The question we are left with is: are your feelings really your feelings, or are in some way obliged to follow emotional and social choreography, or go into guilt/scandal mode if you do not? These are questions that require real awareness, because our conditioned responses are typically so automatic and self-righteous.
Mars retrograde in Libra (March 1 through May 19) was a study in gender and projection. It peeled back a few layers revealing how much emotional garbage the sexes project on one another. We got a look at how the supposed differences between the sexes are greatly exaggerated. Any time you hear someone saying that one sex is fundamentally different than the other, that's time to stop and question whether it's vaguely true, and to notice whether it's part of a marketing campaign. It might be true, though I'm suggesting a moment of reflection—because it might not be.
There was something to this transit about dashed hopes in relationship and how angry so many people are that relationships don't work out for them. There was something about owning one's disappointment and anger and not projecting that onto others. And Mars retrograde in Libra (and its ongoing presence there in direct motion, which transitions this month) is about owning your own desire and not projecting it onto others—as if they are the only ones who feel these things and somehow you do not.
One brief thought about the three Mercury retrogrades this year. They all involve Mercury's movement between water signs and air signs, starting on the watery side and retrograding back into the air sign. The Mercury retrograde that ended on March 1 began in Cancer (a water sign) and ended in Gemini (an air sign).
The message here is that you cannot think with your emotions. It's necessary to feel and to think, and to know the difference—and to apply an appropriate response when you have the chance to do so. There's also a message about the difference between emoting and feeling; emoting is output mode, feeling is input mode—it really is that simple.
We are about to move into new territory. This month two elements of the grand cross that's been the defining factor of 2014 astrology move on to new signs—Jupiter ingresses Leo on July 16 and Mars ingresses Scorpio on July 25. Put simply, the grand cross is over, though the Uranus-Pluto square I've written about many times in this space continues well into next year. More on that another time.
Jupiter in Leo: The Gold Standard of Self-Esteem
Jupiter in Leo is to me an image of self-esteem. It's an image of valuing oneself, and of allowing that sense of value to grow and expand. It's difficult to describe the self-esteem problem because it's so widespread, and because so many people take it for granted in their own lives.
It's a kind of ever-present cultural toxin that fades into the background, then seems to run the show. It does this by setting a low standard of what one's own life and ideas are worth. It is this standard that we need to raise for ourselves and put out as an example to others.
Let's look at the astrology first. Leo, as the sign ruled by the Sun, is the backbone of the zodiac. It is a symbol that represents the idea of vital force, or the main line of energy that supports life and consciousness. It is possible to block or afflict the vital force but not to make it go away. You might think of self-esteem as having a connection to one's own vitality and sense of one's own existence, and the lack of self-esteem as blockage to that connection.
The problem is that this thing in the way appears as a lack of some kind, when it may be that what has to happen is that a blockage must be removed and one's own natural energy allowed to flow. It's just that there are so many judgments around that flow of vital energy—of really being alive—that the judgments become part of the blockage, which appears as a lack.
Think of Jupiter as the place where you invest your faith. It's the place where you expect to get a result of some kind, without having to do much except allow yourself to be who you are. The most effective ways to block that are guilt, denial and deception. But if those are seen as some kind of helpful thing, serving some kind of purpose, then one might not want to address them.
