This week’s transits require a little extra caution, even though the trickiest of them is exact on Monday when most people aren’t operating their heavy machinery at work because of Memorial Day.
(A word of explanation to my non-American readers: the United States has four military-themed occasions on its calendar. Memorial Day, when they commemorate those who have died in war. Then there’s Veteran’s Day, when they salute the ones who survived. There’s also Armed Forces Day, when they give a nod to those who may or may not get killed yet… and finally Election Day, when Americans chose the person who will start their next war. But I digress.)
What makes this week so deserving of extra care and attention is Mars in Gemini square Neptune in Pisces. Mars represents your drives, your urge to get things done, and that impulse to go a little faster. It’s already a bit on the scattered side in Gemini, but since Gemini is ruled by Mercury… which is retrograde right now… that Mars energy is a little more likely to go astray than usual. Furthermore, since both Mercury and Mars are in a Mercury-ruled Sign, you could say that Mercury (your thoughts) will win the struggle between “what you think you can get away with” and “what you can really accomplish.”
And oh yeah… as if THAT weren’t bad enough, then there’s the square from Neptune.
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Mathematician John Nash and his wife died Saturday in a taxi crash on the New Jersey Turnpike. He was 86 years old. He is best remembered as the subject of the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind, starring Russell Crowe. Despite Nash’s contributions to human understanding of how the world works, he is probably best known for having overcome schizophrenia.
John Nash’s birth chart and the astrology of his death are fascinating stuff, and I will be going into detail about that in my next blog entry, but in the meantime I’d like to share with you his most famous contribution to mathematics — The Nash Equilibrium. Like so many things in life, it actually seems pretty straightforward and simple but it took a genius to discover it and describe it properly. Although it’s primarily applied to economics and that branch of math called Game Theory, it covers a lot of life’s situations. It can even help you understand how to handle the weirdness that comes with this week’s Mars Neptune square.
First, watch this video. Hey, the thing won an Oscar… you can give it three minutes if your time, especially since it could really help you this week.
Now here’s how this applies to you and the Mars-Neptune square.
Mars is drive and ambition. In Gemini (like it is now) and ruled by a retrograde Mercury, its efforts are often scattered. But when that Mars is in a difficult square aspect to Neptune, further complications can set in. Neptune loves a good illusion, and the square to Mars can muddy the waters as to what you really want or need from life. It can scatter your efforts or point them in the wrong direction completely. It can convince you that a friend is an enemy or that a little arsenic is just what your salad dressing needs.
So under those circumstances how do you know how to take what Buddhists call “right action”?
Simple. Don’t be greedy. Don’t push your luck. Use common sense. Don’t let your impulses do the thinking for you, and pay attention to the details. This, as it turns out, may be what killed John Nash and his wife on Saturday — an underestimation of risk.
If you use your head, you can come out ahead in the next few days. But be warned: not everyone around you will have read this blog entry and be as wise as you, so just to be safe you should probably post, tweet, pin, and email this blog entry as widely as you possibly can.
Hey — it’s because I care, all right?
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