Cancer Mars Restrospective & More

Core principles

Mars in the classical system of Essential Dignity is considered fallen in Cancer, a term meant to signify a condition of difficulty, as the themes in Cancer present unique challenges for the agenda Mars wants to enact.

When in the sign of the Moon, Mars—whose goal is to direct focused action to achieve a unit of Work—is forced to operate under conditions that are sensitive and changeable, like the Moon.

The sign of Cancer is often associated with the archetypes of the home, the kin, children, conservation of resources, safety, and caretaking.

• Energy cannot be directed efficiently when there are too many mouths to feed.
• An animal, child, or any person who is feeling sensitive, disempowered, and unsafe can potentially lash out erratically.
• A caretaker can harm the person whom they are caring for if that care-taker is stressed and exhausted

“Why don’t you whip us up a few Krabby Patties?”
— Plankton

“Nah, I don’t really feel like it.” — Spongebob

Mars in Cancer is contending with a hangry, tempermental, or exhausted Mars. Depending on other chart factors, it can be a troublesome or not entirely efficacious Mars, because it has spent all of its energy taking care of others, or been preoccupied with domestic work. It no longer has all energy for other Work. Mars in Cancer can at times be a passive-agressive Mars, because it often realizes that it* needs to be taken care of as well.

Many animals in nature have been documented to consume their children when resources are scarce or when they are stressed, such as polar bears, mouthbrooding fish, and hamsters.

Mars in Cancer is a weapon in the nursery. It is like trying to spoon-feed a wounded animal. Potential for collateral damage is high and is also very likely if poorly-managed.

We therefore greatly rely on the condition of the Moon to manage how well we handle the knife blade. The best way to alleviate some of the worst expressions of this energy is to address the issues of the Moon:

• Are you well-nourished enough?
• Are your needs properly attended to?
• Have you addressed the needs of the body?

Some primary lessons of this Mars by transit? Do not operate dangerous machinery when you are low on sleep. Be mindful of lash out when you are in an unsafe or vulnurable condition. You will hurt yourself and others around you. Do not try to fulfill a heavy workload on an empty stomach.

Healer, heal thyself.

The Astrology of Fight Club

the reactiON of disgruntled masculinity

As I've been researching periods of Mars in Cancer, I found it curious that the original release date of the popular book Fight Club, was released under Mars in Cancer. I'm using this chart as a type of "radix" or root chart to anchor some of my commentary on the themes of the film and book, and what it can tell us about Mars, as it can be seen as the true inception of the material for the film.

If you weren’t already familiar, Fight Club is a 1996 novel by Chuck Palahniuk that was later adapted to a blockbuster film of the same named starring Edward Norton and Brad Pitt.

The book follows the experiences of the unnamed Narrator, who struggles with insomnia and dissatisfaction with his job and lifestyle, and finds temporary solace in support groups. With his worsening insomnia, he discovers that expressions of emotional vulnerability help him sleep, leading him to join multiple groups for people facing emotionally distressing problems, despite his expressions being fraudulent. (source: Fight Club)

Warning: there will be spoilers.

The Symbolic Resonance

There are many symbolic parallels to the themes of the movie and Mars in Cancer, viewing the film neutrally. For instance, the Moon, the ruler of Cancer, can signify "the populace," or citizens of a nation in mundane astrology—as opposed to the Sun, which tends to signify the ruler or sovereign.

The Narrator here is the classic "Everyman": the stand-in representation of your average guy—the moon. He's the typical guy in the crowd. He lives a mediocre life in the corporate world and his sense of identity is alienated by the system. There is little meaning to his life except for the occasional purchases of IKEA furniture (the symbolic epitome of cookie-cutter domestic furnishing) to spruce up his beige appartment to which he attached what little identity he had.

He spends many sessions sobbing into the breasts (a body region asssociated with Cancer) of Big Bob at his support group, just so he can get some rest. Cancer is a water sign well-known to display emotional vulnerability and can be easily emotionally-stirred.

The tragic character of Bob is a very Mars Cancer figure himself, as he is a weepy, emotionally-vulnerable former champion bodybuilder, and is now suffering from testicular cancer, grief-stricken as even his children don't talk to him. These themes of estrangment show up in an infamous real-world example I discuss later.

It's interesting to see how the natural significations of sign and planet are affected:

The natural significations of Cancer/the Moon such as emotional regulation and bodily cycles, are disrupted—clearly represented by the Narrator's inability to sleep. He has to go through a contrived route of lying to people just to regulate himself.

Mars' natural significations such as assertiveness, the masculine principle, athleticism, and virility are also impacted, as one can say both characters struggle in the beginning of the film with issues of emasculation:

The Narrator is unable to assert himself to his boss early in the film and incapable of being direct with those around him. Bob meanwhile struggles with the emotional fallout of his testicular cancer—grieving the loss of his male potential and his former, more virile past as a champion athlete.

The story is further catylized by a sudden explosion destroying the Narrator's condo, annihilating all aspects of his former life and setting up his radicalization journey with Tyler as the movie progresses.

The destruction of his home—his sense of comfort and safety in his life at the beginning of the story—definitely feels resonant with Mars in Cancer.

I'd reccomend just watching the movie if you haven't already. It's a classic.

Mars, Masculinity, & MAYHEM

Mars in astrology, while it can signify the productive forces of agency, industrious force, efficiency, impetus, strength, courage, and athleticism, it also tends to equally signify war, violence, fire, severance, imbalanced rage, and destruction—especially when examined throughout the course of human history.

Due to patriarchical hegemony, Mars and what it represents in the world has always been one of the only societally-sanctioned (and rewarded) ways men have been allowed to express themselves.

The themes of Fight Club examines a lot of perennial issues concerning masculinity, and addresses ultimately how a lot of men become vulnerable to charismatic demagogues when they feel disenfranchised by the societal systems around them.

Hmm... where have we seen this issue present itself before?

In the modern context, Andrew Tate and the existence of the "Manosphere" speaks directly to the themes revealed by the end of Fight Club: it's very easy to manipulate a bunch of insecure men to commit random acts of violence and blame their feeling of inadequacy on society and its institutions.

Without question, Andrew Tate and his copycats are the Tyler Durden of today. Currently, podcast bros are appealing to and effectively radicalizing men on an international level. These men weaponize the existential angst of average guys, galvanizing the violent, domineering sides of themselves, and directing it towards women and minorities.

In the root chart of the Fight Club book, you can see a Moon in Libra is opposed a fallen Saturn in Aries: a transit we will experience again in the coming months.

In astrology, Libra is ruled by Venus and is the exaltation of Saturn. Venus is the planet that rules social harmony, in Libra, it can more easily establish fair deals and contracts that build the delicate social fabric and laws of a society. However, this requires compliance to those societal rules.

Aries, on the other hand, is the sign of Saturn's fall. It has a tendency to be more of a free-agent or rebel. It wants to act with immediacy to achieve personal, rather than interpersonal goals. Often this can be acheived through self-oriented action that breaks societal conventions.

The Libra-Aries axis speaks very much to the struggle between the Institution vs. the Independent Actor.

Like Durden, Tate and his sycophants give the everyday man a taste of primal, masculine power, and points the finger of blame at the Venusian: women, society, and institutions being the culprit to their perceived emasculation.

Nearing the climax of the movie, Fight Club is renamed "Project Mayhem", as it gradually turns more radical into an overtly anti-society, anti-institutionalist organization.

Members of the organization are encouraged to commit random acts of terror, violence, and arson. Unlike a dignified Mars, these acts of violence are not productive— Durden literally assigned "homework" for all the members to go pick a fight with a stranger. It's emotionally-unhinged, and destructive.

Lessons From Fight Club

The story of Fight Club can help us understand the difference between a fallen planet and exalted planet. One popular notion is that zodiacal falls make a planet feel downcast and dejected. This makes them more insecure—creating a urge to prove themselves, sometimes in an overly-compensatory way. On the flipside, an exalted planet is an honored guest, so it expects its needs to be catered to—and consequently has more entitlement to certain things.

Fight Club demonstrates the anger of the disgruntled Mars in Cancer quite well, I think.

When the mass populace of men feel disempowered—are told they are weak, are stuck at home all the time, are oppressed by their employer into living emotionally-unfulfilling lives—the temper tantrum that can ensue can be devastating and destructive.

Speaking of temper tantrums...

WHEN INCOMPETENCE REIGNS: ELON MUSK

On September 5, 2024, Donald Trump announced to the Economic Club of New York: "at the suggestion of Elon Musk...I will create a Government Efficiency Commission tasked with conducting a complete financial and performance audit of the entire federal government and making recommendations for drastic reforms."

Notice that this announcement was right around the ingress of Mars in Cancer in early September of 2024, and the formation of DOGE was made official under the retrograde back into Cancer at the end of January 2025. Mars stationed retrograde station that occurred at 6º of Leo on December 6, 2024.

Note also it was also during the time of the exact ingress of the Sun in Aquarius conjoined Pluto: tech billionaire seizes power at the White House... got it.

Notoriously, alphamale wannabe Elon Musk is also a Cancer Rising, which means this Mars transit has been passing through his whole-sign first house. Mars is also the ruler of Musk's 10th house and Midheaven, a house and angle associated with positions of public authority or power, vocation, work, and reputation.

This transit has been very educational regarding this Mars.

If Mars in a strong zodiacal position is about action that is effective and decisive, then Mars in Cancer in many ways—all factors being equal—reveals a Mars principle that is deeply ineffective and inconsistent: which resonates with the rise of the erroneously-named Department of Goverment Efficiency, run by Musk himself.

In the subsequent months, he has cut countless federal jobs and agencies, and indiscriminately slashed funding for many essential programs, all as a part of a larger bullying campaign by the current administration of the United States. However, during this time, there's been a lot of pushback and many of the federal positions being axed en-masse could now be forced to be reinstated.

This unhinged rampage by DOGE can be easily seen as an attempt to punish federal agencies. Why you ask? The answer is simple, because according to the House Committee on the Judiciary, Musks companies were being investigated by the federal government.

So yes, Musk is being a bloodthirsty and vengeful little child.

It's good to note that Mars is the ruler of Musk's 5th house of children, games, and recreation.

During this transit, he was also found lying and received backlash from the gaming community because his self-aggrandizing and bragging about his video game skills turned out to be, unsurprisingly, a lie.

Elon's estranged trans daughter also appears on a special issue of TeenVogue during this transit, publicly denouncing him, stating that she doesn't “wish to be related to [her] biological father in any way, shape or form.”

Musk is a failure of a populist: estrangement from his children, failing to be popular or relevant with the"common" gamers, and ostensibly a horrible father. Transiting Fallen Mars through his first house as ruler of his 10th 5th house indeed.

Concluding Thoughts

It's been horrifying to be a United States citizen these past few months. The rising tide of f*scism in the government—caused largely by wealthy oligarchs— threatens the lives and safety of countless of people around the world.

The issues we are experiencing today did not emerge out of nowhere. The cultural pattern that allows imperialism to exist—and protected by authoritarianism—greatly relies on men and the relationship with the Mars principle within themselves.

For many young men, it starts with feeling worthless because you've failed to achieve the script society has given you.

Afterwards, you go down the internet rabbit-hole of self-improvement, bodybuilding, or "financial independence", and next thing you know, you've been sneakily led down a pipeline of right-wing propaganda. This is happening today, and it's part of a larger collection of trends that expresses itself in the politics we're experiencing in the year 2025.

As somebody who has been in these spaces myself—particularly the bodybuilding community—it has been deeply disturbing to see how susceptible young men in these communities can be to bigoted rhetoric.

Arnold Schwarzenegger, renowned for his role in the bodybuilding world is a Cancer rising. However, despite being more conservative politically, he denounced the infamous January 6 riots at the Capitol, showing a much-needed pushback from a famous influencer in a community that has largely fallen to the rhetoric of hatred espoused by the alt-right.

I don't agree with some of Arnold's politics, but the message against hatred is very heartening to hear and perpetually relevant. My advice? If you're a Cancer rising, be more like Arnold instead of Elon.

At the tail end of this transit, I would like a lot of us to integrate the lessons revealed during this time, where possible.

My hope is that men collectively start to ask themselves this question:

If the most "successful" people in our society—the supposed 'winners' of the system—look like the absolute losers that is embodied in Elon Musk and his fans, we should perhaps redefine what success in one's manhood looks like.

Fallen Mars, or any Mars for that matter, does not have to be bad. Like all astrological expressions, its our own relationship with that principle that ultimately modifies how it behaves.

Perhaps we encourage ourselves to alchemize the petulant man-child within and turn those skills to become a Chef, Family Man, or Protector—more productive forms of this planetary expression. What if the force of Mars is instead turned to learning the valuable skill of cooking? What if we use our strength to protect the young and the marginalized? What if we become vulnerable and begin to show up for those in our community?

Maybe then can we save ourselves as a society.