Mars moves into Libra on august 27th
Mars moves into Libra on August 27th at 6:20 am PT, where it will remain until the evening of October 11th, when it moves into its nocturnal home sign, Scorpio.
Mars’ entrance into Libra, gives some relief to the Virgo parts of our charts and mutable signs more generally, and it brings motivation and drive to the Libra parts of our charts. While this transit can be generative when it comes to art and even relationships, Mars is uncomfortable in Libra and struggles to be as direct and forthright as it wants to be. This is a great time to focus on balancing your own wants and needs with the wants and needs of others. Mars is our ego and our drive, it's the passion, the aggression, and the power that gets stirred up when we feel things strongly. Mars in Libra is a negotiator, deeply concerned with fighting fair, but Mars in Libra has a blindspot for the constructive uses of anger and conflict, which can make Mars evasive, defensive, and possibly even a little manipulative in this sign. In Libra, Mars will not be in the crosshairs of most of the planetary action, and will really only form exact aspects to the nodes and Pluto, but they are both heavy hitters and will help make Mars’ time in Libra notable.
From the middle of September for the duration of Mars’ time in Libra, it will form a helpful but inexact sextile to Venus in Leo. This energy will affect about 2/3 of this Mars in Libra transit. With Mars in Venus’ home sign, this sextile from Venus, helps Mars to navigate Libra more effectively, it's almost like Mars has an insider’s guide through one of the signs it understands the least. This sextile with Venus softens Mars, but might also increase the Libran tendency to overextend yourself to please others. Venus is moving slowly and still picking up speed, following its retrograde and that leaves it traveling at a similar pace to Mars, just 2 signs over. They will move together like this for about a month, eventually, they begin to pull apart as Venus picks up speed and crosses into Virgo, then the distance continues to grow as Mars moves into Scorpio, and the engagement of this aspect begins to die down. While in effect, this energy can encourage us to connect to others, attracting the people we want to meet and helping us to form new platonic and romantic relationships. This can be a very creative time, and we may feel compelled to beautify things, make art, or engage in social activities that spread good feelings. This energy can be fun-loving, passionate, and fruitful.
October 4th: Mars in Libra conjoins the south node in Libra and opposes the north node In Aries at (24°)
When Mars meets up with the south node and opposes the north node, it drives the themes of the nodal axis to the forefront and might spark passion, confrontation, or a need for reconciliation along this axis. The south node is a place of decrease, release, and drain, when Mars conjoins this spot, we may feel some tenderness or aggression around the things we need to let go of or move on from. This tension might bubble up in the Libra parts of our chart, and with Mars pulling on the north node, the Aries parts of our charts may feel boxed in, agitated, or forced to fight against projections put upon it.
October 8th: Mars in Libra squares Pluto in Capricorn (27°)
When Mars and Pluto square each other the energy might be intense and shifting back and forth between passionate and borderline aggressive. This might be a time when you feel particularly empowered and investigative, but be careful not to step on too many toes or exercise that power in a way that infringes on others, or seeks to control or provoke them. With Mars unable to fully express itself in Libra, this may show up as a situation where someone else is trying to strong-arm or control you, keep an eye on latent power dynamics. Another danger that comes along with Mars in Libra is overcompensating and self-defensiveness, around Mars themes, look out for the temptation to manipulate in order to self-protect or people-please.
