62 Horoscope GuideAstrology for
The New Age
A Cosmic
Perspective on Your
Personal Transits
For November 2019by Tim LyonsL
ast month we did a bit of a thing
with detriments and dignities, one
of my favorite pairs of nouns, not
only because of the consonance involved
with the letter “d,” but also because the
subject has some interest for me, for it
introduces us to the whole subject of
goods and bads as we (sometimes facilely)
understand those terms. And that subject –
the larger one of goods and bads – leads
us, in turn, to a discussion of our ideas
about what really brings us benefit in
this confusing world, with the confusion
coming from our ongoing efforts to distin-
guish the apparent from the real. We will
not deal with such questions this month,
but we will say a few words more about
the stuff mentioned at the beginning of
the preceding paragraph: detriments and
dignities.Detriment and Dignity
Mars, as we know, wants to go forward
intrepidly into the world, looking neither
to the right nor to the left all that much,
but, like a halfback looking for a hole in
the defense, directing himself with great
gusto toward the goal! He will have no
truck with hesitation or social nicety, if
you please. Like the Big Dipper going for
a dunk, or El Guerrouj striding gracefully
for the tape, or the Great Pedro throwing
the slider and leaving the hitter hoping forthe best but seldom getting it, Mars keeps
his single-minded mind mightily fixed on
the goal, and though he may occasional-
ly have to take a curved line toward the
basket, he prefers the straight one and
the forceful finish. He doesn’t much care
whether the straight line appears in the
world to others, as it often does when
Mars cultivates his Arien propensities, or
whether it moves through the shadows,
reminding us of Mars’ connection with
Scorpio. All he cares about is that he take
as definitive an approach as possible,
moving toward the goal, sometimes in
a headstrong or headfirst way, without
hesitation, leaping such hurdles as present
themselves, identified with his actions and
his attitude.
And as for attitude – well we associate
it with the head, often enough, and perhaps
we equate headstrong action with blind
action. And true it is that Mars sometimes
acts as if he has blinders on, refusing
to take peripheral vision into account.
However, just as often this “headstrong”
business involves the brain, and Mars’
two dignities, though often connected
with actions either evident or surrepti-
tious, often emphasize the brain to a large
extent. After all, Aries’ pioneering, in
these times, often involves head work as
much as it does body work. Witness that
Dane Rudhyar chap, he of the Aries Sun,