I received a lot of personal responses to the women, martial anger & stayin’ alive post, so many I’ve decided to dive deeper into the psychology & astrology of women and anger. Here’s some background on the astrology of Mars in Cancer. Expect to see the little Crab scurrying across your screen again soon…

Mars attacks… Mars is OOB, that’s boob minus a “b” for booby trap or crab trap. Out of bounds is the astrological term for a planet that has reached a declination higher than 23′. In plain English: our martial principles, anger, self-assertion, righteous rage and all those internal set points that send steam out of our ears, are erratic and wackily out of bounds. Till April 2008. Goddess help us.

Here’s how I think of OOB planets. Remember kick ball? Well every so often you lobbed your red ball way past the other players to the other side of the playground. Inevitably your teammates cried, “out of bounds,” which was technically not a foul but threw a chink in the game. The rules became blurry. Some of us would use the out of bounds ball to run the bases (especially if it was an unsupervised game), while others honored group consensus, surrendering their turn. That OOB ball was an unruly rule-breaker, and when you’re touched by OOB Mars, so are you. You kicked it and it flew, you watched it roll and “let it fly” – to your amazement and everyone else’s. That OOB ball is your crazy newfound power – and other people will call you on how you use it. Now you have two choices, to play that crazy power and defend your right to play, or surrender your turn. Here’s the caveat: with Mars OOB the desire to “do your own thing” is so strong it often passes into virgin renegade territory. Prepare to be surprised by unusual behavior – unusual even for you. He’s lawless, a renegade in the rough. Back down, are you kidding me? Walking away, tail between legs is just not Mars’ thing.

Mars is in Cancer, what does that mean? Mars attacks and provokes, Cancer defends and protects. They have that much in common. Other than that common ground, it’s plain confusing for the warrior to be in the sign of the nurturer. Cancer is a caregiver of the warm fuzzy variety – prone to tears and emotional shares. Mars is prickly, hot and impatient. Together, they’re aggressively sensitive, an uncomfortable combination. Emotional sharing starts minor (or major) wars. Having a nice sweet talk about your feelings brings up more than anyone bargained for. And feelings aren’t simply feelings anymore – they cause bloodshed because that’s what Mars does.

Mars communicates anger directly. Cancer doesn’t. That’s why Mars is so unhappy in Cancer, the sign of his fall. Like the Crab scurrying sideways, the Cancer way is to snap her castanet claws a few times and duck for cover. Throw a few zingers out there and hide. If it sounds like the definition of passive aggressive behavior, it is. Lest Cancer walk around with her myriad vulnerabilities exposed, she needs to delicately contain her sensitive, impressionable and changing psyche without blaming, defending against or fighting others en route. These are dangerous booby traps. Cancer feels unprotected and defenseless with Mars and her greatest fear is if this cowboy had his way, he’d toss her in the boiling pot and let her cook. Remember, the translucent Crab only turns red after Mars (heat) has paid her a visit…

To relate it all back to women, martial anger & stayin’ alive, Mars is in Cancer, the most feminine of feminine – and the sign of the mother. As women, our mothers shape our self-assertion patterns along with culturally acceptable norms. For instance, in the boardroom men are (feared &) respected when they let their anger show, but what of women? Expect to see renegade women working with their anger and righteous truth in new ways.

How? More to come…