One of the Most Difficult Transits of the Year — Mars Conjunct Fallen Saturn in Aries

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

Today we're going to talk about what I think might be one of the more challenging transits of the year, that is the upcoming conjunction between Mars and Saturn in the sign of Aries that's taking place over the weekend. It's really starting to come together right now and will conjoin over the weekend into the early part of next week. I'm going to lay out the timeline for you. I'm going to talk about what makes this transit so uniquely difficult, and also some of the constructive potential that might be there.

You never know, as an astrologer, at the beginning of the year, you sort of highlight which transits you think might be the toughest. This is on my list this year, but I'm always surprised by some of the constructive potential around what I typically think of as the most difficult transit. So I try to take that into account when I'm writing talks like this. I'm always surprised by the silver lining that might be there, or why spirit or the universe might want us to experience these things for the sake of growth. So we always include that potential, while also not blowing smoke up anyone's butt, right? This could be a difficult transit. We'll talk about why.

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All right, that's our promotions for the day. Let's head over to Nechepso and let's check out what's happening. So here you can see that as of I've got this set to Friday. We are on Thursday. We back this up one day. Tomorrow we're going to be looking at the new moon in Aries. It's just a huge lineup of planets in Aries. We've been talking about it all week. We talked about it a bit last week as well. We talked about Mercury and Neptune, which are conjoining today. So if you want more on that, be sure to check out yesterday's talk. But what we're looking at right now in the sky, if I can get out my epic pen, oh God, this epic pen. All right, I fixed it. It wouldn't be an epic pen if it wasn't epically a pain in my ass half of the time. But you've all grown to love it so much, and so have I. So it's like a weird, it's like a weird friend you love, but it's kind of a pain. Maybe it's like a slightly smelly friend you just keep around because you love them. I'm just kidding. All love to smelly people.

So Mars and Saturn are getting together. You can see right there, I'm pointing at my own screen. What am I doing? So you can see the two coming together. Let's take this forward. They get to within a degree tomorrow. You're gonna be really feeling that, if you're not already. They get really close on Saturday, and then by Sunday, they're on the same degree. By Monday, they are separating, and then Mercury is conjoining Mars on Monday. You can guess what we're talking about on Monday. So that little sequence of events is ramping up right now, and you're going to experience it between today, Thursday, April 16 and about Monday, April 20 at the latest. Let's give it two degrees of separation, two to three, and you're getting, you know, by mid next week they really are sort of clearing from each other. So you get about a whole week of this around, but the most acute expression will be between now and Sunday.

So what I want to talk about today is what makes the meeting of Mars and Saturn traditionally just difficult, as well as what might make this specific iteration in Aries even more difficult. So first of all, when the malefics get together, you have two planets that represent some of the natural parts of life. They're not unnatural, they're not evil, they're not bad. They're not a mistake. They're parts of life. Death, for example, is part of life, winter, old age, decay, disease, things falling apart, limitations. All Saturnian realities that are a basic part of every mystical tradition on the planet: impermanence, death, the limitations of form and time. That's what Saturn represents. But Saturn does not represent those things literally. Saturn points to their reality, and traditionally, Saturn points to what lies beyond. So if you have a deep understanding of impermanence, then you have a great understanding of eternity. There is an interconnection between those two things, which is why Saturn was traditionally a planet associated with mysticism.

For example, one of the most Saturnian cards in the Tao is the Hermit. The Hermit is a great example of a kind of monastic, Saturnian monk who has a little bit of distance from the world and is able to see it objectively, because they understand impermanence, they understand suffering and so forth. Well, Saturn's not a bad guy, but Saturn does represent some of those hard realities: the concrete reality of death, the concrete reality of aging, the concrete realities of limitation and suffering. Now Mars, on the other hand, tends to represent, for example, desire, but kind of stemming from the root of Mars as desire is conflict and passion and intensity and dominance and violence, even. So when you put these two planets together, you often have some of the more difficult qualities of human life sort of blended together as one.

What makes this unique in the sign of Aries is that Mars is greatly empowered, while Saturn is greatly debilitated. And so a debilitated Saturn meeting up with a powerful Mars can be a very unique situation where some of the themes we're going to go through today are specific to this meeting, and why this could be one of the more difficult transits of the year. It's not that Mars and Saturn are just out to screw you over either. So I'm going to try to give you some constructive things to look for in what might be a more challenging sequence of events, astrologically. And who knows what the most difficult of anything of a year is. In a way, it's sort of generic to try to determine what the most difficult transit is in a year. However, I will say that when I make my list and I highlight transits of the year that are difficult, I feel like I've pretty reliably been able to pinpoint some of the more frustrating or challenging moments of the year. However, I will also say that those moments are often some of the most growth-oriented moments of the year. So I try to represent that when I talk about difficult transits on the channel.

Let's get into it. Number one would just be the Mars-Saturn theme that's quite common, which is frustrated action or blocked momentum. Why it's so difficult is that Mars in Aries wants immediate action, tends towards speed and very decisive movements, whereas Saturn will impose delays or restraint, or tends to be more resistant to change. So you've got a gas and brake pedal dynamic. I've talked about that many times before when talking about these two planets. That gas-brake pedal can produce irritation, anger or burnout, and the feeling that an effort is being stalled, and then you can feel really intense frustration or anger and then lash out as a result.

I always think when I think of Mars and Saturn, you know what I think about? I think about trying to get everyone into the car for a road trip, and then trying to actually get from point A to point B without jumping out of the car while it's going because of how frustrating it is. The girls are fighting with each other, you know, they want to use their tablet 24/7. We're not going to let them use a tablet for the whole car ride. You know what I mean? Well, we don't use tablets anyway, but we let them on a car ride typically watch something, you know, if it's a long car ride, but then they want to use it the whole time. I'm like, No, you're going to read or whatever, do your coloring or something. They get mad. By the end, I just want to drive the car off the road. That's very Mars-Saturn anyway. But the constructive potential of this exact same dynamic is that Mars-Saturn can teach things like precision and appropriate timing and disciplined action, and it can help refine and mature that impulsive instinct of Mars into a more strategic execution. In other words, it can also encourage endurance, rather than just being forceful and impulsive and impatient. So who wants to learn those lessons, you know?

Number two is conflict with authority. You could also say it's just conflict with anyone or anything that acts as a hard limit. Mars will challenge and assert, and Saturn will block or enforce a boundary or a limit. Aries resists control. It's one of the more rebellious signs of the zodiac. Frankly, we don't always talk about that. That often gets given to Aquarius or Sagittarius, but Aries is an incredibly rebellious, independent sign. When it comes to someone trying to enforce authority over it or on it, so to speak, Aries will resist control, and there will be friction with rules or bosses or institutions that are acting in some way as a domineering force or as a bullying force, or even just as a challenge to your ego. This combination can manifest as confrontations and shutdowns or power struggles or feeling blocked by someone or something immovable. Don't be surprised, for example, if you see someone saying, you're going to give me this block or limit, I'm going to smash through it, and then that usually results in escalation of conflict.

The constructive potential behind this exact same dynamic is the opportunity to define healthy boundaries and maybe act as a more mature leader, for example, or know when to lead and when to follow in a fluid dynamic in your own life or your own psyche, learning when to push something versus learning when to respect structure and restrain yourself a little bit or use a little bit of that oppositional Libran tact or diplomacy. But all of this can also build incredible resilience in the face of a lot of pressure.

Number three would be harsh, let's call it harsh voices or actions. Saturn can have us internalizing doubt, fear, inhibition. Those are all deeply Saturnian things, or even sadness or lethargy. And Mars in Aries will be this very strong urge to act, but now may second-guess, or may want to act, but feel like you're being overwhelmed by inhibitions or doubts or fears or hesitancies. And so facing that can be part of this. Mars-Saturn can lead to something like paralysis or frustration or self-directed anger. And the question behind it might be like, Why can't I just do what I want? Why can't I just be what I want? The constructive potential behind this would be you can develop accountability. You can become more self-mastered. You can refine something raw into something more intentional and strategic, and you can again strengthen a quality of psychological perseverance or resilience in the face of your own internal voices of pressure or self-criticism.

Number four would be physical strain. This includes things like accidents or just exhaustion. But the reason that this is difficult is Mars rules the body's vitality. Saturn restricts and compresses. Where Aries is fast and sometimes a little bit reckless, the risk of overexerting yourself or overextending yourself can lead to things like inflammation or injury. I am going to be very, very, very cautious in the gym this week, for example, of putting too much pressure, too many plates, too much, going too hard, physically straining myself, because that tension will accumulate and lead to things like tightness, injury, accident, fatigue, stress, burnout, very quickly. Now that doesn't mean it has to last forever, but it can be a little inflection point that says, hey, you run the risk of breakdown here. But Mars-Saturn is bizarrely excellent for disciplined physical training, something that I see in the gym all the time. It's very Saturn-Mars. It drives me nuts.

I see guys often, young guys in college who don't have the benefit of having to protect their 45-year-old joints, tendons, ligaments, whatever. I'm 44, actually, I'm turning 45 in July, so they don't. I just noticed, though, that they don't have to think about protecting their body like I do, because I just can't throw weights around. I've got shoulders that'll fall off at this point anyway. So what I'll notice that they'll do is they'll grab a weight that's way too heavy, and then they'll be using their body momentum to lift it and torque their body all around. And I'll see them lifting too heavy and not being able to execute a full rep, getting full muscle stretch, for example. Now I only say this from the perspective of being in bodybuilding as a hobby for four, going on five years now, and I know that the lesser weight, the more full rep, the more controlled rep, the better mind-body connection, mind-muscle connection, the slower, more full rep I do, controlled breathing leads to better results. See, but I've learned that because I've gone through some injuries and accidents. I've gone through, you know what I mean, and I still learn, I still have to be careful, because one set where I get a little impatient and rush and push because I'm trying to get some great place to get emotions out too, can lead to strain. And then, rather than getting to continue to build, I have to take a step back for a while and build myself back up from a strain. Who wants that?

So Mars-Saturn is actually really good when it comes to disciplined physical training, working within limits and boundaries and trusting that structure as the container for effort rather than overexertion. This is a great transit. Mars-Saturn is probably the most mentally "lift heavy shit" kind of transit. But physical activity, health, and realizing if you're aging, physical health is going to help you sustain and endure the hardships of aging. That's a great Saturn-Mars kind of lesson. So the potential for this to be educational is almost like you've got a personal trainer in your psyche that's helping you work through certain kinds of limits and realities, but while still keeping the feeling of being strong and vital.

Now the last one is just stark encounters with reality. Mars brings confrontation. Saturn brings hard realities. Hard realities meaning just the difficult facets of life in the material world: failure, rejection, exhaustion, ego bruising, constraint, confrontation, what isn't working, what's hard, what's difficult, what's frustrating. Any of these stark encounters with reality are just that. They're just not easy, but they're facts about what is immovable or intractable about life itself. And this can deeply clarify, in a more constructive sense, what's viable versus what's unrealistic. Or it can help you support long-term goals that are strategic and grounded in reality. It can strengthen your commitments to things that are achievable and meaningful to you. But a lot of it comes through being realistic, and some of this will clip our wings.

The sign of Aries was often compared by Liz Greene to the Puer complex in archetypal psychology, meaning eternal, youthful kind of Peter Pan energy. What we mean by that is not that Aries are immature, but that there's something in them that remains youthful forever. I was thinking about the fact that there are certain people who live a life and they're adults. They're not just children. They live all the way through their adult life, but their whole life they're a surfer, or they're a skater, or they're a snowboarder. These are good images of the Puer in modern times. It doesn't mean that they never become an adult or don't handle responsibility, but there's something about what they do, surfing, snowboarding, skating, that is forever about the rush, the thrill, the fun, something you did as a kid that remains what you do throughout your whole life. There's lots of examples of this, and maybe that doesn't exactly fit, but it's close enough. The idea, though, is that you know whether it's Tony Hawk or some great surfer or whatever, you come up against limits. There's going to come a point where your body can't surf a big wave, or can't do a big trick because your back can't handle it, or whatever. And this is one of those transits that for people who just have that super youthful, vigorous spirit, might be dealing with things that feel like harsh limitations. If that makes sense.

All right, that's what I've got for today. It's a transit that builds character. Is that, does that sound like a gym teacher enough for you? All right, after I sign off, I'm going to tell you about the Year One program. It starts in June. I'm really excited for you to hear more about it and come study with us if it's gone beyond curiosity for you. If at this point, astrology feels like a calling in your life, a primary spiritual language, a primary spiritual path, and you want to deepen that commitment, check out the informational video about the Year One program. I hope to see some of you in classes soon. There are need-based tuition options if you need a little help with tuition and making sure it fits your budget. That's there for you as well. Check it out, and I'll see you guys soon. Bye.