Retrograde periods are those in which planets, from Earth’s point of view, appear to stop, turn, and go backwards over territory they have already traversed. In human terms, this means we get a chance to go back over ground we’ve already covered, and correct, or improve, or at least contextualize further our “mistakes.”

This year, impulsive, action-oriented Mars turned at 25°37 of communicative Gemini, and will remain in that sign, backing up to 8°08 Gemini, when it stops again, and turns to go direct on January 12th 2023. It will then retrace its steps going forward, bringing up what you had already thought you had solved or resolved before the retrograde period began,  until March 16th, adjusting, correcting, improving former forward movement that got interrupted by the retrograde period.

In other words, between now and mid-March, that’s 4.5 months, expect to be working internally to recognize and rework areas where you have “fucked up,” especially in relation to communication with others. Usually, with Mars, this implies impulsiveness, combativeness, acting like a know-it-all, being too head strong and impatient; and for those less evolved, less aware of themselves, caught in their own egos, even violence in order to “get their way.” But given that this time, Mars is (and has already been) square both Neptune and Jupiter, the opposite may have been operating: a tendency to be too kind, too lacking in self-will, too willing to self deceive, to compromise . . when you know, on an intuitive level, that you should not. Or, looking back now, that you should not have done so back then, when things between you and other(s) got “fucked up.”

Again, for those who lack impulse control, transit Mars as it turns also inconjuncts death/rebirth Pluto, and thus increases the tendency to violence.

I’m speaking about myself here. For five weeks in the recent past a woman was living in my house who should not have been. Who preyed upon my compassion and then turned on me.

Long story. It’s over now. But it has already taught me about boundaries, those which most “landlords” take for granted: background checks, references, leases. It’s actually amazing, that I’ve “gotten away with it” for so long, this particular lack of framing in the interests of compassion. So: Given that transit Mars (with its squares to Neptune/Jupiter) is, during this time, moving back as it directly opposes my Sagittarian Sun/Ascendant, it’s no wonder that I too am and have been feeling severely affected, and in both ways: too head strong and too submissive. Yuck!

Me: I ask myself to reflect on the profound wisdom buried in the Sabian symbol for 26° Gemini:

FROST COVERED TREES AGAINST WINTER SKIES

Keynote: The revelation of archetypal form and essential rhythms off existence.

Me: Not only does this symbol herald the coming of winter, during which one naturally retreats into the self, releasing layer upon layer of superficiality that builds up when we are “out” in the world, especially in the human world, with others equally likely to “fuck up” due to any manner of circumstances and background. Mars is traveling through the sign of Gemini, remember. Whatever is the problem between me and any other, it’s always due to lack of agreed upon, or at least unconsciously similar context of some kind; in other worlds, communication gets warped in the direction that lies outside any agreed upon boundaries. And of course, unless we know each other well, then everybody comes into any kind of relationship with another with all sorts of assumptions based on their own experience. When you think about it, unless we find, enter, and remain in our hearts, there’s really no chance of not just easy, trusting agreement, but even day to day relations with acquaintances suffer.

And yet, when we do remain in our hearts, then those hearts lift through every passing encounter where soul meets soul through openly smiling eyes.

Just imagine!

 

The extreme distancing between and among fellow all-too-human beings, stirred into high relief by the internet’s accelerating magnification of polarized beLIEfs, makes it imperative that we DO return to our hearts. For no matter how polarized our minds, our hearts all beat as one.

Meanwhile:

On a national and international level, this Mars retrograde will stir up the collective to a likely unmanageable level, as people realize just how much they have been “fucked over.” Moreover, no matter how the U.S. mid-term election is skewed, postponed, or rolls in as the expected “red wave,” at least one side of the intensely polarized public is bound to be furious and ready to tear apart “the enemy.” Furthermore, as the U.S. continues its apparent disintegration — remember, we’re deep into the first return of the U.S. Pluto to its own natal place, after 246 years (one Pluto cycle). First time ever! So of course, we are now undergoing a Plutonian deathing process. So of course, rumors abound of a second American Revolution.

Revelation after revelation continues to relentlessly surface re: corruption on every level, macro to micro, including the poison people have allowed into their own bodies, many of them because their own compassion was diabolically hijacked into “because we care.” It’s hard to imagine, when and if these people do wake up, that there will be any limits to their understandable rage at having been biologically corrupted with the likelihood of chronic illness, disability, death.

If so, then supposedly new weapons for “crowd control” will likely be rolled out.

As for hostilities leading to widening Ukraine war, will this Mars turnaround augur a mutually arrived at decision to at least temporarily pull back from the seemingly relentless march to planetary extinction?

I.e., is collective rebirth even a possibility?

All bets are off.

Advice to myself: pay attention to your ego, and how it works to divide you from others. Get and stay below your ego, into the spacious, patient, continuous heartfelt awareness of the present moment.

(Hug trees . . .)

Stay centered, stay local.

If enough of us do this, rebirth will follow, as spring follows winter, as day follows night, according to “the essential rhythms of existence.”