Mars Trine Neptune: Passion of the Spirit

Throughout each month transiting points create dynamic relationships with your natal chart points.  Often times two transiting points will relate to one another in a way that affects us all, depending on the points involved. 

This article will look at one of these dynamics happening between two points this month, Mars in Scorpio trining Neptune in Pisces. When two points trine with one another, they support one another.  The point of desire and aggression will give support to and get support from the point of dreams, surrender, and spirituality.

The Trine, and Mars and Neptune

This month, when the faster moving Mars goes reaches 15 degrees 59 minutes (15d59m) of Scorpio, it will trine with Neptune at the same degree, but in Pisces, at 6:20 am EST on December 13^th.  The impact of this relationship begins to be felt up to 3 degrees before and 3 degrees after the exact aspect and is known as the orb of influence.  When the faster moving body approaches, the aspect is said to be approaching and is building energy.  Once the exact aspect has passed, the aspect is said to be separating and is losing energy.  The duration of this particular aspect will run from December 8^th to December 17^th.

Mars

Mars, the God of War, represents our primal drive, our passion, and our sexual urge.  He rules Aries and the 1^st House of Identity in modern astrology.  In traditional astrology, he was also the ruler of Scorpio and the 8^th House of Transformation and Shared Resources.  Now, Pluto rules that sign and house.  Which sign and house Mars occupies in your chart indicates the way you express and act on your passions and how you prefer to assert yourself.

With Mars moving through Scorpio at this time, the keynote is, “hidden reserves of power explode into action” and the symbol is, “miners drilling deep into the bowels of the earth strike oil” (Astrology: The Divine Science, Moore and Douglas, 137). With Mars in Scorpio, it looks to Pluto for additional guidance.  Pluto is currently in Capricorn, so Mars needs to act with sustained effort.

The Sabian Symbol is 16 Scorpio, “a girl’s face breaking into a smile”.  From the book, The Sabian Symbols, author Marc Edmund Jones says, “this is a symbol of the need to share any true essence of selfhood, as here brought to an immediate actuality in everyday living”.

He assigns the keyword as AQUIESENCE. Further, he says, “when positive, the degree is man’s ingratiating gift for employing the simple things of life for surmounting any momentary obstacles to his self-fulfillment, and when negative, self-betrayal through a lack of all discrimination” (195).

• Getting to Know Mars in Astrology

Neptune

Neptune represents spiritual energy, dreams, and the collective unconscious; it is the ocean of consciousness.  Neptune rules mystery, the unknown, and spiritual connection through the sign of Pisces and the 12^th House of Spirituality and Soul Purpose.  It is a water point that is generational, spending around 17 years in a sign.  Currently, Neptune is moving through the sign it rules, Pisces, which it entered in 2010 and will leave in 2026.

With Neptune moving through Pisces at this time, the entire planet is getting spiritually awakened.  Neptune’s influence is never direct, never even easy to assess.  A simple joke describes the essence of Neptune: two young fish are swimming along, and older fish approaches them and says, as he swims by, “hey boys, how’s the water?”  The young fish respond, “fine” and keep swimming.  Not long after, one of the young fish says to the other, “what’s water?”

The keynote is, “the power of spirit moves through all individuals” and the symbol is, “a beggar and a wealthy person share food and philosophy on a park bench”.

The Sabian Symbol is 16 Pisces, “the flow of inspiration”. Jones says, “this is a symbol of the spiritual power which the development of civilization has brought to a point of practical potentiality, and on which each person may draw in meeting any and all critical issues of everyday living”.

The keyword is INGENUITY.  Further, he says, “When positive, the degree is exceptional capacity for meeting the unusual developments on every level of human experience, and when negative, delusions of cleverness and contempt for real effort” (315).

Mars Trines Neptune: Passion of the Spirit

The trine aspect creates a powerful flow between two points. If a sextile aspect, also a flowing aspect, is a straw’s diameter, then a trine is the glass or cup diameter the straw would be sitting in to extract the liquid.  Mars and Neptune trine in water signs represents a powerful surge of spiritual energy and directed purpose.

The connection to spirit and dreams will be particularly intense during this stretch of time so you might find it very useful to have a journal near your bedside, especially if you want to capture, in writing, what you are feeling passionate about.  Neptune is mysterious, but Mars is direct; it can burn through the fog that Neptune creates.

There will be an intensity to act based on spiritual purpose. This combination could easily be interpreted as “the defenders of the faith” or the warriors of God, the avenging angels, Michael and Azrael. Mars is an engine of power sending energy into Neptune while Neptune is a source of belief and the connection to spirit.

In traditional, Hellenistic astrology Mars was also the ruler of Scorpio, so you have two points in their signs of power, suggesting that we will all feel some form of spiritual passion during this transit, which may lead us to act or defend, depending on the beliefs we hold dear.  This really is not the transit of “turning a blind eye,” or “the other cheek”, but rather the one that embraces “an eye for an eye”.

While this transit is passing, it will be like holding Uriel’s flaming sword.  We all need to use this energy wisely.  The intense energy that will pour into our spiritual being could prove to ecstatic or overwhelming depending on how far you are into your individual spiritual journey and practice.