MARS, THE BIGGEST STAR
Mars is now brighter than any star in the sky. It will never look like this again. You and I (plus the other six billion) are the only folk who will ever witness this. Could that, perhaps, be a part of what we came here for? Mathematicians say that if you add together all the people who have ever inhabited the earth before now, the total is lower than the number who are here today. So why have we flocked here? Well, Mars is the planet of purpose. I predict we will soon have to address that very question!

WILL THE RED PLANET BRING WAR?
On Wednesday, Mars will come closer to Earth than ever before in history. Mars is associated with anger, aggression, conflict and confrontation. It is often called the red planet or the bringer of war. Is this a poor omen for all who seek peace? Absolutely not! This is a herald of major change. A portent of victory in the battle against the hate and intolerance that has reigned on this earth for countless centuries. The world may briefly get more warlike in the next few weeks and months. But then, it will rapidly start to get an awful lot wiser. Along the way, there will be many changes in your life, in mine... and most especially in the lives of those who walk the corridors of power.

HOW RARE IS THIS?
Every 15-17 years, Mars comes a little nearer to Earth than usual. Mars though, is about 35 million miles away and, as we don’t have a tape measure that stretches quite that far, scientists argue about exactly how near it actually is getting. But they all agree that Mars is now as close as it can ever get. Most think this last happened 73,000 years ago, some say 60,000 and others say it might have last done this as recently as 10,000 years ago.

TO SEE THE COSMIC SHOW...
No matter where you happen to be in the world, just look in the sky towards the southeast. Mars will rise over eastern horizon around 11pm and slowly cross the sky to be due south by about 1am. Unless there is a lot of cloud, you won’t have much trouble spotting it. It looks like a distant flare or firework. Only the Moon is brighter and bigger.

WHY IS MARS NOW SO BRIGHT?
Is Mars so bright now because it is so close? Yes and no. The closeness is part of the answer, but in fact Mars has no light of its own, so what you are seeing is reflected sunlight. The light from the Sun goes out past Earth, to Mars, and is then reflected off Mars back to Earth. Those sunbeams do a round trip of about 170 million miles just to reach us! This process works best if the Sun and Mars are exactly opposite each other with the Earth in the middle, and that's what's happening right now.

MARS AND THE BALANCE OF POWER
Mars, this week, comes closer to Earth than ever before in history. It is now so bright, it resembles a flare or a firework. Mars governs control, competition, aggression and ambition. It also governs government. Whenever Mars is on the rise, the balance of power changes. Leaders are toppled. Regimes are removed. Saddam was first to fall under this influence. He will not be the last.

Cainer nadaljuje ...   ... Star Wars II ...


DID MARS PUT THE LIGHTS OUT?
Between Wednesday and Thursday, Mars will come as close to the Earth as it can ever get. Normally, if I was talking about an event like this, I would say, ‘Don’t expect anything to happen straight away’. Such signs in the sky tend to tell us about tomorrow, not today. Mars though, is already making its presence felt. That’s probably because, it has already been stunningly close for weeks.

Remember that Mars governs conflict, leadership, power and fire. Then think about some of the news stories we have heard lately. Some connections are obvious. You would expect trouble to flare up in the Middle East with a strong Mars in the sky.

But what about those millions of Americans and Canadians, plunged into sudden darkness, just as the power planet begins to shine so brightly in the sky? You can almost imagine Mars angrily shouting, ‘Hey, I’m here and you aren’t looking! If I cut off your electricity, you will HAVE to notice me then!’

And what about the exceptional number of fires this summer, raging out of control in forests and fields all across the globe?

Or the world-wide heatwave?

I am not trying to say that Mars has CAUSED any of this. And of course I concede that such events can occur when Mars is far less obviously active. I still think though, that a sort of celestial ‘signature’ can be seen. I predict more tales on such topics between now and the end of the year. My astrological ancestors would certainly be in no doubt about what was due to come next. A series of dramas, involving, soldiers, surgeons and strategists! Over the rest of the week, we’ll look more closely at what they - and I - and my other colleagues, might expect to happen next.

TO SEE THIS HISTORIC SIGHT....
...Just go out after 11pm and look up. If you know where the South-East horizon is, look in that direction. If you don’t, just look for the brightest sight in the sky. That’s Mars... outshining every star.
(PS If there’s too much cloud to see anything? Try again later!)

THE MEANING OF MARS
Mars, writes our expert consultant, Bernard Fitzwalter, is known as the Red Planet because of its pinky-orange colour. Scientists now know this is because it is covered in iron oxide. Spookily though, astrological lore connected Mars with iron, long before this discovery was made. Its red colour led the ancients to associate the planet with blood, warriors and warfare. Mars turns up in stories from all over the world in similar roles. In Japan he is Susanowo, a warrior god who pulls down a palace. Here in the West, Mars still has his own sacred day - Tuesday. In French it is Mardi, easy to recognise as Mars’-day. In English the ‘Tue’ part comes from Tiw, the Norse warrior god who is a Viking version of Mars.