Conjunctions in Aries

head problems

This month there are three planets in Aries, until Mercury moves onto Taurus June 7th, leaving the lunar node Rahu and Jupiter remaining in the sign.

Mercury has been in Aries since the beginning of March, making this a relatively long transit for the planet. For the entirety of his stay in Aries he’s been conjunct Rahu, forming a combination for lies and manipulation. This is because Mercury is connected to communication, and Rahu to distortion, disturbance and dishonesty. When they get together, communication tends to become polluted. The best way to channel this is to put that manipulation of words to work in some kind of writing or professional task where it is useful, if you notice yourself being influenced by this. Much of the dishonesty and manipulation happening collectively may not necessarily be visible—at all, or until Mercury leaves Rahu.

Once the Sun (in exaltation) joined this combination mid April, the dynamic in Aries shifted, causing more interaction between the Sun and Rahu (which gave us a solar eclipse) and less involvement of Mercury. Sun-Rahu is a combination that tends to make people feel polluted at a core level, sometimes creating shame and low self confidence. Occasionally this will result in ego aggrandizement and pompous behavior as a compensation mechanism.

Specific interpretations will need to be read from the natal chart, but broadly speaking we can read the chart from Aries (the head of the Kalapurusha or Body of God/Time) to see something about the collective experience.

All of these complicated transits to Aries (now including Jupiter, since the end of April show that there is a lot going on in the head of the collective body i.e. the population at large. This really began last spring, when Rahu retrograded back into Aries from Taurus, and the conjunctions of other planets have compounded the complications.

I read this as a massive psychological block impacting the decision-making ability and even cognition of the collective, based on Rahu being the blockage causing planet by Nature, and especially for Aries ascendants for whom he is Bhadakesha or obstacle causing planet. Aries is the physical head of the zodiac, so planets here impact how we think. Rahu in this position can create obsession and inability to see clearly. The classical teaching is that, in this case: “the individual is the cause of their own problems.” Since we are all the individual, in reading the chart this way, we have a pretty big problem. Luckily, Rahu moves out of Aries in the fall, after which time our heads might begin to clear.

The source of the blockage can be seen from the rulership of Rahu, which is where Rahu brings the problems from to the sign Aries. Rahu rules Aquarius, which is a sign associated with poison and storage, symbolized by a man holding a water pot. The Vedic interpretation of the water pot is that it can hold either medicine or poison, but it tends to become poison even if it begins as medicine. Aquarius is also associated with revolutions (the extroverted energy of Saturn, being his odd sign carrying male i.e. extroverted energy) and groups.

All of these things can contribute to the collective mental blockage we are all experiencing. Be careful with the revolutions instigated by a negative Rahu such a this, they may be misguided. Rahu is, after all, a head without a body, so he does not have an actual sense or connection to reality. His ‘good ideas’ are often more damaging than they are helpful, and can create the type of chaos that lands like a trauma which then requires time to heal. More on this next month.