Mars Retrograde in Cancer: Egg-pocalypse Now

December already feels much longer ago than it really is, yet many of us feel that we are going backward. For a change, the planetary culprit is not Mercury retrograde (Rx), but Mars Rx, which began its long, slow, stumbling dance back-assward on 12/6. Until 1/6, Mars was in Leo; not the best sign for Mars to transit, but by no means the worst, though Mars in Leo did form two dodgy oppositions to Aquarius planets (Venus and Pluto) during the holiday season. This could've led to confusion re friends with benefits, "situationships," and other dynamics that confused the heart, the head, and the nether reaches throughout the end-of-year festivities.

But that is ancient history, at least until Mars reenters Leo and opposes Pluto again. I am here to discuss what Mars is up to now. Traditional astrology maintains that Mars in Cancer is in its "fall," i.e., debilitated, even more so than Mars in the Venus signs of Libra or Taurus. This is because the sign of Cancer, though Cardinal (i.e., able to start things and lead), is ill suited to the nature of Mars. Ruled by the Moon, Cancer is indirect, sensitive, subtle, reflective, intuitive, and moody; none of those traits are associated with the go-getting, aggressive, straightforward MO of warlike Mars. Mars retrograde in any sign unfortunately indicates a period of time in which bullies prevail.

On 1/6 (a day that may or may not live on in infamy in the US), Mars slipped back into Cancer. On 1/15, Mars opposed the Sun in Capricorn (which manifested in the L.A. fires and the loss of Capricorn genius David Lynch), and on 1/23, just three days after Inauguration Day in the US, Mars sextiled Uranus in Taurus. A sextile presents as opportunity for revolution; unfortunately, in this case, the revolution is unfolding on the wrong side of history, and the Fourth Estate (the free press) has been bought, sold, and muzzled. It is worth mentioning that the United States of America is a Cancer Sun, as well as Elon Musk, the power behind King Trump (much as I hate to mention it, being a Cancer Sun myself). The Project 2025 architects and executors are feeding on our fear and suffering (as David Lynch put it, garmonbozia, which looks like the worst creamed corn imaginable). With Mars retrograde in the sign of its fall, the US is being attacked (Mars) from within (retrograde). I also tend to believe that any planet Retrograde must deal with its shadow side, although since the sign is Cancer, any confrontation is more like a moonwalk. Also on 1/23, Mars opposed Mercury, marking the beginning of the purge of federal employees, who were pressured to resign or simply fired via email, as well as Trump issuing executive order after executive order on acts designed to isolate the US from the rest of the world and not help a single non-billionaire American.

A fittingly grim metaphor for Mars Retrograde in Cancer is the avian flu that has rendered eggs, if you can even find them anymore, a luxury good. This is because the sign of Cancer rules eggs, and an afflicted Mars can lead to health issues (specifically fever, inflammation, and "attacks"). If this flu spreads to cows, look for the same thing to occur with dairy products (also Cancerian foods). And now that the US has been withdrawn from the WHO and the CDC now stands for Censored Denied Communication, we are flying blind and are vulnerable (Cancer again!) to infectious disease, including a new pandemic. But worry not: soon an anti-science, anti-vax ex-junkie with a worm in his brain will head the Health Dept. and we can all sleep better at night.

Today Mars trined Saturn in Pisces, with the Moon in Cancer heightening the intensity. A trine is the most harmonious aspect, since the two or more planets are of the same element (in this case, Water), but the planets involved in this trine are at odds with each other: if Mars is the motor, Saturn is the brakes. Saturn, which is structure, rules, discipline, and authority, also does not do so well in dreamy, escapist, boundary-free Pisces. I am just hoping that for a change, the news (or whatever sane-washing articles pass for the news) does not turn my stomach.

Speaking of which, if your stomach has been more sensitive than usual, you can thank Mars in Cancer. I happen to have this placement natally, and I have had more upset stomachs in the past month than in the past year.

I also really wish that project managers would read this so they can stop pushing untenable deadlines on their teams. The combination of winter sluggishness (yes, the days are lengthening, but it's been a cold, snowy winter for many of us) and Mars retrograde can really put a damper on one's energy levels. If there was any justice at all, we could all hibernate or take a break for the next two weeks, until Mars finally turns direct on 2/23. But that is simply not the gung-ho, powering-through American Way.

What about protesting in the streets? If you insist, but with Mars doing anything in Cancer, call your elected officials from the comfort of your home instead.

If I sound unpatriotric, I am not. I am upset, tired, and in mourning for what America has turned into, thanks to the fact that 1/3 of eligible citizens did not cast a vote and a plurality voted to reinstate (against their own self-interest) a twice-impeached failed-businessman personality-disordered felon for a variety of reasons ranging from low information (e.g., the promise of lower gas and grocery prices) to delusion (Trump has learned his lesson, doesn't roll with Project 2025, and will surround himself with good, smart people) to racism (not wanting a Black woman to be president) to wanting a strongman to Make America Even Crueler Again. We are now a third-rate Banana Republic that soon won't have a single ally left in this world, which will probably make certain other strongmen dictators very pleased indeed.

And this is really for another rant that around 11 people will read, but we in the US (and probably other increasingly right-wing countries as well) haven't seen anything yet. Once Neptune leaves Pisces and enters Aries this spring, the fun will really begin.

11/9/61: Brian Epstein Meets the Beatles on Their Turf - The Cavern Club

“He was incredibly honest and a little naive, but he entered a world that was totally alien to him. I don’t think the Beatles will ever acknowledge how lucky they were to meet up with a man who was devoted to them so completely and an honest man to boot.” -- George Martin, the Beatles' producer

Since it's been nearly a year since I've posted on this site, I thought I'd warm up with something that makes me feel, well, warm instead of numb, despairing, and anxious.

And it just so happens that it was 63 years ago today that Brian Epstein spent what would turn out to be most crucial lunch hour of his life witnessing the Beatles play a set at the Cavern Club, a jazz club in Liverpool that was turning toward pop music. By then, the Beatles had become the Cavern's house band. It was most likely at high noon on that November day that Brian Epstein first laid eyes on the group on their home turf. The Beatles already knew of Brian as they were all customers at the nearby NEMS (North End Music Store) he managed -- the hip component of his retailer family's business. What's more of a question mark is how Brian knew (or did not know) of the Beatles: the official story is that Raymond Jones, a teenage boy shopping at NEMS, asked Brian for the "My Bonnie" single, which had been pressed in Hamburg with the Beatles backing British rock star Tony Sheridan. Brian then apparently asked around about the Beatles, which led to his decision to check them out at the Cavern. Yet this version has been contested, as the Beatles were already being written up in Mersey Beat, a popular periodical Brian would've been aware of. Also, by that time, rock records were outselling classical records at his store. Finally, the Cavern Club itself was already on Brian's radar: not only was it a stone's throw from NEMS, but he'd gone there to book a jazz band for his 21st birthday several years back.

But whatever the truth was, Brian knew that he would stick out like a sore thumb in the gritty basement of a club crowded with young, working-class rock 'n' roll fans on their lunch break. (Indeed, caverns are very Scorpionic places.) So he wisely alerted the club's manager, Bob Wooler, in advance of his arrival (with a newly minted "assistant" in tow to make him look even more impressive). Brian was only 27, but in 1961, he was far more middle-aged "establishment" than the young men he was soon to manage and shephard to stardom. He dressed conservatively and was also from a far cushier class than the Beatles. Not that Brian had an easy time of it: he was Jewish in an environment that condoned casual antisemitism, and he was gay at a time when homosexuality was still illegal. But that day at the Cavern, he received the club's equivalent of the VIP treatment: he did not have to stand in line to enter the club, and Bob Wooler, announced Brian's presence over the PA system.

Unfortunately I do not have Brian Epstein's exact birth chart, but his noon chart (which would seem a good fit: a 10th-house Sun, a Venus-Neptune conjunction at the MC, and the Nov. 9 Sun at 16 Scorpio close to his ASC) interacts very strongly with the noon chart for the Cavern Club.

The ruler of the Cavern Club lunchtime-set chart is Saturn in its ruling sign of Capricorn, placed in the 1st house; by the time Brian said hello to the Beatles backstage, Saturn was probably conjunct the ASC. Saturn was also moving into a trine to Brian's Sun at 25/26 Virgo. While Saturn, Capricorn, and Virgo do not seem at all conducive to the wildness of rock 'n' roll in general and the Beatles rough style in particular, keep in mind that Brian Epstein was destined to become the band's manager -- very Saturn/Capricorn -- and he also "branded" them in a highly detailed-oriented way (Virgo), remaking them from an unkempt, all-over-the-place act who sometimes ate onstage into polished, suit-wearing perfomers who bowed at the end of pre-planned sets. Brian was also very much a father figure (Saturn) to the band.

What must have hooked Brian from the get-go is apparent in the Cavern Club chart: the Moon at 0 Sagittarius square Uranus at 0 Virgo and sextile Jupiter at 0 Aquarius. Three planets at zero degrees of a sign signal something new; in this case, the seeds of the 1960s revolution. The first iteration of the Beatles, the Quarrymen (talk about literal rock!), had formed four years earlier, but it was not until Uranus entered Virgo that they became stars, not just "big in Hamburg" or "big in Liverpool." Not only was Brian Epstein a Virgo; he was born with Uranus at 0 Taurus, exactly trine transiting Uranus. So Uranus moving into Virgo was like a bolt of lightning for him, and it manifested in the band known as the Beatles. Pluto was a little farther along in Virgo on 11/9/61 -- conjunct Brian's Venus, and as I mentioned before, Brian was born with a Venus-Neptune conjunction, giving him refined taste, a love of the arts (he'd studied acting in London before coming home to run his family's music store), but also an unhappy love life (he was attracted to the "rough trade" who beat him up, robbed him, even blackmailed him) and, thanks to insomnia, an addiction to sedatives that made the Beatles' drug use look like a teddy bears' picnic.

Brian later claimed to have been "immediately struck by their music, their beat, and their sense of humor on stage -- and, even afterwards, when I met them. I was struck again by their personal charm. And it was there that, really, it all started." What he could not say was that these slovenly yet attractive young men in leather jackets were the embodiment of his rough-trade fantasy -- especially John Lennon. Interestingly, Lennon shared an important placement with Brian: the Moon at an early degree of rebellious, eccentric, iconoclastic Aquarius -- the sign Jupiter, planet of good luck and expansion, had just entered in November 1961. Combine that with the Moon-Uranus square that occurred during this fateful lunchtime set, and it really was electric. After the set, when Brian went backstage to say hello to the Beatles, George Harrison asked cheekily, "And what brings Mr. Epstein here?"

Brian himself could not answer that question. He was a shop manager, not a rock manager, and they were clearly from different worlds. But a few minutes later, while Brian was having lunch with his assistant, Alistair Taylor, the truth came out: Alistair thought the band was a train wreck, but Brian thought they were phenomenal, and he wondered aloud if he should manage them. After returning to the Cavern Club several times over the next month, Brian broached the subject, and in January 1962 they signed a five-year management contract. In an interesting twist of karma, Brian would literally die of an overdose, either by accident or on purpose, in 1967, when the band was at the pinnacle of their success. For John Lennon, at least, this was the beginning of the end of the Beatles: their father figure, the man who turned a group of immature, provincial young men into a global phenomenon and the symbol of the Age of Aquarius, was gone.

In Which Your Intrepid Astrologer Performs Her Poetry to a Largely Indifferent Audience!

Ironically, my progressed Moon was exactly conjunct my critical-degree Jupiter at 26 degrees of Libra the night of this featured performance, and I actually received a travel stipend from the curator. I'd thought the Sun in late Scorpio and the Moon in Sagittarius would only add to the luster of the evening, but I was so wrong. Still and all, I am proud to have gotten through it. Enjoy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X6mwivmkaBY