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On Miracles and Mars at Opposition: this week on The Storyteller's Night Sky

Mars came closest to Earth January 12, is blocked by a nearly Full Moon on Monday (visible throughout the US), and reaches opposition with the Sun on January 15, all near the bright star Pollux, the immortal twin in the region of Gemini. (Image from astronomy.com)
Image from astronomy.com
Mars came closest to Earth January 12, is blocked by a nearly Full Moon on Monday (visible throughout the US), and reaches opposition with the Sun on January 15, all near the bright star Pollux, the immortal twin in the region of Gemini. (Image from astronomy.com)

This week the story in the stars is all about Mars, which came closest to the Earth on Sunday, will be blocked by the Moon just past Full Phase on Monday, and then makes its opposition with the Sun on Wednesday.

Things get lively whenever Mars is involved, going all the way back to HG Wells and his 1897 serial novel War of the Worlds, in which he imagined England invaded by Martians. This was a political commentary on colonialism couched in science fiction that made use of the same Mars craze witnessed in astronomer Percival Lowell, who, in 1894, built his observatory in Arizona looking for life on Mars. Several decades later, in 1938, Orson Welles used Mars to incite panic with his radio adaptation of War of the Worlds, in a dramatization of news bulletin reporting on a Martian invasion happening in New Jersey.

And as recently as 2003, when Mars was closest to Earth during its biennial retrograde, astronomers described that Mars would appear as bright as the Full Moon, which turned into many believing Mars would appear as large as the Full Moon.

So what’ll it be this time?

When Mars is opposite the Sun, astrological tradition holds that rather than being a time of war and aggression, it is time to repair a mistake, to right a wrong, or to do something you’ve left undone. Knowledge and wisdom can grow out of the close confrontation with Mars at opposition.

This week’s opposition, not long after Mars’ occultation by the Moon, means the time is right, we stand at the boundary of two ways of being ~ aggressive or conciliatory. This Mars influence shifts and interpenetrates this week, which could result in something miraculous.

Mary Stewart Adams is a Star Lore Historian and host of “The Storyteller’s Night Sky.” As a global advocate for starry skies, Mary led the team that established the 9th International Dark Sky Park in the world in 2011, which later led to her home state of Michigan protecting 35,000 acres of state land for its natural darkness.