Like a Surgeon

Mars ingress into Cancer

Today (September 4,2024) Mars enters the sign of cancer.  This transit will last until November 3 with a retrograde bringing him back to this watery lunar sign on January 6,2025 where he will remain until April 18,2025.  In total, Mars will spend five of the next seven month in the sign of the crab.  We are in for a long season of potentially explosive and cutting forces in a place where tenderness and sensitivity should prevail.  I thought I’d share some thoughts about the pitfalls and potentially profitable opportunities for growth and self-development this transit will present.

Cancer is a sign of care and nurture.  It is associated with motherhood and the most sensitive aspects of our personalities.  Ancient astrologers called this sign “The Gateway of Humanity”.  Beginning at the Summer Solstice when the light of The Sun begins its slow decline toward the darkest time of the year, Cancer was thought to correspond with the descent of spirit into matter.  It is ruled by The Moon who is associated with the body, memory and what is passed down through generations, especially from the maternal line. 

Baring these correspondences in mind we might think that Mars, with his propensity for aggression, conflict and weapons would be especially unsuited to the environment of Cancer.  In fact, Cancer is said to be the place of Mars’s “depression”.  In astrological parlance, depression has a meaning which extends beyond our notion of a persistent state of sadness and futility – it is truly a depression as in a hole in the ground in which one might get stuck.  Planets react differently in their depressions.  Mars, who likes impulsive violent action, especially hates a trap and is inclined to aggressive but ultimately futile outbursts here, like a wild animal caught in a pit trap.

Cancer is the image of The Crab.  Crabs are soft on the inside and armored without and are inclined to pinch when threatened.  Cancer is the home of that which we would most like to protect.  This can mean our loved ones or those who we deem to need protection.  It is also the home of those parts of us which are most “sore”.  Mars, for his part, is always on high alert.  When he is in the neighborhood of Cancer, he will be especially alert to threats to whatever we most want to protect.  But since cancer is a place of extreme sensitivity, he might be inclined to overreact to the slightest perceived threat.  This can lead to situations where unusually high levels of violence and conflict might break out right next to the most vulnerable of things.  This will be a season where both extreme diligence and extreme restraint will have to be carefully balanced.

Planets in their depression as Mars is in Cancer, are opposite the sign of their “exaltation”.  In the case of Mars, this is the Sign of Capricorn.  Beginning with The Winter Solstice, Capricorn was called “The Gateway of the Gods”.  Just as the decent of light into darkness in Cancer symbolized to descent of spirit into matter, the return of light after Winter Solstice was seen as the ascent of spirit from matter.  Capricorn is ruled by Saturn who is the lord of limitations, discipline and tradition.  To borrow an analogy from an astrologer I follow, Mars in Capricorn is like an aggressive undisciplined youth who goes to military boot camp.  There his aggression and risk-taking tendencies might be forged through discipline into a practical, tactical and more efficient warrior.  Interestingly, it is these skills of restraint and tactical precision that will be required of us in this difficult transit of Mars through Cancer.

But instead if the disciplined warrior I would like to suggest that what is most needed in this season is the dispassionate and steady hand of the master surgeon.  A surgeon wields sharp tools with a delicate hand in the service of healing.  He or she must restrain their empathetic response as they cut into the most inward and sensitive parts of the body.  This restrains is paradoxically the height of compassion.  Without it, the healer would fall prey to their own sensitivity and be unable or unwilling to do what is most desperately required in the moment.

So let us say that if Mars were a surgeon and Cancer is the operating room then Capricorn is medical school.  The last time Mars was in Capricorn was in the early months of 2022.  It might be useful to think about things that you learned during that time, especially things about the constructive use of sharpness and aggression.  If you can identify places where you may have learned how to discipline and channel these feelings, these lessons will be especially useful as you negotiate this transit.  If you can remember ways that you might not have practiced restraint and tactical reason during that time, try to learn from those experiences what NOT TO DO now.

There will undoubtedly be people and things that need and deserve your care and protection, and you will need martial power and discipline to fulfill your duties there.  But be careful that you aren’t deploying your weapons to protect what is weak or traumatized within your own ego.  I wish you all a safe Mars-Cancer transit.