Day 7/100
Square 28/126 + Water Grand Trine
Today is Day 7 of The 100 Day Project! For my intro, see 100 days of creativity.
Square 28/126
Water Grand Trine
Today’s the end of the first week of the 100 Days of Creativity and I’m going to call it a wrap on Marilyn’s chart. Instead of bowing out with an easy aspect, I decided to go all out and tackle her Water Grand Trine.
On Day 5 we looked at her T-Square (1st house Neptune opposite 7th house Moon square 4th house Saturn) and saw the dynamic tension between these different planets. Today we’re going to zoom in a bit more on that 4th house Saturn, because it’s really prominent in this chart; it interacts with six different planets. Since the 4th house is where we get our early home and family experiences, our roots, as well as our inner emotional grounding and sense of safety and security, it’s important to understand how this Saturn and its interactions with the rest of the chart is truly the “foundation” of this soul map.
While the T-Square is full of dynamic challenges and opportunities to grow (as well as just plain hard work), the Grand Trine is all about flow and ease, because it represents energies and qualities that come naturally. If you view astrology through an evolutionary lens, you could imagine the qualities of the Grand Trine are ones the soul already learned in past lifetimes and now has at its disposal to use in this lifetime. But no matter how you view the aspects in terms of your astrological approach, the harmonious aspects help alleviate the pressure of the more challenging aspects. Luckily Marilyn’s Grand Trine touches this Saturn in the 4th to help mitigate a bit of the tension that comes from those Neptune/Moon squares and opposition.
Because a Grand Trine is three trines (120°) forming a triangle, each of the signs represented are in the same element (with all three modalities). In Marilyn’s case, she has trines between Saturn in Scorpio (fixed), Pluto in Cancer (cardinal), and Mars in Pisces (mutable): all water signs. Water grand trines are therefore marked by emotions, intuition, sensitivity—all the qualities the element of water represents symbolically in the chart and through its signs. In trines, these energies feel familiar, so emotional expression, deep feeling, and intuitive knowing are like second nature.
The only personal planet here is Mars. Mars in the 8th house is how Marilyn’s energy, drive, and ambition channeled into the world in 8th house areas such as intimacy, secrets/taboo subjects, shared resources (including other people’s money), personal evolution (death/rebirth), and psychological depth.
With Pisces as the lens for Mars, the planet of action and the god of war, we have a “watering down” of the Martian fire. That’s not to say this Mars is necessarily weaker, just that it achieves its aims using methods that aren’t as direct or overt as a fire sign, for example. Think about Neptune, which rules Pisces, wanting individualistic and war-like Mars to merge with the transcendent oneness of all things. With this Mars, there might be an urge to take action that sacrifices the ego self for something bigger, as well as a desire to fight for saving others. Battles might be waged with covert or hidden strategies. Pisces also has an escapist quality, so this may have manifested in wanting to avoid conflict altogether. We might also see recognition and ambition coming through Piscean pursuits such as artistic creativity or spirituality.
With Mars in the 8th trine the intense planet of death/rebirth and transformation, Pluto, in the 12th, it was relatively easy for Marilyn to allow herself to evolve and regenerate, using the “ashes” from her previous personas and experiences to fuel the new ones.
Mars and Saturn would normally be two challenging energies meeting up, since Mars wants to take bold action and Saturn wants to be cautious and deliberate. The water trine, however, allows the accelerator and the brake pedal to work together rather than against each other, so the Mars energy is intuitively contained by the Saturn energy. Marilyn likely knew without thinking when she needed to assert herself and how to measure her energy so as to not burn out.
Aspect patterns can be challenging to interpret because there are so many moving parts. In the grand trine alone we have three planets, three signs, three houses, three modalities, one element, and we could mix and match all of these things to color our interpretation. It isn’t necessarily to delineate every possible combination. What makes the most sense is to pick up on themes that are present elsewhere in the chart and elaborate on those. This water grand trine likely allowed Marilyn to navigate the challenges of her early childhood and home life with intuitive flow and emotional depth.