Mars is now in Sagittarius, leaving his domicile in Scorpio, where he led a rare four-planet stellium. He has lost its essential dignity (domicile and triplicity) and is now peregrine, ruled by Jupiter. And not just any Jupiter, a Jupiter exalted in Cancer and about to turn retrograde.
I. Technical
The dispositor is now ready to turn inward, in introspection and review. Also, there is no direct Pythagorean aspect between the ruled (Mars in Sagittarius) and the ruler (Jupiter in Cancer), This means that Mars acts under the guidance of a Jupiter that does not see him from the Nadir of the wheel. The influence exists without visual correspondence. The result is a form of blind obedience between ruler and ruled. Fertile, yes, but confused.
There is also an elemental dissonance, as Mars stands in mutable fire and Jupiter in cardinal water. A conflict between the two primordial elements of creation, in the exact opposites. It is nevertheless an opportunity for hierarchical integration. The fire of Mars needs the water of Jupiter to find purpose; whilst the water of Jupiter needs the fire of Mars to avoid stagnation.
The ingress takes place on a Tuesday – the very day of Mars -, which reinforces the intensity of the beginning. It is as if the planet, changing sign on its own day, lights the torch of a new passage with the iron still hot from the previous battle.
On its first day in Sagittarius, Mars already faces an opposition to Uranus retrograde at 0° Gemini, which intensifies the sense of sudden liberation, rupture of patterns, or ideological rebellion. Mars is entering Sagittarius with an explosion of movement, but meets at once the shock of the unexpected, the hermetic lightning that cuts the mental horizon.
On November 12, Mars and Mercury meet at 6° Sagittarius, within the bound of Jupiter himself, according to the Egyptian division. Both therefore act under the Jovian law. And not just any law, since their ruler and dispositor Jupiter will be on his first day of retrogradation. It is a conjunction between the God of the Word (Hermes) and the God of Action (Ares). And the fact that Mercury is also retrograde adds a crucial dimension of revisiting, reconsideration and reinterpretation. It is their second full-fledged meeting following a conjunction in Scorpio the month before.
Besides this, this Mars in mutable fire affects his two thrones: Scorpio and Aries. The former is particularly important, as the Sun is still traveling through it, soon to be joined by Venus in exile and then Mercury retrograde. From Sagittarius, Mars will once more rule three planets in the upcoming weekes.
II. Symbolic
Mars in Sagittarius is the warrior rising from the tomb. Once plunged in the blood of Scorpio, his cutting blade lifts toward the Sun. He becomes the soldier-philosopher who fights for a high-ceiling truth. But his commander is Jupiter ready to be retrograde in Cancer: the Master withdrawn, guarding the foundations of the zodiac wheel. The disciple (Mars) lacks an external oracle and the the danger is a crusade without a cause.
There is an added note of importance here: Sagittarius is the first of the transpersonal signs, the one that opens the final 120-degree arc of the zodiac turned toward Heaven. After the plunge through the subterranean waters of Scorpio, Mars is now carrying the individual will into the sphere of the Divine. It is the point where will ceases to fight merely for survival and begins to fight for meaning, following the initiatory purification of Scorpio.
In the Tree of Life, this relation between Jupiter and Mars touches the path Tet, between Chesed and Geburah – the Serpent. This is the transit where the expansive, masculine mercy is facing the feminine severity, horizontally, like two mirrors. Mars (Geburah) is now being ruled by his opposite Jupiter (Chesed). The sword must serve kindness, the pedagogical cutting of lies.
The iron of Mars, now steeped in mutable and unstable fire of Sagittarius, burns with restlessness and quest, a flame that moves. But its pulse is governed by the tin of Jupiter, gentle and circumspect, withdrawn into the cardinal waters of Cancer.
And we must not forget that Sagittarius is always a paradoxical elevation: the centaur, half beast, half theurgist. The instinct still throbs, but it already points toward the star. In the iron of Mars remains the memory of Scorpio – passion, trauma, purgation -, but also the bow aimed at the mountain where Spirit ascends.
III. Operative
The ingress of Mars into Sagittarius demands a change in the direction of vital energy. After weeks of diving into deep and obscure waters, the body asks for a horizon. And yet the retrograde Jupiter imposes an inner discipline: impulse must serve the Spiritual ideal, not the inflamed ego. The sword must be consecrated to the altar.
This is a teaching kind of fire. Action (Mars) now needs a higher meaning (Jupiter), or it scatters into rhetoric and waste. The danger is the fanaticism of the drunken centaur; but the virtue is the praying warrior who travels in silence. And, with Uranus in opposition, the first lesson is freedom. Every structure or doctrine that imprisons the flame will be broken. A release of energy so that it may serve the inner master of Jupiter turned inward in Cancer.
Also, Sagittarius is the house of meaning, of living theology, of the path that binds man to the Idea. Mars here calls for ardent study: not mere pasive reading, but active quest, like one travelling with a torch. Any form of Sacred learning, especially related to Law, Logos, or symbolic integration, gains potency. It is a time to read with blood, as Nietzsche once said.
It is a also good moment for rituals that join body and word, such as prayers spoken in motion, meditative walks, recitation of psalms while acting, or concrete acts of justice and service inspired by faith. The soul learns to act in the name of, not against.
Κύριε ελέησον