In a session with a client the other day, she asked me if I saw her moving any time soon.  She really wanted to move from where she was, and she was hoping that was indicated in her chart somewhere. 

Sometimes we have planetary events that clearly indicate a change is coming: for example, when transiting Uranus (radical change and innovation) crosses over the Midheaven/Nadir axis (cusp of the fourth house of home and tenth house of career).  Twice a year or so transiting Mars will cross that point, stimulating the desire for some sort of change.  But change is not always seen as just an event triggered by a planet; it is often the result of an activated Will that occurs after a longer-term cycle.

This client had what I like to call a “Mars Problem” in her chart, with Mars in the twelfth house, where it operates in the subconscious realms, and stressed by both Saturn (limitation and challenge) and Chiron (wounding and healing).  Mars acts as the Will of our personal self; in many ways it is our Free Will.  Mars is our desire nature; it shows how we go about getting what we want and keeping what we have and in that role it also shows how well we set boundaries and defend ourselves.  When Mars is stressed in the chart we have difficulty in all of these areas and our Free Will loses its functionality as a result.  Sometimes we can feel paralyzed, not knowing where to turn.

In the case of my client, she was in a longer-term cycle of Uranus transiting through the tenth house which had caused her to leave her job and pursue a series of other opportunities.  She didn’t feel that any of them were right for her but judged herself for wanting yet another change.  Because her Mars, her own inner direction of Free Will, was challenged in the birthchart it was difficult for her to feel safe in her choices.

We don’t always get to exercise our free will, and we don’t always get what we want as the Rolling Stones so aptly put it many years ago.  Sometimes our individual will (Mars) is blocked by the gods in the form of Saturn (restrictions) or Pluto (transformation) and in those cases fate takes over and all we can do is surrender.  But we still must exercise that free will or it will become atrophied and useless.

Exercising our free will and empowering our Mars is as easy as this:  Ask yourself, what is it you WANT to have happen.  And then DO IT!