Almagest

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Mars square Neptune

Mars square Neptune, within one nativity or between two charts in synastry

What the tradition reads

Within a single chart Mars square Neptune is read, together with the opposition, as a genuine difficulty trusting one's own ability to go after what is wanted in a direct manner, drive and clarity of purpose kept apart by Neptune's own blurring effect on the will, so that wanting something and actually going after it plainly become, for this native, two separate and not always cooperating steps. Between two charts, Mars-Neptune contacts are generally read as indicative of sexual attraction, sources say, an attraction this square falls squarely within the caveat named for difficult aspects, disruptive and variable rather than steady.

The story

A square is ninety degrees, a quarter of the circle, one of the four configurations Ptolemy names; Ptolemy's own chapter on the mutual configuration of the signs calls the opposition and quartile discordant, formed between signs of different natures and sexes, while Wikipedia's own summary of the aspect describes the square, in its own words, as creating a strong and usable tension, a turning point where an important decision needs to be made that involves an opportunity at a cost. Mars and Neptune are bound to the horse very differently. Roman tradition consecrated the Campus Martius to Mars as horse pasturage and an equestrian training ground, held the October Horse chariot race and Rome's only known horse sacrifice in his honor, and sent Roman cavalry parading from his temple every July; Neptune's own tie to the horse came later and secondhand, Wikipedia's page on his mythology says, through the Roman god Consus, whose festival featured horse races and who was reinterpreted as Neptunus equestris under the influence of the Greek Poseidon Hippios, Neptune himself having no such direct connection with horses of his own. Set at this harder angle, the two pull the same reins in different directions: Mars wants the straight charge, Neptune's borrowed current keeps bending the course, and the ride is felt as a fight against the animal as much as toward the finish.

Written from

Corpus key aspect:Mars:Neptune:square.