Mars-Saturn Quintile

(Transit Mars → Natal Saturn)

Avesalom Podvodny. Aspects

Mars quintile: Visible life force stands in inverse relation to its evolutionary level. At a low level and with afflicted Mars, this aspect (especially with Mars in the eighth house) may produce sadistic pleasure from the suffering of a living being parting with life; but these are extreme cases, and usually the Mars quintile still somewhat softens its aggression, making the person actively interested in specific forms of vital expression in the planet’s spheres, and inclined to energetically overcome backward external and internal states in these areas. A prominent Mars quintile to the Moon or Sun may give a constant interest in biology; if Mars or the planet is in the sixth or twelfth house, activity in animal protection is possible, etc. Affliction of the quintile brings clumsy personal expressions of vitality and external blows against it; lack of processing leads to pathological complexes. For example, the Mars-Saturn quintile gives a person at a medium level of development a sense of inability to harm any living being, along with personal vulnerability to external aggression—yet considerably less than the person perceives, and far less than, for instance, with a Mars-Saturn square. The quintile is still a harmonious aspect, and if not strongly afflicted, provides a certain protection to the individual, at least when they feel and act as a defender of life. At a low level, this aspect gives a tendency toward primitive understanding of life manifestations, mainly as food-gathering and sexual instincts; at a high level, the ability emerges for subtle support of vital expressions and their deep penetration into difficult, backward forms. Saturn quintile: Asceticism is the desire to focus on one way of life. This aspect often brings in the planet’s spheres an interested-skeptical attitude toward life manifestations. Deep inside, the person very much wants life to grow and flourish, yet at the same time sees numerous obstacles, doubts success, and yet awaits it, becoming deeply distressed at life’s failures and victories of backwardness, though never missing a chance to say: “I told you nothing good would come of these undertakings.” However, the person becomes a suppressor of vital manifestations in the planet’s spheres only at the lowest level of processing the quintile and Saturn, and under severe affliction resulting from deep traumas inflicted upon their vulnerable love of life. Usually, this aspect softens Saturn’s harshness, providing beneath an outward strictness and discipline a desire to preserve life within expressions of the planetary principle and to allow it developmental opportunity. With afflicted Saturn, the person will hold overly certain and dogmatic views on exactly what this life should be and precisely how it should animate the forms in which it arises; with harmony, the person will know how and when to assist this life, though often will be too lazy to do so. Here, processing brings deep understanding of what occurs within backward forms (especially the most rigid and difficult ones, such as mathematical and metal structures) when life emerges within them, of the developmental prospects of their specific manifestations, and of what kind of help is needed by each—and what kind is undesirable (an afflicted Saturn without processing may suffocate).