Mars square Saturn ℞ in Aries · North Node ℞ sextile Lilith in Sagittarius

The headline today is Mars square Saturn, just past exact by less than a degree, and I want to spend a moment on it because the mitigation matters. Mars is in fall in Cancer, Saturn retrograde and in fall in Aries — two weakened malefics leaning on each other. That could be ugly, except Saturn sits in Mars's domicile and is therefore received. Mars has authority over the guest in his house. The square is still a square: friction, overreach corrected by delay, tempers snagging on obligations. But reception means the argument concludes rather than festering. Ill-tempered, not catastrophic.

Mars is also sitting flat on Sirius, within a twentieth of a degree, which sharpens all of the above into something hotter and more visible than a Cancer Mars would otherwise manage. Ambition wants a stage today; the Saturn square is what refuses to give it one cleanly. Something to watch rather than fear.

The counterweight is Venus, at home in Libra and conjunct both Arcturus and Spica within half a degree. I'll take Spica — the more straightforwardly benefic of the two, and closer in signification to a domiciled Venus. Contracts, aesthetic work, anything requiring taste and timing: this is the hour for it. If the Mars-Saturn square has you braced, Venus is quietly doing the opposite thing on the other side of the chart.

The Moon is exalted in Taurus in the Stomach mansion, trine Mercury (domiciled, though combust and moving fast — an odd combination I keep turning over) and separating from a square to Jupiter. Storing, preserving, digesting yesterday's material. The Stomach mansion is a good one for provisioning.

Jupiter trine Saturn continues in the background, and Neptune sextile Pluto is doing whatever it is that generational sextiles do. I'll leave those where they belong, underneath.