Mars and Jupiter Create an Explosive Dynamic of Conflict and Change — What to Watch For

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

Happy Monday, everybody. Today, we're going to take a look at one of the most intense dynamics of the week, which is the applying square between Mars in Aries and Jupiter in the sign of Cancer. I'm going to give you a list of five things to watch for today and tell you specifically why it matters that Mars is in the superior position.

And this will be a little lesson on aspect dynamics that may help you going forward, interpreting transit. So I hope this part will be, you know, just a little educational. And then we're going to get into what it means that these two planets are square, both in the abstract, like any Mars Jupiter combination, but also this specific one, again, Mars in Aries and Jupiter, excuse me, in Cancer. So that's our agenda for the day.

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All right, well, here we are at the beginning of the week. I'm looking at Monday, May 4, and the big news here is today, as the week begins, we have Mars squaring Jupiter. If we look, this is applying over the weekend, but if we spread this out just a touch, if my Epic Pen will cooperate epically, always epically with my pen, then we see it still connecting. By tomorrow, Tuesday, May 5, and by Wednesday, it's separating within a degree.

Let's give it a couple of degrees of separation. So by Saturday, three degrees is fully parted. That means it's a week where everything we're talking about today is really in effect. But especially today, Monday, May 9 and tomorrow. Excuse me, I am not saying the right date. Especially today, Monday, May 11 and tomorrow, Tuesday, May 12. Whoops, I am just a space cadet today. All right, Neptune is definitely squaring my natal Mercury right now, by the way, and that's interesting. That's been a fun transit. I'm talking to aliens. No, I'm kidding.

So the one thing that I really want to point out, as we are looking at this, here we go, we can see that Mars is in the superior position. So if you imagine that you are the planet Mars, a person, and you're looking into the middle of the wheel, off from your right-hand side would be Jupiter. What this means is that Mars has risen prior in order of the signs, in rising in the east on this day, and on this day, the superior aspect is telling us that, therefore, because Mars rises first and moves into the sphere of visible action first, that it sets the table for what Jupiter is walking into.

And so in a superior relationship like this, what Mars is doing is saying, okay, we have a Mars Jupiter square that has a whole textbook list of interactions symbolically, but Mars in Aries, along with Saturn and Neptune, I'm setting the table. I'm setting the agenda. Whatever Jupiter is responding to will happen through me. That gives a lot of context, because it means that Jupiter in Cancer is responding to something Mars in Aries like, or having to meet the agenda that's been pre-established by Mars in Aries gives you a real feel for what's toning their interaction.

If it were the opposite way around, and Jupiter in Cancer were setting the stage, then Mars would have to respond to a scene that had already been established by Jupiter in Cancer. But it's not; it's the other way around. So in case that helps you today, everything that I have to say about this aspect dynamic is rooted in an understanding of that superior dynamic from Mars. So what does that mean? When Mars and Jupiter combine, one of the most predictable things you will see are the themes of competition and heroism.

Mars is the god of competition in the sign of Aries. The co-rulers are Mars and the Sun. It is an incredibly heroic sign. What Jupiter in Cancer tends to grant is the emotional satisfaction of being a hero or of being victorious. And remember, heroes always have homecomings, so where there's a hero or heroine it doesn't matter. The idea is that you go off on a quest, you hopefully accomplish something, but then you return home, and when you return home, you are often a conquering hero.

And of course, one of the great plays on this motif would be like Born on the Fourth of July, Tom Cruise, or Forrest Gump, you know, movies that depict soldiers coming back from war, and they're not really welcome. They're not treated as heroes. The American public was largely against the war in Vietnam, where people came back from Vietnam feeling disillusioned with what they had been a part of. The point is not that there can be all kinds of different variations on heroism myths and on competition and victory, but what the stage is being set right now by Mars in Aries, which means there's themes of competition, conquest, heroism, victory, courage, termination, perseverance. These are the themes in the sky that are pressing. They're like, you know, Jupiter in Cancer is walking into a room that's been set by those themes. Okay, I'm walking into the landscape of Mars in the Sun and this fire sign.

So how does Jupiter respond? Well, Jupiter will respond by, you know, it's like a parade for welcoming home the victor. On one level, the Mars Jupiter dynamic, in other words, will greatly celebrate and emotionally reward and uplift and grant blessings to themes of competition and heroism. Let me just give you a super simple example. If you got the drive or impulse, sort of athletically and competitively, to go push yourself and get back to the gym and get yourself on some kind of program, you know, kind of get yourself going in a sweat, go for runs, whatever, you start pushing the gas pedal in a competitive manner. Probably what happens with this week's square is you start feeling happier.

You know that first week when you get into a program, you feel cleaner, you feel a little lighter, you feel the serotonin like you just start feeling good. Now, sustaining that over a long period of time is why it's called a practice. But that initial surge of, like, I'm going to do something kind of heroic, and I'm going to immediately experience a big emotional uplift from the kind of conquest, as though it's being rewarded. That's a Mars Jupiter dynamic, and that's why you can get kind of high on the Mars energy right now. Mars is setting the agenda. Jupiter sort of walking into it says, What can I give? I can give exalted Cancerian things like good feelings, blessings, benefits, a sense of warmth, community, reception. So that's one thing to look for.

Now the shadows of all of those themes. Jupiter can also amplify those themes and even maybe offer some pushback. Like, well, that's real athletic and competitive of you, but your athletic, maybe hyper-masculine energy feels a little destabilizing in our home. You know, it's like, if you came back from the gym and your muscles were pumped, and you were just like all jacked, and like some kind of pro wrestler walking into your house all enthusiastic, high on Mars energy, your family might sort of look at you and go, could you chill? So the pushback from Jupiter in Cancer to Mars's heroic competitive drive right now might be, yeah, but it doesn't feel so good. On the other hand, you can just flip it around. It feels a little intense. It feels a little confrontational. It might even feel a little abusive.

This is why the exact same dynamic can be about things like domestic violence, right? Because you've got Jupiter in Cancer having to receive Mars. And that's where you could get that theme as well. So the Mars impulse is being met and received, you could say, by the Jupiter in Cancer dynamics. So think about that around themes like competition and heroism.

The second is action and fertility. So where there is a will, a desire, an action, an impulse, it can land in a fertile space. This is a good pregnancy transit, it's a good fertility transit, on a certain level. The reason for that is that, again, Mars is libidinal, instinctual, hungry, impulsive. It's like the urge to hunt, the urge to seek and go after something with desire and a sort of aggressive or competitive quality. Well, where that action is met by Jupiter in Cancer, maybe with a little struggle or tension or conflict, it may land in a very fertile space.

And that fertile space can be something like, you know, well, look, here's another example from fitness right now. If you take the action to work really hard and to start maybe a bulking program, you up your calories a little bit. Maybe you start taking some creatine, you up your protein, and you're lifting a little bit heavier, and whatever, you know, as these programs go, you're doing something like that, well, you may find that that action and effort results in gains. It literally results in growth. It's a simple example, and probably you wouldn't get a lot of gains in one week, you know, but the impulse to start something like that could land on fertile ground right now. It'd be a great time to start something that involves, well, hey, if I do this, will it grow? Will I get the gain or benefit or result that I'm looking for with work and effort? To answer my BS, so, action lands on fertile ground.

Now, the opposite of that would be that something fertile, soft, gentle, more receptive, feels somewhat violated by and may push back on or create tension with Mars. Again, it's like if you're trying to be, if you're just going balls to the wall with something, you're all so excited about it. Jupiter in Cancer might push back and say, this is disrupting my sleep, or this doesn't feel good in my body. It feels too intense. So again, Jupiter in Cancer may have some response for the masculine energy that's much more feminine and has to push back in a way, and say, look, I know you're on a heater right now, but let's settle it down.

Now number three is conflict and soothing. So what I love about this transit is that where Mars is super agro and kind of bigger and more assertive in the dynamic because of its superior position, Jupiter in its receptive position and exalted can also pacify and soothe. So hot tempers calmed, conflicts soothed and mediated. Aggressive, irritating needs pacified. So where there is something very martial and hot and demanding, Jupiter has the potential to cool it down, pacify and soothe. That is one of the most promising parts of this: that cooler heads may actually prevail because of Jupiter's influence in receiving the Mars energy.

It's like if a mom went to the store for a little bit and had three very rowdy boys and came back, or girls, whatever, came back into the house, and they were just, and she comes in, and everything starts to calm down, but she has to walk into that dynamic, right? And she has to respond to it. That's what Jupiter in Cancer might be dealing with right now. But the potential for themes like conflict and soothing are there. Now taken to an extreme and maybe another shadow, it would be things like anger or rage or violence or aggression in spaces that are supposed to be soft and healing and calming that create conflict, like domestic issues, quarrels, etc.

Now this is why number four for me is crisis and family, because if Mars is setting the stage and Jupiter in Cancer is walking into it, then we may have loss, hardship, misfortune, all things that Mars was associated with as the lesser malefic, and the family, the home, or familial community dynamics, larger networks of family, emotionally bonded groups, places of emotional support and cohesion, are experiencing hardship or crisis, and maybe some kind of intervention is needed, or some kind of action has to be taken in a more dramatic fashion because of how intense and sudden Mars hits the gas pedal and can be very abrupt and impulsive. Mars is a little bit like Uranus in that respect, where it can just be really dramatic and fast in what it brings that is a source of calm, conflict, or rashness. It's like boiling water. It can be very erratic. Well, if that's coming into a Jupiter in Cancer dynamic, you can see how this would potentially bring up troubles for places or spaces like that.

And then finally, on my list would be emotional impulse control. I've been alluding to this the entire time, and I think you probably get the idea by now, but the two can also meet and combine in a way where it's like impulses that are hot and fiery and aggressive become much bigger emotionally, like a big emotional blowout would be very Mars square Jupiter, or a big, dramatic kind of crisis-laden expression of emotion, a kind of emergency of action and feeling. And that will probably not last very long, because the transit only lasts a couple of days, but you may just notice that things escalate quickly and get to be big and hit vulnerable spaces, and our responsiveness is important.

Now listen, I'm going to be honest with you guys. One of the main reasons that I created daily meditation at Nightlight is because most of us, if we only treat astrology like a celestial gossip column that's just like, hey, this is what's happening, this is what's happening, this is what's happening, it's not any different than the divisiveness or the rage or the consumptiveness that drives a lot of media and a lot of our consumption of media. And I'm no exception to that. I'm a part of it, just like I think probably all of us are. So I'm not trying to act like a big person. I'm a hypocrite if I do that, but I will say that one of the things that helps me tremendously to even recognize in my body when I need to step out of that, in astrology or in the news or on social media or anywhere, is my meditation practice.

Just sitting quietly and realizing, Oh, wow, there's a lot of stuff that happened, like every morning. I'll notice this in the last day that I didn't take the time to feel and I probably needed to. And when we're just living from transit to transit, moment after moment and episode after episode, even if we have a really amazing, enchanted, cosmic way of understanding the patterns in the events unfolding, what good is it if we have no space to exist in relationship to it? And that's what ancient astrologers were doing, whether they were Stoics or Pythagoreans or Platonists or yogis. They were saying life is better when you have some reflective, relational participation in it, meaning you're not just riding a roller coaster, although sometimes life is fun and life is a roller coaster, but you're not just doing that all the time, because it will exhaust you, and it will be a path that does nothing but amplify the suffering that's already hard enough on its own.

So can we slow down? Can we sit? Can we breathe? Can we be present with life, with existence, with ourselves, with the mystery of it all? No doctrines, dogmas. When we sit together in community at Nightlight, really, it's just about the sitting, and everything that comes up in that space is very sacred. It doesn't need any labels or doctrines around it. It's just sit and see for yourself. Sit and see for yourself how it changes your life and how you can feel, just have a different kind of relationship and even a hint of distance from the immediacy of just experience and the constant onslaught of experience.

And I personally believe that without doing this in astrology, we are really doing nothing more than making astrology tabloid. And so I sort of hold this out not just as an offering just to be of service, but because it's been a part of my practice and the way I create content for 16, going on 17 years. Every day, meditation is behind the content you receive on this channel. I don't have the secret sauce, but I will tell you that I am very convinced that meditation can help most people. And by that, I mean eyes open, eyes closed, just sitting quietly, doing nothing, but just kind of shutting up, you know, just, let's just chill.

And when you do it with other people, other living beings, and you hear what they're going through, and you hold space for it, you just listen. You hear some insights. You hear some reflections about the path of life from other people. It makes a huge difference. So I invite you. I just wanted to make this pitch at the end. We've had over 100 people a day for several months now coming out and sitting with us every morning. Maybe you can't make it. That's okay. You could sit on your own, but just know that it's there and it's free.

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So anyway, that's it for today. Stick around next. I'm going to tell you about the year one program. We start at the end of June, easily the best thing I've created as an astrologer. This program is meant to give you astrology at a very deep level for the rest of your life, and deepen your connection to it. So stick around. I'll tell you about it more next. Bye, everyone.