Scorpio I: Who Invited Mars

Hoooo boy, what better way to usher in the decans of Scorpio than with Mars, the traditional ruler of Scorpio. While there have been a couple of grim tableaus so far in our decanic journey, nothing is quite so grim as the V of Cups with it's associated majors of the Tower (Mars) and Death (Scorpio).

Interestingly, this year Mars was actually in the first decan of Scorpio along with the Sun for about three days. One of those days was Halloween, which was also the day a long-time canine family member suddenly passed away. It was also the day my husband and I got into a big argument and I went to bed feeling very much like the figure on the V of Cups.

If shit is going down, look to Mars. While Mars is classically known as the "lesser malefic" (with Saturn being the greater), my experience is that Mars is where all the acute pain is. Like the Tower, Mars is all about sudden and painful endings. If other things are astrologically piling up, it's usually Mars coming in to some sort of formation that then triggers a cascade of shit. For example, the Jan 6th US insurrection attempt, which happened while Mars was square Pluto, Mercury, Saturn, and Jupiter basically igniting pressure that had been building up since at least the Saturn Jupiter conjunction.

Sudden and violent loss captured beautifully, as always, in the Animal Totem tarot.