It's a subtle occasion when the seasons start to turn in Florida. The heat and humidity stretch to the point that it feels like we only have two seasons, hot and slightly less hot. One must be acutely tuned to the slightest nuances in weather to feel the morning that is just a few degrees cooler than the past week, or that breeze that somehow has the smallest hint of future frosts. In north Florida, we won’t get truly cooler weather until late October if we’re lucky, but the stage is beginning to be set now as the sun moves steadily through Virgo on its way to the Autumnal Equinox.
I think you would be hard-pressed to find someone who didn’t feel the magical current in the turning of the seasons. We moderns are somewhat divorced from the necessity of heeding the signs nature gives us to sow and reap, but beyond that, there is an undeniable energy that prompts a restlessness for the next thing that arises within us too. A turning, a pivot towards the darkness of winter and towards the new green things that spring after.
Seasons are patterns. Humans are professional pattern finders. We like to see them everywhere and our brains are constantly comparing and contrasting everything to see if it fits within the nice boxes patterns provide for us. The concept of a pattern implies that things and ideas follow a certain sameness, but we must not harden our thoughts and experiences into the stiffness of a pattern at the expense of extinguishing the uniqueness each moment can hold. To mistake sympathy for sameness reduces our agency. It flattens out our cultural expressions as a society, reducing culture to constant repetitions of the same ideas over and over again with no increase in novelty. Hollywood’s infinite string of reboots and sequels are an example of this.
If you’ve ever played with divination you know that predictions often have a strange way of fulfilling themselves in the most unexpected but accurate ways. We carefully search the patterns to find meaning, but the cards resist. A Death card pulled in the morning turns out to predict being stuck in traffic behind a funeral procession. A challenging Mars transit to your first house might just be a bad haircut. We simply cannot determine ahead of time the strange ways the energies will often fulfill their meta-narratives while preserving the uniqueness of the experience.
Viewed a certain way, we could understand this to be the dynamic of play between the One and the Many. This multiplicity is perhaps why the domain of magic is often attributed to the fleet feet of Mercury, or the Moon and her many changing faces. The same, but different, and infinitely so. Patterns often rhyme but are rarely exact copies of a set experience.
Last week Mars moved into Cancer and will be there until November 3 when it moves into Leo. In a move ripe with potential symbolism (if you are an American, at least), Mars will retrograde back into Cancer on January 6th of 2025 and will retrograde back to 17° Cancer before pivoting and going back into Leo on April 19. The months ahead will undoubtedly be colored by quite a lot of Mars in Cancer.
Mars is in its fall in the sign of Cancer. According to an ancient Hellenistic source, the Michigan Papyrus, when a planet is in its fall, it is considered to be imprisoned:
In these signs the stars have their own powers and are vigorous. And nature assigned them thrones and prisons; their thrones the signs upon which they are exalted and have royal power and prisons wherein they are depressed and oppose their own powers.
Depending on the house that the sign of Cancer occupies in your natal chart, you may have felt dramatic and sudden effects from this ingress. This last week was hell at work for me, and it highlighted how my work situation is acting as an imprisoning factor in a lot of ways in my personal life. The sign of Cancer for me is the 6th house of work, routine, and health. I have a lot of introspection to do in that department in the weeks ahead.
As I have written before, Mars in Cancer holds space for the opportunity to slay whatever internal emotional blockages are holding you hostage so that you can come fully into your power. Be careful though, and tread thoughtfully so as to keep the energies from overwhelming you or burning your own fingers in the process.
To me, this feels like a season of change. The meta-narrative pattern is set by the space weather, but our individual experiences may play out in a myriad of ways. We may move with it, or struggle against it. We may use divination to shine light and help guide us towards our best future. Or we may simply go on, as we always do —discovering and acting on each moment as it comes. There is no right or wrong way.
A Mars in Cancer Divination
I’m using tarot, but I think this method could be adapted to whatever you like so long as you can fit your technique to the questions. Well, probably only just runes, but your mileage may vary. Shoot for the moon they say.
The purpose of this divination is to survey the battlefield and devise a strategy to go forward through this Mars in Cancer season, but it could be applied to any situation where you are unsure of how to proceed towards a goal. The spread itself is inspired by lunar-martial energies. There are nine cards, the number of the Moon and its sphere Yesod mirroring the lunar cycle. However, the metaphor is purely Martial. Shuffle the deck as you see fit and then lay out 9 cards as shown below:
Card 1 - The Enemy: Corresponding to the new Moon, this card shows what you are up against. Perhaps it is known, or perhaps it is hidden. Either way, this is the obstacle in your path.
Card 2 - The Call: It is not enough to have an abstract enemy out there somewhere, there must also be something to rouse the warrior to battle. What is calling you to action?
Card 3 - The Weapon: What do you bring to battle? Is it your wits, your compassion, or something else?
Card 4 - The Ally: Who helps you along the way?
Card 5 - The Battle: A full moon is an opposition of the Lunar and the Solar. Internal and external. What happens when you face your foe?
Card 6 - The Turning Point: In every battle the scales begin to tip one way or another. What signifies the turn towards victory?
Card 7 - Victory: What brings you to victory? And what does it look like?
Card 8 - The Journey Home: The battle is over and won, but now begins the journey home. Our hero is changed. Who is it that now walks the road home?
Card 9 - What is Left Behind: What is left behind on the battlefield in the dark of the moon?
Some Housekeeping
I know it’s been a while since I last posted. Thank you to all those who have subscribed recently just on faith that I’d post again after several years.
Additionally, you may be interested in a new podcast called Dispatches from Post-Reality. I am creating the art for the show episode covers and social media posts. It touches on some of the same esoteric subject matter you’ve come to love from this newsletter but with a decidedly funnier and much more casual tone. Check it out!