Are you tired, uncer­tain or just plain confused…well then you are doing just fine! After all, did­n’t you know, that is just what you are sup­posed to feel like when Mars and Nep­tune oppose one another…On the oth­er hand, if you are ener­gized and cer­tain today…then you prob­a­bly need to wake up and real­ize that you’ve been day-dream­ing again!

Mars rules your desires, dri­ves and actions; its prin­ci­pal pur­pose is to serve your “self” (Sun) by pro­vid­ing the “zip” to go after what you want. Mars is the plan­et of “you”, the plan­et of Self-Asser­tion. Nep­tune brings you into self­less­ness; it rules your capac­i­ty for com­pas­sion, empa­thy and uni­ver­sal love…and it is the source for your dreams, those very objects of your Mars desires. Nep­tune is the plan­et of “beyond you”, the plan­et of Imagination.

So, sim­ply put, this oppo­si­tion illus­trates the chal­lenge of  how you rec­on­cile, bal­ance and inte­grate self-asser­tion and selflessness…and it also illu­mi­nates the rela­tion­ship between your desires and dreams.

Today your Star­ry com­pan­ions are pos­ing a daunt­ing dilem­ma: How do you (or can you) assert your­self and be kind too? In the begin­ning of your jour­ney, when faced with the chal­lenge to get what you want, to get “your way”, you either “threw down or turned your cheek”, you either forced your way or yielded.

But as you grow, as you become spir­i­tu­al­ly stronger, you real­ize that your strength is for you, yes it is, but more it is for you to use in ser­vice to some­thing greater than yourself…that one of your most impor­tant advances is to learn how to become self-assertive in non self-cen­tered ways!

You need to make your unique con­tri­bu­tion to your world, and so you need to become stronger. Yet much if not most of your strength is found­ed, formed and giv­en sub­stance by your expe­ri­ences with your fel­low com­pan­ions. Your strength, your pow­er and pur­pose is not by or for your­self alone…it is for some­thing much more sublime.

Today’s align­ment reminds you that your jour­ney is paradoxical…the stronger you tru­ly become…the more hum­ble, accept­ing and self-less you must even­tu­al­ly become too!

Equal­ly today’s mes­sage is about your desires and dreams, it is about the rela­tion­ship between your actions and where you think (or hope) they are tak­ing you. You always encounter your world as it is…Today is seem­ing­ly “giv­en” to you (by “the past”, by the thoughts, feel­ings and actions of you and many oth­ers). But then, by your great­est pow­er, “Imag­i­na­tion”, you dream of a dif­fer­ent world, a bet­ter, gen­tler and more beau­ti­ful place (one that you may remem­ber, one that you came upon in your dreams).

Then you act (Mars) to real­ize this dream (Nep­tune). Per­haps some of it will come into being, if you dreamt well and act­ed tru­ly. But you and those around you are not yet the cre­ators you will be, so often much will not turn out well, and much not intend­ed may come into being too. And so, you must try, try again. 

This is also what you feel today, you remem­ber the Dream (Nep­tune), and you see how you have Act­ed (Mars), whether well or not so well to bring that dream into being…and you know and under­stand that you must dream and do again. You have reached a turn­ing point in dreaming-reality-dreaming…a cycle is over, a new one begins.

Dream well today!

Then act with conviction…

Be moved by compassion…

But above all else, be a creator…and be humble…