“Astrology for the Astrologically Challenged,” by Deborah Smith Parker

Yes, it’s been a while since I’ve posted. I attribute my absence to my own ninth house Mars as together he and I have been “on tour,” ninth house style:

Specifically, since my last post, I finished writing my second book (The Horse that Haunts My Heart), and published it. Then my best friend took me on a week-long cruise to Alaska in which I met and overcame, in spectacular fashion, my terror of sea voyages (9th house Mars T- square 12th house Neptune and 6th house Sun). You can bet there will soon be a blog on that!

Now I’m back. So let me pick up here with some background on Mars in the ninth and how it relates to two ninth house Mars writers I introduced in my last post: E.M. Forster with Mars in Sagittarius, and me with Mars in Gemini.

The ninth house is the natural house of Sagittarius where we are drawn to pursue and touch our highest dreams beyond the confines of earth. This house is also the path of the gods who occasionally meet us there on occasions when they want to personally bestow their gifts. And, boy, is that a mixed bag! Brilliant inspirations wrapped with long, sticky strings.

That’s why writing isn’t easy, why we can’t count on inspirations to follow us home like faithful dogs to docilely lay in corners of our minds and shape themselves into intriguing plots and characters. Characters, most writers will tell you, are the worst. They don’t often do what you want them to do and some try to take over the whole story. Long, sticky strings, remember?

One of the reasons I think Mars in this house is often a strong indicator of writing capacities is that he makes that person willing to engage who or what he finds there, even fight for it. The sign and aspects show how hard (or not) he will fight.

Writing, as any writer will tell you—among the many wonderful things it is—can also be a form of battle. Mars in Sagittarius will energetically charge into the fray—at first. But his arsenal may begin to feel inadequate to cover the battleground he finds expanding over larger and larger territory, with action and actors so spread out he can’t maintain contact. In Forster’s last attempt at a novel, he sent his characters out from a single London train station to have their adventures, have their insights, and ultimately return. Only they didn’t come back and he didn’t appear to know where to look for them.

Sometimes characters do that –abandon writers. But Mars in Sagittarius in the ninth may not apply much elbow grease to retrieve reticent or rebellious characters since he knows intuitively there are so many others available “out there.” A whole new crop will be coming into view soon enough. . . and then another.

On the other hand Gemini, the sign opposite Sagittarius, focuses on a much smaller more familiar arena. While Sagittarius represents the vastness of the universe, Gemini represents the neighborhood, things close to home, things known. Mars in this sign knows everyone, their histories including where all the “bodies are buried,” so to speak. So if Mars in Gemini feels it necessary to get up in his characters’ faces, or to take whatever approach is necessary to get those reluctant or contrary ones to fall into formation—he feels he knows them well enough to stick his face in theirs. That doesn’t mean he’ll succeed, but like any warrior facing a challenge he’ll give it his all.

I was stunned to find that like Forster I couldn’t get some of my characters to do what I wanted. I can’t believe the energy I expended in “discourse” with those from my recent book. What was so frustrating for me is that my book is a memoir, so the characters are real people. I knew them. They had already done the things I wanted to write about and, damn it—several wouldn’t come forward to take their places in the spotlight as they had in my life. Thank goodness my horse, the star of my story, stuck with me.

My Mars in Gemini worked in much closer quarters than Forster’s Mars. Forster was just getting acquainted with his characters but I knew mine! Still, even though I went in after those who resisted me, cajoling, pleading for them to come out of the shadows, several still continued to hide. However, since my Mars also knew every inch of the territory and landscape of my story, rather than give up I simply took different paths. I focused on other events that my resistors weren’t in. It worked. Gemini always finds a way.

Deborah Smith Parker is the author of the newly released “Horse that Haunts My Heart” and “Humanus Astrologicus,” available both in soft cover on this site and on Amazon. To sign up to receive her blog or follow her on Twitter (@astro_logicus) and Facebook click to the right of this post.

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