AWAKENING: MARS + PLUTO OPPOSITION AND THE WEEK AHEAD | SOUL ARCHAEOLOGY
This is a powerful week. We are beginning to pick up speed and build momentum.
It feels like we just kind of skipped over Aries season. With all the Piscean energy in the air, it's felt really murky and watery. almost like we're trying to run while thigh-deep in water. Some things are materializing and beginning to move, but there's still this muddiness and false starts.
In many ways, Aries season was dominated by the Pisces stellium, with Mercury and Venus emerging from their underworld journeys while remaining in their shadow, and Mars still in its shadow in Cancer before finally moving into Leo. We didn't really feel the Aries energy until last week.
This is a dynamic week. like a bumpy start to a new chapter. We're trying to get our land legs again after being at sea for so long, stumbling around a bit as we try to get moving. Entering Taurus season grounds us into fixed earth after the deep, mutable waters of Pisces that poured us into a rather disorienting Aries season.
Now we're landing on the Earth and trying to integrate, trying to make sense of what just happened. There are days when I've found myself thinking, "What just happened? Where did the last six months go?" That's definitely a result of Mars retrograding in Cancer. When we feel out of control. a result of Mars being in its retrograde. we don't have the same power, will, or drive that we normally do. Our systems can go into a freeze; we can feel frozen in a state of unknown or even helplessness.
For many of us, we are thawing from this state. thawing from maybe not a full somatic freeze, but even just the sensation of floating and not really knowing where the tide is taking us.
THIS WEEK’S LINEUP
As we approach the end of April, Mercury exits its shadow on the 26th, and we'll start emerging, thawing, mobilizing, and moving forward. May really is the month of emergence and fire, even though it's a fixed earth month.
This week begins on April 20th (Easter Sunday) with:
April 20th: Sun squaring Mars (Sun in Taurus/fixed earth squaring Mars in Leo/fixed fire)
April 21st: Saturn and North Node conjunction in Pisces
April 23rd: Venus joining with the North Node in Pisces
April 24th: Venus and Saturn joining in Pisces
April 26th: Mercury exits its shadow, and Mars and Pluto oppose for the third and final time
April 27th: New Moon in Taurus creating a fixed grand cross in the sky
This is a pushy week. like waking us up from our slumber. It's jolting us awake, lighting a fire, pushing us out of bed, forcing us to look at something. It could be quite jarring considering we've had all this Neptunian fog and Piscean haze, and now we're expected to wake up at the snap of our fingers.
This week will be confronting, asking us to grab the reins and look deeper at where we remain fixed, where we're stuck, where we're sitting in the boxes we created for ourselves. holding the keys and waiting to be freed.
SUN SQUARE MARS
Right at the beginning of the week, we face the Sun and Mars squaring each other. This is illuminating. Squares give us options, but they're pushy. asking us to choose a pathway. We can choose the old wounded past version, or we can choose the new pathway.
Mars is really awakening from its slumber. It's been in its shadow since October 2024, was retrograde from December to the end of February 2025, and we're navigating the shadow until May 2nd. It's been moving through Cancer and just recently entered Leo again, but it's been slow, a little sleepy, confused, frustrated, and protected.
Mars has gathered all this psychic and emotional information and data. It has all this awareness and now wants to move forward in a new way. But it's immediately met this week with opposition, challenge, and accountability. We might stumble a little bit. falling into reactivity or frustration, or into that victim consciousness that can sometimes come with Piscean and Neptunian energy.
This transit will reveal:
Where we hold power dynamics in our relationships Where we might be reactive or respond from a wound Where we get frustrated when things don't go our way Where we still need to manage our desire for power
The Sun starts to warm Mars. it's time to wake up. You're moving into an opposition with Pluto. Get ready. We have things to see, things to confront. The freeze is thawing. It's time to grab the reins again.
SATURN, VENUS AND THE NORTH NODE
Midweek we have Saturn and the North Node conjunct, then Venus and the North Node conjunct, and then Saturn and Venus meet again. Saturn is asking for structure, ritual, routine, responsibility, and devotion. It wants us to show up for our lives, to sort things out, to get clear, to fully grasp destiny, to dissolve the illusion and romanticism woven into our lives, and to return instead to presence. which is the biggest invitation from Taurus season.
Any time the North Node is involved, we're dealing with destiny, karma, and our evolutionary path. We've been dissolving layers of illusion as Venus has been retrograding through Pisces. When it enters Aries, it's once again a big wake-up call.
Venus in Pisces is sobering. asking us to wake up, confront, and face reality. This is a good time to actually, quite literally sober up. If you're leaning into substances or coping mechanisms, can you take a break? Can you allow yourself to feel what's truly real in the here and now?
Presence breeds beauty, safety, and clarity. The only path forward is through our fear. Saturn is asking: What are you resisting? What are you afraid to look at? Can you be more present? Can you turn off the music, the noise, the phone and sober up?
And you don't have to do it alone. You can have resources that feel grounding and secure for you. nature, a person, a practitioner.
MARS-PLUTO OPPOSITION
After that Piscean middle space this week, we are moving straight into the Mars and Pluto opposition. This is the final in a series of three that began in November 2024.
Pluto and Mars oppose one another every two years, and it's always a reckoning point. a pressure cooker that asks us to sit with what's uncomfortable. This specific opposition is forming a fixed grand cross with the Sun and Lilith, and then the next day, the Sun and the Moon. They're all in fixed energy, trying to help us break out of something. a belief, a pattern, a place where we feel stuck or trapped.
This is a breaking point. Here's the timeline of the three oppositions:
November 3, 2024: Mars at 29° Cancer, Pluto at 29° Capricorn. Mars was in its shadow and Pluto was at the ANARETIC degree, bringing up material from the last 15 years.
January 3, 2025: Mars at 1° Leo, Pluto at 1° Aquarius. Mars was retrograde. murky and uncomfortable.
April 26, 2025: Mars at 3° Leo, Pluto at 3° Aquarius. Mars is moving out of its shadow, and Pluto is getting ready to station retrograde on May 4th.
These two planets are doing a deeply psychic, subconscious dance. Pluto is the higher octave of Mars:
Mars is the personal drive and will. a personal planet representing intensity, force, initiation, mobilization, and action. It's primal. aggression, desire, fight, action, and charge. Mars deals with what is conscious and right in front of us in our daily lives.
Pluto is a more evolved expression of Mars. more soulful and conscious. It deals with trauma, ideals, beliefs, and the larger collective scope. Pluto works with the subconscious and larger life themes.
Oppositions are struggles. where we have to make a choice. One way or the other. We have fewer options with oppositions than with squares. It's literally two planets facing off.
Both Pluto and Mars relate to power. With this opposition being in fire and air, it's giving fire and flame to our transformative power, showing us where we need to make changes, where our will and desires will be front and center.
Mars in Leo is the ego, the self, the center. It can be boastful and egoic. Pluto is pushing Mars to evolve. to grow up, move beyond the ego, see the bigger picture, and confront the power dynamics it's caught in.
Are you in a power struggle with your boss, partner, kids, family members, or yourself? Where is the ego running the show?
We've gained so much psychic material and data over the last six months with Mars retrograding. Hopefully, we can now show up in a more evolved way—admitting where our emotions are running the show and where we're afraid to open our hearts and reveal what's hidden within us.
I talked about heart walls last week. Mars in Cancer asked us to confront our own heart walls. where we protect, collapse, or wall ourselves off from connection to self and others because we're afraid of the unknown, being hurt, rejection, or abandonment.
The highest octave of Leo is big, courageous love. open-heartedness and a healthy ego.
THE RELEASE VALVE
It might feel like everything is falling apart, but it could be falling together. With the first two oppositions in November and January, we had pressure building without a release valve. There was no out. We were forced to face something, to reckon with something without a resolution or an escape in sight. We had to simmer in it, be with it, marinate, and acknowledge the discomfort, pressure, and pain.
The wound could have felt like you were trapped, like you could see what wasn't working but didn't know how to fix it. This third opposition is the out. the release valve, the breaking point. It's where we get to say "no more" to these power games and dynamics we play in our lives and relationships. "I'm no longer participating." And that will either deepen the connection or break it off.
We finally feel like we can resolve something with this opposition. And oppositions are intense. they give us few options. We have to choose something, typically the old way or the new way.
With Mars retrograde over the last six months, we've had to reckon with our shadow, our power, our will, our anger, our disconnection from our true power, and instead ruled by the power channeled into our wounding and fear.
This opposition will reveal what we're resisting. Pluto is asking Mars to elevate, to evolve, to move out of the ego and into a higher state of consciousness and the higher heart.
Ask yourself:
Where is my ego seeking to keep me safe and protected? Where is my ego operating out of fear? Where am I holding back, shutting down, closing off, or leaning into protective mechanisms?
This opposition is part of the larger grand cross—two oppositions and four squares. Mars and Pluto oppose each other at 3° of Leo and Aquarius, while in Taurus we have the Sun and in Scorpio, Lilith. This is a point where we can reclaim the part of us that's afraid. the part that creates this ego, this fixed stance, these protective and defense mechanisms. It will show us where we're afraid to witness our shadow parts.
ORACLE CARD: DIVINE MASCULINE
The card pulled today from the Untamed Elemental deck is the Divine Masculine card, all about presence:
"Resonant with electricity and extraordinary skill, Divine Masculine enlists his perfect mind to gallantly deliver creative instruction. He harmonizes his influence with Divine Feminine's untouched omnipresence, giving rise to the exquisite individuality that characterizes all life.
The sacred polarity between the Divine Masculine and the Divine Feminine is responsible for the totality of existence and lives within each of us, regardless of how we identify ourselves within our own body.
Divine Masculine indicates that your full presence is required. By simply aligning your unfractured consciousness with the moment, you supply healing, balancing truths, and conjure new possibilities and outcomes.
It is much easier to receive a message from your inner Divine masculine wisdom when you anchor your full presence within each moment. Practice this and you will soon discover a secret: You're a painter of galaxies and legend of the real."
When balanced, you feel harmonious attunement with self, others, and surroundings. When imbalanced, cognitive dissonance and lack of connection to the greater world. To bring into balance, remove distractions and become fully present in the moment to only one thing at a time.
This is an invitation for presence—being present with what is. And as you're present with what is, there's also an invitation to pendulate that: being with it and then pulling out a little bit, feeling your feet, feeling your body on the earth, feeling something secure and stable around you.
You don't have to force yourself to feel or experience something that's truly too uncomfortable. But this time is reminding you that you do have resources. you have the earth, support from people around you, your own body, and all of the wisdom you've cultivated through your time here on earth and beyond.
Tune into the latest episode of my podcast, soul archaeology for a full energetic download. available on all platforms.