May is here.  Spring has come.  The birds are chirping, but in the sky, trouble is brewing as Mars and Saturn get ready to oppose each other for about 40 days. 

On May 4, 2015, Mars enters Taurus, the sign opposite transiting Saturn.  On May 15, the opposition between these two first-rate malefic planets becomes exact.   After that the effects of the opposition will still be in effect, but diminishing until June 10th.

On one level, Mars represents the desire to go forward with no restriction.  Saturn represents delays and obstacles.  So from this perspective, the period can produce frustration.  It is what I call the Rush Hour Traffic Combination. During this period, if you find yourself becoming frustrated with some aspect of life, or with a project you are working on, or with a person in your life, relax.

Remember, there are two types of people who go out in rush hour traffic.  First, there is the guy who doesn't know that is rush hour.  He thinks he is going to get across town in 10 minutes going 60 miles an hour.  When he gets stuck behind bumper to bumper traffic, he has a conniption fit.  If you don't know what a conniption fit is, neither do I.  It was one of my mother's favorite expressions, and while I don't exactly know what it is, I think it must look sort of like road rage.  That driver arrives at his destination with a head ache and in a bad mood.    The second type of driver has a radio.  He checks the traffic report and he knows in advance that the traffic is backed up.   He takes a CD with him to play in the car.  He drives  slowly, lets other people cut in, and smiles at the other drivers.  He arrives at his destination at exactly the same time as the other driver, but he feels great and he is in a good mood.

The moral of the story is simply that sometimes obstacles and obstructions are just unavoidable, but our reaction to obstructions is another matter. Suffering, as they say,  is optional.

On the global level, when Mars and Saturn oppose each other, frustration tends to build up world wide.  Frustration is the basis of anger.  When people don't get what they want, when they want it,
they tend to get angry.  So this astrological combination is traditionally related to military conflicts and other types of violence.

To get an Idea how this Mars-Saturn oppositions look in real life, lets take a look at the events that correspond to every opposition of Mars and Saturn in the last twelve years.

February 2003  - The conjunction was exact on February 20th.  On February 15, 10 million people world wide protested the US intention to begin the Iraq war.  The Iraq war began in March.

March 2005 - The Pakistani army opened fire on insurgents one day after the exact conjunction.   The Chinese also passed an anti succession law at this time which lead to mass demonstrations by residents of Taiwan.  A number of other bombings, explosions and disasters occurred during this month as well.

March 2007 -  March 23rd, one day after the exact conjunction, naval forces of Iran's Revolutionary Guard seize Royal Navy personnel in disputed Iran-Iraq waters.

April 2009 -  April 5,  one day after the exact conjunction,    North Korea launched a rocket from its Tonghae Satellite Launching Ground, which  it claimed was carrying a satellite.  This prompted an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council.

April/May, 2011 -  Osama Bin Laden was Killed on May 2nd,  the last day of the opposition.

April/May 2013  On May 15th, at the very beginning of the conjunction, the Boston Marathon Bombing took place.  The collapse of an eight story building in Bangladesh which killed 1,129 people also took place during this period.  This was the third worst industrial disaster in history.

One can't help but notice that the 2003 opposition and the 2013 opposition of Mars and Saturn produced more dramatic results than the others.  This is because those oppositions occurred while Saturn was in a conjunction with Rahu, a conjunction that I wrote about extensively in the past several years.   Those years were particularly volatile and prone to create bigger events.

Mars opposes Saturn every other year, and not all oppositions are alike.  In the case of the current opposition, Mars will be transiting Krittika nakshatra at the time of its exact aspect on Saturn. Krittika is a nakshatra related to warfare.   Agni, deified fire, who rules Krittika, once got a crush on the seven wives of seven saints.  He succeeded in seducing six out of the seven ladies, and they collectively gave birth to the god of War, Kartikeya.  So this opposition does suggest military flare ups as well as violent and incendiary events in general.

On the positive side, Krittika is a technical nakshatra, as is the Mars-Saturn opposition, so this period favors technical activities.

All of that said, personally, I am going to try to relax, keep a low profile, and I might go on a back packing trip in the Sierras during the conjunction.  What I am not going to do is worry about it.