Get on the peace train
Illustration for the Snow Queen in the Pink Fairy Book by HJ Ford.
“There was once a dreadfully wicked hobgoblin. One day he was in capital spirits because he had made a looking-glass which reflected everything that was good and beautiful in such a way that it dwindled almost to nothing, but anything that was bad and ugly stood out very clearly and looked much worse. The most beautiful landscapes looked like boiled spinach, and the best people looked repulsive or seemed to stand on their heads with no bodies; their faces were so changed that they could not be recognised, and if anyone had a freckle you might be sure it would be spread over the nose and mouth.
That was the best part of it, said the hobgoblin.
But one day the looking-glass was dropped, and it broke into a million-billion and more pieces.
And now came the greatest misfortune of all, for each of the pieces was hardly as large as a grain of sand, and they flew about all over the world, and if anyone had a bit in his eye there it stayed, and then he would see everything awry, or else could only see the bad sides of a case. For every tiny splinter of the glass possessed the same power that the whole glass had.
Some people got a splinter in their hearts, and that was dreadful, for then it began to turn into a lump of ice.
The hobgoblin laughed till his sides ached, but still the tiny bits of glass flew about.“
— from The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen
Misogyny, the abuse of children and the destruction of the planet are three facets of the hatred of life itself which seems to be energising so many of the powerful people on this planet. Maybe it’s always been this way, but right now, we we are confronted by this anti-life force every day through our phones, through the pollution in the air and the water, the rising temperatures, through the fear our neighbours and friends are feeling, the spiralling in the cost of living and the goblin glee of the perpetrators. What can we do to transform it?
Astrologically, much of this energy can be summed up as too much Mars, the god of war — angry, aggressive, violent, thoughtless. Mind you, like all the planets, Mars has his wonderful side — action, bravery, focus, athleticism, libido. We need Mars to get things done, but we also need to temper Mars. How can we turn the bad Mars energy into the beautiful?
Mars has a two-year cycle, so he is a frequent visitor to every sign of the Zodiac, so this excess of Mars may also be to do with those planets in Aries.
Mars rules Aries — currently hosting powerful outer planets, Saturn and Neptune, and from the asteroid belt, the planet Ceres, associated with, among many other things, nourishment and nurturing. Neptune tends to expand and diffuse energies, and Saturn does almost the opposite, blocking them. These two are closely conjoined right now. Neptune is also associated with sacrifice, and music.
Chiron, wounder and healer, has been in Aries since 2018, and still has another year to go. Mars also rules Scorpio, where Black Moon Lilith is making her presence felt this year. Mars in Aries is a “hot head”, in Scorpio, a calculating executive in Scorpio. Both have lethal power.
So who tempers Mars?
Venus is the lover of Mars. She controls him with love, seduction, family life, pleasure. If Venus is the full “feminine”; Mars is the full “masculine”. These are complementary, opposite, balancing energies. You can see this by their sign rulerships: Venus rules Taurus and Libra; Mars rules Scorpio and Aries: opposite pairings. But Venus cannot control Mars for long. And astrologically, when Venus and Mars come together, you often see Mars winning out. I wonder if this is because of the heavy masculine bias of the traditional planets. But now that we have goddess asteroids and Black Moon Lilith, some of that imbalance has been rectified.
According to the Roman astrologer Manilius, the goddess Pallas Athena is the tutelary deity of Aries. She is also one of the major asteroids. She is the cool, strategic face of war. She calms Mars down. Remember that she is the great benefactor of cunning, clever Odysseus, inventor of the Trojan horse. In my researches, she is often a witness to war.
Current Astrology
Soon (7 August–22 September) Mars will be in the sign of justice, Libra. Many famous warriors for peace — from Pope Francis to John Lennon, Nelson Mandela to Abraham Lincoln, Sinead O’Connor to Malala Yousafzai, George Orwell to AOC, to Cat Stevens — were born with this placement, which according to traditional astrologers puts Mars in “detriment”.
Libra is a sign ruled by Venus herself, the goddess of harmony, and Libra does seem to have a calming effect on the heat of Mars. Libra — a sign of politics, negotiations, treaties, drawing rooms. — prefers the court of law to the battlefield for settling disputes.
Until 25 August, Venus is in Cancer, the sign of mothers and the Moon, and coming up to a conjunction with Jupiter on 12 August — which gives her extra reach and oomph. This looks as if Venus has the ear of the king for a day or so. Maybe she will speak of the plight of mothers in so many parts of the world.
And there’s another goddess to consider, Ceres, who turns retrograde and therefore intensifies on 11 August. Perhaps the food trucks will get through. Again, Ceres is associated with mothers and caring, food and nourishment, so in Aries we may see her literally as a mother in the midst of war. She will be here until March next year due to this retrograde. Mars opposes Ceres on 31 August. This can be an argument or an alliance.
Meanwhile, Pallas is spending most of 2025 in Aquarius, after helping to usher Pluto into that sign. This means that Pallas and Mars will both be in logical air signs this month. Pallas trines Mars on 24 August. Maybe this will lead to some more rational discussions.
Not all of us will be able to rush to the succour of the afflicted, or come up with brilliant solutions to hunger, war and climate change. But we each in our own way, can support the cooks and carers, the kind people, the mothers and fathers, the helpers. We must support life, peace and love.
Thanks- much needed during this time. Love from Salt Spring x