The Mars Opposition

One of the myths that has endured the test of time is what Joseph Campbell calls the “monomyth”.  This myth encompasses the vast majority of the “Hero’s Journey” or “Quest” stories from the very beginning.  They endure in modern entertainment in the form of movies, novels, comic books, TV shows and of course more importantly, in our own lives (no matter your gender).   Each of us is called to the “Quest” or the “Call to Adventure” in many ways with millions of variables and outcomes to the quest or adventure.  What does this have to do with the planet Mars?  Everything.

Mars will be in its fullness when it goes into opposition with the Sun on May 22, 2016.  This can be physically seen (all over the world) like a Full Moon as it rises in the east when the Sun sets in the west.  This Mars-Sun alignment signals the “Call to Adventure” in our lives.  For some of us, it is on a more personal level while for many others it is our collective call to adventure.  This process is something that repeats every 25-26 months in a different astrological sign.

The Adventure itself is neither necessarily a good or exciting time nor is it necessarily a bad or negative experience.  For each person, it will manifest in a way that is in general harmony with who they are and what their path is all about.  But “harmony” can show up in both joyful and uncomfortable experiences.  The Adventure is loosely like the monomyth that Campbell describes and takes us into our own personal youth, training or learning phase, then challenges or tasks come in before stepping into the underworld for surrendering to our own transformation.  Rebirth and maturity is the next phase as we see the world in a new light, looking at ourselves and the new wisdom we’ve come into.  From there, the monomyth takes us to the phase of “return to home”, to bring back what we have learned and apply it to the real world and our own personal enlightenment.  Lastly, we reach the point of transmutation and preparation for the finality of the Adventure.  It is the full cycle of a person or life itself.

The Mars Synodic Cycle – in Brief

Mars does a very similar thing in the sky (as perceived from Earth) and it starts from the point of opposition, when the planet is near its closest point and at its brightest (typically becoming the 2^nd-brightest planet in the night sky).  Mars goes backwards (or retrograde) during this phase staying in the same region of the sky for several months.  When at its closest point and in retrograde (always), it tends to bring in a clearer transmission astrologically and can be extra-potent for some and this year especially because of the line up of planets not only on that day but during the next 6 months.  See more about my thoughts on Mars Retrograde here. This is the training ground or boot camp for this youthful stage.  Mars then proceeds to move higher and higher in the sky at the time of sunset.  The next phase starts when it passes the original point when it was in opposition, prepared to meet the many challenges and tests that await.

As Mars passes through the signs and constellations, we can see these as the ancients saw them: as “challenges” or “tasks” to meet.  The planets and stars Mars encounters along the way add to the flavor of each task or challenge, becoming important allies or helpers in the Adventure.  Mars spends about 9 to 11 months at this phase before disappearing into the glare of the Sun or as we look at it shamanically, the “underworld” of Mars.  For nearly 4 months, Mars is invisible from Earth, and for us the experience is a spiritual trial of sorts where we meet our fears and go through a cleansing.  When Mars does reappear in the early morning sky, it is visibly dim and challenging to see.  But a rebirth has taken place and the red planet symbolizes this energy at this stage.  It is akin to waking from a period or great physical/mental/spiritual exhaustion where the energy is low and we are vulnerable to the world.  But with each day and week, we grow in strength and slowly brighten, just as Mars does.

Wisdom and maturity rise as we gain a new perception of who we are on our path.  From there, it is return to home as Mars enters the same sign it was in back when it was at opposition with the Sun.  This is about truly coming into our own as we have shed the skins of the past welcome in the fruition of the archetype/sign in total and healthy expression.

Lastly, Mars enters the sign of the “next opposition” with the Sun.  It is a preparatory phase and a digestion of the adventure takes place.  It is the last walk toward transmutation from one archetype into another and back to youth.

All of this is one Mars Synodic Cycle.  And if you (or someone you know) are turning 15, 32, 47, 62, 64, 79 or 94 over the next 26 months, then this becomes a more personal cycle and what we call in Shamanic Astrology, a Mars Return Cycle.  It is your chance to understand your own relationship with the masculine in that monomyth or Call to Adventure.  As you can see this is a cycle that only happens once every 15 or 17 years generally and so is rare process.  The cycle is akin to an initiation and one that is intimately involved with the opportunity to create wholeness in your life.

See what the originator of the Shamanic Astrology, Daniel Giamario, wrote about the Mars Synodic & Return Cycles here

Why those specific ages?  Because this is when Mars “returns” near the place it was on a person’s birthday.  It truly is a time when the “stars are aligned” so to speak.  It is a vastly important ceremonial cycle that has shape-shifted from various rites of passage and other ceremonial ages that were experienced physically, psychologically and spiritually and internally to something that is projected upon a screen or paper in the form of entertainment.

The stories portrayed out there are innumerable but contain many of these monomyth facets.  As we grow and evolve, we can answer our own Call to Adventure.

My Call to Adventure

My last Mars Return certainly lived up to the idea of the monomyth in a sense.  In brief, this Mars Return Cycle took place between August 28, 2003 and November 7, 2005 (it was also the point when Mars and Earth were at their closest point to each other in 60,000 years).  I was turning 32 during this time (born 11/25/1971) During that time, I had a radical shift of perception upon my meeting with Daniel Giamario and his paradigm of Shamanic Astrology.  The discovery that who I was as a man in this world with a Pisces Mars (and Pisces Moon) was typically not honored in Western Culture but that there was nothing wrong with me.  I was expressing an authentic version of the masculine.

That discovery alone captured my attention and I went on soon after to study Shamanic Astrology in full.  It was also during those many moons that I let the tears flow and releasing the fiction that I had to be the kind of person that society promoted.  It was a powerful inner shift into a whole new realm., including a potent astral travel experience in 2004 that still sits with me now.   Many, many new relationships of all kinds entered my life as I few in my heart.  I came to know that tears had their own power when they released from the eyes.  It was another major step in knowing myself better and the reasons for why my intimate relationships went the way they did in my life: deeply felt and getting lost in the merging with another and not knowing how to “unmerge”.  I learned the nature of boundaries more fully and that I am vulnerable as an empath and a desire to heal those in my life.

The Enchantments in WA State – part of my Mars Return in 2005

Now at that time, I was also experiencing a Venus Return (a synodic cycle) and my relationship to the feminine reached another octave of process and initiation.  This combination made for an adventurous and heart-swelling period in my life.  The adventure took me out of box and into places I never thought I would go.  While there were other cycles that took place, the Mars and Venus Return Cycles took the center stage of what was taking place in my life at that time.

From the point of the Mars-Sun Opposition during my Mars Return (and the first phase) it did feel like a training ground to setup for the challenges in the next phase in 2004 (when I encountered and adopted Shamanic Astrology as part of my language).  I worked in the commercial insurance industry in downtown Portland and was in-between 2 intimate relationships and was referred to a Shamanic Counselor by a friend.  During those first months of the cycle I did my first shamanic journeys with a trained counselor in the Shamanic arts, including a ‘soul retrieval’.  I was introduced into some of the basics through the journeys.  The counselor became the one who invited me to attend the Shamanic Astrology event the following year.

My own quest or monomyth involved less “heroic” acts and more of the “seeking” for truth and heart and the divine in all of us.  I had many helpers, challenges and a powerful transformation that was timed around the various phases of the Mars Cycle.

Want to know MORE about how to participate with Mars in your OWN LIFE?  A new webinar series devoted to the Mars Quest or Call to Adventure is available here.

Meeting of the New Self

I will share more about my own story of the 2^nd phase of the Mars Return at a later time when Mars (on August 6^th) moves back to the point (1 degree 47’ Sagittarius for those keeping track) where it will be this coming May 22^nd.    But to sum it up, I was experiencing a new level of maturity during my Mars Return.  But it began with being a beginner at the start of the cycle.  It required me to be open to learning what Mars in Pisces was all about and shedding the trappings and addictions of my old self (Moon in Pisces).

The Old Self is generally the story we tell ourselves (and/or heavily influenced by our parents) about who we think we are.  Later, a new “self” begins to emerge and desires to see the light of day.  This is akin to the yearning of our soul, the wanting of something much more than we are.  This is when soul crises can form, especially into our late 30s and 40s.

In my evolution during the Mars Return (and Venus Return), there was greater clarification as to my feminine and ultimately on the road to wholeness.  I came to know that empathy, compassion, softness, vulnerability, tenderness, hugs and feeling the world is much a part of the masculine as it is the feminine.

But it was just the beginning for me then and over 13 years after the last Mars Return cycle began I’m a little over 2 years away from my next Mars Return.  My inquiry into the Mars Initiation process has yielded a great amount of understanding of it but even more so, a greater excitement is the amount of which I DON’T KNOW is ahead of me in this Call to Adventure.  The New Self is most certainly emerged but I am still getting my bearings and testing the water.  I do feel more of my Mars in Pisces than I did years ago and what role it plays in my life.  It is fresh, ready for exploration and deepening within me.

For All of Us

There are billions of different versions of the Mars story and each of us, no Mars Return will be exactly like any other in the same lifetime/person.  All of us will have a new, more authentic story that emerges with the Call to Adventure.  Our own personal myths show up with allies, helpers, triggers for transformation and rebirth as well as expansion and coming home to ourselves.

The Mars Return is unlike the Venus Cycle in its initiation process (you learn more about the Venus Cycle here), because of the multitude of cycle phases it contains, but it complements the Venus (feminine) initiation cycles.  Both the feminine and the masculine energies in this world are going through an extraordinary revolution in how we experience and perceive gender and the archetypal energy of it.  It is new territory for humanity and we can’t expect to know how to do it all correctly.  Trial and error, exploration and experimentation is natural here.  Our previous notions of masculine and feminine are dissolving away to make room for new ones that are unbound by narrow limits or definitions.  In Shamanic Astrology, the planets of Mars and Venus are here to assist us and initiate us in this new territory.  The Call to Adventure is for ALL of US.  Our personal quest beckons us.  Are you going to answer the call?

– Erik M Roth, Shamanic Astrologer