So there's been a lot of coverage on this. But this weekend, we also have a very specific connection between Mars and Neptune that I want to take a look at today.

I want to talk about it specifically in terms of a few themes: psychic boundaries, psychic self defense, the path of psychic and spiritual individuation, some of the deeper evolutionary and spiritual lessons for us that are here right now.

What is this karmic combination about? Why do we have to deal with it occasionally? We're going to talk about those things today, and I hope that it will be useful for you.

As always, before we get into it, remember to like and subscribe. It's a simple way that you can give back to the channel that you love or listen to regularly. Throw a comment our way. Give us the daily thumbs up.

Excuse me, you can find transcripts of any of these daily talks on the website. That's NightlightAstrology.com, and when you're over on the website, I want to remind you that we have daily meditation. It's free. Go to Community Quiet under the Events page to find the schedule and the Zoom link.

You can join us for daily quiet time practice. This is a way that I have made right now of trying to connect people on this channel to daily spiritual health and self care. It's totally free. It's been a really sweet, fun community spot; been getting to know a lot of you in the audience. It's been really wonderful to spend time with you guys. So check that out.

Also go to the Book of Readings tab. You're going to see, by the time you see this, there's a new tab called Readings with Adam. I am opening my books back up again. I'm making personalized reports. You'll see what they're about. You'll see how they work. You'll see the different options that are there, in addition to my horary readings, which are also there.

Now, I had my books closed for a couple of years because I was working on a book, and I just really needed to focus on that. I just finished the book. It's about to come out pretty soon, and so I'm taking a little bit of time. We'll see how overwhelming it becomes, because I used to be booked out for over a year.

So anyway, if you want to check that out, it's there. If those readings are out of your price range, I have to set a higher price on them because I don't have all the time in the world to be doing readings. But if you need a more affordable price point, check out the need-based astrology readings with our staff that offers you some tiered pricing, in case you want a reading and my prices don't work for you.

Also annual retreat: we have four rooms that are still open on our retreat, plus one kind of sweet, bigger room. That's normal price, but the other rooms are available at a discount, need-based discount. So go to the annual retreat page if you want to check out the information there. It's in June. It's in Mexico. It's going to be totally awesome. Very excited.

If you want to take advantage of a few need-based spots we've opened up, email us at info@nightlightastrology.com for more details.

Also at the end of this video, you'll see me promoting the Year One course. The first year course in ancient astrology begins in June. The early bird rate and registration is now open, so you can take advantage of that sale and save significantly on the cost of the course.

There's payment plan options and regular options. There's also need-based tuition. If you're someone who wants to take the course but needs to work within a lower price frame because you're on a budget, we understand that.

At the end of today's talk, there's a little promotional video if you want to learn more about the program. It gives you a little orientation. I cannot wait to study with you guys.

Listen: the first month of this program, we have Uranus in Gemini, trining Pluto in Aquarius. This is an epic transit under which to explore and change your life through the study of astrology. Those two planets combining into a trine are fantastic for astrological education. So I hope that you'll take advantage of that. Hope to see you in class soon.

All right, let's turn over to Nechepso. New software program I'm using. I'm an affiliate of this program, so the link, if you want to get a good discount on this awesome new astrology, like cutting edge astrology software program, is in the comment section or the description of this video. It gives you 20% off your monthly subscription. That helps us and Nechepso, the team at Nechepso who are doing some really good work. They'll be back on the show, and I'll be telling you more about Nechepso from time to time as the month goes on.

All right, so what are we dealing with? You can see I have the clock right now moving from Friday the 10th to Sunday the 12th. And on Sunday the 12th, you'll see that Mars enters the second degree of Aries, at which point it is now on the same degree as Neptune.

If we take this forward one more day, you're going to notice that it crosses over the conjunction by Monday morning early. Give it one more day, and then it's completely separated by a degree.

So listening to this over the weekend: if we back this up just a little bit to today, Friday, April 10, we're sitting about a degree and a half away from the conjunction. Tomorrow gets a little closer to within about a degree. Sunday, it's almost exact. By Monday morning, it has just passed through the conjunction. Give it to Tuesday, it's a full degree of separation away. Give it a few more days of separation, and you're at about Thursday to Friday, at which point it's then getting into the engagement with Saturn.

In this way, Mars is not only moving through Neptune, but into the conjunction with Saturn, effectively reconnecting Neptune and Saturn in the conjunction that took place in February. So we talked about this earlier in the week. I went into a lot more length and depth and detail about why this Mars transit is so important.

It's also coming as a new moon in Aries will be forming by the end of next week. So you're going to see that we're on a little bit of an Aries train here in the month of April. It's very, very dynamic astrology, because the reactivation of Mars across that Saturn-Neptune degree at zero Aries this past week was very powerful.

So we did some horoscopes, did a whole bunch of stuff, but what I want to talk about today is just the conjunction of Mars and Neptune. And I want to give you a list of things to watch for within this more narrow period of time that are a little bit more specific. You might be noticing these things in addition to everything else we've talked about this week. But I think it's worth, whenever you have a series of events like this, breaking them into parts and giving bite-sized archetypal portions.

So five things to watch for given this combination. And you're going to find that some of what I'm talking about today has to do with the title: psychic boundaries, psychic self defense. I think that Mars Neptune in Aries is actually perfect for talking about this, especially given the somewhat close presence of Saturn.

In fact, I did a bonus episode earlier in the year, around the time of the Saturn Neptune conjunction, on a Sunday Sky Speaks episode that was all about psychic self defense. This is a little bit similar, but probably the transit of the year when it comes to this topic.

Anyway, the first thing that I want to say is that when Mars and Neptune get together in the sign of Aries, you have a sign of martial arts. I mean, the word "martial" shares the root with Mars. So we're talking martial arts. We're talking about anything from weapons of war to self defense to protection to advocacy to things like hunting and fighting and conflict, armed conflict, but also just courage.

You think of even the knight's code or chivalry. You can think of Mars when it joins with Neptune, that otherworldly, subtle, intangible, invisible, unified, timeless and highly imaginative, almost romantic dimension of things comes into play.

And so when we face a challenge with Mars and Neptune combined, it can feel so epic. It can feel suddenly like we're in a Hollywood film, the degree to which the mythic dimension of the conflict can be sort of surreal. What we're confronting, what we're standing up to, what we're facing, what we're working through with effort and determination and conviction, can feel like we're facing the monsters of the underworld, or we're facing the evil confronting civilization. It has this epic, heroic dimension to it. The hero's journey as a myth, the legends of great heroes. This is Mars Neptune.

What comes along with that is often the feeling of being confronted or of dealing with enemies or with people who seek to take or dominate or suppress. To whatever extent we may have some tyrants on our own inner council, Mars Neptune will have us facing people who seek to undermine us or overwhelm us or subtly dominate us or overtly dominate us.

And the call may be to spiritual, emotional, psychological (all more Neptunian things) forms of courage or action or conviction or motivation or perseverance. When these two planets get together, this is why the topic of psychic self defense, psychic boundaries, almost like a psychic and psychological form of confidence and courage and the ability to be strong in ourselves, can be so intensely activated under a transit like this.

Well, it begs the question: what do we have to do, or what does a transit like this teach us about how to be strong, how to be resilient, how to be courageous, how to face conflict, how to move through it, how to defend, how to protect, how to be strong but not a tyrant or bully?

And there's a piece of advice that is so subtle, so simple, so overlooked, and I want to start with it. A piece of advice that I would give for a transit like this, if you're noticing any of these themes ramping up in your life, would be to note that the most well-defended position is one that is well-loved.

What I mean by that is that when we prioritize self care — and I'm not talking about self-absorbed, "Oh, I just have to be at the spa 24/7," indulgent. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about: am I taking care of my body? Am I eating some healthy food and giving my body nutrition? Am I getting some exercise? Am I hanging out with people who love me and care about me? Am I connecting with my inner life through a spiritual practice? Or am I playing music or making art? Am I tapping into the wellspring of eternal life that lives in me and that strengthens me?

Because the best defended position is the one that doesn't have to overcompensate and suddenly react wildly because it doesn't have the resources to remain calm and strong in itself when conflict arises.

Now, I know that might sound a little bit — I don't want it to sound shaming, like if you have a hard time, it means that you're not loving yourself enough. It's not necessarily that. It can be a reminder, though, that if you find yourself overwhelmed and in some kind of really antagonizing situation, sometimes the message is: you're going to feel, even if you are legitimately victimized by someone or by a situation, so much less overwhelmed or less like a victim if you learn how to stand up for yourself. Not just when conflict arises, but before it arises, because you're well-loved, well-defended, well-protected, well-guarded on a daily basis.

You know, what is that saying? "Forewarned is forearmed" or something like that. I guess it's not quite that paranoid, but it is something like that, where this transit can remind you that look, the best way — if you have conflict come up and it's rough and difficult and you're wondering, "Man, I don't want to deal with that again" — this transit can be the reminder that it's harder to be present and deal with a difficult conflict or confrontation with someone or something when you're not well-rested, when you're not well-hydrated, when you haven't moved your body, you haven't stretched out, when you haven't been with people you love, when you haven't been doing things for yourself that really fill your cup back up.

The easiest way to be strong is to be happy and healthy and well-loved. All of the natural intelligence of how to guard, defend and deal with conflict, how to stand up for something, how to face something, tend to come from the interior spirits of well-being that live within us and that are naturally protective of us because we're feeding them and watering them. It's like a healthy immune system or something spiritually.

Anyway, number two: you don't owe an explanation.

Mars in Aries is very instinctual and libidinal. It's very fiery, it's very primal, and it's very intuitive. By that, what I mean is that the action comes so close to the instinct and impulse; there's not as much reflecting, planning, strategizing, weighing and balancing. The opposite sign of Libra is very good at this kind of tactical, diplomatic, social algebra. Aries doesn't work within the same framework of decision making and action. It tends to lead more through impulse and instinct.

The thing that can happen when you have a combination like this, Mars Neptune in Aries, is you will feel an intangible spirit of discernment. "This is what I need to do." I can feel it. I can see it. It's like a groove in a record track that the needle falls into. You're going to, at times when these two planets get together, just feel like you know exactly what little eddy or current in the river of life to catch.

And with that will often come people or even voices within yourself second-guessing: "Well, what's the rationale? Well, why did you do that?" And sometimes the right answer is, "I don't know, and I don't need to know."

Now, believe me, I'm not saying go be impulsive and reckless. Go do whatever you want and be damned the consequences, because that would be a shadow of this placement. You could see reckless impulsiveness driven by unrealistic, ungrounded thinking and acting upon such delusions. That would be a Mars-Neptune conjunction in Aries shadow quality.

But at its best, instinct and impulse to act in a certain way will appear and arise often without a lot of logical premeditation or rational justification. Libra, in a kind of abstract personification, goes, "I insist that you provide me the social formula for why you made that decision and why it's going to be okay with other people."

I don't think it's that Aries doesn't care about other people, but Aries is a little bit more like, "I don't have to be your favorite person, and just because I'm doing something that you don't like doesn't mean I don't like you or that I don't care about you. It might just mean that I'm literally doing what I feel I need to do, and taking you into the equation just isn't necessary."

To Libra, that's sort of offensive to Libra's whole MO. But consider that there are times in life where acting on impulse, acting on instinct, means that other people, even yourself, may try to make you feel like you owe an explanation. And sometimes the best thing you can do when Mars and Neptune get together is act on the impulse and take a leap of faith. You don't owe anyone an explanation.

And like we say often in 12-step programs, which I've been in on and off throughout my life, it's kind of a "stay in your lane" thing, or "what you think about me is none of my business" kind of thing. Your vision, your sense of direction from spirit, from your guides, might not be able to provide other people with understandable explanations at the same time.

Don't go be a fool. Don't jump off a bridge because your instinct tells you to. You do have to be careful with impulse that's ungrounded. You can always — I think the spirit of discernment is one of knowing that's calm but determined.

I feel like one way you can sense that you're getting off ground is there's impatience, and there's a reactionary quality, and someone that may actually matter, that you should actually be considering, could be really hurt or bothered, and yet you don't care. Those are the kind of selfish, ungrounded, delusional qualities you need to be a little careful of.

But otherwise, don't be surprised if intuition flames like a river, it just comes pouring through.

All right. Whoops. Number three: individuation often means conflict.

When Mars is in Aries, not to speak of the new moon in Aries, Saturn being reborn in Aries right now, Mercury entering Aries — in fact, we have an emphasis on the sign that is frequently associated with individuation. That's because Mars is a planet associated with individuation. The Sun is exalted here. The Sun is a planet associated with individuation.

What is meant by that word? Because we use that word a lot, but we don't often talk about what it actually means. And I think it's important to reflect that individuation is a journey that typically goes in two directions, and often in both directions at once, which is weird.

On the one hand, it is about living into the constituent parts of yourself without which you wouldn't be you, right? So it's about sort of figuring out what parts of you are you, which isn't always obvious. There's certain parts of ourselves that are very obvious that we can't help but just be, and then there's parts of ourselves that the world tells us to repress, or that we're scared to express, or that we haven't taken the time to get to know, but they're there somewhat unconscious.

So individuation is about being who we are and discovering parts of who we are that are seeking incorporation and integration. That part has to do with sort of living into and exploring and embodying things that we are.

Now, the other side of individuation that's really interesting is the path in which we tend to lose ourselves. And there's a very funny way in which — because we lose ourselves — it's bizarre, but it's like only because you lose yourself are you able to locate certain parts of you. Sometimes you don't even know that you're lost.

So on the one hand, it's sort of honoring who I am and who I know myself to be. And on the other part, it's all about the process of getting lost and found again, lost and found again. Those two things are weird because one requires that you really know who you are, and the other requires that you always be in a process of not knowing and then knowing, or forgetting and remembering.

So when people say "be yourself," it's not that simple. There's parts of me that aren't that hard to stay in touch with. There's other parts of me that I'm discovering, and then there's other parts of me that I keep forgetting and remembering.

So all of this is constellating around this word "individuation." And the point is that conflict is a natural part of the path of individuation.

For example, losing yourself or forgetting yourself consciously or unconsciously — I mean, we do things consciously that we know, "I'm going to forget myself, I'm going to lose myself," but we do it anyway because desire. We're like a moth to a flame. And then frequently we get involved in something. It's a relationship, it's a job. We knew it really wasn't for us, but we got involved anyway. And we have to wrestle ourselves out of it and separate ourselves back, claim ourselves back out of a web or an entanglement of things that are not authentic to who we are. And we've got to wrestle ourselves away, so it involves conflict.

Often, if we get involved in something and it's very deeply unconscious, there's no — you can make a life choice and you could have no idea that that life choice is not really reflective of an authentic version of yourself. That's just called learning. You get into a relationship, you really like the person, but 10 years later and a lot of experiences later, you realize that this relationship has been one big lesson in helping you define who you are. And it's not here in this relationship. But even then, to move on to that next phase and honor who you're becoming, you have to get out of the relationship, and that usually involves conflict.

So there's almost no way — conscious or unconscious — that we don't have to deal with conflict if we're going to become more authentically ourselves.

Also, if you know who you are, there's always a kind of struggle to fight and maintain the integrity of those things that you already know yourself to be, just day after day. Am I doing what I really like? I know what I really like, but I just got to do it. Or am I taking care of myself? I feel best and I feel most like myself when I'm taking care of myself, but it's a struggle to take care of myself because I'm lazy. That's all of us.

So anyway, you get the idea: for us to be ourselves, find ourselves, learn about ourselves, it is often a work, a conflict, a struggle.

Mars Neptune reminds us that this is so, and can do so in ways that are more acute and overwhelming, but also deeply spiritualizing. For example, the kinds of conflicts that come about when this transit occurs are often those that remind us: you're a spirit, a soul, evolving in a lifetime, learning all sorts of lessons in a body and an ego and a temporary selfhood that you're individuating in. And all of this is going to mean that there's some level of conflict that you have to deal with. And you're sort of like, "Oh, yeah, I'm in a spiritual process, and that's part of why all these conflicts come up. They're designed to come up. They're part of why the sacred universe has orchestrated things in the way that it does, because everything is in a process of evolution spiritually."

Okay, the next piece, or the next on my list: humility and selfhood are inseparable.

So a lot of people get the idea that Aries is a selfish sign, and certainly for fire signs in general, a little bit of selfishness, a little brighter, more self-indulgent. Fire is very consumptive, and fire wants what it wants, to burn and be itself and consume things to make itself grow and sustain. So something about fire — we tend to associate it with people who are maybe a little bit more showy or demonstrative or big and bright. And sometimes that also means that they're a narcissist (that word's overused, but you get what I mean).

All of these planets in Aries certainly could mean that things like hubris, pride, arrogance, self-centeredness are ramping up. And let me be clear: Mars Neptune can be delusional grandeur, delusional self-aggrandizing. It can be someone thinking they're the reincarnation of Jesus. So the potential for aggrandizing is huge.

But the spiritual lesson of something like Mars conjoining Neptune in Aries is that true, deep, authentic, joy-filled strength and selfhood are inseparable from humility.

Humility does not mean humiliation. Humility does not mean feeling ashamed of yourself. Humility does not mean making yourself small. Humility means the just-ness of what you are.

For example, I'm an astrologer. I have a lot of ideas, but if I'm honest, when I sit on my couch and I meditate in the morning and I get real honest with myself, I have to admit I don't know shit. I have no idea what's going on. Even in me, I'm supposed to know myself pretty well, but I don't.

I love the prayer of Thomas Merton. If you've ever heard this prayer that he gave, it's like, "Dear God, I don't know where I'm going, I don't know where I'm supposed to be going. I don't know what I want, I don't know what I'm supposed to want." There's an element of surrender.

But you know what's interesting? Whenever I find myself in that position of having to just kind of dump out any false certainty or any bravado that I have and admit I'm overwhelmed, I don't know what to do, I feel like I suck as a parent — guys, I deal with that so regularly. I don't know if you parents out there deal with that, but I deal with that so regularly. You try to be perfect in every moment. You fail a lot as a parent. You just get up and you keep going.

To me, humility is not saying "I suck as a parent, I'm no good at it." Humility is saying "I am not the world's greatest parent. I also don't suck at it. I'm just trying my best. I don't have all the knowledge in the world, but I'm going to keep at it."

That humility, staying close to it, staying close to "I'm not a worthless piece of crap, but I'm also not God's gift to humanity." I think of humility as a moderate place of evaluating who we are and what we know and what we can do and what we can't do. It's just realistic.

Humility, to me, is not some kind of performative weakness like, "Oh, I'm nothing. I'm just God's humble servant." People can be very performative about humility: "Oh, I'm so humble. No, no, don't look at me."

I think the way I've always understood humility in all the traditions I've studied is just that there's a just-ness about what I am, what I know, and what I don't. And to be really strong, to be really defined, we have to be humble.

Let me give you an example. This is a bodybuilding example, and I can't help but use it, but it's very Mars. Mars Neptune.

How is a muscle group shaped? How does it achieve definition, or maybe a little bit more size over a long period of time? What defines the size and shape day after day? It's working that muscle and taking that muscle to a point where it's too weak to continue any longer. And so it says, "Okay, I failed. That's all I can do."

And if you keep doing that over time, obviously you can maybe do another rep, or your weight goes up a little bit, or whatever. But the progression is based on where the point of failure is demarcated.

Isn't it interesting that hypertrophy training in any sport, in any practice, any kind of martial art, physical art, breaks down to strength development, definition — whatever you want to call it — coming under the regular experience of failure?

So if you've failed enough in life, and you've enjoyed failure as a process, you've been able to keep some good self-humor, what you know is that there's nothing like failure for making you okay with exactly who you are and what you are. That who you are and what you are is not defined by success, neither is it defined by failure. That's humility.

So we have a relationship with success and failure from a very modest, middle little space that's uncertain, that's tentative. And this space is one that I sincerely believe is holy. It's like take your sandals off in the presence of someone else's just-ness. Because that just-ness has been forged in the fires of millions of lifetimes, millions of experiences, millions of successes and failures, and we still don't really know who we are, where we're going, why we're here, what's real. There's a lot of uncertainty around all of it.

But isn't it profound that you're in the presence of another human being, another soul, an animal, body, whatever it is, and this body is present before you, and the just-ness is really not that much different from your own?

It's like keeping that close to our heart. That ground of humility is the ground of what makes you the strongest, most unique, most individual, most capable person.

If we want to talk about sovereignty — which is a word that I feel like people should get fined for saying. There should be a buzzer that goes off every time someone says it. Okay, anyway. Sorry, enough of my dislike of the word "sovereignty." And all you sovereign folks out there, I love you, so listen.

What I mean when I'm picking on the word "sovereign" is: real sovereignty, if we want to use that word without any land-owning dominance connotations, just talking about a strong sense of self-ownership, it doesn't come from dominating anyone or anything or any kind of metaphorical or literal land or space. It comes from just feeling okay about who you are without any qualification. Why?

Sometimes the sign of Aries, the words that are described with this pure fire, the first sign of the zodiac, is "I am." That I am. That's it. That's humility. It's actually pretty profound to be that in the center of everything.

So just don't forget that, because sometimes there's a temptation when this comes around that your worth, your selfhood, needs some kind of heroic demonstration or victory. Life doesn't need a purpose to be holy. It contains many purposes, and purpose is a holy feature of reality, but reality is not beholden to purpose.

Number five: failing at the roles we play is healthy.

In all the ancient mystical traditions that emphasize impermanence, there is something that all these traditions tell us will happen to us as we work our way through the valley of life. They say you will take on roles, characters on the stage of life. Those roles might be parent or dad. They might be gay or straight. They might be a political ideology. They might be a cultural group, a racial group, a religious group. They might be something about your socioeconomic status or your upbringing. There are so many in the valley of life. Think of all the different roles that we inhabit, all the different identity categories that we experience. They're all sacred.

However, all of these traditions tell us: to the extent that we think to ourselves, "If I live this role and identify with it fully and complete its Choose Your Own Adventure quest to the highest level of success, then I'll be happy" — if I win at being a mom, if I win at marriage, if I win at business, if I get fully identified as an astrologer and become one of the greatest astrologers ever, then I will really be satisfied. If I champion a cause that I really believe in, and it could be really important — none of these categories aren't important. Being a parent is important. Championing a cause is important.

But all these traditions tell us that failing in our carrying of these roles is absolutely vital. And the reason that it's vital is that it reminds us, in the wake of failure — "I suck at being a dad," or you're in a relationship and you were really trying to be a good partner but you failed — having to meet that means that you're meeting who you are apart from a role you play.

It's not wrong to play a role. We have to play them. It's part of what we're here to do. The play of life is a sacred one. That's part of how we learn and grow and why we're here.

But you are not the roles you play. You are not the body you inhabit. You are not the views that you have, the causes that you champion. You're not the moment of history that you're born in. You're not the political party that you belong to.

You know all of this, and it's so hard for us to imagine the two things could be true: that these roles, identity categories, stories, adventures, plotlines could all be very important and sacred, and yet at the same time, they are all designed to be things that we fail at, insofar as we think, "If I get super identified with these things and accomplish the role, fulfill the story, get to the end of the movie of this story and have the ultimate happy ending, then everything resolves itself."

And what do we find? Life just keeps life-ing. New problems arise, new dramas, new plotlines. The alternation of light and dark is without beginning and without end.

And so failure, just like winter, is a natural part of what we're meant to learn from the roles that we play.

So it's not wrong to be a parent, but you will find that if you try to root all of your worth in the performance of the parental role, failure will be exactly the way that you learn to loosen up within it. Failure will be exactly the way that you learn to love yourself even on the days that you suck, and keep going despite the fact that you're never going to be the best at it.

Failure is vital to having a relationship with the roles we play, rather than getting conflated with the roles we play.

This is a Mars Neptune lesson. It always has been in any combination, but Mars and Neptune in Aries together can be especially tempting when it comes to the myth of heroic conflation. "I am my mission. My mission is my role. My role is my identity. The plotline is life or death. Salvation or damnation awaits me at the end of this story."

No, it doesn't. Eternity awaits you. It always has, and it always will.

So just a few thoughts for today. I hope that all of this is useful.

I want this channel to be a place where we can reflect on things spiritually, most of all, that you can return to little reminders throughout the way we cover the content: that you're loved, you're holy, you're sacred, you're okay. Reality doesn't always feel safe, but your soul is safe.

We are not always safe as people to one another, but reality itself, in some bigger way, is something we can put our faith and trust in. But putting our faith and trust in something doesn't work if it's only intellectual. We might intellectually say, "Yeah, I know on some bigger level that the universe is good, divine, sacred. I know that the Buddha consciousness permeates everything, or the Christ consciousness, or whatever the goddess."

It's different to make sure that every day we are living with that kind of self care. The best self defense against the conflicts and confrontations of a life lived in this reality is self love. It's not selfish to love yourself. It's powerful, and it's a strong thing to take such gentle care of yourself.

And everybody listening to this, maybe you need the reminder: you are not — it is not self-indulgent to sit and pray. It's not self-indulgent to take a few minutes for yourself. You're not burying your head in the sand and ignoring or avoiding or bypassing anything. If you need a little space every single day to stop scrolling, to sit down, to listen, to just tune in and say, "I'm loved, just because I exist" — you do, and you are.

This is what I want this channel to be about, guys. So if you feel a little Mars Neptune from me today, I hope it's just the encouragement that you feel from this channel. It's a safe place for you to just be a spiritual being and sometimes just drop the roles, even if it's just for a moment.

The great thing about archetypes and symbols is they carry weight. Mars Neptune coming through over this weekend: when you feel it, take some of the psychic weight you're carrying and reallocate it. Give it to Mars and Neptune. Say, "Thank you for helping me carry this. I see what I'm experiencing, and I don't have to think that that's just me."

It's like clouds are rain, and we think that we are the rain, and we think that we are the gloom of a cloudy day. When a difficult transit comes through, astrology is meant to help us let these experiences be part of the psyche, the psychic weather. And we can offload some of the tendency that we have to get identified or think "I'm responsible for all of it" or something like that.

Symbols carry our weight. They're willing participants. They're sacrificial containers, if we take the time to acknowledge them as sacred containers. Doing that is self care in astrology, but you can't usually do it unless you have a little bit of time and space to listen, to reflect. That's what I want this channel to be.

All right, that's what I've got for today. I hope that this is useful.

After I sign off, learn more about the Year One program. You want to come study with us? Transform your life. Have a deep healing experience learning ancient astrology, learning about karma, learning about the soul, learning about all the ins and outs of how this language works. It's a tool you can use for the rest of your life. So I hope you'll check this out. Come study with us.

Have a great rest of your day. Bye.