Preparing for a Furious Fourth
I mentioned it in my last “Following the Moon” article and I will be noting it in my daily forecast, but what’s happening in the sky during this Fourth of July weekend requires special attention. Not only are we entering the holiday with the square between Saturn and Uranus still relatively close, but between July 1 and July 5 transiting Mars will be getting into the act, opposing Saturn and squaring Uranus.
The Saturn to Uranus square represent a clash between Saturn’s love of tradition, structure and order and the irresistible forces of change represented by Uranus. It is a battle between opposites in which neither side wins. No structure or tradition is immune to change and every change eventually results in a new structure. Still, the tension of this long-term square is something we all are feeling.
Making the situation even more confusing is the fact that sometimes Saturn and Uranus are on the same side. For example, the Republican Party right now is very much behind the Uranian figure of Donald Trump because he promises the stop social change. Meanwhile, the radical changes in our daily lives that have come with the pandemic have been endorsed, and sometimes mandated, by the government.
The friction between these two planets has a lot to do with the anger the seems to be bubbling up in various places around the country. The most startling example of this was the invasion of the Capitol Building by Trump supporters on Jan. 6, but we can also see it in the random shootings and other violent incidents that are always in the news. By extension, we can also see Uranus vs. Saturn issues in the heat wave that is currently baking both the northwest and northeast of this country and the collapse of that condo in Florida.
Into this planetary situation already filled with explosive elements, Mars enters like a lit match. At one level this could playout in the most commonplace way. After all, the Fourth is the holiday in which afternoons of too much beer meet evenings of amateur pyrotechnics. All the things that could go wrong with that combination could be just turned up a couple of notches by this T-square.
However, we can’t forget the anger that is simmering beneath the surface in this country, where a third or more the people remain convinced that the “wrong” person was elected president last November. Mars squaring Saturn and opposed to Uranus could bring us an eruption of that deluded rage.
Mars will creep within a degree of an opposition to Saturn on Thursday, July 1. It will be within a degree of this opposition and a square to Uranus on July 2. On July 3rd, 4th and 5th Mars will still be within a degree of the square to Uranus. However, on the 4th the Moon will also be transiting Taurus. It will conjunct Uranus and square both Mars and Saturn around midday, thereby creating the perfect storm of planetary indicators. A lot of people are going to be feeling some extreme emotions during this period. The way in which they actualize those feelings could have a lot to do with how the rest of us enjoy the holiday.
Of course, I’m focusing on events in the United States. There are plenty of other places around the globe where the tensions created by the Saturn to Uranus square could explode, without any reference to our American holiday. And yet, we have to expect that the symbolism of the Fourth of July will have special meaning to those people who see defying our government as an expression of patriotism.
The celestial fireworks don’t end on July 5th. Just as Mars moves away from it’s aspects to Saturn and Uranus, Venus, which is also transiting Leo, takes its place. It will oppose Saturn and square Uranus on July 6, 7 and 8. But, instead of inflaming the Saturn to Uranus square, Venus typically bring healing, and that’s something that we all might need after the events of this weekend.
