MARS AND SATURN – THE SWORD IN THE STONE

translation: IDA POPOVSKI

This is a gift to my sister Vesna

Image Source: Walls4

Is there any kind of order, Mars and Saturn ask themselves, whether they find themselves in a bad or good aspect in your chart, or whether any one of these planets meets the other during it’s transit through the sky, which happens to all of us several times a year… Is there justice? Where are the crimes and where are the punishments? Why do I always have to go in headfirst and only after the fifth time, when I am almost left without strength, a door will finally open? Why is it that I never seem to achieve anything when I am elated, but only when I have calmed down, when the anger quiets down, when I am almost ready to give up on everything during that endless wait for some action that I always seem ready for? Why does it takes ten years of some apparent peace and quiet only to be making a decision in one day, and as many before me, have to start from scratch and build everything up again? And do I always, and I mean always have to fight this battle completely alone? How hard it is even for me, Mars the warrior, to pull out the Excalibur from the stone and start my conquests that I keep summoning and wishing for? The questions are the same, same is the understanding of the world and people- whether Mars and Saturn are in a good or bad aspect, the difference is that the person with a bad aspect will often without compromise declare people and the world as a state of constant anarchy and often become uncompromising himself, unscrupulous, difficult to others and even himself; seeing his life as a battle against everyone which he has to face alone, and driven by the fear that if he waits, if he tries to be patient and finds peace within himself, that silent call, he will then give up on everything because he wont have any strength left. Strength will die forever, and all his vitality and enthusiasm for action, and that’s what makes him impatient, in a constant restlessness that he cannot hide even when he seems completely calm to others. He is being chased by his own restlessness, which is only fear of loosing strength and the power to act forever. And so, as to not give up, many times in his life he will go with his head through the wall, uncompromisingly clutching at his will, that others sometimes see as terror, the crude tyranny of all others who show what he calls weaknesses: kindness, goodness, servitude, obedience – so when he finds them, he takes vengeance precisely upon them due to his fear of loosing his strength. It is by force that he takes the sword out of the stone and often breaks it; same as he destroys everything he touches since it is more a power of destruction than a constructive one that drives him now. What he fears most is sickness, not even death as much as sickness so it would not handicap him and stop him, making him unable to act. Therefore, thinking that he can prevent that by constant action in which he often finds himself the victim of injustice, and making his way through the crowd ends up stepping over people, aware that he has no other virtue than to make others test the strength of their spirit, calm and understanding. So he seems to be deliberately irritating them just to see the limits of these so “good, honest and kind “people, he then creates the worst injustices, and the more obedience others show regardless of the tyranny they suffer from him, the more angry he gets because he now sees more clearly than ever, what he is missing constantly, what he doesn’t have, and that all others, even in this scenario, although weaker and obedient seem to have – peace and the power to endure. There are cases where someone with a bad aspect tolerates people similar to him at first, to become at one point intolerant himself, difficult and spiteful and if he lets others bring him down he will take them down with him, even though he then becomes the victim of his own weakness and inability to see suffering, to understand and accept it, and later becomes weak as those he has been torturing.

When the aspect is good, the person shows in his youth similar behavior and attitude as the one with a bad aspect, because she is too young to understand the power of suffering, and the power it can have over people. But later, when the aspect is good (Mars conjunction Saturn has this power, since power and suffering have to come together at some point, as all other good aspects like sextile and trine), then as the person becomes older, more experienced and with that more patient, calmer, she becomes stronger in enduring the battle and carrying out every next one until the end as an army general would. And really this is the aspect of generals, where the general is not who he is out of chivalry and for the sake of victory (which would be given by Mars conjunction Jupiter) but due to endurance and strength, and tireless energy that surfaces whenever there is someone to fight for. For the miserable, the suffering, weak, unprotected and above all the helpless- children, old people or animals. And here I come back to the beginning, the origin of this text, since I got inspired by my dear sister, a psychologist working in a clinic, and the most passionate advocate for justice and peoples rights, and for animals also. She has put up on her wall the video that you will see at the end of this text, although unaware that it is her Mars in Scorpio trine Saturn in Pisces that is making her do that because she recognizes in that the importance of her mission – the mission due to Pisces and Mars itself that in this case helps only the helpless and those at risk. Besides that everyday help she gives to others, she is the one who jumps out of her window to separate dogs that have engaged in a fierce battle, calls firemen in the middle of the day to rescue a crow that has got entangled in cables on the roof of a building. I remember her telling me then, “ Sister, the crow is screeching calling for help, people are passing by and nobody is reacting …” The firemen came and got the crow free, and then there was the puppy who got hit by a truck who’s driver never even stopped, left in the middle of the road, that she took home and nursed back to health even though the vet recommended her to put him to sleep. She didn’t listen to him, and as many times before, she saved another life. So this aspect, like no other gives this true understanding of suffering and the battle to stop the suffering. Missionaries who take upon missions not for the sake of appeasing their conscience or the purchase of optimism, who are not looking to feed their souls with gratitude from others or getting approval for it’s kindness. It is rather that every removal of pain from others is actually the taking of pain upon themselves, and the more the pain, the stronger is the consciousness of Saturn’s eternal come back and invariability – meaning that even if the world keeps changing through centuries, sickness, suffering and fear remain, and there will always be those who are in need of not just help but rescue, and these kind of people are those who are today rescuing animals, children, unsatisfied and desperate workers, unaware (and that is the beauty of it) that by doing this they are saving themselves, their vitality, health, and prolonging their lives.

The first part of this video is the story of Mars and Saturn and how he sees the world in his youth and unfortunately even later if in a bad aspect, while in the second part we have the merger of Mars and Saturn, his understanding of suffering and the need to give strength to anyone suffering and with that, save them.