Transit Art Dump #1: Moon-Mars conjunction in Cancer
For the first time since August of last year, the Moon and Mars will meet in a conjunction outside of the sign of Gemini. Lets explore works about toil.
March 28th - 9:18 AM EST: This Moon-Mars conjunct features a domicile Moon in Cancer and a fallen Mars in Cancer.
Toil as a verb is to work extremely hard or incessantly.
Toil as a noun is exhausting physical labor.
Significations of planets are complex within traditional Western astrology. This association of Mars with toil, accidents, and grunt work is mirrored in the house it rejoices in astrologically. This would be the 6th house. We often find themes of servitude, injustice, accidents, illness, and labor that goes unrecognized. In more modern associations we can see this as employees who work under people, working relationships with a power dynamic, and even activism. Within my practice I see all of these as forms of Martian labor, the type of labor that is intensive and sees no end. This house has also come to be associated with routine and other types of daily tasks that constantly being asked of us. Cleaning, bathing, eating, etc are all infinite tasks that will never be done because they must always be done.
So, Moon-Mars can be toilsome, and natally these are the types of people where their body is their work.
Literally, metaphorically, physically,
metaphysically, et al
These are laborers. Calloused hands. Sunburnt skin. Sunken eyes and dark circles. A furrowed brow. Menacingly pacing trying to get something done, because there is always more to be done.
Body workers, organizers, trade-workers, domestic laborers, etc
“Blood, sweat, and tears” and built Ford Tough.
When I worked in the non profit industry the Executive Director of the org said we should arrive home “physically exhausted and mentally flying.” And I was naive enough to believe him. (natal Moon opposite Mars)
This is an aspect where we are naive enough to believe there is something sanctimonious about how hard we can push ourselves.
It’s bootstrapping it.
Moon in Cancer, is a body the is keenly aware of the minutiae of its ebbs and flows. And as Moon is leaving Gemini and entering Cancer it is immediately within Mars’ sphere of influence.
This Moon will be enclosed for merely minutes by the malefics (Mars and Saturn). We are thus prone to injury, stress. And we can quickly fall for the trap of taking on more than we can handle, and almost immediately suffering the consequences. Or in instances when we cannot control how much we have to do, we feel subject to the overwhelm and stress that we cannot avoid. But also, where are we willing to risk life and limb, sometimes literally for a craft.
Wheat Field with a Reaper, 1889 by Vincent Van Gogh. (Natall Moon in Sag square Mars in Pisces)
The Builders, 1947 by Jacob Lawrence (Natal Mars in Cancer)
Blue Monday, 1985 by Annie Lee
untitled, from Notícias de América series, 2011/2012 by Paulo Nazareth
Context: One of many photos Nazareth took as he walked from Belo Horizonte, Brazil to New York City for a 3 month art residency.
Untitled #25, 1992 by Leonardo Drew
“I can only say that creating the wall (Number 25) brought the toil and sweat of the old days. Having no vehicle and no driver’s license I found myself using a dolly to transport full bales of cotton down the streets of Broadway. But that was only the beginning. The nature of the material only allowed it to be cut with scissors. Through focus, pain and heart, Number 25 was painstakingly realized. Of course I found in my travels years later that machines in the South are producing the very same walls of cotton…within minutes.”
Leonardo Drew
Woman Work by Maya Angelou
I've got the children to tend
The clothes to mend
The floor to mop
The food to shop
Then the chicken to fry
The baby to dry
I got company to feed
The garden to weed
I've got shirts to press
The tots to dress
The can to be cut
I gotta clean up this hut
Then see about the sick
And the cotton to pick.
Shine on me, sunshine
Rain on me, rain
Fall softly, dewdrops
And cool my brow again.
Storm, blow me from here
With your fiercest wind
Let me float across the sky
'Til I can rest again.
Fall gently, snowflakes
Cover me with white
Cold icy kisses and
Let me rest tonight.
Sun, rain, curving sky
Mountain, oceans, leaf and stone
Star shine, moon glow
You're all that I can call my own.
What other works come to mind when you think of Moon-Mars in Cancer?