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If we can't forgive ourselves, we can't forgive others.
By Kate Rose — Written on Jan 27, 2020
There are challenging times ahead when our zodiac signs experience Mars square Neptune, with Mars in Sagittarius and Neptune in Pisces, on January 28th. This transit will create an atmosphere in which negative energy can take root, causing us to feel stuck or depressed.
Mars is the planet of motivation and ambition, yet also rules the divine masculine. Currently in Sagittarius, this planet is about utilizing the greater meaning behind what drives us and acting upon it. Slightly more thoughtful than when in Aries, this transit enables us to act but think about the affects of our choices a bit more deeply.
Mars together with Neptune means we may feel like we’re suddenly facing reality about what we’ve done and who we are.
In astrology, a square is when two planets are within 90 degrees of one another, usually creating a stressful or hard aspect. Just one day ago, we saw a square between Venus and Mars, which stirred up our souls and the feelings that reside there, while a conjunction between Venus and Neptune also occurred.
And so, this is the other side of that energy. This is realizing that maybe we couldn’t act on those desires and feelings we felt pull at us, and the reason isn’t because we can’t, but because we either block ourselves from receiving the best parts of life due to our feelings of unworthiness, or because we’ve burned bridges we wished we hadn’t.
Astrology is about balance — balance in life and balance in the natural world. But it’s also about having us experience what we’re meant to, when we’re meant to. These three planets represent a lot of what are the most important parts of life: ambition, desire, love, finances, spirituality, dreams and unconditional love. Two of these planets, Venus and Neptune, are both in Pisces, a water sign, while Mars is in the fire sign of Sagittarius.
Sometimes, the feeling that we try to put off awareness is truth. We try to ignore how we’ve hurt others, how we’ve created this bed that we now find ourselves laying within, because it means that maybe we had something great; it wasn’t lost or taken from us, but it was destroyed because we weren’t ready.
It was a path not chosen because we were still in our own growth, and were still processing our feelings and wounds. So, we couldn’t do anything but hurt because we were still in pain.
While our zodiac signs won’t have to encounter this energy again until 2021, it doesn’t mean it is fast-moving.
Sometimes when we see these planetary alignments that only occur once a year on average, it’s because we’re meant to focus on something that we had previously missed or that we’re being drawn into, so we don’t. In this case, this aspect occurs roughly around the Lunar New Year on January 25th, with the new moon in Aquarius.
The energy of this moon will likely carry over a lot of the erratic energy of the eclipses because it’s still connected to the previous cycle, and also because, now that Uranus is fully direct, we’re more apt to make those bigger changes within our lives.
This means that while we run the risk of being more in our heads or even hearts, and feeling guilt or even hopelessness at previous choices that have affected our current life situation, the good news is that we’re not stuck. We are not bound to feel this way, we are not condemned to only live in regret or even the allure of "what if" because we have free will.
And just as we sometimes use this free will to make those choices, we later wished we hadn’t; we can also use it to be an advocate for ourselves and pursue those life paths of second chances at love with those on our mind.
Because of the Mars influence over our ambition and motivation, and Neptune’s illusions that often fool us, we may not realize that we have a choice over how we feel. Just because it may look impossible doesn’t mean it is; just because it seems that a path has closed off doesn’t mean that is the truth.
What Mars wants to teach us in this square is not to trust our minds when our hearts are unfulfilled.
Don’t listen to all the reasons as to why we don’t deserve happiness or love, and instead focus on those that represent why we do. Mars wants us to face down the guilt, the insecurity, the hypersensitivity, and even anxiety and over-thinking. Mars wants us to stop letting our old storyline dictate our future, so this transit is about pushing aside that curtain of Neptunian illusion and simply taking a chance.
We are nothing but the truth that we choose to live by. We are our thoughts and our feelings. Our desires and the passions that burn deep inside of us. This is what we live for. This is what we live by. And, yes, perhaps we have regrets; perhaps we look at choices we’ve made (or didn’t) as mistakes but in truth it was all part of the beautiful map that brought us to this moment.
We can’t love ourselves but hate the experiences that shaped us. We can’t believe in hope yet not let ourselves feel it, so this transit is about finally forgiving ourselves for not knowing then what we do now.
It’s never too late to make good on your fate. It’s never too late to try again, to forgive yourself, to ask for forgiveness or even forgive another. It’s never too late to say "I love you" or to take chances.
We feel what we do for a reason — not to mess us up or throw us off track, but because our hearts are the compass for the direction we take in life.
Kate Rose is an artist, writer, passionate yogi, spiritual astrologist, relationship and life coach, and motivational speaker. As a spiritual intuitive, she practices the religion of astrology and love. For more of her work, visit her website.