Mars trine Jupiter & biquintile Varuna

Mercury turned direct the day before yesterday and the winged messenger is closely conjunct the North Node today, so our thoughts and communication are moving from the internal focus that we've had for the past three weeks, to an external focus engaging with the world around us, and the Node conjunction tells us that we are taking new karmic steps in this engagement. 

And I hope you are enjoying today's Mars trine Jupiter, this is a time to take action to expand our lives and, when we do, we'll find opportunity and be lucky in our endeavours. And Mars is also biquintile Varuna, our new planet of mastery consciousness, at 9 degrees of Leo, so this lucky expansion is an evolutionary call to claim your sovereignty. The question is, are you listening?

The biquintile is a 144-degree aspect belonging to the fifth harmonic family, denoting creative mastery, specialised gifts, and the unique expression of talent. Where the quintile carries expectation and creative excitement, the biquintile carries urgency. It is the cosmos pressing us to take what we have developed and release it. To let it flow out into the world before we second-guess ourselves or move on to something else. The biquintile is not a gentle nudge; it is a clear and purposeful signal.

When this aspect connects Mars, which is the fire that moves us into action, with Varuna, the dwarf planet of mastery consciousness, we find ourselves standing at a remarkable threshold. Mars provides the momentum. Varuna provides the direction: sovereign, impartial, deeply wise.

"Sovereignty is power in its own right, without the need for control or support. It is a dance between our intention and the collective psyche."

Varuna is one of the most ancient of the Vedic deities, personifying the sky and ocean, the keeper of supreme cosmic law and the guardian of immortality. With a thousand eyes, he observes all, knows all, and judges with absolute fairness. In astrological terms, Varuna is the higher octave of Saturn. Where Saturn teaches through limits and structure, Varuna transmutes that energy into something far more luminous and self-sufficient, into a self-authorising mastery.

What This Means For Us

In the next couple of days with Mars biquintile Varuna, the cosmos is asking us to act — not from ego, not from fear, not from competition — but from the centred, self-knowing place of the sovereign. We are being asked to do the thing that only we can do, in the way that only we can do it, and to do it now, with urgency and with love.

You may notice in these days that something is clarifying. A knowing is arriving about what your domain truly is, what your particular field of mastery looks like, and what authority you genuinely carry. You may also notice where you have been either over-claiming or underselling yourself. This is Varuna's gift: the ability to see truly, to know what is right, and to align our action accordingly.

We may also have a deepening sense of justice — a desire to oversee our corner of the world with impartiality and wisdom, to make decisions that serve the higher good rather than the small ego. This, too, is Varuna. He enables us to see what is morally right and to act from that knowing.

When we are unconscious of Varuna's energy however, we may experience this Mars biquintile as a restless, urgent need to be seen as authoritative or important — an impatience when others do not recognise what we believe we deserve. There can be a tendency to over-extend, to claim territory that isn't yet truly ours through sustained effort, and then to blame circumstances or people when things do not follow. 

For those of us on the spiritual path, however, who are already working consciously with their evolution, this is a moment of tremendous creative empowerment. The urgency of the biquintile is channelled into meaningful, purposeful action. We know what our work is. We know our domain. And Mars is offering us the will to step forward and claim it — not aggressively, but with quiet, unshakeable authority. We may find that this period accelerates our notability in our field, draws the right audience to us, or grants us the clarity to restructure our work around what is most genuinely ours to offer.

Embodying Your Sovereignty Now

In this next couple of days the biquintile is asking you to act, and to act with the quality that Mars combined with Varuna demands: conscious, courageous, and aligned with your highest knowing. Here is how you might work with this energy over the coming days:

1. Step Forth And Name Your Domain

Varuna's sovereignty begins the moment you say, internally and externally, "this is what I do, and I do it with mastery." Identify the field — however small it may seem — in which you are genuinely building expertise, and claim it clearly in your own mind.

2. Let Your Emotions Inform, Not Overwhelm

Varuna is the god of waters. He does not ask you to suppress your emotional depths, but to recognise them as vast and largely unchangeable in their nature. Notice your emotions with spaciousness, and allow your responses to arise from your soul of peace rather than reactive wrath.

3. Act Where Action Is Required

Varuna reminds us that a failure to show up in a crisis — however much our higher wisdom tells us the system will right itself — can cost us our standing. Use Mars' energy to be present and engaged where your community, your work, or your relationships genuinely need you.

4. Know When To Release

Equally, Varuna's mastery includes the wisdom of knowing when to let someone have their own learning experience. Not every situation is yours to fix. This discernment — between sovereign duty and compassionate non-interference — is one of Varuna's great teachings.

5. Align With Truth And Forgiveness

Where you have not been fully honest with yourself or others, Varuna may be placing gentle restrictions on your forward movement. Bring those places into the light. Forgive. Align with spirit. Watch the path clear.

6. Build your Legacy

Remember that Varuna enables immortality through the notability we achieve by claiming our sovereignty — our deeds living on in the collective consciousness. Use this Mars biquintile to do something that truly matters and is genuinely yours. Let the urgency of the aspect carry you forward.

"With Saturn we need permission. With Varuna, we give ourselves permission."

At the spiritually evolved level, this aspect is an invitation into compassion in action — to focus on the higher good, to develop a mastery of the flow of consciousness in our lives, and perhaps to experience those ongoing revelations that mark the journey of the true sage. We may become the person that others turn to. And that notability, earned through genuine service and genuine mastery, is Varuna's deepest gift.

This is the promise at the heart of this beautiful sky: that when we align the passionate action of Mars with Varuna's mastery consciousness, we are no longer acting for ourselves alone. We are sovereign in service of the whole.

Varuna Early Scholarship

If this Mars biquintile Varuna is stirring something in you — a recognition, a quiet knowing that your own sovereignty is asking to be developed — jump into our Varuna course to onboard this empowering new consciousness in your life. I have some Early Scholarships to encourage you.

Over six weeks, you will explore Varuna's placement in your personal chart — your houses, your aspects, your transits — through live Zoom sessions, instructional webinars, and deeply personal consciousness exercises designed to help you onboard Varuna's energy into your actual lived experience. You will work not just with theory, but with your own life as the laboratory.

Varuna 101 - Early Scholarship

NZ$270.00NZ$80.00

Buy Now

Fridays, August 7 to September 25, 2026, (6 weeks) At 9pm GMT

10pm in London, 11pm in Europe, 2pm in LA, 5pm in Toronto, 7am on Saturday in Sydney and 9am on Saturday in Auckland.

Because I will be traveling through this period - teaching Dwarf Planet workshops and giving talks in the US and UK - this course is only being offered at the 9pm GMT Zoom time, which fortunately is the session that works for everyone.

There also will be a weekend off for the United Astrology Conference on the weekend of the 5th and 6th of September, because the DPU will have a stall in the Trade Show at UAC. (Come and see us for cheap books and classes, free charts, and I'll be doing ten minute chart readings.) The advantage of this is that it will turn the Aspect fortnight into a 3 week period, giving you extra time for your aspect assignment.

I hope you can join us on Varuna, and thanks for your work embracing these new aspects of consciousness. 

Love and laughter

Alan

I'm very grateful for Alan Clay's insightfully powerful dwarf planet courses. He offers a supportive and welcoming class environment that encourages learning and processing the deep new consciousness of these planets. I totally recommend engaging with this outer realm of alchemy into our inner self!  Sue Rose Minahan, Evolutionary Post-Modern Astrologer