Mars drive
This blog takes you through what a 72-day Mars retrograde typically looks like and the key phases of this specific retrograde.
Mars is retrograde in Gemini from October 30 to Jan 13, 2023.
The challenges will be verbal and conceptual,
The opportunities into consciously sharing, curiosity and openness.
And the tones and intensity of this retrograde driven by the transit of Gemini ruler, Mercury, in the signs it crosses over the period.
Mars does not often appear retrograde and the rarer an event is in astrology, the more noticeable we can expect it to be.
In fact, this retrograde, along with Venus retrogrades, are the rarest of all planetary retrogrades. Mars takes slightly more than two years to revolve around the sun and will come to retrograde only 9% of its time when Pluto spends half of its time in that state.
Mars spends an average of 72 days in retrograde motion every two years.
Mars is also the first outer planet, set to project our ego want into our environment so contrary to Venus, it does not come to start a new cycle in the middle of its retrograde but comes to fruition through an opposition. We cover the two current cycles of Mars and Venus here.
Where we are traditionally faced with a strong inner tension to reflect on with the retrograde of outer planets, Mars is different. We walk into it often on a euphoric high when much is perfect and possible just two weeks before, only to have us experience the feeling of falling from a cliff during retrograde as things deteriorate. Luckily, we are graced again with a cosmic springboard sending us back in style after the retrograde as we reconnect with forward-moving energy.
The trine occurred on Oct 17, and between Oct 7 and 25, you might have felt like everything was falling into place, collaboration was smooth, and you achieved a lot.
The exit trine will occur on Jan 30 and between Jan 20 and Feb 8 we will be reconnecting with the same sense of excitement, thrill and feeling that anything is possible. Albeit this time a little more aligned, lighter and wiser or alone, hurting and rejecting the blame if we have not been able to integrate what this period was prompting us to.
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As Mars begins his retrograde phase, something that seemed inevitable, unavoidable, straight ahead, or a sure thing, may suddenly take a turn. A goal gets interrupted, or a difficult situation is averted, for example. Don’t just assume that whatever you were aiming for has been derailed, and don’t conclude that the difficult situation has magically vanished either.
What you most wanted may not unfold exactly the way you had planned, obstacles may line up, relationships getting in the way, misunderstanding growing, verbal jousting rising, disagreements and opposition to your ideas becoming common lieu.
Your ambition, way of doing things and leadership might get challenged. Your autonomy seriously limited.
This will obviously give rise to irritation and frustration adding up to latent anger. A highly passive-aggressive time starts and with the slow burn, the period can either be corrosive and psychologically depleting or it can free up frustrated energy. So much so that if you are not careful and mindful about it, this fire may blow up out of proportion around the time Mars and Sun are in opposition on Dec 8 and in the month following.
Get ready for a very intense Full Moon in Gemini around Dec 8 and a violence-packed fortnight following that date.
As extensively covered in the Life Seeking blog, we are now being challenged to integrate the latest major information and data points which are accelerating the shift of our values into our actions, decisions and objectives, but also consider or accept drastic changes if they are not aligned.
Changes might be stemming from you but can also be imposed on you. It always takes two to tango and we are never immune to a change of mood of our partners, even the most loyal, supportive and devoted ones.
This is generally not the time to push forward in the face of a growing opposition or resistance but to slow down and reflect on what is truly driving us to act, fight, and whether we are still truly passionate about it.
As this is unfolding, we will also have to deal with the frustration and anger coming from badly worded and immaturely asserted ego wants. Unfortunately, the explanations that ensue are likely to see us drift apart as the misunderstanding widens proportionally to the depth of the unhealed wound or disconnect between potential and reality. Expect jealousy and resentment, envy and rivalry to reach extraordinary heights over the period.
All those episodes are set to occur to help us either acknowledge that something need to change or bring about the change that will finally awaken us to the necessary behavioural shift and realign us with our evolving values and heart’s desires.
A Mars transit dependent on Mercury’s moves
Mars moved into Gemini in August and the least we can say is that it seriously boosted our capacity to start and handle multiple projects/conversations/tasks at once while increasing our feeling of scatteredness, mental override and exhausting both our body and nervous system. Mercury first started in Virgo–inviting us to care about our routines, detox and set healthy boundaries where we needed to. It quickly shifted to the lighter and more social Libra, but with the extra dose of air inviting us to attend to others’ concerns we quickly betrayed ourselves and had to start over with our routines and work challenges by mid-September, fixing the required material details we had overseen when coming back from holidays. Since October 11, Mercury has been in Libra maintaining a very diplomatic, friendly and romantic atmosphere and seeing us attend all sort of social and artistic events and gatherings. The day the retrograde starts, Mercury shifts into Scorpio enabling a mutual reception between the two planets. When Mercury visits this sign, we become much more passionate, obsessive, sensitive, argumentative, provocative, vulnerable and suspicious in our communication with others. Tally that with a very quick, sharp, mischievous, triggering and over-reactive Mars in Gemini and you’ll get a perfect cocktail for mishap in all shapes and forms, or deep hidden passionate sex affairs, with very little in between. That is unless you can muzzle your raging fire and harness its current inquisitive nature into finding out the deep roots of your resurfacing frustrations and anger. Identifying where your actions are no longer aligned with your heart and what it will take to bring you back into a state of balance. Or you can focus your mind and actions on topics such as research, secrets, sex, death, recycling or transformation while being completely transparent and vulnerable and avoiding complete escapism. Yeah, right, that’s what we thought. Don’t get us wrong, this is just the beginning. For the most part, up to Nov 16, we are likely to attend to an increasingly passive-aggressive mood. Difficult feelings resurface giving way to strong emotions triggered by harmful words. But before then, those emotions will remain for the most part contained even if they end up piling up in a dark corner. When Mercury shifts to Sagittarius mid-November, our need for freedom, adventure and truth will resurface and might well push all that pent-up energy in the open. Venus will be very close to Mercury, allowing for a perfect alignment between our heart and thoughts, giving us the ability to speak our emotional truth, but once again, only if we can engage in conscious communication. The likelihood for a frustrated and badly worded truth to escape our lips and hit at the wrong moment is much higher. |
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| Remaining calm, grounded and poised will be extremely difficult to achieve amid this retro…
Just on the back of a very strong Lunar Eclipse in Taurus on Nov 8. With this intense full moon likely to throw more unexpected events and necessary changes at us for the coming months while challenging our habits, attachments, security, and comfort at us. On November 12-14, we will most likely know what collectively this is about. On November 29, Mercury and Venus will be opposite Mars just before squaring Jupiter, increasing our argumentativeness and over sharpness while making us prone to a misplaced focus on details and grand exaggerations in our closest relationships. And headed for a very potent full moon in Gemini on Dec 8 that will mark the climax of this challenging period and more than a few outbursts and breakups in the following month. Mercury in Sagittarius might well take us into excess territories or tactless waters, when instead we should use the transit to become wiser, gain perspective, connect the dots, laugh at ourselves and trust that Spirit knows better and will soon illuminate our path of new blessings and opportunity when winter comes. Mercury will then spend an awful lot of time in cold and serious Capricorn from Dec 10 to Feb 11. For most this will mean dealing with the consequences of what just happened and their new responsibilities, for others this will be the opportunity to reshuffle their 2023 strategic plans and focus on the implementation of their winter tactical activations. Even though we will come very close to a “final” solution in the last days of 2022, we will thankfully avoid extremes and take the time to calm down the belligerent sides before we can finally part things more quietly around mid-February. As both Mercury and Mars will end their retrograde courses together, they will form an extraordinarily long Quincunx together. This kind of aspect usually only lasts a couple of days between those two quick planets, but we will experience it exceptionally for 12 days between Jan 12 and 24. Concrete adjustments will be required between the many plans we entertained and talked about and the serious focus we need to give one of them for things to start moving. This is not going to be an easy choice. Choice always implies having to make necessary sacrifices and losing part of the creative freedom, ingenuity and lightness of being we have. A healthy balance between responsibilities and freedom will need to be struck for both sides to understand and accept each other. This will certainly make for constructive conversations, even though frustrating again for all sides but no longer avoidable. By then, we’ll be out of the woods, with a totally different outlook on our life, the projects we want to resume with, the way we want to act and brand-new foundations or quest for the necessary partnerships of our journey. |
· Slow down and avoid reactivity and impulsivity at all costs
· To press on in a situation which appears fruitless is sheer bloody-mindedness, not brave assertiveness! It might be appropriate, therefore, to relinquish a once-beloved project, attitude, relationship, or goal, rather than persist aggressively in outmoded activities
· Consider the patience of the serene will as well as the conscious mastery of one’s energies as the most powerful weapons to achieve your goals
· Track anger and frustration within all relationships to identify where healing is still required and where your leadership is still weak, necessitating that you change your way of doing things
· Limit activities that encourage the selection of unique ideas, instead shift to more creative and imaginative tasks or are more explorational in nature and do not require an immediate decision
· Drop the details for the big picture, are you contributing to building a fairer and more abundant future? If not, what can you start doing today? At home, at work, within your family, your circle of friends, your neighborhood, your colleagues?
Mars retrograde is often a time to regroup, reconsider and recalibrate.
You’ll probably feel the urge to react, reject, resent, rebuke, revolt, or rebel.
However, the wiser move will be to restrain, resist, reduce, remain, reflect or recognize.
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Which attributes do we need to cultivate?
Objectivity, logic, and reason will be required to navigate the next three months serenely. Detachment and all attempts at focus will go a long way. Above all patience and alertness must be employed and sustained or exhaustion and depression may ensue. Accepting that change is necessary, that some objectives and motivations will have to be revised, and understanding that we have a unique opportunity to grow up over the period so that our personal will ends up being more aligned with the divine plan, our leadership gaining in strength and relevance. The key will be to find the necessary diplomatic skills to explore as many scenarios as possible. |
Many things!
Saturn comes back in direct motion
Regulations, responsibilities, consequences, shortages enacted by authority figures are likely to affect our life substantially once again, and those will be implemented with the greater collective in mind thus harder to argue with.
Jupiter moves back in Pisces for one last passage, its third one in over two years
Growth and abundance won’t be available anywhere around but within. Outside will just be boundless feelings of fear, victimization, deceit but also fantasy, delusion, addiction, and escapism. Oil prices will go back up, inflation will rise again, the fear of Armageddon will loom again, panic, hysteria as well as undue euphoria will spread again. This is the perfect time to attend to spirituality, love, studies and creativity, not a lot more. Anything else might see your undoing.
Some will nonetheless give in to anger and rage as their survival or comfort level will be at stake as indicated by the two eclipses.
On Oct 25, the Solar Eclipse in Scorpio will trigger material and emotional crises, deep psychological problems, obsessive-compulsive behaviours that could end more than one relationship or partnership over the next month to a year.
In other words, make sure that all of your money investments are safe, reduce the sails and be in the present moment attending to your close relationships more than ever.
On Nov 8, the Lunar Eclipse in Taurus will highlight the changes we are resisting but must embrace as our comfort level, work and love partnership, money and possessions will all get challenged by unexpected events.
The eclipses will set the world on fire during a fire prone period. No wonder that this will seriously rock our lives between Dec 8 and up to mid-January.
3 other planets are involved over this retrograde period.
Jupiter (growth)
Almost squaring Mars up to mid-November, we might have the power to achieve quite a lot but will run after too many rabbits that will increase our nervousness, anxiety and end up in excesses. This aspect will not form before May 2023 as Jupiter moves direct in November, so slow down, simplify, keep faith and see what you can realistically achieve over the period. A little focus will go a long way.
Neptune (imagination)
Squaring Mars up to mid-December, our fantasies and delusions are clearly part of the problem. Whatever we are trying to escape, this will draw on our energy level, deplete our natural barriers and make any attack likely to fail as energy would undoubtedly lack at some point.
We are instead invited to let go of the rational and logical doing to switch to a more imaginative, compassionate, and intuitive way of being. Spiritual practice will strengthen your immune system. Swimming and fluid sport activities will properly dissolve the excess energy.
Saturn (organization)
Trining Mars from mid-November to mid-December, we will be given an opportunity to revisit our objectives and strategy then, use the time to finalize your yearly plan, crack through arduous tasks and handle your responsibilities with integrity.
This will be a time you can really partner and improve relationships with authority figures.
