Why Growth Can’t Be Resolved by Thinking

Next Saturday, the 10th, eight days from now, we have an opposition.

Opposition occurs when two forces stand across from one another. They are separate. They cannot merge. Yet they cannot ignore each other. There is awareness created through distance.

In astrology, this is when two planets are 180 degrees apart. You can imagine this by thinking of two people standing on opposite sides of a room at a party. They may not be directly talking, but they are deeply aware of one another. There is tension. There is attention. There is a pull that cannot be resolved until something changes between them.

It hangs in the air. Something is being asked to be seen.

This particular opposition in eight days is happening with the Sun and Mars on one side, directly opposing Jupiter on the other. The central message of this alignment is simple, and also uncomfortable: you don’t know what you don’t know.

This is a tense alignment that cannot be ignored. And it cannot be resolved by standing still.

The Role of Sun, Mars, and Jupiter

An opposition places two forces across from one another within the zodiac, on either side of the wheel. I often think of it as two sides of a merry-go-round. The awareness created by that distance produces inner tension. And in this case, the forces involved are the Sun and Mars on one side, and Jupiter on the other.

The Sun rules your right to build your own identity. Mars rules your responsibility to take your free will and turn it into action. Jupiter holds the power of the higher self, the potential of the entire seed. With these forces opposing one another, something becomes activated.

For many, this will feel like a deeper reckoning with responsibility. A moment that cannot be resolved by thinking or meditating alone, but requires action. Mars asks for movement. Energy moving through the field.

Mars is powerful in astrology because it holds the mechanism of free will. It lies between thought and feeling and requires their coordination for action to occur.

This is why the glyph for Mars is a circle, the same symbol as the Sun representing individuation, with an arrow pointing outward in a specific direction. It is your ability to manifest. To co-create. To say, I will do this, and then do it consistently, even when it does not feel good. Even when you do not yet fully understand where it is leading.

Why Thinking Isn’t Enough

The truth of this alignment is this: you do not hold all the answers inside you. You do not become by thinking alone. You do not arrive through insight alone.

There are many people with knowledge and very little wisdom. People who can explain things, teach things, and give things to others, but cannot embody them or live them for themselves.

Becoming happens through living. Experience by experience. Trial by trial. And it never stops.

The moment you believe you have learned everything or arrived fully is the moment stagnation begins. Growth is ongoing. Becoming is ongoing.

The Refusal to Experience

We resist experience because it is made of blood, sweat, and tears. If growth were easy, everyone would do it. If life handed out perfect results every time, there would be no development.

Foundation is built through movement forward and backward. Through effort and recalibration. Not as punishment, but as something uniquely yours.

Mars represents your willingness to take action. To want something and then do the things that lead toward it. To walk toward goals energetically, not just physically.

This is often overlooked in spaces that emphasize thinking and feeling as enough. Mars reminds us that action includes setbacks. It includes failure. And it includes learning curves.

Mars is not afraid of failure. It sees growth as an internal war, not against others, but within yourself. What will it take for you to activate your free will?

Action Includes Failure

Oppositions are often described as external conflicts, but another form is equally intense. The opposition between your past self and your future self.

With the Sun and Mars in Capricorn opposing Jupiter in Cancer, this polarity becomes clear. Capricorn is associated with authority, structure, and action. Cancer relates to protection, bonding, and receptivity: the will and the womb facing one another.

Imagine your past self and future self standing across from one another, time suspended between them. This alignment becomes painful only when you reject who you have been.

Growth is not about destroying the past version of you to become a better one. That keeps you locked in opposition with yourself. You will make mistakes again. You will outgrow decisions again. And that is part of the process.

Mars reminds us that growth is not just about what you think or feel, but about your willingness to turn those into consistent action.

This is an invitation to understand Mars more deeply in your own chart. To explore your relationship with action. Your strengths. Your hesitation. Your follow-through.

As you move toward your goals for 2026, hold this awareness: the path is winding, not linear. And that is not a problem. It is the point.

How to Get This Magic Working ✨

1)    Download your ⁠Natal Chart Navigator⁠ and save a screenshot to your phone in your photos (so you don’t have to repeat this step each week!).

2)    Upload your Navigator into your favorite AI (I use ChatGPT)

3) Cut + paste the prompt below.

4)   Sit back, read the reflection, and connect to the cosmos <3

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Weekly AI Prompt: 

“Using my Natal Chart Navigator, which lists my house cusps in Table 2 and my natal planets in Table 1, help me explore the role of Mars in my birth chart.

Identify the sign and house placement of my natal Mars and explain what this reveals about how I naturally take action, assert myself, and pursue goals. Describe the strengths of this placement when it comes to initiative, effort, and follow through, as well as common challenges or blind spots that may arise under stress or uncertainty.

Next, briefly consider how my Mars placement interacts with my Sun, Moon, Mercury, and Venus. Explain how my thoughts, emotions, values, and desires support or complicate my ability to act consistently.

Please focus on lived experience and real life patterns rather than predictions or fixed outcomes.

Finally, offer a grounded reflection on how I can work with my Mars energy more consciously, strengthen my relationship with action, and move forward with self trust, especially during periods of growth, failure, or nonlinear progress.”

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*My entire body of work is based on Western Astrology and the Koch House system.