The Extended Mars Transit in Cancer

Everything you need to know about one of the most important transits of the year!

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Mars is making some major moves this October! The red planet will go through a very significant transit when it enters Cancer later this month. This transit will take place from October 20, 2024, to January 20, 2025.

In this special article, I'll talk about how Mars in Cancer could influence you on a personal level. I'll also discuss how this planetary transit might impact the world. If you would like a more personalized analysis, I have written a sign-by-sign guide to this event that is available to my paid subscribers, titled How the Mars Transit in Cancer Could Change Your Life.

The Mars Transit in Cancer: Why This is a Significant Event

Mars normally spends about one-and-a-half to two months in each sign transit. However, every 26 months, Mars retrogrades and spends a much longer time than usual in one or two signs. When a planet transits for a lengthy period in one section of the zodiac, it strongly emphasizes matters related to the astrological signs and houses that it occupies. 

Mars will go through this type of lengthy cycle during its transits in Gemini and Cancer. If you have not read them, please check out my previous articles about the Mars in Gemini transit, titled The Extended Transit of Mars in Gemini, and How the Extended Mars Transit in Gemini Could Change Your Life.

The red planet will station retrograde in Cancer on December 6, move back into Gemini on January 20, station direct in Gemini on February 23, and re-enter its transit of Cancer from April 2 to June 6, 2025. This suggests that certain concerns that we may be experiencing around the Mars in Cancer ingress (October 20) could remain unsettled until June 2025.

The Personal Impact of Transiting Mars in Cancer

When Mars moves into Cancer, it will be in its sign of debilitation (also known as its “fall”). This condition, known as “neecha” in Vedic astrology, happens every few years and is considered one of the weakest transits for Mars. When Mars is in this sign, the fire element (agni) that it rules will be weakened. 

When Mars and the fire element are weak, some of us may feel a loss of energy, ambition, willpower, and self-discipline. We may have difficulty digesting our food, thoughts, and emotions, which can lead to the build up of toxins. This can result in a feeling of powerlessness; frustration (or even anger); low self-esteem, and shame or guilt; inertia; difficulty concentrating; digestive issues; liver toxicity; headaches; colds and flu; problems with our legs; and eye disorders.

Some of us will experience these kinds of challenges more than others, depending on the tendencies seen in the birth chart, the current life conditions, progressed astrological cycles, and the house where the transit is occurring. For those with Mars-ruled Aries and Scorpio Ascendants (or Sun or Moon signs), this transit may be most challenging. For all of us, one of the best remedies for Mars problems is physical exercise, and also, taking care of your diet in order to stoke the digestive fire (agni).

The Worldwide Impact of Transiting Mars in Cancer

In addition to impacting your life on a personal level, the Mars in Cancer transit will also affect the world at large. In particular, Mars transiting in its weakest sign of Cancer may point to serious economic woes and natural disasters throughout the world.

This transit may have an especially strong impact on the United States. In the United States birth chart, Mars will transit in the eighth house. This is a potentially difficult transit which can indicate political subterfuge, the death or fall of world leaders, and increasing threat of terrorism, wars, and violent crime. There may also be growing uncertainty and financial stress among most American consumers, mass tragedies, significant changes in the government of the nation (especially in the executive branch of government), and serious concerns about the public mental health and the welfare of children and families.

Influences from Mercury and Pluto: Putting Additional Pressure on Mars

During its transit in Cancer, Mars will also be impacted by its close associations with Mercury and Pluto. First, Mars will activate (conjoin) Mercury from October 20 into early November. This can indicate extremism, intellectual confrontations, censorship battles, and intensification of propaganda. On a more positive note, new information coming forth may bring different perspectives.

Pluto will also influence Mars during this upcoming transit. Using an effective two-degree orb, Mars in Cancer will oppose Pluto in Capricorn from October 28 to November 9 (and again from December 27, 2024 to January 7, 2025). This is significant because Pluto will be in conjunction with natal Pluto in the United States birth chart!

This combination of Mars in Cancer opposite Pluto in Capricorn can have a violent, warlike, ruthless, or brutal expression. It can also represent terror attacks, upheaval, and revolt. This sign axis of Cancer and Capricorn has to do with long-term safety, stability, and security. This axis is being disrupted at its roots by the Pluto transit in Capricorn, in place from 2020-2040. This aspect between Mars and Pluto occurred in the same sign axis in the 1700s during the American Revolutionary War and the French Revolution. Before that, this combination occurred during the bloody Protestant Reformation in the 1500s.

Mars in Cancer: A Historical Perspective

Looking at past transits can help us understand the possible worldwide impact of the upcoming Mars cycle. As I prepared this article, I looked back to some of the previous times when Mars was in an extended retrograde cycle in Cancer.

Here are some events that occurred during those previous transits:

• The years 1913-1914 were a time of many brewing geopolitical tensions in Europe which led to the start of World War I in July 1914.

• The “White Hurricane” was a blizzard with hurricane-force winds that struck the Great Lakes Basin in the Midwestern United States and Southwestern Ontario from November 7-10, 1913. This storm resulted in at least a dozen major shipwrecks, with hundreds of lives lost. It remains the largest inland maritime disaster, in terms of number of ships lost, in United States history.

• The 1913 Italian Hall Massacre was a tragedy that occurred on Wednesday, December 24, 1913 in Michigan. Seventy-three people – mostly striking mine workers and their families – were crushed to death in a stampede when someone falsely shouted “fire” at a crowded Christmas party.

• The 1914 Sealing Disaster refers to two separate, simultaneous tragedies involving Canadian ships on the sea in the spring of 1914. The SS Southern Cross and SS Newfoundland suffered a combined loss of 251 lives.

• During 1930-1931, the biggest event was the deepening of the Great Depression, marked by significant unemployment, poverty, bank failures, and a worsening global economic crisis. The other significant event was record-breaking drought in the United States.

• The Naperville train disaster occurred April 25, 1946. The Exposition Flyer rammed into the Advance Flyer, which had made an unscheduled stop to check its running gear. This crash led to some 45 deaths and over a hundred serious injuries, and is a major reason why most passenger trains in the United States now have speed limits.

• Typhoon Olive occurred in April 1963 in the Mariana Islands, where 95 percent of the homes on Saipan sustained extensive damage, with another 5 percent completely destroyed. President Kennedy allocated 1.3 million dollars for storm relief in the disaster area.

• The Children’s Crusade occurred in early May 1963, when over 1000 African American students skipped classes to gather and march against racial segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.

• Widespread flooding occurred in central California and northwestern Nevada during January and February 1963, as a result of intense precipitation of about 72 hours duration. This caused multiple deaths and 16 million dollars’ worth of damage.

• On November 6, 1977, the Kelly Barnes Dam near Toccoa, Georgia, failed during a period of intensive rains. The resulting flood took 39 lives and did extensive damage.

• There were a multitude of other disasters that occurred in December 1977, including a dangerous windstorm, a snowstorm, a tropical cyclone, a plane crash, and an industrial explosion.

• In 1977-1978, the United States experienced extremely high inflation and unemployment, and an exchange crisis.

• The 1977 Russian flu was an influenza pandemic that lasted until 1979.

• In January 1978, the Soviet satellite Kosmos 954 burned up in Earth's atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada's Northwest Territories.

• Later in January 1978, the Great Blizzard of 1978 struck the Ohio Valley and Great Lakes, killing 70, shutting everything down for many days, and causing millions of dollars in damage. (Personal side note: I was working as an RN (staff nurse) at WVU Hospital in Morgantown, West Virginia at the time. I lived on a farm outside of town and we were heavily snowed in, but the hospital sent an authorized emergency vehicle to pick me up and bring me to work and to take me home at the end of my shift, and this went on for several days in a row!).

• A few weeks later in February, a blizzard struck the New England region and the New York metropolitan area, killing about 100 people, and causing over $520 million in damage.

• The 2010 Haiti earthquake was a catastrophic magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010. About 300,000 people are estimated to have died, and over a million were left homeless.

• The Deepwater Horizon oil spill occurred in April 2010. This environmental disaster was the largest and costliest oil spill in United States history.

• The years 2009-2010 were also big years for storms, mining disasters, floods, and even a pandemic (the Swine Flu).

• The economy in 2009-2010 was recovering from the Great Recession, the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression.

These events show that there is a historical pattern of natural and human-made disasters correlating with Mars’ transits through Cancer. There have also been pandemics, geopolitical and economic crises, major storms, and maritime accidents.

Given this historical pattern, you might want to be extra cautious during this transit. In my previous article about the Mars Gemini transit, I recommended chanting the Maha Mritunjaya mantra to help you during this difficult time. I believe that this mantra will continue to be helpful during the Mars Cancer transit, especially if you chant it on Tuesdays and Saturdays. I love this version on YouTube by Rajshri Soul.

If this upcoming transit is making you feel upset, you're not alone! I have been hearing from many clients who feel nervous about the state of the world right now. And this Mars Cancer transit may be especially worrying for those of us who are tuned into political and economic news. As we move through this uncertain time, I urge you to remain calm and focused. In astrology, Mars gives us challenges that test our strength and help us grow. If you are able to channel the red planet's power, you should be able to move through this tough period with dignity and strength.

All will be well, and all manner of things will be well. (Julian of Norwich)

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Please note that this and all my other forecasts are based on the sidereal zodiac used in both Vedic and Western sidereal astrology, not the tropical system used by most Western and a small number of Vedic astrologers. All the astrological charts that I work with and share are calculated according to the sidereal zodiac and Lahiri Ayanamsa.