Resolving Conflicting Symbolisms

Without getting extremely technical here, let’s look at some principles that will help with the resolution of contradictions, just as a single faucet can accommodate hot water AND cold water together. These principles will help with classical aspects, natal and solar Arc midpoint pictures.

Mars-Saturn This is hot and cold! Mars is the suggestion of how we characteristically apply our energy to fulfill needs. E.g. Mars in Capricorn will need to apply energy one way, and Mars in Pisces in quite another; this is clear.

Saturn is the suggestion of controls that are somehow necessary, necessarily internalized for eventual efficiency in our expression and growth. Discipline, confinement, channeling are all necessary to direct the flow of a mighty river, to focus the current of electrical power, to guide a person through straits and narrows of the life path (paternal discipline, the super ego, people in authority, religious deity).

With these thoughts put together, we see that essential energies fight with necessary controls. Very often, the result is a stalemate, or there is awkward indecision. Very often, the resolution is that one channel will be picked over another: i.e., “You let me bloom over here, and I’ll let you tighten things up over there.”

For example, a female client has a tight Mars-Saturn conjunction in Sagittarius (arch opinionation disciplined (justified) with the sense of economy and ethics, even legalisms). Her Mars-Saturn is quindecile her Midheaven. The hot and cold blend will have a laser-energy-focus in her profession. –What will be the resolution?

Saturn, in turn is square my client’s Sun/Moon midpoint, a vitally overpowering statement about depression of relationship. THAT was the sacrifice. And this surmise is corroborated by Neptune, ruler of her 7th, being squared by Uranus. –My client is head of her own business, is 44 years old, and is not in any close relationship, for some time.

The principle here is to look for a kind of “bargain” between Mars and Saturn: the energy can not take complete wipe-out, of course; the controls having some voice somewhere will help create a functioning balance, giving the energy some freedom.

Uranus-Saturn Here is the clash between the avant garde and the conventional; the liberal and the conservative; the new and the old. When these two force-symbols are in conjunction, square, or opposition, this polarized tension will surely exist in life development. It is often a very good sign that a person will eventually be able to leave the oppressive past behind, “get out of Dodge”, as it were, and free one’s self of the tie to upset and underachievement. In other words, over time, Uranus will win.

Pope John Paul II has Saturn rising opposed by Uranus, with this axis squared by an extremely idealized Taurus group in the 9th House. Here is his personal (the Church’s) idealism clashing strongly with the dictates of the conventional past and the demands of the liberal present and future. –The Pope appears not to be able to make a decision, not able to take action; the issue of freeing the clergy from the celibacy vow has been going on for a long time (the Pope has a weak Mars in Libra, retrograde and peregrine). But we know the Uranian arm of the dilemma will transcend the controls of the traditional past.

And note, please, the horoscope drawn within “Notebook” this month, the celebrity who never publicly admitted his homosexuality: Uranus square the Sun, ruler of the 8th, part of the sexual profile here; Saturn in the 8th square the Sun. Here are two pressures: Saturn “won” for the secrecy, but Uranus “won” for the public acknowledgement of his death by AIDS, the secret finally coming out.

Jupiter-Saturn This “Great Conjunction” focuses the ideas of “law and order,” the ideal resolve between judicious development and strategic curtailment. This is discipline at its highest. In an individual horoscope, the focus is on “proving a point” (whenever Jupiter and Saturn are in conjunction, square, or opposition, and often in any other aspect with each other). THAT question –“What point do you think all this is trying prove?”— will often crown a consultation discussion with bottom-line significance. The client will almost invariably be trying to prove some point with life activity … a dynamic and far-reaching surmise.

In Mundane Astrology, the Grand Conjunctions of these two planets every 21-22 years or so carry great cosmic dynamism into Earth consciousness. The Jupiter-Saturn conjunction of 1980 occurred precisely rising at the site of Mecca, Saudi Arabia, signaling the rise of enforced justice within the Islamic world, unfortunately depicting internecine rivalries and proselytizing upon the outside world.

Uranus-Neptune The principle here is the clash of intensification and suppression. The forces are very, very strong, and in an individual’s horoscope (when these planets are square, opposed, or conjunct each other) will suggest a revolutionary way, a topsy-turvy, unconventional way of doing something that is fully justified personally; and, as well, membership in a sub-generation of people trying to make things right in the world.

The female client above (see Mars-Saturn), in her dedication of energies to her profession at the expense of conventional relationship in parallel, has her 7th House ruler Neptune squared by Uranus, ruler of her 6th. The cooperation dynamic (6th House) to support relationship was down-played, not pursued. The absence of the personal relationship –“overthrown” if you will—was completely understood and justified in terms of the professional ascendancy.

***These points of synthesis should be very helpful in your preparation of analysis. Think them through in the context of your client’s development. Frame the probing question that will elicit corroboration or adjustment from your client and key rich conversation. Know you’re on the right track!