Mars Conjunct Pluto in Aquarius: The Force of Evolution

Hey everyone, this is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology. Happy Monday, everybody. Today, we are going to take a look at one of the biggest aspects of the entire month and certainly this week, which is Mars's conjunction with Pluto in the sign of Aquarius. So today, we have Mars moving from Capricorn, the 29th degree from its exultation into Aquarius, where it will immediately be on the same degree as Pluto, and the conjunction will spread out as the week goes on.

So, this is a slower-moving conjunction, which makes it a bit more powerful. There are a bunch of other aspects in the sky this week were going to be looking at a preview of those today before we go into Mars's conjunction with Pluto and five themes to watch for. But yeah, this is the beginning of the long sequence of aspects that are also starting to take place between Aquarius and Taurus as the month goes on.

So yeah, a lot of the same themes are going to be repeating between those two signs. But we'll also be unpacking the kind of Taurus-Aquarius combination as the month goes on, as well as all of the specifics of the planetary conjunctions and squares and their archetypal configurations that you can watch for. Anyway, that's our agenda for today.

Before we get into it, as always, don't forget to like and subscribe, share your comments and reflections, and smash, press, hit, stomp, click, tap, love the like button; and it really does help us grow. We appreciate it. You can find a transcript of today's talk on the website nightlightastrology.com.

I want to take you over there right now because I have a webinar coming up on February 15 that you may be interested in attending. Of course, this month, we have a bunch of stuff going on at Nightlight. If you go to the events page, you can check out the speaker series, which is free and open to the public. You will find that we have three wonderful speakers coming.

We have Joey Cannizzaro giving a talk on the philosophy and application of astrological correspondences. Alex Skye is giving a talk on counseling skills and astrological practice. Fernanda Paiva is giving a talk on the astrology of culinary, all of which should be really interesting. Those are free. You can attend; you can register for those, receive a link, and receive the recording afterward if you can't make it. Those are free, thanks to the success of our Kickstarter.

The other thing that I want to direct you to if you go to live events is that we have a new monthly webinar that I'm doing on different topics that are accessible to students of all levels. So whether you're a beginner or more advanced, there is something in these talks for you.

The first one is happening right as Venus is conjoining Pluto this week, and we're going to be looking at Pluto's role in love, sex, and relationships, and that is both in the natal chart as well as by transit. So if you have Pluto and Venus together, or Pluto in the seventh, there Pluto square to a bunch of planets in your seventh house, or if you have Pluto transiting something in your natal chart that's connected to the topic of love and relationships, we will be looking at all of the different ways that we can understand Pluto as the outer planet in relation to love.

So that's the first one of the series, you can register there, it's $20. If you can't make it live, a recording is sent to you afterward. So you can be there live for the webinar or attend. Watch it later and download to your device. You scroll down, you'll notice that in March, we have the next in the series on Neptune in love, and then in April, Uranus in love.

So, three different webinars they're all now featured on the Live Events page of the website; you can find that on the homepage by clicking on the Live Events tab or going to events and going down and clicking on the Live Events tab. So when you register for those, there is a link that will be sent to you, and then if you can't attend live after the meeting is done, we send you a download link for the recording.

So anyway, I hope to see some of you there. These should be really fun talks on the outer planets and the role that they play in love and relationships. I thought it was kind of fitting that I scheduled the first one, and I noticed that Venus was conjoining Pluto this week.

So I hope to see some of you there, and hopefully, the topic will be appropriate for the energy in the sky, too. All righty. Well, on that note, I want to show you what's going on this week, and let's get into a discussion on Mars and Pluto conjoining.

First of all, it is a huge week in terms of the sheer number of aspects. So on Monday, we can see here today at the start of the week. Mars is culminating in Capricorn, and if we fast forward this one day, you'll see that by tomorrow, Mars is in Aquarius, and the two planets are conjoining.

Now, that conjunction is therefore taking place. We just kind of spread it out through this week. We have it taking place on Monday, and it'll be complete by Wednesday. So this is what Valentine's Day should be. It's a little charged, with Venus coming through Pluto and Mars going over Pluto. Have a fun Valentine's Day week, right?

But anyway, if you even celebrate that kind of thing. Starting off the week, it's within a degree, and by the middle of the week, it's separating within a degree. If you give it three degrees of separation, it's really present throughout the entire week. So there it is; we're going to be paying attention to it as a transit perfecting between Tuesday, February 13, and Wednesday, February 14, although you should definitely be feeling it today. You might have already been feeling it over the weekend a little bit. This transit is volcanic.

Now, look at the other things that are going on, though, if we fast forward this just a little bit. You'll notice that between the 16th, Friday, and Saturday, the 17th, Venus is going over Pluto. So, for our talk on Thursday evening, we have Venus within about two degrees of a conjunction with Pluto, which ought to make for the appropriate energy to discuss Venus and Pluto for the webinar on Thursday night.

Anyway, if you go beyond that, though, Venus's conjunction with Pluto spreads out from, like, about Friday the 16th through, let's give it Sunday, the 18th as the most active range, and then, I mean, there's a bunch of other stuff happening to this week.

For example, one of the other major things that's happening is we have a first quarter Moon in Taurus on Friday, and that first quarter moon also features Mercury in Aquarius going through a square to Uranus, which tends to be just a very illuminating intellectually communicate in terms of communication intellect, mind speech, ideas that just kind of pop this is the light bulb really turning on with mercury squaring Uranus as the week goes on, and we have a first quarter moon there.

So, I mean, this is the first of a number of transits that just keep getting pinging back and forth between the Aquarius and Taurus access. We're going to have Mars and Venus both go through squares to Jupiter and so on.

We started off our horoscopes this month, talking about the fact that this is the month of Taurus and Aquarius. So anyway, on that note, today, we're speaking to Mars and Pluto in a conjunction in the sign of Aquarius, and I have five themes that I want you to watch for as the week unfolds here, especially this Monday through Wednesday, as I said earlier.

Number one on the list is circumstances that force change. Pluto is a planet that naturally through process and not always; people often think of Pluto as a lot more explosive than it is process-oriented. But actually, Pluto transits by nature, as we're going to talk about in the webinar on Pluto and Venus this week, are deeply process-oriented. Most of the best things that Pluto delivers are not like sharp, punctuated events that are traumatic or supercharged and instantly life-changing. They're process-oriented, and there will be some events that happen that are a little bit more volcanic for sure. But Pluto is a process-oriented planet. The process of the alchemy, of transformation of death and rebirth that Pluto has long been famous for in modern astrology for, you know, maybe 100 years now or something.

That process is usually something that when Pluto is transiting a natal planet will take a couple of years. However, it's different when we have something like Mars, which is acting as a trigger for the release or expression of Pluto Plutonian energy, which usually serves as a more punctuated series of events or like little window of time and the reason for that is that Mars is of the more triggering action oriented dynamic planets.

You'll notice that when Venus hits Pluto, there will be similar distinct events or expressions that surge forth more powerfully, suddenly, and instantly. That's because, in a sense, all fast-moving planets, when they cross an outer planet through conjunction, square, opposition, especially those hard dynamic aspects, they release the expression of the outer planet in very distinct and sort of sudden and sometimes more disruptive ways, although they can be very healing and beneficial and positive too. But the expression tends to pop, and we have a little window of time where we'll see distinct events.

Now, those events may serve in a larger process that's actually slower and more drawn out, especially if Pluto's relating to things in your natal chart at the same time. But there's probably no planet. I mean, again, all the fast moving planets can serve to create a like a trigger or flashpoint for Pluto when they crossed an aspect, but Mars, especially Mars, is the god of action. Mars is the god of dynamism and speed.

So when Pluto hits Mars, there is this way in which the the death and rebirth the destructive and creative fusion of that is Pluto comes together in ways that are very fast and sudden and pointed and they're action oriented. So what can happen with the way we tend to experience that one of the ways we tend to experience that is it all of a sudden, circumstances around me are forcing change? They're forcing some kind of transformation. It's as though, you know, someone's like a spring me if I'm a horse, you know, getting me goading me; actually, one of the interesting words for a kentron, which was an angular house, and the dynamism associated with the angular houses, in ancient astrology, which are, in a sense, very Mars-like, was the word kentro and could also mean like a spike or a goat, something that poked to, you know, sort of push action along.

So when Mars hits Pluto, it's as though we got that little. I mean, I don't like the images of like, you know, it's, I don't like thinking about spiking something goading something with a prod, you know, like, it's, it seems kind of violent. But if you can soften that, to just think the forces of evolution are spurring change, they're poking us to get going, circumstances are conspiring to make us move and act, and that it can feel like circumstances that are beyond our control.

In the same way that, you know, when you get a swift kick in the butt to get up and do something, you often feel like, okay, I get the message. It doesn't feel like it came from you, but it came from someone or something else, your higher self, the angels, or your guides. It often feels as though circumstances conspired to let your daimon have an opportunity to speak and goad you into action.

That's Mars, Pluto, at its best, you know, and however, those circumstances sometimes are more destructive or pointed or frustrating or challenging and require more courage or perseverance or sudden responsiveness than then other transits, and that's Mars to why that's why we sometimes call Mars a malefic. Right? It's because that kind of pointedness is unsettling and can be a little anxiety-provoking. It's like suddenly being forced into action, you know. So anyway, we'll see how things go here.

Number two, we also have the desire, the motivation, and the impetus to change that stems from a new idea or ideal, so the desire, the motivation, and the impetus is Mars. But the new idea or the new paradigm, or the new ideal, or the new ideology, or belief or vision is the Pluto in Aquarius.

Pluto's entrance into Aquarius; this just happened in the past, you know, a couple of weeks here and for many of us, we may have not really noticed that anything has shifted. Mars can be one of those planets that conjoining Pluto in Aquarius suddenly makes it clear that not everything is the same. Now, there are new ideas; there are new thoughts; there are new pictures of what the future might look like new incentives, new, new aspirations of how things could get better, or an ideal that we've drifted from that we need to get back to.

So when Mars hits Pluto, the desire, the motivation, the impetus to change suddenly presents itself. Hot, red, fast, determined, let's do it act, and it's coming from a new Aquarian image or idea that's lofty and special, and we think, yes, now I've got to go for it.

Number three, confrontations or conflicts that force change, maybe they force a change of mind, maybe they force a change of vision or image, maybe the idea that we the new idea isn't ready to be acted upon. Maybe a new idea is coming about, and we're starting to see it, or we're becoming aware of it for the first time because circumstances are conspiring in a conflict or tension is presenting us with a new idea.

So you either have the idea of the desire to act on a new idea coming about, like now it's time to act. Oh, there's a new idea, and I've got to do something, or pressures or conflicts or confrontations are arising that make a new idea necessary or that sort of, boom, make a new idea appear or come forth.

So, the different ways of looking at the same thing, you have the desire, motivation, impetus to create change now to act based on a paradigm that has slowly been establishing itself that you're ready to act on now, or you have confrontations conflict crisis, the sort of red hot Mars spiking in some way that forces a change of idea and in that change of idea is what is immediate? Not necessarily. It may not be the time to act on it yet, but now you're getting clear about it. Do you see what I mean? So either one could be present.

Number four is the courage to evaluate ideals and open the mind. So Mars is also like a scalpel. Mars is, was associated with medicine, math, executive thinking, and analytical thinking. Alongside Mercury, Mars and Mercury together were associated with the sciences, the study of anything that would be wielded like a scalpel or a knife. It was associated with things like alchemy. So Mars has this penetrating cutting, probing, analyzing quality to it, in the same way that a scalpel does. But it can be Mars can be related to the mind that sort of analytical judging discriminating mind in that sense.

So when it conjoins Pluto in Aquarius, it's this kind of oversight and analytical evaluating tendency. So you start looking at things and going, I want to get below the surface, I want to see what's going on, I want to understand the structure, I want to understand the inner workings of the ball departs, and I want to judge and evaluate them against maybe a higher standard or look and see if whether I believe that we are reaching as high as we can.

So this is a transit that can be about evaluation and kind of a lofty, systematic, big-picture blueprint analysis of something. Also, one thing to keep in mind is that it's not always easy to do that. You have to have some degree of courage, detachment, and open-mindedness to be in a position of discernment, evaluation, and thoughtfulness. The potential for thoughtful revision or thoughtful deconstruction and reconstruction of systems and to do that requires a kind of open-mindedness and courage.
Of course, you could have a very judging executive condemning perfectionist quality as well; you need to be careful of that.

Then, finally, the short-sightedness of lofty ideas. I mean, let me put it this way and I'm not there's something you have to be careful about with this combination that stems from the hubris of a good idea and we've talked about this a lot with Aquarius already. But any good idea that could revolutionize things will often in time become the instrument of oppression, or suppression or repression, and so there's Okay, so for example, there are, there are many, many people who have maybe they've made billions of dollars and you'll sometimes hear such people say, look, having made a ton of money, I'm here to tell you that there's far more to life than money and you go, well, that's so nice to hear someone with so much wealth, who has realized that, you know, it's not the be all end all.

However, you could fairly criticize that it took this person realizing a certain level of wealth and success, and through that realization, it's kind of like, well, it's easy for you to say. Do you know what I mean? Like, it's easy for you to denounce, you know, wealth, accomplishments, fame, and massive levels of success are not the be-all and end-all because you've had all of that.

So it's not so easy for someone who maybe is struggling to survive too, you know, denounce the desire for greater ease materially, you know, and so, I'm just making this up as an example that I think is really common, where a lofty idea that sounds really peaceful and virtuous and will often like that's a noble, virtuous idea, like, money can't buy you, love. You know, I mean, people have been talking about this for 1000s of years that your happiness is not, ultimately, you should not tie it into material things too much. But isn't it doesn't it's a little bit like when you hear such lofty ideas coming from people who have maybe ascended to the top of some hierarchy?

Well, it's, there's, it's hard to say that, you know, someone at the top of a hierarchy is suggesting that there's more to life than a hierarchy. Do you know what I mean? So I'm not; this is not a moral stance I'm taking; I'm literally just coming up with an example of how a lofty idea can reflect a level of privilege and dissociation from being in the valley of life, where real struggles are happening, and it's not so easy to just disentangle yourself through lofty visions or grandiose ideas. Do you know what I mean?

We have to be very careful when Mars conjoins Pluto that we aren't subtly trying to dominate or assert our loftiness over other people and actually reinforcing things like hierarchies and so forth by saying that, you know, we've got the best or loftiest idea and not recognizing maybe how we've come to that place.

What I'm trying to say, and maybe I'm not saying it so well, is that there can be a kind of elitist quality with even the most virtuous, progressive, noble, big-minded kind of ideas that we get excited about, and so you just have to stay humble. I think that's the thing with this combination. It's like, enjoy big ideas. Let them be activated, and let them work you and work on them. Right, and there's nothing wrong with big, grand, virtuous, next-level thinking, and all the Aquarius stuff is very exciting. Stay humble, make sure that you remain a sort of fucked up citizen of Earth, you know what I mean? So that's, that's all I have to say about the short sightedness of lofty ideas as the fifth point here. Hope that made sense. Anyway, that's it for today.

Before you go, don't forget we have a webinar this Thursday night on Pluto in Venus. You can sign up on the website and attend live; we can send you the video later. Then, you can sign up for next month's talk or April's talk on Neptune and Uranus and love and relationships.

Those are open to students of all levels. So I'm trying to create a monthly webinar that's designed for people who just want to do a little astrological learning but maybe aren't ready for an intensive program or an advanced master class or something like that. So these are really beginner-friendly and also specific enough that advanced students can get something really good out of it. So anyway, that is it for now. If you have any questions about anything on the website, info@nightlightastrology.com. All right, take it easy. We will be back for more on the Venus-Pluto transit this week and lots of other good stuff. Alright, take it easy bye.