On April 10, 2024 at 4:16 pm EDT, Mars and Saturn will conjunct at 14° Pisces. At my location, this transit will be in the seventh house, suggesting that both my dearest loved ones and my worst foes will be more affected than I am directly — and it’s kind of a reminder that the malefic forces that we send out on our enemies, also return to us by another road.

Here’s a poem for that.

Hail to you, old man Saturn with your scythe,
and Mars, in iron armor, sword at guard:
beneath your gaze, the paths of vengeance writhe,
and soft rivalries become red and hard —
the angry lump of cancer in the gut, 
or pustules in the armpits and the crotch, 
the wound where the knife was pushed and exhumed.
Here's an infection where the surgeon cut;
the old king's now a blind and begging wretch;
there's now a crater where soldiers once roomed.

Violence begets violence, sicknesses spread,
under your cold and unforgiving glares —
the well is dry, the oven won't bake bread;
the blacksmith forges pikes from pruning shears.
Screams from the battle now sound much closer:
Just over the ridge? Just beyond the stream?
The hospital is full; so's the charnel —
the grief is wrenching and yet we're sober —
How long 'til sepsis from a ruptured spleen?
Who knew misery could be so carnal?

Pass us by, you vultures: do not linger, 
and keep your dreadful shadows from my gate;
nor poke me and mine with fleshless finger,
nor burn our substance to skeletal state.
Stand apart, too, from my rivals and foes —
for though they vex me and drive me to tears,
I know pestilence and famine and war
spring to action where your attention flows.
This I ask, when your conjunction appears,
to hold back the bounty you keep in store,
and send harm on none with your baleful glows.

Eclipses are often described as malefic and casting “baleful rays” (possibly because of the way that they used to induce blindness among those who stared at them when the “Sun became strange?) — but traditional astrological lore has equally horrible things to say about conjunctions of Mars and Saturn. The titles of these two planets, and their epithets, kind of say it all: Mars the Lesser Malefic is the bringer of fevers and fires, the giver of wounds and injuries, the lord of quick deaths; Saturn, the Greater Malefic, is the bestower of chills and shakes, the provider of rot and ruin, the giver of infirmities and malaise, the lord of slow deaths.

Fun times when they meet, right? No, not really. the Bible, of course, points out that there are four causes of population decline, and they’re all Horsemen — War, Famine, Pestilence, and Death. The last, of course, is always with us, but if you let even one of the others onto the field of play and the numbers change right-quick. In various ways, we’ve got all four active globally in the world right now — and they’re loosed not just among our great enemies but also among our dearest loved ones.

That’s my reminder to you, of course: here in the Berkshire mountains of western Massachusetts, their conjunction will take place below the western horizon in the seventh house: the place of our closest loved ones, and our worst and most open foes. For the magically inclined you probably have the thought that tomorrow would be a great time to inflict damage on your enemies — but that damage is likely to come in a way that also brings it back on people you care about.

Astrology is set up to acknowledge the way that opposites are not only attracted to one another, but intimately connected — use tomorrow’s conjunction to sever your self from your responsibilities, and you’ll soon find yourself without a paycheck; wish illness on a rival, and the same contagion may soon attack your spouse; inflict the company you hate working for with malice, and it’s your house and home that pays the price.

There’s something to be said here for choosing a more nuanced approach — ask that the malevolence of the current hour sidestep both your spouse and your hated rival at the same time. Free yourself from wishing ill on your boss or your hated colleague at work, or your political party’s major opponents — knowing that the trouble you inflict on them is likely to damage your household’s economic status, or bring trouble to your community or state or country for years to come.

This isn’t about wishing those people well, though — it’s about refraining from sending malevolence their way: we live on a round planet of closed-loop ecosystems and energies, in the middle of a complex system of orbiting cycles. Whatever ill-will you send out into the system, is going to come back again, aimed at something close to you and important to you.

Are there worthy targets of your malice, your desire for justice, or your secret hunger for revenge? If so, this conjunction is for you — Mars and Saturn will be happy to assist you in whatever scheme you cook up.

But keep in mind that they are absolutely non-discriminatory about making sure everyone gets a taste of ugliness — and whatever you send out through them, winds up being for .everyone., not just your particular target.

So, maybe tomorrow is a day for atropaism — a day for holding back, a day for showing restraint, a day for pulling yourself back from the hunger for retribution. You don’t have to send out “good vibes”… just try to make it a day for holding back the “bad vibes.” Allow yourself a little more patience in the morning, don’t bark at the first person who screws up your schedule, and don’t scream at the lady who takes your parking spot.

The message is pretty clear, overall: What goes around, comes around — and whatever you send out, will be carried back to you on the next tide.