Mercury Opposing Mars: An Important Conversation – Horoscopes for All 12 Signs

Hey everyone. This is Adam Elenbaas from Nightlight Astrology (https://nightlightastrology.com/). Today we're going to be taking a look at Mercury opposite Mars through all 12 whole sign horoscopes. So we will be looking at Mercury in the sign of Capricorn, opposing Mars Retrograde in Cancer. And we're going to be doing so for all 12 whole signs.

So you can listen to this for your sun or your rising sign, whatever you prefer. I recommend your rising sign on this channel always, because it will correspond with the whole sign house version of your birth chart, which means you'll get a sense of where this is actually located by transit in your birth chart.

I am a Hellenistic astrologer, so I practice the entire rationale of ancient astrology, which comes through a whole sign lens. Just like ancient Indian astrology and modern Indian astrology use whole sign houses, but with horoscopes, horoscopes have always been whole sign houses. So you're either picking your sun sign or you're picking your rising sign in a whole sign house, horoscopic format, either way.

So I recommend listening to your rising sign, but whatever you prefer on that note, before we get into it, as always, remember to like and subscribe, share your comments and reflections. If you have them, we'd love to hear from you. We're trying to get to 80,000 subscribers on this channel. That's our next big sort of subscriber push.

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I recommend going over to the Live Events page on nightlightastrology.com and seeing the speaker series or any of my upcoming webinars. The Speaker Series is free to attend. You get the recording afterward. We have some fantastic astrologers coming through to give talks at the end of this month into the first weekend of February. So be sure to check those out, and then the webinar series that's coming up as well.

So let us now turn our attention to the real-time clock, where we will take a look at this transiting aspect. I have a guest who's going to be with us today that I will introduce in a minute as well. Surprise, a surprise guest. So here is Mercury opposing Mars. Thursday, January 23, and the whoops, here we go. Mercury will oppose Mars.

Now, interestingly, both of these two planets are also sextiling and trining Uranus. So I'm not going to be putting that into the horoscope today. Keep it simple, but you can see that, um, on this same day, Mars is sextile Uranus and Mercury is trine Uranus. So this Mercury-Mars opposition, as we talked about yesterday when I broke down the archetypal combination of these two planets in depth, is also tapping into a little Uranian energy at the same time, making the opposition a little bit more, what do I want to say? Just charged up, and the potential for this opposition to represent something of a breakthrough is a real possibility.

Oppositions can lead to polarization. They can lead to standoffs or power struggles or an inability to hold the tension of the opposites, which is usually what creates problems for us with planetary aspects like this. A little bit of a pop from Uranus in the mix of this, harmonizing both ends of the opposition, suggests to me that if we're able to hold the tension of this opposition carefully, that it does create something of a real breakthrough for us, and that's exciting. So let's see where that takes us.

But what I'm going to do next is we're going to look at all of the horoscopes, and we're going to do so by understanding the house oppositions that are at work for all 12 signs. Now you will find that for Libra and Aries, for example, that the houses are simply flipped. And we're going to be talking about basically the same exact topics.

However, the focus on Mars's retrograde in Cancer will probably be the more significant portion of almost all of the oppositions by house location, because that Mars Retrograde is sort of right in the middle of its process, starting to move toward the end of its process by the end of February. And that long, slow retrograde really does represent a deeper and usually more focused area of work or emphasis in our lives.

So while the Mercury portion is obviously you can't do without it, but I would say that we'll probably be emphasizing the whole sign house of Cancer a little bit more in some of these. So anyway, that being said, I need to introduce my guest. Meet Lovey. This is my daughter's lamb, and her name is Lovey. And Lovey has been, gosh, Lovey has been in her life since she was, I want to say, like a month old. Not even. She got this from my wife's grandmother, and I, excuse me, we've been through a lot. Lovey's been through everything.

I don't know if you guys have kids, if any of your kids have a very special stuffed animal or blanket or whatever, but anyway, Lovey is a member of our family, a beloved member, and she wrote me a note this morning asking if she could please appear on my YouTube channel. And my older daughter, Virginia, that's her Lovey. She said, Lovey just really wants to see what it's like to be on TV and on your channel, and was wondering if she could appear on your show. I was like, yeah, totally, of course.

So Lovey is going to sit with me today. She's going to ride shotgun. Let's see if I can get her in here, and she's going to contribute some thoughts about your horoscopes today. Because if you're a parent and you have a YouTube channel and you're on it every single day, sometimes your kids go, where are you up there on YouTube again? It's nice to build some bridges so that our kids can know what we do and feel like they have a little bit, you know, it's like when I was a kid, they had like take your kid to work day. Do you remember that? I don't know if you guys ever went through something like that.

But anyway, it's kind of different when you're on YouTube. It's not like a take your kid to YouTube work day. So I thought, you know, this feels to me like a really good way to take my kids to work with me. So Lovey is here, and Lovey is going to actually, Lovey is really smart when it comes to astrology. She knows a lot. And so, what is my daughter, Virginia, and she's going to be giving me some of her opinions, just like whispering them in my ear because she's a little shy, and then once she tells me what she's thinking about with respect to some of your horoscopes, I might sprinkle that in so you have kind of like a guest astrologer from a family of astrologers. So she's, she doesn't know what she's talking about. All right, on that note, let's go ahead and get into it.

Alrighty. So we're going to start with Aries. Excuse me. So when we are starting off with Aries here, we're looking at the Mercury-Mars opposition taking place across the 10th and fourth house, with the real center of gravity coming from that fourth house of home and family. It's the private sphere of life where Mars is retrograde, potentially bringing up things for you right now around the topics of parents, family, environment, safety, and things like the domestic private sphere of life in general, are all found in the fourth house.

Now Mercury's opposition in the 10th house brings up the workplace and the place in the world that's more public-facing and more external. And so there could be things like a competition of time, energy, or resources that's being split right now, or certain tensions that are manifesting around your work, your public responsibilities, maybe a peak period of busyness or activity at work, and then at the same time, maybe some things that are happening at home that are also demanding a lot of time, energy, or attention, and it's making you feel like I can't be in two places at once. I can't do two things at once. That would be normal for an opposition.

Lovey is making a good point. Yeah, she's making a really good point. She's telling me right now that some people work from home, like me, and if you work from home like me, then it may also be about bringing those two worlds together. And she asked me if I was an Aries rising. I think she forgot that I'm a Taurus rising, because she was saying that that could actually fit for your situation, bringing me to work here and bringing home and family together, and home, family, and work together. Unfortunately, Lovey just forgot that I'm a Taurus rising, but it's a good idea. Lovey, like you're on the right track. You've totally got the right idea there.

Okay, so think about those two places in life, the public sphere and the private sphere, and think about how they are in a dialog right now. Maybe there's some tension between those two areas of life that you have to look at. But the real focus that the work definitely exists through the Mars Retrograde in for another good, you know, two months of Mars moving through your fourth house, the place of home and family, is really where there is some work being done, some deeper evolutionary work. So watch for the tension between those two areas, with the weightiness in the fourth house.

All right, let's move forward now. It's Taurus rising. What's that? Yes, yes, that. Now this one's me, Lovey. You've got that. Okay, so we have Mercury and Mars opposing each other across the third and the ninth houses. Um, these are really interesting places because they both, they were called god and goddess. Traditionally, the ninth house being called God, the third house being called goddess. If you're a Taurus rising, the Mercury-Mars opposition across these two houses may have something to do with learning, education, philosophy, spirituality. These two houses were both associated with the mind and with the capacity of the mind and intellect to learn, to write, to read, to study, to travel. Anything that constitutes the development of learning or skill can be found in both the third and ninth houses. Teachers, gurus, places of learning and education can be found across this place.

What's that? Lovey is saying that I'm not in school anymore. So how does this apply to me? Well, that's a really good point, Lovey. Even though I'm not in school, I'm not like, technically, in school, Lovey, but I'm in the School of Life, right? And in the School of Life, there are still important moments where you have to decide what you believe or what you think, or you know, how are your thoughts or perceptions or your guiding beliefs or philosophies changing? Or is there an inflection point where you're having a meaningful disagreement, either within yourself or with other people, and that disagreement may reflect something of a philosophical crossroads that you're at.

There can also be things that come up with Mars in the third house around siblings and around your immediate environment, and the care and concern for the environment around you and how it's changing on a like your day-to-day life. So for example, in my life, and this is something Lovey knows about too, because she often asks if she can come to the gym with me to work out. And I usually have to tell Lovey she can't, because it's really hard to carry Lovey around at the gym while working out. And also, the floors are really dirty, and I don't want Lovey to get dirty on the floor there, though she really does want to come with and work out.

But the point being is that when it was funny, because when Mars turned retrograde, they did a whole bunch of construction, and what they call, like a remodel of the gym that I go to, and so I had to go to another branch of the gym, like all the way across town, and that's been a part of the Mars Retrograde, a simple shift in the local or immediate environment. Yeah, no, you're right. I mean, we could do that. She's suggesting that I get her some Lulu Lemon pants and that she come with and, like, have her own gear. And that's a good point, Lovey. I mean, you could totally do that.

But anyway, think about this third house, ninth house split as something reflecting a shift in mind, thought, belief, conviction, learning, or even a strategy or approach to something. For example, I'm in the process, as I'm making this video just a little bit before this aspect perfects, I'm in the process of planning out my new workout regimen with my coach, and we're working through a variety of different options with how to move forward. It's a very Mercury-Mars kind of thing, where it's just planning and decisive actions or revisions of strategies or plans that are taking place, and it reflects a new way of thinking about something that happens quite often in our lives, in all different areas of our life. Oh, I'm taking a new approach to parenting, or I'm taking, I'm taking a new approach with my therapist, or I'm taking a new approach with how I teach or learn something, or how I practice something. You think about those kinds of inflection points.

All right, let's go ahead to Gemini rising. Now this takes Mercury and Mars and puts them across the second and eighth houses. These two houses have a lot to do with money, assets, and resources. And for Geminis, you may be going through a period of time right now where there's quite a bit of emphasis on things like money and finances and resources, and maybe some crossover with things that are happening in your family, and the way in which family acts as a support for our lives.

The second house in ancient Indian astrology had an association with family insofar as they act as a form of support for us. Anything in the second house is often associated with support, food, clothing, money, stuff like that. What's that? Yes, I do think you could eventually earn a living as an astrologer if you keep at it, Lovey. Lovey, you just have to keep at it.

Now, Mercury's opposition to Mars across the eighth and the second is interesting, because the eighth house is associated with the give and take that are a part of our karmic exchanges with other people. It's associated with debts and penalties, but also with inheritance, which may seem kind of like stark, intense terms, but the eighth house is really about what I owe other people, positively or negatively, and what they owe me. And there's a kind of karmic calculus at play in our relationships with the give and take and the exchange of energy and emotion and even things like money.

So here we see an inflection point with respect, not only to my own resources, and the shifting landscape of what I have or possess or what resources are available to me, or what resources I'm finding it challenging to get, and on the other hand, what other people can provide me with, or what they withhold from me, or what I am obligated to with other people, what I can and cannot provide to other people, or what I feel is like enough, or too like maybe too much, with respect to the exchanges that I have with other people. That's a really good question, Lovey. Lovey is asking if something like an allowance would be part of the second and eighth house. And yeah, you know, if you're a kid and you're getting your first allowance, and maybe you have some chores, there's a kind of give and take there that is part of the second and eighth house axis. That's really smart, Lovey. Gosh. See, that's what I said. If you just keep at it, you're going to be able to earn a living doing this someday, if you really want to.

All right, now let's go on to Cancer rising, where we look at the Mars Retrograde in the first house and the Mercury opposition coming from the seventh. This is a really interesting point, because we're looking at Mars Retrograde in the first, and that usually means that there are things that we are, you can think of it as like things that I'm cutting out, things that I'm letting go of, things that I'm releasing, meaningful separations that are occurring that are helping me get down to a more essential and authentic version of myself. That's a very Mars Retrograde in the first house kind of thing. I'm eliminating things that don't make me feel like me, and I have to individuate and become my own person, just like, you know, when kids grow up, they have to become their own person. And you know, they gradually grow more individuated from their mom or from their parents or something like that.

No, no, there. She's asking if she has to ever move out of our house. And I'm saying no, like I'm just saying no at this point, no, you can live here forever, that's fine. And Mercury's opposition from the seventh house means that this Mars energy in the first house will provide us with a meaningful dialog, like how I'm changing and what I'm taking away or what I'm adding to myself, and an exploration of identity, body, and health is now coming into a kind of critical exchange with someone else.

For example, when we change, there's often a way in which we need to re-communicate or redefine our needs within relationships, or we need someone else to take us seriously in something that we're doing, or some change that we're making within ourselves. Sometimes you're also going to find that there are principled conflicts coming up, or verbal, like verbal or emotionally charged arguments. Or, you know, communication can get a little intense with this one, because the first and seventh house axis is about self and other, and so you don't want to get into arguments with people, yeah, that could. That's exactly right, Lovey. She's asking if it could mean something like getting into an argument with a friend at school. Yeah, of course it could. Yeah. Adults have different places in life that they see these things happening than kids do. Kids might have it happening at school with a friend. An adult might have it happening in their marriage or at work or something like that. So yeah, but it could be, the thing that is important about it, though, is that whatever conflicts come up, that we learn from them and that we grow and become a little bit wiser. And with Cancers, I really think a lot of this boils down to, am I taking care of myself right now?

All right, so let's go on to look at Leo rising. Leo rising has maybe the most difficult version of this, along with Aquarians, because we're putting it across the sixth and 12th house axis. Both places have a way of making us feel like we're going through a little bit of a, what do I want to call it? Either a transitional space that is filled with a like a certain amount of anxiety or uncertainty, and so conversations, communication, confrontations, tensions that arise right now could be a little bit more unsettling, because they happen in a way that makes you feel like you don't know what's next, or you don't exactly know how to move on from what's happening right now into the next phase.

They can, they can leave it because these places were called metacosmia, which means like a world between worlds, like liminal spaces. So the tension between these two planets could make you feel like you're not so sure where you are or what this means. Okay, so it can be a little confusing and disorienting. The opposition between these two planets can also mean, though, that there's unconscious material that's coming to the surface, usually through conversations and conflicts that are verbal, mental, and emotional, and that those conflicts as they come to the surface are shedding light on things up until now, maybe you haven't been able to see or understand, which can be very valuable.

So while there's tension and a little bit of stress around it, from the standpoint of personal growth, you don't usually feel afterward, let you know like you feel good. You're like, Hey, I learned something important. There. The other thing that can happen with these two in these two places is we can learn, or information can come to the surface that is really useful, and that usually means that we have to do something to eliminate bad influences that could be people or environments or food or things we're taking in or thoughts that we tend to have. There's a way in which we can start to recognize under transit like this what is healthy and unhealthy for us in terms of people, mental, emotional influences, and things like that. That's exactly right. That's exactly, Lovey is noting that in our house, we don't let the kids watch TV before bedtime, because we don't want them to have bad influences going into their sleep. The very smart connection, Lovey. I can't believe you were able to put that all together. Amazing. She's smart, man, she's been, she just soaks in everything she hears, like all these conversations, like Ashley talking about herbs, she knows so much about herbs, it's incredible.

Okay, so we're going on to Virgo, and we've got Mercury and Mars across the 11th and fifth houses. So for Virgos, there is a way in. Yes, that's right, Lovey, Virginia is a Virgo rising. So this would be her horoscope. That's very good to note. So Mercury opposite Mars in the fifth and the 11th house bring together two really interesting areas, and I'm going to talk about them in terms of what I've been, I've been learning a lot for my Master Class series this year about the conceptualization of the houses in Vedic Astrology. It's been really fascinating.

The Fifth house is really about the creative element of our Dharma that comes out and expresses itself through creativity, through acts of creativity, including children. And it comes out of us from a place of love, devotion, and it has a social dimension to it. It connects us to other beings. And it's really about the happiness derived from being ourselves in creative, spontaneous acts of love, devotion with other humans, and also just bringing forth creative dimensions of our being. I love that, and I love that this house is also associated with the good karma that we create for ourselves through positive and meaningful acts of creativity.

So what's interesting is the 11th house has to do with things like popularity, and it has to do with a social dimension of life, where we get our desires met socially, but it has much more of an element of conformity to it, where there's a sense of needing to fit in, or that we have to if we want a certain amount of social pleasure. It has to do with meeting the right people and getting the right social advantages and stuff like that. This is why the house was called The Joy of Jupiter in the house of allies and friends and benefactors. So it's a very good house in terms of connecting meaningfully and positively with other people.

But there's also something very opposite about this house when it comes to the fifth because it can prevent or inhibit our own creative nature by emphasizing the pressure to conform and find all of our happiness through social advantage and likability and belonging, and things like that, which are all important but can run contrary to something that's essential about your own creative nature. So the question becomes, how do I be myself creatively while also fitting in or dealing with some of the ways in which I fit in or not?

Mars Retrograde in this house for Virgos right now might be emphasizing that you're, you know, you're having to explore different kinds of conflicts or challenges within groups or communities or families. And you know, sometimes also your family background, where you come from, is a big part of what connects you to other people, too. So you know, if you're like Virginia, who's got a Virgo rising horoscope, Lovey, you should pay attention to this one. Then you're thinking about things like, you know, my family is different from this other kid's family, or this person's the way that they live their life, and the family they come from and their background looks really different than my family. And it can also be about what kinds of friends or groups of friends do I like, and which ones maybe don't I feel myself around. See, those questions become really important, even for kids, but regardless, for everyone right now, you think about the dichotomy between being true to something that's creative within yourself and maybe looking at how that fits into or doesn't fit into various social dimensions in your life.

All right, let's move along. I know, Lovey. I get it. Lovey is saying, couldn't I just keep talking more and more and more about Virgo? But yeah, but I have to do all 12 signs, and everybody feels that way. When everyone hears their own horoscope, they're like, Hey, do more? Do more. And if I even do like a minute more or less on one horoscope versus another, people can get really upset. Let me, did you know that? Yeah. Okay, let's move on to Libra, who never gets mad at anything. So we will look at Mars opposite Mercury. And now we're looking at the 10th and the fourth house again for Libras, just like we were for Aries. So the distinction between the private sphere of life and the public sphere of life becomes important again.

But Mars is retrograde for Libras, taking place in the career house. So what kinds of changes have been happening, or conflicts or tensions within the workplace, or within your sense of profession, vocation, or, let's call it, professional direction, the workplace, environment, co-workers, bosses, what's up in that area? Let's look at that also. This is connecting, potentially through the sign of Cancer and the opposition to Mercury in the fourth house, with things like home and family and shifts of attention or focus, and maybe, you know, almost like a feeling of a split, like, how do I tend to both the things happening in my career and the needs or demands or important things that are happening at home or in my family?

That's right, Lovey. It sounds a lot like the other one I was talking about that was Aries rising, but it's just that the houses are flipped. So I would say, just for the sake of teaching Lovey a little astrology right now, that you're probably seeing more emphasis for Libras on the tensions in the career place than you are for Aries, where the Mars Retrograde shows up in the fourth in the place of home and family. But anyway, the conversation between these two places, it can be really interesting right now, where core values, conflicts of principle or conviction or belief, and really important, but maybe tense conversations are arising between the professional sphere of life and the domestic or familial sphere of life. This might also be about the work-life balance. You have a life to live that's not all about work. How do you balance the need to take care of that, while also balancing the needs that you have to express yourself through a career, just a general way of looking at it.

All right, we go on to Scorpio rising, and like Taurus, Lovey, you're going to notice that they're exactly the same again, but they're flipped. So now for Scorpios, we see the Mars Retrograde in the ninth and the Mercury in the third. But just like Tauruses, there's ideological, mental, and let's call it educational tensions, where different ideas are coming into view, but Mars is retrograde in the ninth house, suggesting more of an emphasis on the question of your higher education, things like gurus, teachers, spiritual wisdom, learning, travel abroad, and maybe with Mars Retrograde there, there's been some shift, or some tension around what your beliefs are or how they're changing.

Looking closely with Cancer in the ninth at how you were raised and what kind of teachers your parents were, or what kind of beliefs and convictions they had, religiously or politically or philosophically, and how you may be individuating relative to what you were raised with. There can also be an emphasis on just a shift or change of direction with respect to how you practice something, or the philosophy that you live by. Or if you're a teacher, maybe something is shifting with regard to how you teach. The ninth house Mars is also about how your emotions and your emotional life is either supported by your spiritual practices or not. This is really important, because a lot of us know that we ought to have spirituality in our life on some level, but we don't do the time of checking in and figuring out what actually feels right to us. We take up a practice because we think we should, but we never kind of tap in and go, does this feel right to me?

So meaningful explorations of spirituality, faith, learning, teachers could be coming up right now for Scorpios, and the opposition to Mercury suggests that there's also an important dichotomy between the practical and emotional side of things, or between a more realistic, earthy side and a watery, feminine, intuitive side. So also, just be careful of mental and emotional tensions right now if you're a Scorpio rising, and maybe important conversations that you have to have, but there are thoughtful ways of having them, so that, you know, nobody ends up saying anything that they regret. Yeah, that's true. Lovey is making the very good point that, you know, if you say something you regret, you can always say that you're sorry to somebody. And I agree, that's a great point. That's what we do in our house, for sure. My girls are really good at saying they're sorry if they say something that's a little hurtful. And Ashley and I try to do that too. So that's definitely it's good that Lovey, that you pick up on that.

Okay, let's go on. So for Sagittarius rising, we have Mercury opposite Mars across the second and eighth house. So we're back to where we were with Geminis with respect to things like money, finances, karmic debts, and obligations being a real focus for Sagittarians with Mars Retrograde in the eighth. What I think about in the eighth house with Mars retrograding in Cancer is emotional coercion. It's a phrase that comes to my mind. In other words, how do we coerce other people to give us things? Or how do other people end up coercing us, maybe very subtly or maybe super overtly, to give us things? In what way are we responsible for caretaking, defending, advocating for each other, and to what extent do we need to do so for ourselves?

Conversations like this, as well as conversations about division of time, energy, money, and resources within relationships, conversations about finances, investments, debts, could all be a really big deal right now for Sagittarians. There may also be some conversation about who, like contracts that are being signed or, you know, almost like conversations that have to be had about who's going to be the trustee, or who's going to be who makes the medical decisions for Mom when she's older, or whatever, things like that can come up. And just the potential for disagreements that lead to termination of contracts as well as sharp differences around things like money and resources, be something to watch for right now. There's a real chance, though, to get clear from emotionally coercive dynamics and relationships for Sagittarians.

All right, let's No, no that. Yes, that's a good question. So Lovey's asking why we're not listening to Sagittarius for Virginia, and the reason for that is that she's a Sagittarius sun, but a Virgo rising. And I always recommend the Virgo. Yeah. Okay, fine, yeah, yes. No, you could listen to both. That's totally legitimate. Well, because I want things to be clear. That's why I tell people that I would recommend the rising sign because it'll correspond with the whole sign house version of your birth chart, okay, but, you know, point taken. Lovey, she says, Yeah, but it's fun to listen to both. Okay, that's a that is a very basic and totally legitimate reason you can listen to both. You can listen to your sun sign or your rising sign. Yeah, totally. I mean, you know, like I told you, Lovey, super smart. She knows what she's doing.

All right, so we move on to Capricorn. And Capricorn, we have Mercury opposite Mars across the first and the seventh, just like we did for Cancer. Now we're back in the realm of relationships with the Mars Retrograde in the seventh. We're talking about some really significant shifts taking place in the realm of relationships. This can be about breakups. It can be about healing and change within an existing relationship. It can be about new relationships. It can be about old things from the past getting resolved karmically, maybe there's some tie-in between marriage and family karma with Mars in Cancer in the seventh house, but with Mercury in the first and Capricorn opposing that Mars, we're also talking about these important dynamics of conversation in relationships where things could get a little heated or intense, or you might find that there are really significant disagreements that have to be worked through.

I believe that Mars Retrograde may lend itself, in this case, for Caps to resolution and mediation of hurt feelings or a way of understanding needs at a deeper level that you have to resist the urge, in some ways, to be overly practical, controlled, contained, and a little rigid in the way you're looking at things. But Mars in Cancer is a perfect planet to sort of soften Mercury and say, you know, I see your grounded, practical, earthy way of doing things. But could you come around to some of the deeper feelings that I have and how I need to work with those things, and they need to be realities that are acted upon and respected within a relationship. You could see something like that happening here.

So, yeah, with Mercury opposite Mars, the conversations and relationships will be meaningful, and they could, I would say, as I was telling Lovey earlier, with Mars in Cancer rising, these conflicts could be with a friend. It, you know, they could be with just it doesn't necessarily have to be someone that you're married to. It could be someone at work. Could be that there are these meaningful, but kind of tense dialogs happening, really in any area of life, though the realm of the seventh is often connected to marriage and intimate relationships.

All right, so let's go on to Aquarius rising and yeah. So here we have Mercury opposite Mars across the sixth and the 12th, and remember I said for Leos and Aquarians, these are some of the most difficult when Mars is retrograde in the sixth house. One of the core themes that come up is frustrations and limitations that are coming up and inhibiting progress. I mean, Mars in the sixth is usually a place where, I mean, the sixth was called The Joy of Mars in a place of hard work, sacrifice, dedication, like that. So Mars in the sixth often very happy. It rejoices there and is associated with all the hard work, sacrifice, and perseverance that we need to get what we want in life, or get what we need in life, or pursue our ambitions. But it's a hard-working house, so to speak.

Mars Retrograde in its fall in this house can be about I can't work, or I'm not finding progress or momentum, or I'm feeling frustrated or slowed down, or I'm feeling inhibited, or whatever the case may be. Mercury in the 12th could be shedding light on why you're feeling that way, or how you came to be in the situation. Mercury opposite Mars could also be about certain kinds of karmic conflicts around family or family relationships, or more emotionally fueled conflicts. And Mercury in the 12th will be helping you to, let's say, become more aware of the unconscious dimensions of the conflicts that are happening right now. It's also about what kinds of influences in the environment are toxic or healthy and helpful, and what things aren't so helpful that yes, Lovey, that is absolutely correct. Lovey is pointing out that Virginia has always had a super sensitivity to that red dye number three. Do you know what I'm talking about? The one that was just banned, and Lovey is just pointing out that toxins in the environment. She knows one right away, she said, how about that red dye that got banned, that Virginia would get stomach aches whenever she ate. That's exactly right. Now, Virginia is not an Aquarius rising, but you just made a really good astrological observation, something like a toxin in your environment that's really not good for you, that you have a sensitivity to, that's coming up, or you're becoming aware of it, or anything that you're more sensitive or being more irritated by, but that's giving you some kind of helpful feedback. Could also be seen and felt across this house.

You, Lovey, I'm just so happy that you're here today, Lovey, because I feel like your questions are helping me to learn a lot, and that's something that I really, really appreciate. Okay, let's look at finally, Pisces rising, where we see that fifth, 11th house dichotomy coming up again, and we know that the Fifth house is connected to creativity, and we know that it has a connection to bringing forth that which is in our hearts, sharing it with other people. It's a sort of, sort of the Dharma that is creative and that brings happiness in our life, and we express it. And it's so utterly personal, but it has a social dimension. It's connected to things like romance and creating children and the loving connections that we have in our life. The fifth house was called The Joy of Venus. So here's Mars Retrograde in that house, maybe having us look, if you're a Pisces, at those things that hold you back, like, what are your emotional inhibitions? Where do you feel like you cannot communicate your own essential nature because of fear or judgment, or maybe some woundedness, or maybe places in life where you feel rejected or misunderstood, or it's hard to somehow communicate your own needs or desires or wishes and to creatively express yourself.

There might be some challenges around that right now, with Mars Retrograde in your fifth house, but Mercury opposite in the 11th may also be having you reflect on the social realities of your life and how they are a part of the creative difficulties with expression that you're experiencing. For example, if you don't have the right people around you, it's harder to express yourself in a way that feels authentic. If there are certain practical realities within groups, conformity, standards, structures that Capricorn Mercury lays out in the 11th, they could be making you feel sort of emotionally inhibited and frustrated and a little like deflated, like, Ah, I can't, it's hard to be myself because I'm soft and gentle and vulnerable and sweet, and there's this romantic Moon child in me that wants to express itself, but the Capricornian standards and expectations of the companies I work for, the people, the social, I have to be practical. If it's not useful or taking me somewhere, it might be a waste of time. So you can see how the different pressures in the 11th house with other people and your own creative gifts and what you'd like to do with them might be coming into question, you know, and that's the same that we were exploring for Virgo risings. And so, you know, the real difference being, Pisceans have a lot more emphasis on that creative house and the shifts happening there, whereas Virgos had so much being placed on the social dimension of the 11th house, really, the weightiness is where the Mars Retrograde is at.

So yeah, so that takes us through all 12. Let me, what did you think of that? Did you have fun? Let's I had to make sure that she had like a comfortable spot. She's waving to everybody. Yeah, I'll tell them. She says, Thank you for letting her come along today. She really appreciates it, and she's going to tell Virginia everything that she got to see while she was at work with me today. Yay. Lovey, I'm going to set you back right here so I can sign off, and then we'll go downstairs and have some lunch.

Okay, well, I hope that you enjoyed this today. And by the way, let me say something on the side, which is that as a parent with two girls who have been interested in both astrology and herbal medicine, one of my goals for this year, and this is the first episode in which you'll see me do something like this, but I have more of a structured approach that I'm going to be taking as the year goes on, to trying to provide some content for parents as well as for children, with respect to very, very basic ways that you can start including astrology in the upbringing of your kids. If you have kids that take an interest in this, naturally, I wouldn't force this on my kids. My girls are interested in this. They're interested in herbalism. With Ashley's work, they're interested in all the things that we do, you know, and as long as they are interested in them, I'm going to be giving you some tips as the year goes on for how you might think about including the language of astrology and maybe even a few videos where we bring on some puppets and we talk very basically about things like the sun, the moon, things that you might be able to sit down with your kids and show them that they could be interested in. So there's I have some creative content on that level brewing, and a big part of that is because my girls are starting to take a lot more active interest. And I've always thought I'm going to wait until they do. I don't want to push anything on them, but once they are interested, then let's find some creative ways of doing it. So thank you for letting me bring Lovey along today, because I can't tell you how cool that's going to be for us in our house.

So anyway, I hope that you had a have a good day today. Be careful with this energy. It's a little intense. You want to hear more of the archetype breakdown of Mercury and Mars? Listen to yesterday's video, and we will see you again tomorrow. Bye, everyone.