This is war: fresh hell awaits during this week’s Mars-Pluto opposition

Gather, my babies; this week, we have a powerful opposition between Pluto, the planet of death and destruction, and Mars, the planet of conflict, action and aggression.

If that sounds yikes, that’s because it is.

The opposition is correct on November 3, but we will feel the effects and dizzying consequences of this showdown for several days before and after the main event – including but not limited to election day.

Understanding the Mars-Pluto opposition

In conversation with each other, Mars and Pluto are combative, but they also invite us to find and stand in our power, overcome our base instincts, and fight the proverbial good fight.

Mars in Cancer directly opposes Pluto in Capricorn at a fatal and unruly 29 degrees. Both are just days away from changing signs, and this precipice amplifies the energy of the antagonism.

Mars is the planet of war, while Cancer is the sign of maternal care and memory. In this way, this transit asks us to consider what memories and past pains continue to cause conflict in our consciousness, what triggers they continue to cause – and what roles we insist on reviving.

Mars in Cancer craves stagnation, the toxic known over the frightening unknown, and tends to react more than respond. During this opposition, emotional resistance, all-out outbursts and hypersensitivity are predicted.

Conflict can arise to test whether we operate from a place of bold empowerment or covert encouragement and patterned victimization. While the divine machine of fate does not stop, there are ways to observe and integrate its teachings.

Power struggle and warnings to cause

Pluto is the planet of karmic punishment, and Capricorn is the sign of power, authority, and the paternal structure. Since Pluto began its tour of Capricorn in 2008, the dark lord has been at work uncovering and destroying traditional structures and oppressive power dynamics. See the financial crisis, the #MeToo movement, and the takedown of accused predators and power wielders like Weinstein, Epstein, and Diddy.

Pluto eventually emerges from the mouth of Hell to heal.

In its highest expression, Capped Pluto displaces and overturns the obsolete. On the other hand and in the lower abdomen, it can express itself as a dark need for control and an oppressive father knows the energy best. In the final stages of this transit, it will be interesting to see what kind of curtain the planet of death will close.

Pluto = death and Mars = vitality, so this opposition can manifest as life-or-death scenarios—or power struggles that reach a fever pitch and make you feel like survival can only come through detachment.

However, Pluto eventually emerges from the mouth of Hell to heal. Pluto is also the planet of karmic reckoning, and this opposition and the subsequent presidential election occur a few days after Pluto enters Aquarius, the sign it was in when the United States declared its independence.

Cultural catharsis

Similarly, this opposition and this upcoming Pluto cycle promise to usher in a new era for our nation.

Some people will experience this transit as explosive right away, while others will see the seeds planted in the coming days produce flowers of change and challenge over the next few months.

Whether the effects are fast and furious or slowly transformative, it’s a moment of deep catharsis.

Remember that the etymology of catharsis is to cleanse through purification. Typically, catharsis follows crises, as one must reach a major scale before one can pivot. We can’t be redeemed without failure, we can’t cleanse without being poisoned, and we can’t rise without resistance, people.

In myth, the clearest connection between the god of the underworld, Pluto/Hades, and the god of war, Mars/Apollo, is Orpheus, the slayer of the free-spirited lady.

According to many accounts, Apollo taught Orpheus how to play and/or gave him his first instrument. So beautiful was the game of Orpheus that all forms of life, even inanimate objects, moved in rhythm with him.

When a snakebite killed Orpheus’ wife, he descended into the underworld to bring her back from the dead. His pain and the music he held were so moving that Hades himself was moved to tears and granted Orpheus his wish, on the condition that he never look back until he reached the world of the living.

In this sense, our instructions for surviving and overcoming this transit are similar – we must keep moving forward, and only when we surrender to the other side of the destruction, can we return and begin to understand the path that brought us through it.

Basically, if you’re going through hell, keep going. If you have personal planets falling in late degrees (25 to 29 degrees) of cardinal signs (Aries, Cancer, Libra or Capricorn), you will feel the effects of this opposition more acutely.

Good luck there. After the rubble and ruins, the road leads to better, brighter days to come.

Astrologer Reda Wigle researches and reports irreverently on planetary configurations and their effect on each zodiac sign. Her horoscopes integrate history, poetry, pop culture and personal experience. To book a reading, visit her website.