5 Tips for Alchemizing the Challenge of Mars/Saturn Opposition

Looking for more insight on the current Mars/Saturn opposition? Click here to read my 2025 update.

And if you want to receive more personal guidance on where this is showing up for you, click here to schedule a consultation.

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When you’re clear on your goal and desires and something gets in your way, how do you respond — or react?

Do you judge the obstacle — or yourself — as bad? Do you jump to a conclusion that something is wrong or needs to be fixed? Do you go down the rabbit hole of the beliefs that you are not good enough, or that the road is too complicated?

How do you speak to — and about — yourself?

You’ll likely have a chance to do some real-time observation of how you respond as Mars in Virgo opposes Saturn in Pisces.

The energy of this opposition has been building since Mars entered Virgo; the planets will come into an exact opposition at 6º20’ of Virgo/Pisces at 4:39 pm ET on July 20.

In astrology, an opposition between Mars and Saturn is the planetary representation of resistance.

Mars is the planet of energy, drive, and action. It represents our willpower and determination, and is associated with things that are hot, quick, and impetuous.

Saturn is the planet of restriction, structure, limits, and time. It is associated with things that are reserved, cold, slow.

Mars and Saturn are both known as “malefic” planets, and hard aspects between them, like oppositions, conjunctions, and squares, are often feared.

In general, we live in a culture that views Resistance, or anything that injects friction into our path, as “bad.” But this energy can actually help us grow.

When it comes to growing our physical strength, we need the resistance of weights to get stronger. This principle applies in the rest of life too.

In the gym, if you lack the skill to lift the weights, they will crush you.

In every context, the key is learning how to work with the resistance to get stronger.

Here are 5 tips for constructively working with the energy of a Mars/Saturn opposition:

(1) Be Relentless and Persevering

Sometimes obstacles pop up in the middle of our path to force us to consider a new destination entirely — perhaps one that is better for us. Other times, an obstacle asks us to consider alternative means of getting to where we want to go.

There are many paths to the same destination.

The obstacle need not stop you. Rather, tap into your determination, buckle up, and do the work.

Be relentless in your determination and your perseverance.

(2) Embrace a Slow Pace

Relentless is not about being fast. It’s about being relentless. — Austin Coppock, on The Astrology Podcast

Mars in Virgo is a great energy for slow and steady change: little adjustments that add up to something big and substantial.

Be thoughtful and systematic.

Saturn teaches us about patience and perseverance with things that take a long time.

Think:

“I can be slow, but I cannot be stopped.”

Give yourself plenty of time to rest between efforts.

(3) Respect — but Test — Your Limits

Until the invention of the telescope, Saturn was the last planet visible in the solar system. As such, it is the planet of boundaries and limits. It teaches us to respect the limits of our capacity.

This can be complicated, because we don’t always know where our limits are. Sometimes we can be pushed more, and by pushing we expand our capacity.

You may have to reach a breaking point to discover how hard is too hard.

Astrologer Austin Coppock explained that

When Mars is opposing Saturn, we have to watch out for trying to blow past our limits to the point of hurting ourselves. Notice the desire to lift the little extra weight that ends up blowing out your knee.

He offers that a good rule of thumb is to push 110% mentally, and 80% physically.

The mind is much harder to snap than the body. The mind adapts more quickly to pressure than the body.

(4) Get Present

The Pisces/Virgo axis also highlights the tension between the big things and the small things. Saturn in Pisces is about the big goal. In Pisces, it can feel very big and amorphous.

Saturn in Pisces can also represent fear of the unknown of the depths of the ocean.

One of the best antidotes to fear is presence. Mars in Virgo focuses on the one thing you can do in the here and now.

Ask yourself:

What is that one executable thing that I can do each day that will get me closer to that big Saturnian goal?

(5) Implement Slowly and Acclimatize

Both Pisces and Virgo are mutable signs, meaning they transition us from one season to the next. Mutable signs are about slow change; the evolution of one season into the next isn’t an overnight process, and neither is transformation.

Consider the metaphor of climbing a mountain: You have to climb a bit, then acclimatize to the altitude, and then climb a little bit more and acclimate a little more. And so on.

The same principle holds for anything we want to build or accomplish: a habit stack, a skill, a language, a body:

The best approach is to implement one thing at a time, in small daily doses. Learn a small amount and integrate it. Increase your weights by 2.5 pounds for each successive lift, so you slowly adjust to the heavier weight.

Every Opposition is Different

Every Mars/Saturn face-off has its own flavor. Read my 2025 take here.