WWMSD? (What Would Mars in Sag Do?)

Demonstrating a strategic approach to chart integration and expression using a personal example + a few symbolic substitution suggestions for current transits

Where does this email find you?

In the bathtub, contemplating your next big moves for 2024? 

Just finishing a slow and sluggish long-distance run, weighed down by a mixture of holiday hangovers and ruminations on various regrets?

Arguing with your sibling (or cousin) about the similarities and differences among world faiths? 

If so, the transits of the moment are living through you with symbolic accuracy!

Specifically the transit I’m referring to is the second Mars-Mercury Rx conjunction that perfected at 24 degrees Sagittarius (on Wednesday, December 27), while the duo simultaneously squared Neptune in Pisces (perfecting on Wednesday and Thursday respectively).

This configuration will linger for a bit since Mars always moves rather slowly and Mercury is also traveling slowly as it nears its direct station on New Year's Day. Mercury will make a final square to Neptune in Pisces on January 8th, after it turns direct.

This is the chart for December 27th, 2023, when the Mercury-Mars conjunction was exact:

Personally, I have Mars in my natal chart at 24 degrees Sagittarius, squaring my Sun + Mercury at 25 degrees Pisces (currently being transited by Neptune).

Therefore, not only am I having my Mars return this week, but the entire Mercury-Mars-Neptune configuration directly activates an important planetary conversation in my own chart.

Using myself as an example, the main goal of this post is to demonstrate how one might go about integrating, re-balancing, and coming into a healthy relationship with a planet in their chart that they otherwise struggle to express in a healthy way. (of course, writing this piece is also a way for me to channel these transiting energies)

The manifestation and embodiment of a deeply integrated, well-balanced, and fully expressed natal chart is truly a beautiful thing.

These are the people that radiate profound congruence and alignment with their true essence. They emit a powerful vibration and presence. Their living environments, their occupations, their relationships, and all the tiny moments throughout their day seem to orbit in perfect symmetry around their core Self. As other people meet them they often exclaim, “oh wow, that job/relationship/lifestyle makes so much sense for you!”

Sounds too good to be true?

Maybe!

Granted, we are constantly moving through different qualities of time as the Earth spins and the planets continue to cycle. This requires regular fine-tuning and re-adjustments as we dynamically engage with life’s changes and figure out how to best express our “true self” in new circumstances and contexts.

This process of individuation and authentic self-expression is the work of a lifetime - and it’s something that astrology can help us with.

After careful assessment to determine what planetary being in your life and psyche is being ignored, suppressed, or out-of-balance in some way, I recommend focusing on its placement in your natal chart for a set period of time while repeatedly asking yourself as you encounter new situations:

What Would ___ (planet) in ___ (sign) Do?

This strategy is most effective for planetary energies that are deficient in your life, versus those that are dominating your chart’s expression, but you may also find this question creates self-awareness for those really loud and over-active planets.

You could add the natal house placement into this question as well, but this may be too limiting. The planets may be particularly active and strong in the areas of life indicated by the house in which they land, but we’d be in bad shape if we constrained them only to that realm. Imagine only having access to your emotions when you were traveling, in the case of a 9th house moon?

In terms of your natal houses, however, by working with a specific planet over the long-term you will notice that the topic areas delineated by the houses ruled by that planet become stronger and healthier (as well as the topics related to the house that the planet resides in).

So for example, my natal Mars in Sag placement doesn’t get the space and freedom for full expression that it craves.

Mars rules Aries and Scorpio.

I find these two signs ruling my 9th house (travel, cross-cultural experiences, belief systems, higher education), and my 4th house (home, roots, family, childhood experiences, private sphere). These are areas of life where I can expect to see healthy growth the more that I work intentionally with my Mars in Sag placement.

But I’ll just consider that a by-product for now, in order to keep things simple.

Working with Mars

Some signs that your Mars is out of balance:

feeling bitter and resentful; passive aggressive and conflict avoidant; extremely frustrated and easily irritated; directing anger inward as self-criticism or depression, or outward as unnecessary chaos and conflict; lethargic, with little motivation or access to willpower; resistant to taking action on anything or moving your body; overwhelmed by fear; unable to assert yourself and stand up for self/others.

Sometimes inflammatory health conditions are also signs of a poorly expressed Mars.

Disclaimer: Sometimes freeing your Mars involves therapy, trauma work, and medical appointments. A difficult Mars placement is rarely remedied by solely asking “What Would Mars Do?”, but it can be part of the process!

In recent posts I shared about working with Cayenne for the length of a lunar cycle as a way of strengthening my Mars energy (since Mars rules Cayenne).

In reflection, I believe this plant-planet journey was quite effective. I journeyed through some very challenging life terrain during that time period and I noticed that I seemed to be able to access a necessary and surprising amount of courage to bring me through.

Beyond signifying courage, Mars speaks to our capacity to defend and protect, as well as pursue and attack. Mars is present when we take action. Mars is present in our motivation, our willpower, our energy, our stamina, our anger, our independence, and our advocacy efforts. Mars is expressed through our sex drive and whenever we compete (especially physically through sports). 

As I’ve written about before, on a fundamental symbolic level, in contrast to Venus who aims to connect and harmonize, Mars cuts, it breaks, it severs, it separates, it pokes, it punctures, it penetrates, it intrudes.

Mars manifests as a more fierce, aggressive and intense energy compared to most of the other planets.

And now what about Sagittarius? 

Sagittarius is depicted as a centaur - half-horse and half-man - holding a bow and arrow. 

As with most of the mutable signs, Sagittarius expresses a duality with its imagery. It has been said that the horse-half represents our primal, untamed, animalistic nature, while the human-half represents our cognitive reasoning abilities:

“The centaur's half-human, half-horse composition has led many writers to treat them as liminal beings, caught between the two natures they embody in contrasting myths; they are both the embodiment of untamed nature… and conversely, teachers like Chiron.” (Wikipedia)

(Chiron, as you likely already know, was a centaur)

Since Mars’ essential nature is already quite primal, when Mars is in Sag I understand this placement as putting greater emphasis on the horse-half of Sagittarius, whereas Mercury in Sag (a placement that is active right now) brings out more of the human-half of the centaur - the part that is usually associated with higher learning and philosophizing. Still though, it’s a full centaur either way!

The freedom to explore, expand, and chase new and exciting horizons is paramount to Sagittarius.

Sagittarius (like its opposite sign Gemini) gets bored, irritable and restless with too much consistency and not enough movement and change. Sag is full of enthusiasm, optimism and vitality when it is experiencing adventure and exciting novelties.

Many of the other zodiac signs are more comfortable with mundane day-to-day life than Sag is, and a few even derive some pleasure or satisfaction from different types of challenges or suffering.

In contrast, to put it bluntly - Sag wants to have a good time. And when it doesn’t, its misery is truly torturous.

Jupiter-ruled Sagittarius is also a sign of abundance and generosity. At its most optimistic it trusts that there will be more than enough for everyone and it has complete faith that all needs will eventually be met. Within the realms traversed by the human-half of the centaur, Sagittarius’ generous nature and impulse to expand and spread outward leads it into situations where it can share and disseminate valuable knowledge and wisdom (such as via publishing something or teaching). 

These are all characteristics I think about when I ask myself: What Would Mars in Sag Do?

Every situation will elicit a unique answer, but in general I know Mars in Sag would likely respond with an immediate and spontaneous YES to whatever involves more expansion and movement, excitement and exploration, adventure and freedom.

Stereotypical characters that reflect Mars in Sagittarius

Sometimes it is helpful with this approach to strategic chart expression to have certain characters you can easily bring to mind when asking, “What Would Mars in Sag (or any other planet-in-sign combination) Do?” 

Here are some notes from my brainstorming…

Although we often attribute nature-based themes to the earth signs (Taurus in particular) Sagittarius, as mutable fire, has a close affinity to the wilds of nature - and conversely, studying for a doctorate degree at a prestigious university is also an expression of Sag’s essence.

This reflects the dual nature of Sagittarius and whether the new horizon is a literal one that requires physical movement to chase, or a mental one, that requires learning and study.

When I think of Mars in Sagittarius in particular, I think of the bushcraft enthusiast who acquires wilderness survival skills not necessarily because they pride themselves in their self-sufficiency and being able to tough it out in nature (as you might see with Capricorn types), but because they are chasing the joy of absolute freedom, unfettered by human-made structures.

When I think of Mars in Sagittarius, I imagine the explorer who leads expeditions into uncharted territory for the love of adventure, discovery and learning.

Or perhaps someone holding a leadership role at National Geographic Magazine, planning the articles for the next edition and assigning journalists and photographers their next project.

Another character that comes to mind with this placement is the missionary that travels to another country to proselytize and convert (Sagittarius has an affinity with all-encompassing religions as well as cross-cultural experiences, and Mars is aggressive and likes to push).

I’m critical of missionary efforts as I suspect many of us are, but perhaps a more acceptable expression of this type of Mars in Sag character would be a spiritual or religious person who advocates for the right to publicly practice their faith in a foreign country or an inhospitable region.

If you really want to get creative, all of these characters could potentially be fleshed out with names and distinctive personalities… so instead of What Would Mars in Sag Do, perhaps the more evocative question is:

“What Would Dave, the bushcraft enthusiast, Do in this situation?”

Lol

…but actually it is a serious suggestion 🙂

WWMSD: Some specific steps I can take right now to invoke and embody this placement…

• Mars in Sag loves to travel and although this isn’t really an accessible option for me at the moment, I can engage this placement by beginning to plan my dream trip (to my ancestral lands), fully trusting that it will happen one day soon.

• When I’m traveling or living in a new city my Mars in Sag comes alive and is always seeking out new experiences and places. I’m currently living in the city of my birth however, and I find I have to work harder to cultivate this enthusiasm for discovering new places in the area. Perhaps I try to visit a new place (e.g. cafe, park) once or twice per month going forward.

• I can passionately share my knowledge generously, growing the platforms I use and bravely being more public (without aggressively trying to convert anyone to my perspective).

• I’ve been thinking of picking up running again! Running used to be a lifeline for me and it was one of many pieces of myself I lost in 2016. Since Mars rules muscles and Sag rules the hips and legs, I’m thinking that running may prove to be a good outlet for this energy once again. People with Mars in Sag are notorious for pacing a room in circles when they have excess energy (meeee!), or they may struggle with restless leg syndrome - the legs just need to move when Mars is in Sag! Kickboxing could be another viable option if I wanted to try something new.

  

• I’m not sure if it is because I have Mars in Sag or a strong Saturn (also in Sag), but I would love to learn bushcraft survival skills someday. Maybe I could create a little plan that gradually introduces me to new skills and tools - beginning with learning how to start a fire efficiently.

Symbolic substitution ideas for Mercury-Mars-Neptune

This transit configuration will be gradually separating by the time this email lands in your inbox, but I wanted to circle back to the current sky because this transit does linger for a while.

If you read my last post, you’ll remember that I engaged with symbolic substitution as an astro-remediation technique to intentionally channel the energies of the first Mercury-Mars conjunction that happened on October 29th in Scorpio, opposite Jupiter in Taurus:

“I decided to intentionally direct the incoming energy by spending Sunday morning cutting with scissors (Mars) words (Mercury) out of old magazines and gluing them on a background to make a type of vision board for myself and the world (Jupiter loves visioning the future and bringing smaller pieces together to form the big picture).”

Because of Mercury’s current retrograde Mercury and Mars will have three distinct meet-ups in three different signs. The one that occurred on December 27th at 24 degrees Sagittarius, was the second conjunction.

This recent Mercury-Mars conjunction is not in aspect to Jupiter like the last one was, but it was/is squaring Neptune, which could have added an additional confusing challenge to the warrior and the messenger crossing paths (while the messenger is moving backwards). 

I’ve described Mars earlier in this post, but here’s a few keywords for Mercury and Neptune:

MERCURY: Writing, reading, learning, communicating, receiving info, planning, coming up with ideas, cars, siblings/cousins, pets and small animals.

NEPTUNE: Spirituality, transcendence, surrender, confusion, dreaming, imagination, idealism, disillusionment, deceit or hidden things, otherworldly experiences, dissolving the boundaries of the material world and the rational mind.

So this week we’ve been working with the themes and characteristics of Mars and Mercury meeting in Sagittarius, with a strong dose of Neptune blended in.

This may have been, or currently is, messy. But also, every single transit is absolutely perfect for something - it just may be up to us to intentionally work with the timing in order to engage in an aligned activity that matches the symbolism and allows the energy to flow smoothly.

Personally, knowing that this Mercury-Mars-Neptune configuration was strongly activating my chart, I chose the following activities for this week:

• Writing (Mercury) and publishing (Sag) this post about Mars in Sag in my birth chart (and I guess there’s a bit of Neptune in the imaginative exercises!)

  

• Reading a few chapters from a book on my list called “Stalking Wild Psoas: Embodying Your Core Intelligence” by Liz Koch. With Mars (inflammation, muscles) and Saturn (constriction) in Sag (sign of hips/psoas area) I’ve had ongoing discomfort and issues with my hips. Mercury of course, likes to read. Furthermore, the book has strong spiritual undertones and with chapter titles like “unraveling patterns,” “oceanic origins” and “undulating wholeness,” I think I have Neptune covered.

• Possibly going for a small run! As I mentioned, I haven’t run for years and I’m a bit intimidated, but that means it is a good Mars-like task for me. I could run while listening to a spiritual podcast to fulfill Mercury and Neptune’s needs at the same time.

• In addition to my intentional planning, life surprised me by sending me an idea that I’m super excited about. It involves writing (Mercury) on a Mars-related theme, and all additional details must be kept secret (Neptune). I’m not sure where it will take me since Neptune is involved and sometimes that means efforts fizzle out, but it aligns perfectly with the cosmic symbolism this week and I’m letting myself be excited!

What about you?

If you are still feeling some of the deflating, confusing, argumentative symptoms of this transit, you could try turning it around by contemplating your next big moves for 2024 while sitting in the bath or hot tub, as I referenced at the beginning of this post.

Mars is action-oriented, Mercury is full of ideas and plans, and Neptune appreciates being immersed in water (it also loves imagining and dreaming up possibilities beyond what currently exists in material reality).

Neptune could also be invoked in a pre-New Years 2024 planning session via psychedelics, meditation, or trance work.

It is definitely a week for dreaming.

Wait until Jupiter stations direct on Saturday and Mercury stations direct on New Year’s Day, to really get concrete and specific about your goals.

Unlike the astro of January 2023, which did not align with the Gregorian calendar at all, this time the cosmos has decided to work alongside the Gregorian New Year. I think it is very kind of Jupiter and Mercury to station direct as we cross the threshold into 2024. It should bestow early January with more of a “fresh start” feeling.

Perhaps you’d like to begin the New Year by intentionally working with a neglected planet in your natal chart?

If so, I hope this blog post proves helpful in that regard!