Mars in Cancer

Mars in Cancer: The following is an update of a short section on Mars in Cancer that was in my recent Mountain Astrologer article on Mars.

Starting just a few days ago on September 29, and lasting for about six months, Mars is in Cancer (although it will briefly move back into Gemini during that time). True, Mars goes through Cancer every two years, but as Lynne Hayes has pointed out, it’s not often that it goes retrograde and spends almost half a year in the same sign. Lynn also notes that Mars in Cancer tends to adopt a more defensive, less aggressive attitude. While Mars is in Cancer, it will be hitting the U.S. Sun.

1960-61 and 1992-93 were the two most recent instances of Mars going retrograde while in Cancer. Both times, quite coincidentally, marked transitions to new U.S. leadership—Kennedy was elected in 1960 and Clinton in 1992. Kennedy’s election, especially, revolved around Cold War martial issues of national defense. Although Mars will have moved out of Cancer by the time of the national election next November, it will be in Cancer throughout the primaries. As I have pointed out in other articles, there is a lot in common between the coming election of 2008 and the one in 1960.

Throughout its lengthier sojourn through Cancer, defensive martial energy will be hitting the U.S. Cancer planets: the Sun, Mercury, and Jupiter. In a synchronous alignment with the U.S. horoscope, transiting Mars in 2008 will be stationary retrograde when it hits the U.S. Sun in mid-November, 2007, and then go stationary direct on January 30, 2008, when it will be less than 3° away from the U.S. Mars.

Martial energy will be strongly influencing the U.S. as it moves into the early presidential primaries. This does not mean we are going to invade Iran. The retrograde motion of Mars symbolizes the re-evaluation and re-consideration of military force as it has been applied to the Iraq War. This is already happening. House hearings into the Blackwater defense contract, and the use of outside contractors as a supplemental army with little accountability, began today (is it just me, or doesn't the use of heavily armed protectors riding rough-shod through the streets and wielding shoulder-fired rockets to protect diplomats appear to subvert the entire idea behind diplomacy?).

Cardinal ingress charts, when the Sun first enters each of the four cardinal signs during the year, can be good prediction tools. A Capricorn ingress chart (see below--you can click on the chart to make it bigger) is especially useful for the upcoming presidential primary elections, which are all clustered in the first three months of the year. A Capricorn ingress chart for the end of 2007, leading into 2008, reveals five planets clustered around the cardinal axis of Cancer-Capricorn. Mars in Cancer opposes a Capricorn stellium of Pluto, Sun, Jupiter, and Mercury. Jupiter at 0° Capricorn conjuncts the Sun exactly, showing enlargement of issues surrounding the presidency (Sun) as we move into an election season.

The fact that Mars is opposite Pluto—as well as three other planets—in the Capricorn ingress chart shows that military action (i.e., the Iraq War) will be a major national issue in the election. Mars, although debilitated in Cancer, is the most elevated planet in this ingress chart. However, since this ingress chart is setting the tone for an election year, complete with primaries and the election of a new president, Mars’ position shows that the political debate will revolve not just around the Iraq War but around the appropriate projection of military force—in other words, national “defense.”