Mars Square Neptune and the Archetype of the Magician

Hey everyone, this is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology, and today we are going to continue our exploration of the Mars Neptune square this week by looking at one of the archetypes and tarot cards that is frequently associated with Mars Neptune, and that is the archetype and card of the magician. The magician is a major arcana in the tarot deck.

I'm not going to spend as much time talking about the Tarot today as I am just the archetype of the magician in general. However, I do have a brief reading I'm going to use from a book that I've been reading lately with a friend of mine called Meditations on the Tarot: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism. It's a beautiful book written on the Tarot. I'm really enjoying it, and I've been having a kind of a little study session with a buddy of mine where we get together and go to the Quaker meeting, and then we meet up and talk through each of the chapters of the book which has been really fun so far.

Anyway, as I was doing that, we finished the first chapter on the magician, and I thought this is going to be something to revisit when the Mars-Neptune square comes through because Mars-Neptune is associated with the magician. And I'll try to describe why that is the case today in today's recording, but I want to talk about specifically how we can see the Mars-Neptune dynamic and the archetype of the magician at work in astrology. How does Mars-Neptune play a role in the way we do astrology or the way astrology works?

There's an opportunity in looking at this transit to understand astrology at a deeper level. And I think that your interest all of our interest in things like Tarot, divination, the I-Ching, astrology, birth charts, etc., comes in part from some attraction to the Mars-Neptune archetype. And I'll try to explain why today. And also talk about some of the benefits of having a little of the magician archetype active in our lives.

So anyway, before we do that, as always, don't forget to like and subscribe, share your comments in the comment section, and click the notification bell if you want updates. When I go live, you can find transcripts of any of my daily talks, as always, on the website nightlightastrology.com. Okay, by the way, you have a story to share this week, don't forget to use the hashtag grabbed or email us the story grabbed@nightlightastrology.com. There should be some good ones, I'm guessing, from this very busy week of transits.

Anyway, let's take a look at the real-time clock and refresh on the transit at hand so that we can just get a feel for what's going on this week before we dive into talking about the magician. Here is Mars, making the square to Neptune; of course, we talked about the fact that we have quite a lineup of planets in Pisces all going through the square with, you know, conjunction with Neptune square to Mars sort of simultaneously this week but you'll see that it's playing out, especially on Tuesday, March 14, and that it's sort of in the air Wednesday, Thursday, and even into Friday, where they're less than a degree apart.

So it's really the rest of this week that these two planets are square to one another. Now again, you have Neptune and Mercury. So, if you didn't watch yesterday's talk, I would recommend you go back and listen to it because we opened the week talking about all of the transits of the week, sort of overall. And that'll give you a more detailed breakdown, sort of a wide variety of archetypes to watch for throughout the week. Today, we're going to kind of focus in on the Mars-Neptune archetype. And its association with the magician.

One thing that I found interesting, by the way, is that if you go back to 1692, in March of 1692, Mars was also in Gemini, and we have the same basic lineup of Mercury, the Sun, Neptune in Pisces and Mars squaring in Gemini. That was the opening month of the Salem witch trials from the way that, at least when I was looking at it, I was like what happened in 1692.

So I was looking around, and in March of that year, apparently, the Salem witch trials began. I thought that was kind of kooky. So I have some thoughts about that, that I'll try to weave in as we go. And how this all pertains to the magic and mysticism of the magician. So what, the reason that Mars and Neptune are associated with the magician is that you have a sense of the magician as a figure who has some mastery over, some control over, the forces of reality itself. The sorcerer works with source, the magician; if you look, if you've ever seen the magician card in the Tarot, so if you've ever seen a picture of the magician in the Tarot, the image includes the magician standing over a table. The magician has all of the items of the suits, the pentacles, the cups, the swords, and the staff. The wands sitting out on the table, the one that the magician holds, and the little infinity symbol above the head.

The whole image evokes someone who has a kind of creative; it's a little bit like Fantasia, the Sorcerer's Apprentice; there's this card that will often come up when you know where we are learning how to be work with or master or harness different kinds of intangible energies, astrological energies, plant medicine energies, Kundalini energies, your chakras. The manipulation of subtle forces and energies as a Mars-Neptune signature. So one of the reasons, again, that the magician, both the card and just the archetype overall, is associated with Mars, Neptune is that the magician has the have a little bit like a wizard to there's a sense of being able to manipulate at will the forces of reality because one has entrained themselves to these powers. So it's a powerful position. And one that is always it always comes with warnings, you know, wizards, witches, and training.

If you think of the Harry Potter series, there are so many lessons that you have to learn as you're, as you're learning, as the young wizards and so forth are learning to manipulate the powers of magic. So Mars-Neptune is associated both with the dangers as well as the power of learning. It's like learning to use the Force learning to use your lightsaber; these are also Mars-Neptune signatures.

So that's broadly speaking, that's some of the reasons why you see Mars Neptune frequently associated with the magician. My will is aligned with something bigger than myself, like the Force or the elemental powers of nature that I can conjure up through spells or incantations, or what have you. So I think it's a fascinating archetype. And there is a whole lot of the magician at work in astrology. Now, there are different schools within the, you know, within the world of astrology, there are different schools of thought in terms of how astrology works, or how it's possible that it would work at all.

For example, one of the main schools is, comes from the standpoint of causality, which means that certain astrologers believe that the planets are actually causing things to happen, that they're sending energies and rays and beams and, and like, they're, they're like, literal weather, but their energies, like the rain or the, you know, the snow and sunshine and all of that, like, just like there are physical, real physical forces, that the planets have real physical forces, and that they're just of a different nature or order that we, you know, understand as of yet or something like that, right. So, there are all sorts of speculation about how those energies might work. But regardless, they have real physical causal, a real physical or causal reality that is at work.

Then you have another school, also traditional and throughout the history of astrology, just as present as the causal school, which is the signs school. That would be that astrology is a language of signs and omens. So, in the same way that you draw a tarot card, but the tarot card does not like, let's say, you draw the death card, and after you draw the death card, a couple of weeks later, your grandmother passes. And, you know, that card, in the case of maybe, had a reading that pertained to her health or something. That card doesn't cause your grandma to die. That card is a symbolic sort of, you know, synchronistic, a causal omen or sign of something.

I'm not saying there's no overlap between causality and more divinity approach to astrology. There probably is. In fact, Chris Brennan and I got into discussing this in our recent episode on astrology and fate. But the idea of the divinatory approach to astrology would be that astrology is the language of omens and signs. And that the clock saying that it's noon doesn't cause it to be noon, but it indicates that it's noon. So similarly, the signs and symbols of astrology are indicators, maybe of the will of the gods or of the fate or destiny of an individual, but they don't cause those events or patterns to occur. So you have different ways of thinking about astrology.

Now personally, and you guys who watch my channel or have been to my classes know that I am definitely in the camp of astrology as divination. Astrology is the language of signs and omens, not causes. I'm open to there being some mystery, I definitely think there are energies at play in reality, but I tend to think of the astrological language as pointing to them rather than being a literal embodiment of those energies. So, at any rate, not that none of this really matters so much.

The reason I'm making this distinction to start with is that insofar as astrology is divination or has a divinatory function doesn't have to be all one or the other. Insofar as there is a divinatory aspect to astrology, it is the magician that is always at work. And in a sense, you could say that Mars-Neptune is a combination, among other combinations, sometimes Mercury-Neptune, but this is Mars in Mercury's sign right now squaring Neptune, which I find fascinating that that combination can adequately express a certain dimension of what astrology is and how it works. So we're going to talk about that today as a kind of meta-conversation about Mars and Neptune. And then we're going to talk about three benefits of this Mars Neptune or oracular form of consciousness, or the three benefits of having a magical practice in your life. So let's go through them. I've got 10 to talk about.

One, astrology is oracular, and remember, we're just assuming from the rest of this talk that there is, on some level, a divinatory component to astrology. And insofar as there is, we're looking at the realm of the magician. Astrology is oracular; therefore, the relationship matters. It's a way of saying that astrology works, or that any kind of magic works, because of the relationships that, let's say, the practitioner or the student develops with the symbols. So, in other words, if you want, for example, in plant medicine, it's very similar. Ashley and I talked about this all the time; my wife is an herbalist. If you want to get the most out of a plant medicine, talk to the plant as you take it, don't just take it like it's a thing; take it like it's being. If you develop actual relationships with the planets with the symbols as though they are living oracular presences. The cultivation of that relationship matters.

It's the same in dream work. Let's say you have a raven show up in a dream, kind of an ominous symbol. But you can; it's important that you don't just interpret the Raven, but that if you want to hear what it has to say that you might take a raven and put it on your altar, take a picture of a raven and put it next to your bed and say like I see you I see that you've appeared. I know you're a messenger. I trust that you are real. I trust that you are either, you know, you're a being of some kind you have you have actual, you know, I'm a being, and your a being, and so I'm thinking that the relationship I establish with you matters when it comes to whatever you might have to say to me.

So insofar as astrology is oracular, having an active relationship with the symbols is one of the primary ways or means in which it works. It as, though, in order to, like the magician, harness the power of astrology, you can't do it as though it's an objective, mechanistic science if you want to harness the energy and learn to direct it. You have to develop a real relationship with it. It has to come from your actual personhood. It has to come from your soul.

But once you establish relational, like a relational vibrancy with the symbols, there's a way in which the gift or benefit is that they work with you, and you can work with them. So that's a Mars Neptune signature.

Number two. Sacrifice and sincerity count. Mars Neptune is a transit, an astrological combination of planets that is often associated with martyrs and with dying or sacrificing on behalf of something bigger than ourselves. The dissolution of my will for thine, not my will, but thine some Mars Neptune signature. If you want astrology to work or any magical practice, any kind of irregular participation, in reality, it requires sacrifice. It requires sincerity, meaning that why you're that you have sincere respect for the intelligence and for these forces that you're seeking to work with. And that you're sincere respect and some sense of sacrifice.

Whether it's taking the time to study, taking the time and the humbling process of learning to read charts, or taking time to, you know, sacrifice elements of your lifestyle that will prevent you from being a clear and clean channel to communicate this language. Whatever it is, you notice that the best practitioners of magical arts have some element of sacrifice; they don't have to be like the world's most austere, ascetic, you know, renouncing everything.

Every form of divination around the world has usually required, for example, blood offerings. And I'm not saying that I don't offer any blood. But I do think that we have to have a stake in what we're doing that there's a sense that something of our heart is on the line that we make ourselves somewhat vulnerable, even that can be considered a sacrifice. That's a Mars-Neptune thing. It's not just about me; it's about something bigger than me. But then with that attitude comes the willingness of these forces to work in and through us; it's very much like the, you know, the images of Luke Skywalker learning to use the Force. There's the training required of the Jedi; there's some element that's at play here in astrology. And people will often say, God, you know, you give a lot of your time listening to these talks or whatever the case is. You have to throw a little butter into the fire. So these are Mars Neptune dynamics that are at play in all magical practices, but astrology as well.

Number three, the Oracle can use symbols in isolation or in relational juxtapositions. You can draw one tarot card for approaching a problem or a question where you could do a spread and look at the juxtapositions between multiple cards. The same is true in astrology, you can isolate symbols, or you can use them in webs of relationships with one another, you can isolate parts of a birth chart, or you can read multiple parts in relation to one another and not one is better than the other. In fact, the ability to be flexible and to either isolate factors and open them up with amazing depth, or to weave multiple factors together in equally profound ways, is a sign or a hallmark of a diviner.

They're good at doing that with symbols; they have a kind of freewheeling ability to work with things very deeply in isolation to like split the atom or to open up webs of interpenetrating symbolism and create more cohesive concerts of meaning. Those are Mars- Neptune dynamics to be able to work singularly or in sort of a choir of symbolic voices. This is why I always say in my classes I make people for the first year of my programs work without the outer planets. When you work for a whole year, which is the traditional seven planets, what you learn is not so much that the outer planets are worthless because you get in more than a year two program. We use them for the whole second year.

What you learn is that you can do way more with the traditional seven than you typically think you can because of the tendency to think that astrology is not fundamentally complete unless you're using the most amount of symbols possible. So one of the things that's interesting about Mars-Neptune is the way in which one singular focus in a very sort of phallic Mars-like way can be the means by which something tremendously creative and powerful happens. On the other hand, a dispersion of energy into multiple different directions can also be a very powerful way of accessing something numinous and meaningful.

Number four, the quality of the question leads to the quality of the answer. There is an if you seek, you will find quality to Mars-Neptune. The quality of the quest leads to the quality of what you complete or find along the way or the quality of the journey itself. And so in astrology, it's also true that if clients come to sessions without specific well thought of questions that are coming from their heart and coming from a desire to understand or work with anxiety or move through a difficult patch of life and the more the quality of the question with divination leads to the quality of the answer.

The sincerity of the seeker is what leads to the profoundness of what is found. And because the treasure is in the heart of the quest itself, that's what leads to finding something amazing. It's there all the time, and it expresses itself in something you find that looks like it's outside of you, but it's always been there in the seat of the quest. And this is the Mars-Neptune dynamic.

Number five, people persecute astrology out of envy and fear usually, when I've seen people pick on astrology or attack astrology over the years, which is also a Mars-Neptune signature.

Attacks on mysticism, magic, religious persecution, hence the Salem witch trials, I would guess, people persecute astrology out of and by the way, I've mentioned that because, in case you missed the first part of the talk when the same archetypal combination of Mars and Gemini and Neptune in Pisces was present in 1692. In March, the Salem witch trials began, apparently. I just read that online today. People persecute astrology out of envy and fear. Usually, envy comes from people that have a connection to something profound and magical and enchanted and real. And other people say, Well, that can't be real. And if it is, and I don't have it, you know, then rather than saying, Wow, how can I have it? How can I know it? One of the responses that people have is to be envious or afraid of something that is real and mystical and magical that puts you in a cosmos, it's not just some kind of fictional fantasy about spirituality, but it's substantive and real. When people get close to that, they will often get afraid or envious and can lash out from that space in a variety of different ways.

Hence, astrology should never be used to take or gain advantage over other people or intimidate or make other people afraid. And we can do that sometimes unconsciously. But that's why we have to be very careful not to, because what that does is it gives, in a sense, ammunition to the opposition. There's a part in The Empire Strikes Back speaking of Star Wars, where Luke Skywalker is about to go into the cave of darkness as part of his Jedi training, learning to use the Force. And Yoda says he's strapping on his weapons, and he says your weapons, you know, you won't need them. And Luke is like, yeah, I don't know. And he goes, What's in there, and he says, only what you bring with you. This is a Mars-Neptune dynamic. The way that we use astrology is the way as a collective is the way that we will see people treat astrologers.

There is a relationship between those two things. And there are also ways in which people will just always be shitty to things that are magical. So that doesn't always mean that we're misusing it. But we can amplify the mistreatment and the karmic entanglement with haters that when we misuse and abuse it, so there's always been these warnings throughout the history of astrology don't misuse the magic. This is a Mars-Neptune signature, which is why it also feeds into that image of the Sorcerer's Apprentice who's wrecking everything because they don't know what they're doing. On that note, there is a text from Meditations on the Tarot on the magician. It goes like this.

The first arcanum, the arcanum of practical and theoretical fruitfulness, willst proclaiming the effectiveness of serious play. Now, this is the magician; it contains, at the same time, a serious warning there is play capital P and play little lowercase p. There is the magician uppercase M and the magician lowercase m. This is why anyone who confuses lack of concentration, with concentration without effort and streams of simple mental associations with the vision without effort of correspondences by analogy will necessarily become a charlatan. There couldn't be a more Mars-Neptune-like statement. Let me read that again. The arcanum of practical and theoretical fruitfulness whilst proclaiming the effectiveness of serious play serious astrology in this magical realm of divinatory arts, it is a form of serious play. We're playing a high-stakes game with reality. Where nothing's ultimately at stake, but it's important for the drama that they very much feel like there is serious play. That it contains, at the same time, a serious warning there's play and play. There is a magician and the magician.

This is why anyone who confuses lack of concentration with concentration without effort and streams of simple mental associations. I'll see if that rings a bell in terms of some of the crappy astrology you see online. Not that I'm trying to judge people, but there is some of this is out there, and some of its just part of learning to, and it's just it's natural to go through periods where it's sort of, you know, it doesn't become effortless, serious play right overnight, but streams of simple mental associations with the vision without effort of correspondences by analogy, that's magic, that serious play will necessarily become a charlatan.

So we have to be very careful because what astrology is about on a divinity level is a serious play of a kind of effortless, pure concentration through which streams of images, correspondences, and analogy pour forth and have the power to speak to warned, educate, to predict, to instruct, to change hearts and minds and to engage us in the play of life. That's what the magic of Mars-Neptune, as astrological magic, that's what it does.

Number six, astrology is the language of omens, not causes. Now, I mentioned this earlier. But this is important because it allows for things to be more than just one thing. Rather than saying Mars is a planet that sends a beam and has a physical force, and it has this kind of linear way in which it causes things to happen. And again, there may be causal dimensions to astrology; I'm open to it just as long as we always retain the divinatory nature; it's very important that we think of this not as a mechanism but as a being more on that, in a minute.

Astrology is a language of omens, not causes, meaning that we are able to see a bird as a bird. That is its own being, but the bird could also be a messenger that spirit is temporarily speaking through. So that juxtaposition between things. It's just the planet. And it's this amazing, oracular symbol. It's just a bird, and it's also a messenger. So that sense of the language of omens that we don't think about things to literally to causally, that's very important because we need that multiplicity to understand how energy and how do you know how dynamic energy is exchanged in the world, which is a Mars Neptune signature as well.

Number seven techniques or forms of entrainment. People always spend time talking about which technique is more accurate; they never stop to talk about the fact that techniques are things that we can entrain ourselves to in the same way that, you know, shamanic practitioners in the Amazon entrain themselves to the Karros that they learned from the plants. And that it's the entrainment to those Karros that do the work.

So when you entrain yourself to the techniques of horary lineage, or when you train yourself to the techniques of a practitioner, you're inheriting in a sense the dialect of the oracular language, and you're learning to become fluent in a particular it's like studying with a with an artist, you're taking their style and then making it your own and that style is relational and soulful. So techniques are not to be thought of as objective mechanisms towards some kind of purely objective truth that somehow found in a birth chart, techniques are ways are things that we can train ourselves to as a way of excavating the messages of the birth chart, which at the end of the day, is like a mantic device. So techniques and astrology are things that we can train ourselves to in order to work with and sort of manipulate, and they're passed on through relationships from practitioners to students. And that kind of entrainment to the lineage of wizards is a very Mars-Neptune kind of dynamic.

Number eight, omens can inform, teach, warn, or foretell. They can do a lot of different things. So a sign or a symbol is not just a part of the blueprint of your psychology, you know, it's not just a symbol in a birth chart can at different times in your life, when you sit down with a birth chart for completely different reasons and reasons for being there and looking at it, the symbols will speak to you differently.

Sometimes they'll inform you, sometimes they'll teach you, sometimes they'll warn you, sometimes they foretell of something that's going to happen. They're not just one thing. They have a multiplicity of meanings and uses. And that kind of multiplicity of meanings and uses is another Mars-Neptune dynamic.

Number nine, craft consistency is crucial. More symbols don't mean better astrology kind of mentioned this earlier. One of the things that in order to be effective and to be effective at administering approaches, tools, and techniques. You have to again, the idea of entrainment comes to mind, but that you do the same things over and over and over using the same, you know, different like if you use like a couple of favorite techniques that you'd like to use.

This is what leads over time to a more effective demonstration of ability. This is how you get good at astrology. It's not so much that you add more and more and more and more things and symbols and asteroids and aspects and timing techniques and, you know, all of this. I have nothing against any one of them, you know, in a vacuum or any school or house system or, you know, it's like there are so many options.

One of the interesting things about Mars Neptune This is very similar to the idea of entrainment is that the more consistently you use crafts for similar reasons, in the same ways, the more that your ability to find the nuances and depth within them increases. So weirdly, more doesn't always mean better. There's a way in which having too many things in astrology can disperse your energy and make you weak, ineffective, and sort of, you know, uttering gibberish, and you know, and then feeling really spun out and overwhelmed, which is also all Mars-Neptune.

So, the ability to like slice through the overwhelm of options when it comes to craft and technique in order to refine an approach that sort of nebulous but is directed that's a big part of how astrology is learned, as all are divinatory arts.

Number ten, reading charts well requires hermeneutic listening; we often think that we have to sit down and that we say I'm here to tell you something, but divination, or the divinity component of reading, always works like this. You sit down, and you say, why are you here? What can I do for you? What are your questions? What are your concerns? What aspects of the charter Are you interested in? What aspects of your life are you feeling unsettled about? And then you listen, and as you listen, the charts come alive. And the idea to use certain techniques will naturally and intuitively arise. Because as you listen carefully, in the hermeneutic space of the reading, the reason for your meeting starts to appear and speak through the chart through the symbols, and then you know where to go, and you know what to do. So rather than asserting your will, you sort of surrender it, and then all of a sudden, the Force of the reading, so to speak, comes through you. It's a very Mars-Neptune dynamic.

So anyway, there are three benefits of an oracular consciousness, whether you are into astrology or any form of magic, and I think these are the benefits of having a little Mars-Neptune in your life. You know, if you're if you keep developing your relationship with Mars-Neptune.

It's not a what; It's a who that Mars-Neptune will always resist objectification. Mars likes to objectify things. It's part of what Mars does. As a sort of masculine, driving, penetrating, acquiring energy, it goes at the object of desire; I tend to look at things more objectively in a sort of masculine yang kind of way. And Neptune, as a much more feminine dispersive planet, will resist or even dissolve that kind of effort. However, if we refine our approach to say, I'm not dealing with a what, but I'm dealing with a who, meaning I don't look at reality as a series of like, impersonal, mechanistic forces to be mastered, which would be very, potentially like a very dark Mars kind of thing.

Instead, I look at reality as a living being whose nature I want, I seek to know, I seek to understand, I seek to love or be in relationship with that, that kind of seeking that directing of effort and will is somehow like, honored and embraced and then our effort is then deeply rewarded and informed and given wisdom. If we seek, then we'll find the quality of the question leads to the quality of the answer. So when we Mars, Neptune can help us approach life, take all of our desires and our willpower, and direct it toward knowing reality and knowing ourselves. And that's, that's a kind of sacred mission. It redirects Mars and takes away its tendency to objectify things.

Two is the soul is playing hide and seek with divinity. So this is a beautiful truth about divination in general, which is that when you live in this magical world, that is the divinatory state of mind. Your experiences are constantly revealing something of the divine nature of your own divine nature to yourself. And then, almost instantly, it conceals it all over again. But then it, because it's done that it's revealed and then concealed, it pulls you further in. It's like reality is this beautiful lover that's saying, hey, here, you see me? Did you like that? Did you like, you know, going out or making out or whatever? And you're like, Yes, more, and then all of a sudden, gone.

There's a little trail of, you know, sparkles, and it says, follow me, you know, you want to do that again, great, but you have to work for you have to come find me. I think the thing that keeps us so enamored by divination is that it puts us into an enchanted cosmos in a relationship with an enchanted Cosmos, where things are being revealed to us, just enough to keep us, you know, just begging and dying for more, and then it hides itself again.

Heraclitus said this in his fragments; he said something very similar, that reality is the soul is sort of playing hide and seek with God. I just feel like, man, is there anything that is there anything more intoxicating to draw us along? Isn't there is there no better feeling of our ambitions being channeled not so much into achieving one thing or another but into the thrill of experiencing and learning and growing and having your mind blown from experience itself? That's what astrology is doing to us. That's what all forms of divination do to us. You know, in my experience, over time anyway, it makes you feel like there's nothing that couldn't surprise me. There's nothing that couldn't blow my mind and make me fall even more deeply in love with my inner being as well as the being around me.

Number three, we are learning an art form and language that grants peace, wisdom, and happiness. You know, learning for our will and our little muscle, our ambitions to somehow find themselves in the flow of the larger will of the cosmos. But that process is one that frequently gives us peace when we need it gives us wisdom when we feel confused, and it gives us happiness when we feel down, even in dark times, because the language of astrology has a way of helping us understand all manners of even afflictions and frustrations, a Mars-ruled thing in terms of a larger and meaningful orderliness that exists, and it's mysterious, but it's there, and you can feel it.

So anyway, I hope that this has been a useful journey into the heart of Mars-Neptune, the magician, and hopefully, as this transit comes around, we will not see the persecution or attack of magical people. It's felt like a good time, given that history to offer a little like a little astrological apologetics; this is a defense for the necessity and the virtue of the magician. Anyway, hope you guys have enjoyed it. Have a great day. We'll see you again tomorrow. Bye.