by Erik M Roth, Shamanic Astrologer

Mars Rises from the Underworld

In the early morning sky of October 16, 2019, the red planet Mars will rise in the east shortly before the Sun.  Mars has been hidden from our eyes since the 17^th of July due to the glare of the Sun.  Mars was on the other side of the solar system (behind the Sun) for three months of time as the Earth slowly orbited to a position where we can begin to see Mars once again. 

From an astrological perspective, this rising of Mars indicates the fourth phase and a rebirth of the masculine in a vulnerable, awakening state.  This signals a new phase of the Mars synodic cycle in the maturation of the masculine.  But this time is an especially long and fragile moment of truth after the deep surrender in the hidden realm of the underworld.

In Shamanic Astrology, when a planet transits near the Sun (from a geocentric perspective), it has entered the underworld.  This is an interpretation of experience with the planetary cycles that has its origins in ancient times thousands of years ago that when a visible planet became hidden in the glare of the Sun it was with Great Mystery, being enveloped by the intense light to create a time of transformation and surrender.

The underworld or “below world” in itself is not judged to be a place as some religions liken it (eternal damnation, Hell, etc.).  The underworld is a “place” where we experience some of the most potent transformations and rebirthings in our life.  The underworld is a place where we can experience deep cleansing and scouring of the toxins within ourselves.  The underworld is not a physical location but is experienced as a psychological and soulful process akin to the composting of organic matter or the chrysalis phase of becoming a butterfly or moth.

In the case of Mars, this underworld phase takes place about every two years, varying in length due to the elliptical nature of Mars’ orbit.  For us on a personal and collective level, this phase can highlight or illuminate the shadows of the masculine.

Personal Work with the Masculine

A question to ask ourselves is what is our own relationship to the masculine?  What external exchanges and relationships do we have with the masculine in our own lives?  How do those influence our own conscious decision-making and have we seen the shadow in ourselves or in others?  What steps can we take to identify any energetic toxins we may have unknowingly taken on within.  It isn’t just that the shadow shows itself within ourselves but in others, no matter one’s gender/sex. 

Mars in the underworld wasn’t the only planet working with us to assist and guide us in our lives.  No planetary cycle operates “by itself” in a void of any other cycles or initiations in the greater patterns of the nightscape.  Venus was with Mars for the vast majority of Mars’ journey in the hidden realm in the glare of the Sun.  Mercury also danced with these other two inner planets and the Sun in July and August. 

When an astrologer sees into a person’s planetary transits, cycles or initiations in their life, each cycle is part of the greater whole and message of what that person is facing up to in their lives.  We are all working on, in some form or another, becoming more authentic and whole in who we are and evolving into. 

For example, my recent travels across Oregon and California as well as Iceland and Scotland have been a combination of unprecedented expansion of my vision and the forging of new and expansive relationships while and also draining, difficult, highly complex and shocking (in one instance).

For those who have been reading my articles regularly or otherwise following me in my writings may have a basic understanding of the natures of Venus and Mars Return cycles.  I have been in both a Venus and Mars Return cycle or initiation combined with a Jupiter Return plus Saturn’s conjunction of my natal Ascendant. 

What I want to share is that the cycles all operate and interact with each other.  For me, it is profound development of my relationship to the feminine (inner and outer / Venus Return), my evolving role as a Pisces man in this world (Mars Return), the expansion of my spiritual / vision quest (Jupiter Return) and growth through limits and boundaries while planting the seeds for my long-term emerging identity or personal-identity project (Saturn conjunct my Capricorn Ascendant).

On the Astrology (Natal) Chart:

Venus = the feminine principle

Mars = the masculine principle

Jupiter = Vision Quest Path

Ascendant = Personal Identity Project / Emerging Identity

There are also two other initiations taking place that certainly contribute to how I’m feeling and how I’m experiencing each day including Uranus’ conjunction with my Ic (Home & Roots point) and the lunar nodes transiting my Ascendant-Descendant axis. 

With all of that, a Mars Return cycle or initiation can get lost in the great shuffling of my life but I can both disseminate and understand the contributions all of these initiations or cycles are making to my life.  In the case of my Mars Return cycle, this is the first time it has taken place in my life since age 31-33.  Mars Returns for men in general have a way of opening up their identity to the masculine within to experience all the vulnerabilities, shadows, joys, pleasures, pains, feelings, tears and the interactions with one’s own feminine and relationship outside with the feminine and masculine.  Of course, in my case, I also have a Venus Return so this just amplifies the interactions and relationship with the masculine and feminine.

The reason some cycles or initiations are called “returns” is that the planet is coming back (or near exact) to its original position on a person’s natal chart ON a person’s birthday (in astrology lingo, their Solar Return).  For Mars, this is age 47 (every 15 and 17 years), in Venus’s case age 48 (every 8 years) and Jupiter age 48 (about every 12 years).  In the case of Mars and Venus, these are synodic returns (meaning very close or near-exact to its original place) and with Jupiter in the same astrological sign.

A Collision of Archetypes and the Psyche

Mars constitutes a highly important role in a person’s mid-life passage in their late 40s.  For me in these last 3 months with Mars in the underworld (and Venus for most of that time), my vulnerabilities have come to the surface in my conscious self.  My relationships with the feminine have been soulful and powerfully difficult.  The shadow came to the surface and underworld projections FROM the feminine and my own projections have collided on September 13^th and created opportunities for potent growth and transformation. 

NOTE: This wasn’t a physical collision, but one of energetic, verbal and psychic nature.

That unprepared collision between my own Self and another left me shocked and wounded, happening at a time with both Venus and Mars in the underworld and Mercury playing a significant role all in the sign of Virgo.  The unhealthy shadow of Virgo criticalness and a desire to contain the chaos around them (varying from person to person) was triggered or otherwise activated by my own being as well as the process the other person was experiencing. This difficulty was added to by Saturn’s conjunction with my Ascendant. 

But in the debris of the initiation, an opportunity lies for more soulful growth in the relationships I experience in various wavelengths.  My own ego and its attachment to naiveté contributed to what I felt, in not being aware of what led up to it and the dream of wanting something that clearly could not be fulfilled.  I had to surrender to what was beyond my control and no choice but to face that fear.

 The Divine Mother was assisting me in facing my own truth in those fears in how far I’ve grown spiritually and what work I still need to do. 

As mentioned previously, I have Mars in Pisces.  Pisces is highly sensitive emotionally, spiritually and psychically and feels the world.  I am here to experience a new way to bring in Pisces in a healthy way without taking on the feelings, projections or energies of others while losing my own identity.  It is important to allow the feelings to pass through after and not store them in my own being, which can be and has been, at times, toxic and self-destructive. 

Pisces can feel so much that it can be (and has been numerous times, especially when I was a teenager and my early twenties) powerfully overwhelming and intense experience that it can drive a person to escape that intensity.  In combination with my Pisces Moon (when I was born, the Moon was in the sign of Pisces in conjunction with Mars), it can be a particularly acute and exceptional experience.  I’m thankful to have Saturn and Sagittarius strongly in my chart to help vision and constructively see beyond the feelings (but not ignore) and create more balance in my own life. 

I’ve worked hard over the years to distinguish the feelings of others with my own and my desire to help others.  Creating boundaries and being able to have a healthy detachment from the “personal” while still experiencing compassion and empathy continues to be a work-in-progress for me. 

For a very long time in history, Mars in Pisces men in particular were not supported and even discouraged because they didn’t fit the “alpha male” patriarchal standard that has been portrayed as what a man should be.  In fact, other Mars signs were also not supported very well or manipulated to fit a certain standard including Libra, Cancer, Taurus and others.

But that patriarchal standard is in a state of decay and all roles are opening up no matter the archetype, gender or sex.  It may feel it is too slow or too fast, but it is evolving in the rise of a new form that we are only vaguely receiving a glimpse of in this current age.

Rising with Mars

On the 16^th of October, Mars rises in the sign of Libra in the early morning sky.  Mars will be very faint at only 15 degrees from the Sun (one and one-half closed fists extended to the sky as a measurement) and only about 75-80 minutes before sunrise.   Mars’ magnitude is +1.8 and will only be seen outside the city lights with a relatively clear horizon line. 

Mars’ specific point of rising in the early morning sky is very close to the star Porrima in the constellation of the Priestess.  Porrima is also theoretically visible as well at this time, or will be a few days after the 16^th.  Porrima is part of the head/shoulders of the priestess and as Mars rises with her, it shows us the intimate connection and value the masculine is contributing at this time to emerging feminine sovereignty and the Earth Mother.

At nearly the exact same time that Mars rises, the star Arcturus (at 24 degrees Libra, shared with Spica) becomes visible briefly before the rising of the Sun.  Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation of Bootes.  Bootes has been seen as the Herder, Plougher or Farmer of the fields, helping to turn the great wheel in the sky.

According to EW Maunder, Arcturus’ heliacal rising takes place on October 22nd, but his book was written in 1906.  At this time, it is much closer to October 20th due to the precession of the seasonal points or Earth’s wobble.  Arcturus will be just at the edge of visibility on October 16th and will be become easier to see by the 20th.

Traditionally, Arcturus represented the knee or leg of the Herder, but this star and constellation have an intimate relationship with the Priestess and the great seasonal cycle and pattern of plants from seed to full gathering or harvest of the crops.

This dimly-lit Mars certainly reflects the vulnerability of the masculine awakening from the long night of surrender and transformation of the masculine.  Mars will very slowly brighten over the second-half of October and throughout the fall months (spring in the southern hemisphere).  An intent of this awakening is processing all that has taken place in the earlier phases of Mars when it was visible in the evening sky before surrendering to its underworld phase.   

Consciousness and awareness of its inward relationship and how it may come to be in the outer world will show up during this phase.  This Mars cycle began back on July 26, 2018 when Mars, in Aquarius, and the Sun, in Leo, were in opposition with each other and Mars at its brightest point as seen from Earth (about -2.8 magnitude).  The earlier phases of Mars, representing the masculine principle, were about the youthful and accelerated growth of the masculine that celestially relate to the “hero’s journey” with Mars-Moon conjunctions connected to individual challenges, tasks or labors of the masculine.  It was in the most recent underworld phase, where the “hero” surrenders to itself and the divine for want of knowing thyself. 

As Mars was in the sign of Aquarius for much of 2018 and during its opposition point with the Sun, this entire cycle has an “overtone” or “meta-archetype” of the sign of Aquarius.  Aquarius can be this wild scientist or wizard-type with a cosmic eye to see the higher perspective as an eagle can view from a high point.  Aquarius is a techno-magical innovator and inventor while another expression of Aquarius is spiritually-driven to expand consciousness for the sake of simply to expand it above all other priorities. 

The shadow of Aquarius can be to abandon the physical for simply experiencing consciousness and/or mind.  The shadow includes ignoring or denying of the shadow as if it simply doesn’t exist.  This phase three of the Mars cycle in the underworld, on a collective level, was about facing up to that shadow and its denial of the shadow and denial of the physical body or form.

However, since we are moving into phase four, or the phase directly after the underworld, where Mars becomes visible in the early morning sky, we are opening to a digestion of all that as taken place in the midst of the chaos of the emerging frontier.  We are seeing Mars in a new light, one that ideally may have faced its shadow and its soul-truth to come to realize that the old story of how the masculine is intended to be was not what most of us were taught, or conditioned to believe, in the past and that a new story can emerge.  We are dying (or have died) to become ourselves.

Mars is a powerful teacher and it is here, ultimately, for our benefit.  It is not good or bad in nature (as that is more of a judgment from us human beings in our duality) but as an activation or trigger in us that what is already within ourselves. 

Mars rises in the sign of Libra and will go through the signs of Scorpio, Sagittarius and Capricorn before entering Aquarius again on March 30, 2020 (begins phase five).  Mars in Libra is providing us a path for listening and learning about the needs of others, for cooperation in community and forming healthy relationships of all kinds, including non-hierarchical conscious-equal partnerships.  It is about coming together not out of fear of something else but of being drawn together because of the human and personal value we bring to each other.

I do firmly believe we are here to contribute to each other in infinite ways that incorporate the shadow in a healthy way, to cooperate with each other and are not about judgments but listening to each other in an open-hearted and mindful way.  The masculine and feminine and all of the infinite ways they are expressed are evolving beyond themselves and beyond duality.  This is an undiscovered country for humanity and Mars’ rising in the east can help us catch a glimpse of this coming phoenix of the collective.