When I was a kid I would hear my parents refer to the “Bewitching Hours.”  There were five kids in our family and those hours generally referred to a time period during which the arguments, whining and general lack of cooperative were higher than usual.  As a child I generally blamed those time periods on one or more of my siblings – of course, I never thought I was anything but an innocent bystander in the craziness of those time periods.

Once I became an adult I realized that my siblings were not the only ones who participated in the bewitching hours as it seemed to me that not only myself but fellow travelers, bosses, co-workers, shop clerks and my family of creation also had their own bewitching time periods – time periods which seemed to exist simply to try and drive us to the edge of our own peace and endurance.

Of course, as an adult, I began to realize that something was driving these seemingly random time periods in which all hell would seem to break loose for no apparent reason. Always curious about the cycles and rhythms it was natural for me to eventually stumble upon the subject of astrology. 

The opportunity to study Vedic Astrology has been one of the biggest blessings of my life. It’s approach is different in many ways from the more well-known western astrology and one of the differences is the way aspects between planets and signs are calculated for relationship to one another.  Mars is calculated as aspecting the fourth, seventh and eighth sign from itself which brings us to the bewitching hours.  As an energetic influence Mars can be aggressive, argumentative, irrational, funny, athletic and immature.  Mars is often the energy behind battles, accidents, temper tantrums and momentary loss of rational thinking.  Mars would much rather be right than peaceful. 

As we move through this eclipse week because so many planets are in the sign of Aries Mars will have a more of an influence than usual. Not every cycle gives Mars such an influence which is why the “bewitching hours” can seem to be non-existent for long periods of time. The “bewitching hours” will be determined by when the ascendant of the daily chart moves into the sign of Libra and then Scorpio.  These signs will hold influence until May 23rd and the approximate time will be from 6 pm, eastern time, until 10:50 pm, eastern time.  The most stressful will be between 6 pm and 8:25 pm, eastern time (please adjust the time according to your own time zone).

It is not as if we can stop our lives or even avoid people or situations because certain times might be more stressful than others.  But, we can take note of the planetary weather and be prepared for those fussy people in our lives to be even more fussy or we can plan our travel accordingly and most importantly we can choose to not add fuel to any fires we may encounter.  I have found that it is the seventh sign, in this case Libra, which presents the most challenge and if we can avoid adding to the stress the eight sign aspect will not be a big problem.  If we choose to wak straight into the fires of Mars, in most situations, no one will be calm until after 11 pm.  Since Mars rules action as well as laughter those hours are a good time to take a walk, exercise or in a family situation watch a sports event or a funny movie.  Like everything on this planet – it’s all temporary.