A Historic Shift is Underway — Mars-Pluto Conjoin as Neptune Enters Aries

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

Today we're going to talk about arguably one of the biggest transit periods of the year that is happening today, as Mars and Pluto can join in the sign of Aquarius, with a whole lineup of planets in the sign of Aquarius, a solar eclipse impending in the sign of Aquarius, and Neptune entering Aries Neptune moving into a brand new whole sign, ingressing and at the zero Aries point ruled by Mars, who is conjoined Pluto.

It's a big day today, but it's less about today and more about what happens from this day moving forward that I want to talk about today, I've written something, a meditative reflection on the symbolism, on the moments that many of us will experience, not just this week, but in the whole next month. As Saturn and Neptune and Aries also come through, I will be doing horoscopes later in the week. We'll also be shifting gears a little bit to talk more about Neptune and Aries.

But today, undeniably, you know, we've got the pairing of Neptune into Aries and Mars and Pluto in Aquarius, just a huge day astrologically, before we get into it today, remember to like and subscribe if you get something positive out of this channel. If this is a meaningful part of your life, clicking the subscribe button helps us continue growing and thriving year after year and what we do and how we do it. So I really deeply appreciate it.

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Any questions about anything you find on our website, email us info at Nightlight astrology.com Okay, let's turn our attention to the real time clock. And you know, it's like this. This transit needs no introduction. No. Here we are, January 27 Tuesday, and Mars is conjoining Pluto.

Now, if I fast forward this a day, you're going to see that by tomorrow morning, the transit has passed. But we're going to give it just a few days to give it a three degree range takes us all the way to Saturday. So this square is really in effect all week long. And let's be real. Here we are also dealing with the 27th of January, the long awaited ingress of Neptune into Aries, no more Retrogrades, back into Pisces.

If you were not a fan of the soupy imaginal unicorn ethereal blend of Neptune and Pisces is gone. You don't have to worry about it anymore. No, I'm kidding. I had a blast. Thank you, Neptune and Pisces, what a beautiful teacher you were now. Let's get rolling into Aries, where the world lights on fire. No, I'm kidding.

Saturn is also going to join Neptune later in February. There's a solar eclipse in Aquarius coming up for our next new moon. We're in the midst of a major series of conjunctions, this being the last conjunction with planets to Pluto in Aquarius. So things have been very Aquarian lately, if you haven't noticed, and what I want to do today is to reflect, reflect on what it means to be living in a time like this.

This reflection is something I wrote this morning after doing an I Ching reading. I want to give you the outlines of that reading, in case you want to know, the sort of subtle logic behind the approach I took to the essay that I wrote. I'm going to put the hexagrams up. Here we go. Making a banner right now. I thought I had one, but sometimes I think I do things in my head that I didn't actually do okay, hexagram 14, lines four, five and six, changing with hexagram five.

Emphasize, this is just for those of you who are I Ching students. You know, I know that some of you really like that so and then changing to hexagram five. That's great treasures. Changing to calculated waiting and the fifth line being the central line of those lines changing in 14 in case you follow the changing line method. So that informs the backdrop of today's essay.

I do not explicitly reference the teaching in what follows, but know that it is at the heart of how I chose to read things. I sit down sometimes in the morning before I prep my talk for the day. I sit with the I Ching and consult it about the very thing I'm going to talk about, and it helps inform the shape of the delineations I create, or the list of five things to watch for, or in this case, the shape of the reflection that I wrote.

So I'm very excited, because I've been in dialog with Benebell Wen, whose translation I use for the I Ching. She's going to come on and give, I hope, a kind of like an I'm doing an interview with her talking about the I Ching for total beginners. So if you've been like, what is that about? Hopefully that will help you. But Mars conjoining Pluto in Aquarius at the same as the host by the way of Neptune on this day, entering Aries.

This is what I wrote. I called this a time of seeding, not seizing. We're living through one of those collective astrology moments that is undeniably charged historical collective. It reminds me quite a bit of 2020 when Saturn conjoined Pluto. And many people sense this instinctively. Even if they know nothing about astrology, you can feel it.

It's like standing at the edge of a hilltop or a bluff overlooking a big, vast landscape. You're looking out over something that is so big and so beautiful and yet, like the word sublime itself in Romantic literature is often used to describe something that's so big and overwhelming that it feels ominous and scary. There's something forming that's not yet formed.

There's something present, but we can't quite put our finger on it. There's this astrological pressure in the air, and you would swear that people who know nothing about astrology are also trying to put their finger on it. We know how and where, what buttons to press, astrologically, to describe this, that's a blessing in our lives.

There's a feeling that your decisions During such times matter more than usual, they might. Maybe that's an illusion, but it feels that way, and you can't get rid of the feeling that it feels that way. So they might. There's a sense that the events happening right now carry a weight that has the force of history behind it, long, long epochs behind it.

Now, from a technical astrological standpoint, it makes sense that we feel this way, and this is a great blessing to us as astrologers, that we can actually name some of these things, the patterns and archetypal fabric that these moments belong to it takes some of the pressure off. That's what we want astrology to do, so that peace can be in every breath and every step as we move through such archetypal seasons and transitions.

Mars is conjoining Pluto in Aquarius today. That is a meeting of tremendous force, of tremendous depth, of intense action, of transformation, all taking place in a sign that is frequently concerned with collective systems, shared futures and the architectures of society and collectives. At the exact same time that these two planets meet in Aquarius Neptune's crossing into Aries, the very first flaming, fiery centrifugal force of the Zodiac, where the beginnings are raw, impulsive, untested and on fire.

And this is important because Mars is also, right now, quietly beginning to rise as a morning star. This matters because when Mars is rising as a morning star, we're not yet in the full expression of its power to act. And one of the planets most commonly associated with the decisive will power, clarity direction to act is Mars.

And so even though this is a very decisive, very charged, very powerful moment, it is a seeding point. The fire is being lit, but we could say that it hasn't yet learned how it wants to burn, or in what direction it's going to take a little while. It's going to take a solar eclipse in Aquarius. It's going to take Saturn conjoining Neptune in Aries. It's going to take Mars going all the way through Aquarius and squaring Uranus by the end.

Because moments like this can feel so explosive, and there can be this compulsion to act, to make a declaration, to break away, to clearly label or name enemies, to draw lines, and the emotional atmosphere can feel sharp, volatile, decisive and dissociative. This is a lot of air and fire we're talking about as though now is the moment when everything must happen and be damned how you're processing it in your body.

But I would say astrologically and spiritually. And this is where the I Ching is subtly vibrating through what I've written here today. This is rarely how real, lasting revolutions unfold. What we are witnessing right now is not the culmination point of change and transformation. It's really the laying of groundwork.

Think about it, Pluto's early Aquarius, Neptune's early Aries now Mars conjoining Pluto right now, given the ingress of Neptune into zero, Aries can feel like a decisive, quick flash breaking point, but in the sign of Aquarius, this shift, as dramatic as it can be right now, is often working at the level of ideas, networks, ideologies, collective frameworks and narratives, paradigms.

Neptune, entering Aries can ignite New Visions, New Visions of identity, New Visions of purpose. But just like Pluto in the early degrees of Aquarius, conjoining Pluto conjoining Mars, that zero degree marker in Aries, is relatively formless. It's more like the spark that's starting a fire than a fully formed fire. Or it's more like the spark of a new idea or direction than a fully developed plan.

So what we're experiencing right now, and it can be so hard to take this perspective, because of how immediate that fire at zero Aries feels, or that Mars Pluto dynamic feels, is really the announcement of forces that are going to clarify themselves slowly over an entire era that's unfolding. This is a gateway year, astrologically, a year that kicks off a new era.

We sometimes think the whole era has to take place right now. All of the problems have to be solved right now, and that impatience will drive many early failures over the next month, these forces grow louder. As I mentioned, we've got a solar eclipse in Aquarius that will arrive. Saturn will move close to Neptune and conjoin, asking us difficult questions about what is real, what's sustainable, what kind of future can actually be built with the fires of this initiating energy.

Mars will continue forward into sharper aspect with Uranus that happens right around the eclipse in February, right around the same time as the Saturn Neptune conjunction. All of this will further stir spirits of rebellion, disruption, awakening and innovation. What I want to say is that revolutions do not arrive all at once. You cannot make them happen all in one moment.

They come in waves, and each wave will reveal more of the direction that we're heading in historical patience, an understanding of collective wave patterns and how frustratingly slow. They can move when we're living with feet on the ground. There is a kind of mental, intellectual, and I would say, meditative discipline. This discipline extends from regular meditation, regular quiet time.

It is the discipline of not knowing yet, which doesn't mean not knowing ever to recognize, hey, something important is happening within myself, within the collective, but I don't have to rush to define it, hold it, direct it, or control it. Mars wants the action. Pluto wants irrevocable change. Is it irrevocable? Irrevocable? Neptune in Aries wants us to believe, to act on faith, to move forward, boldly, even blindly, heroically, courageously, but sometimes with way too much zeal and almost a level of fanaticism.

All of this points so naturally, wait, but don't disengage. Observe without collapsing into passivity. Feel urgency, but don't surrender discernment. What happens now matters, not because it's final, but because it's formative. Seeds being planted. We talk about that every new moon. It's like one of those quarter jar phrases at this point, for anyone into astrology, there's a new seed being planted.

That's what we should have to do. Anytime we say it, we should have to go there's a new seed being planted. Habits of thought are often what is being planted when new cycles are starting in air and fire. That's really subtle. So for all of us who use phrases like that A seed is being planted. Make sure, if you're ever if you're a creator, Social Media Creator, you're people who talk about astrology to other people, make sure that you are very clear about how subtle and difficult it can be to track the seeds that are being planted, given you know, where they're being planted, the context that they're being planted in.

But think of a like a seed is when you you plant a seed in the garden, I help my wife every year it's gone. You can't see it. You know, once you plant it in there, it's like, you're not, you don't can't see that. You're gonna have to wait for it to show itself through its growth.

So most of the time we can't see the seeds that are being planted and and we often think we have way more control over the kinds of seeds that are being planted than we do. The seeds being planted are like wave patterns moving through us, through collectives of choices that are being braided together over long periods of time, and the seeds that come about form because of the concrete sense of those choices.

It is not easy to see the seeds being planted. It's easier to start seeing them when they sprout and start bearing fruit. Right now, as a seeding point, habits of thought are being established. So the kinds of thoughts that you give power to right now can very subtly bear fruit in a long cycle that has a lot more consequence than you may think.

Emotional reactions you're dress rehearsing for when they will have much more power than you think they will later, narratives will start to cohere. The way that we respond to the events happening right now will take shape as a seed, Mars, Pluto conjoining while Mars is just separating from the sun rising as a morning star, the reaction you have to plutonian detonations around you?

You think, Well, maybe I overreacted a little bit. Yeah. But if you don't really spend some time looking at an overreaction right now, it is the quality of the seed that will bear a karmic fruit in the future. It becomes so important to be very reflective right now. Things can get wild. Things can get out of control.

We can mess up. There's no, you know, there's nothing but grace and mercy in built into the evolution of the universe, as far as I can tell. But mindfulness matters when powerful moments like this happen, spending time with them in honest, deep reflection, not just letting them pass by, not just having a wild reaction and going up, lost my cool there for a second, whatever.

Let's just keep rolling. No. Spend time with it. Sit with it. Look at why it happened. Be careful. With it. It's a seed. Whenever Mars and Pluto meet, there's questions of power that come up. Who holds it, or how the power is being used, or whether it serves something like positive transformation and evolution or domination.

Now, in Aquarius, as you've heard me say many times on the channel in the past weeks, this power often wears idealistic clothing. It wears the clothing of ideology, and it tends to speak in the language of progress, justice, liberation and collective good. And yet, there are so many different opinions and people and groups that define what is good, just or what resembles progress most closely.

We're willing to kill each other over these things. In fact, even the most beautiful ideals can become distorted when they're driven by urgency rather than peace. Neptune's entrance into Aries adds this layer to the same dynamic where the temptation to fuse identity with belief, to feel called or chosen or destined in ways that bypass humility, will couple itself to good ideas driven by urgency.

When you pair good ideas driven by urgency alongside of the feeling of being called, chosen or destined in a way that bypasses humility, you are seeding yourself as a tyrant. Now, that tyrant may have only control or power over a very small little frame of reference, a small little ecosystem. But do any of us really want to become a bully?

Do any of us really want to become domineering, cynical, constantly sarcastic, rude, belittling of people. Do we want to lose our humanity and our compassion because we feel chosen and right? It's not bad to want to do something. It's not bad to feel the pulse of revolution within us, but ask ourselves these questions, is my action rooted in clarity or reactivity and urgency and emergency?

Is this urgency coming from wisdom or fear, even if there is an urgency, even if there is an emergency? Can I walk peacefully with wisdom, not fear, with compassion, not cruelty? Am I listening as deeply as I am speaking? Can I hold conviction without contempt? True authority, whether it's personal or collective, doesn't announce itself through force.

Verbal, mental, intellectual, certainly doesn't happen by whooping someone's ass in some kind of social media forum, you know, as much as as much as it might feel good at times to lay down the smack in a Twitter post or whatever, see when we're living at what feels like the edge of history, a very charged moment of historical gravitas, we can feel that we're living more in history than we are in life.

I think of the Buddhist monks walking across our country right now as I make this I've listened to one of the monks who speaks, I think, as they go along, and he is pointing to the fact that life comes first. Life is what is real. Life is always present. And when we're always running, we're always avoiding.

We're always doing the next thing. We forget our breath. We start breathing like robots, waiting for our very last breath. History doesn't have to be experienced that way, as something apart from life, but it often is when events feel monumental, and they do because they are, it's easy to slip into the sense that we're standing at the hinge of fate.

The future is bearing down on us. The past is collapsing behind us. The present is just this narrow little bridge that we have to walk through breathlessly between the two but all wisdom traditions have told us the future does not yet exist. The past no longer exists. The only place of anything actually happening is now.

Mars rising as a morning star in the backdrop of the sky. Right now reminds us that morning stars don't come out and conquer the day. They announce it. They rise quietly, faithfully, day after day, long before the sun itself appears and they magnanimously say, Look at what's coming. Likewise, I think the work of this moment is not to finish the story, but be part of a benevolent presence that ushers it in.

When we remember that the present moment is again all that really exists, there's something that softens and the pressure to resolve everything relaxes. It would be as foolish for us to think that we can conquer the existence of suffering, the ever alternating cycles of light and dark, good and evil, up and down, right and wrong, happiness and suffering by our will.

It's like Mars coming up trying to conquer daytime, just not going to happen, you know? And it's good to just sort of surrender and and laugh, because we try, don't we do? We do try. When the compulsion to be right gives way to the willingness to be present, and from that attentive presence, better actions arise.

That's when revolution starts to happen at the very forefront of our selves. We are standing, I think, at the beginning of a very long arc of historical change. Pluto and Aquarius is going to be with us for years. Saturn and Neptune will continue to redefine the boundaries between vision and reality, subtle realities and gross realities.

Mars will keep moving through cycles of confrontation and consequence. We don't need to be perfect. We don't need to have it figured all out. We need to be conscious. It's a good time to be conscious of what's stirring, of what's moving, of what's changing. Pay attention where we feel pulled to act and exercise gentle restraint as a wise form of strength for anything that says, act now or it's over.

Do this change or die. You know, anything that presents itself as a command voice of urgency and intensity is probably not the one that will carry us through an entire era of change. That doesn't mean there aren't real pressures forming and real directions and actions being taken in the next couple of months. Of course there are, but when we look as astrologers like we are meant to at the vast sweeps of planetary time and the vast archetypal seasons of a life, the life cycles of complex ecosystems, psychically, we have to be always practicing presence first, because it's Only from that space that we can be stewards of the longer, slower, wiser processes unfolding.

We want to be a part of those processes, and we want to be change makers, so to speak, within those processes, we have to have long vision. Long vision always comes out of patient vision. Patient vision comes out of presence and peace. Well, that was my these are my thoughts for the day. They come from nowhere, other than what I am like.

That could have been my journal. That's just, that's just, you know me. If it resonates with you, then great. I hope it's just, you know, I'm probably preaching to the choir for a lot of folks out there, but I hope that it's useful. That's always the goal on my channel. I hope you're having a great day today.

We'll see you again. Tomorrow. We're going to be unpacking some of these dynamics more as the Week continues. Take care.