Author: Pippa Ponton

Boston Marathon finishing line. Pressure cooker nail bomb blast, 15th April 2013 23,000 people took part in the historic race with hundred of thousands of spectators cheering on what should have been the major achievement of running 26.2 miles.

This post was originally based on celebrating people’s efforts running races for charity in true exuberant Aries fashion but suddenly and sadly on the 15th April 2013 two explosions ripped through the Boylston Street finishing line of the Boston Marathon, 50 to 100 yards apart and under the 96 flags of nations who had runners in the race. In particular on that day there was an increase of Aries energy with a looming Sun-Mars conjunction.
The blasts killed three people, one of them an eight year old boy, Martin Richard, another a 29 year old restaurant manager Krystle Campbell and the third a Chinese post-graduate student Lu Lingzi. There were terrible injuries to at least 19 people, 5 critically with 7 necessary amputations and over 100 people being treated. Apparently some runners crossing the finishing line then ran over to Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston to give blood. Investigators of the crime scene have described two bombs consisted of explosives packed into pressure cookers, with shards of metal and ball bearings and nails both in black backpacks on the ground. It was Patriots Day in Massachusetts commemorating Lexington and Concord, the first battles of the American Revolution. 

American Sculptor of the original Minuteman Daniel Chester French has Sun in Aries (Minuteman were militia in American Revolution)

The Boston Marathon began in 1897 and is always held on Patriots day, the third Monday of April. Inspired by the success of the first modern marathon of the 1896 Olympics it is the world’s oldest annual marathon and one of the world’s best known road race events. 

This time will test and challenge our boundaries as we try to re-gain our footing and re-sprint off into the chase once more true to the Aries spirit. We can feel under attack and our muscles can feel taut and stretched but we will still accept the challenges laid down ahead of us as life speeds up and stretches ahead. We will up our own styles of pace and momentum and we will race off in the direction of the future because it is springtime, it is Aries time and that is a part of our natures as it is part of our astrological charts. It is not easy but we will set our next goal, whatever shape that may take and we will set off.

The London Marathon 21st April 2013 One of six marathons that form the World Marathon Majors series, with Boston, Berlin, Chicago, New York (cancelled in 2012 because of Hurricane Sandy Venus in Libra – Grace & Danger) and in 2013, Tokyo. Security for the London Marathon is being reviewed in the wake of Boston’s tragedy but officials have ruled out cancelling the event. Approximately 37,500 people are expected to run the 26.2 miles from Blackheath in south/east London to the Mall with around 500,000 people on the streets supporting and encouraging them.

This Aries ground usually supports our gambolling ways because it is springy and resilient enough to propel our forward trajectory. Here in this land we find so much around to spur us on, so many things to do and explore, so much to accomplish before the springing-about in all directions time will run out. Running in fact is something that may increase and gain some creedance, running the family, running the business, running the syndicate, running down the road, running against this and that, running towards a deadline, running into someone quite unexpectedly….or just running around, until we run out of puff. In the UK, the advert with the Duracell battery bunny who goes on and on long after it competitors run out of power but even ‘Duracell bunny Aries’ will finally come to a halt.

Duracell Bunnies keep on running in the Copenhagen Marathon

Just as we accomplish one thing up pops another equally demanding, equally challenging and probably requiring our full and IMMEDIATE ATTENTION! Oh look, another rabbit hole, Easter bunnies sometimes included, of course and speaking of courses, charity race events (astrologers running for charity included) Race for Life London 2013 Cancer Research.

Pippa from Astrology Wheel preparing to Race for Life 2013

There is a shift to the tangible with Aries, the visible, the immediate, the rapid and the hastened as we are catapulted towards the next target. Life becomes much more urgent, more rushed and with so many more imperatives calling for us to take action. This is most welcome after the somewhat confusing, vapid and unboundaried world of the Sun traveller’s environment of last month within the infinite Pisces. Sun in Pisces – The Oceans of Infinity & The Sea of Souls. In Aries, we encounter the definite, the absolute and the definable. We may reflect on last month and still find it a bit baffling and sometimes a bit at odds as things have begun to take this more obvious turn. We know where we are and what we must do and that such a definition in itself feels good. Here in Aries Fire-lands, the world can seem to be new born and our energy levels can feel as if they have risen. We also appear to be a great deal more emboldened and galvanised and ready to explore this brand new terrain. The truth is, the more unknown and new everything appears the more we secretly begin to enjoy it. Now we will have the space to push ourselves forward, to want to go further and to try out our new running shoes. 

               

Christopher McDougall author of Born to Run,

A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen.

‘Pah! to the gremlins and voices of doom’ we say as we gallantly sprint out into the unknown quite high on our own supply. Whether adrenaline or caffeine fuelled, fired-up by our own idealism or conviction or just compulsed to act on impulse, off we want to charge. It can appear as if nothing will stop us sometimes, as a certain wilfulness, some may say stubbornness, grips our muscles and mental circuitry and propels our engines into top gear. Learning to stop, slow down, smell the roses not just the coffee may be a task worth pursuing, in itself.

Ethopian Marathon Runner Derartu Tulu has Sun in Aries  The first black African woman to win an Olympic gold medal in the 10,000m event at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games. she won the New York Marathon at the age of 37 having the compassion as well as the competitive spirit to help her great rival Paula Radcliffe who has Mars in Aries. (Mars in Aries – The Primal Punch)

As we all journey with the Sun, we will all move into Aries and it’s joyful, childlike glee. The Aries symbol, the Ram, the new born lamb, rutting and playing, simply delighting itself with life.  Sometimes this fearless, naive and innocent Lamb, or challenging brave rutting Ram can become the easy-going, lets just take life as it comes, Blar Blar Blase Sheep. Nothing at all wrong with that but be aware that that this can be a little bit deceptive as it belies the playful Lamb and rutting Ram are always ready to reveal themselves without a moments notice. Aries is a Fire sign, and very proud of it too, as fire words such as motivational, inspirational, creative and exuberant all define and mark  out this sign.  So long as there is time space and allowance for all the Aries sides to express themselves, the playful innocent Lamb, the brave warrier Ram and the shy ‘leave me alone for 5 minutes’ Bar Bar Bashful Sheep Aries will be satisfied and everyones a winner. The Sheep part of Aries can be so taken with the goodness’ of another person or group of people that they can follow them into some pretty dangerous or scary situations. Relationships can also last longer than may be wise or even healthy and jobs are endured past extinction and sell-by dates and then quite suddenly the Ram will make an appearance and the Aries will just leave, start something else, as if out of the blue and all fired up with such positive expectations and hope that is irrepressible once again. A Hint – Don’t try to tell an Aries that what they are about to do may be ill-advised by the way, well tell them but don’t expect them to alter their course easily once they have set one, all you may get is a smile and wave goodbye as they anticipate the next adventure or adventure marathon!

Here are a couple of Aries secrets: 1) they are deeply trusting 2) they ‘know best’. This can be a combination of bravery and idealism. A mixture of hyper-insensitivity and hyper-sensitivity, you never quite know which one is predominating in any given moment. Brave and shy, quiet and loud, selfish and unselfish, welcome to Aries Fired-uplands, which is where find or lose ourselves this month. These issues and behaviours will be all around us, whether we like it or not, whether we answer, deliberately confront or red-hot debate them, at some level we will meet them head-on.

As Aries energy pours down to us through the Sun’s rays we will all be energised, indoors, outdoors, sleeping or waking, we will be fired-up by this power. We can expect to be much more pioneering, adventurous, a great deal more driven and goal-orientated and far more inclined to be enterprising and courageous. We will pick up on the freshness and change of this season, igniting it into starting something new, empowered to gear-up through the changes and to ‘Just Make-It-Happen’.The areas presided over by Aries in our lives will start to undergo their annual re-vamp. If you have planets ‘tuned in’ to receive Aries energy then they will feel the blast of the new or the smell of adventure. 

If you are Venus in Aries, the way you relate and how you receive love and money will get a hefty boost. Venus in Aries – Love Action 

If you have Mars here you have probably already marshalled your troops to attack or defend or just excite and sex things up. You may well be called up to act out your vision, or to put your ideas into practice or just show your mettle, flex your muscle and make a great big Grrrr sound! Aries is the ‘first sign’ of the zodiac and is in a hurry, it wants to get on, it is anxious to make a start, it’s had enough of theorising it wants to see some action. Put your money where your mouth is, ‘head-out’ and just make a start. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.

Sun in Aries time, the end of March and into April, is about the wide-eyed innocence of youth no matter what chronological age you happen to find yourself dealing with and sometimes there is just the sadness of lost potential and poignancy of enthusiastic, naive youthful expression.

Sam Harper Brighouse sadly died after collapsing at 16 miles into the Brighton Marathon on the 14th April 2013 suffering a cardiac arrest, he was just 23 years old. He was running with 9,000 others, his family waiting for him on the finishing line. His father said that ‘it could not have been more of a shock, he was a healthy fit young man…we are devastated’ he was seen to be fit as a fiddle and had trained well completing a 22 mile run just a week before. Donations are flooding in to his Just Giving fundraising page for Arms Around the Child charity supporting Aids orphans, with the total at nearly £10,000 ‘I’m running, jogging, crawling the Brighton Marathon for Arms Around The Child (UK) (formerly KCA UK) because I am want to raise money for a good cause.’

Aries time is about moving and even better moving towards a goal. It can also be about protection, look at those horns on the ram they are mighty impressive and pretty hard, formidable weapons. Anyone who has provoked or threatened an Aries loved one can contest to that. Want someone to act on your behalf, even around something quite difficult, well go ask that Aries. We may all find ourselves faced with a tough and difficult challenge this month, when we may have to show what we are made of, reveal our hand and state our viewpoint and stake out our boundaries. 

British Conservative Politician, Right Honourable Norman Tebbitt has Aries Sun Served in Margaret Thatcher’s Cabinet from 1981/1987, as Secretary of State for Employment (1981–83) came up with his famous suggestion to get a job ‘get on your bike‘. In 1984, he was injured in the IRA’s bombing of the Grand Hotel in Brighton, during the Conservative Party Conference and his wife was left permanently disabled.

An the Aries Sun shone down on Baroness Margaret Thatcher’s contentious and very public funeral, conducted on the 17th April 2013 in London, it mixed celebrations of high office of the longest serving UK Prime Minister of modern times and the first woman, forever associated with the Falklands War, with nationwide protests highlighting her lack of compassion for huge swathes of the country in ‘this Lady’s not for turning’ ‘Thatcherism’. Her policies and their continuing effect on the current Conservative government is seen by many as the destruction of collectivism and communities in the past and again in the middle of another world recession shown to be caused by ‘selfish and greedy individualism’ and has opened up many old wounds.

Actor Motorcycle adventurer Ewan McGregor has Sun in Aries (lines from Trainspotting with actor Robert Caryle Sun in Aries)

We will be inclined to be super-charged and super- energised over this time and may well alternate between fatigue and feeling low, if we do not balance it all out a bit, yes just like Aries opposite sign Libra. Yes this will be a good time to start afresh, kick off something new, kick out something old and embrace a brave new world, preferably of our making. We may feel a real yen to take life in our own hands and set out on the Star ship Enterprise with a blazing sword with which to meet any challenge. Ok but lets not frighten, threaten or phase anyone in the process. Even early pioneers appreciated company on their wagon trains, we said that trailblazing should be a lonely task.

We offer our condolences to everyone affected by the horrific, tragic events that caused the loss of such young, spirited lives, to those they loved and those that loved them and to the 100’s of people injured at the Boston Marathon and as New York goes on high alert.

Original member of Snow Patrol Mark McClelland has Sun in Aries

credits: trianglenews & nazret & the guardian & msn news & wikipedia & tweetbuzz

posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs