Let's Talk About Mars (Mars Retrograde in Aries Fall 2020)

Its time to talk about Mars.

The next few months are going to be heavily influenced by Mars, and Mars is the planet of action and initiation. ​

Mars is very strong energy that tends to run hot and headstrong.  Mars on assignment in its own territory of Aries (for three times the norm) makes it even stronger.  

The Two of Wands is a card of Mars in Aries. Shadowscapes Tarot; Art by Stephanie Law

Because it will be going retrograde and making challenging aspects to the planetary powerhouses still in the last degrees of Capricorn, navigating these energetic dynamics is going to be a bit tricky. 

Strong Mars can feel like "all systems go," but we need to hold those horses.  No matter how pushy or hostile it might feel out there as this energy flares, it is not time to act on it - at least not yet.  We have a reconnaissance mission first, and the strategy is to pull back, observe, and learn.  

Mars will be in its own sign of Aries now through the end of the year, and is already (as of July 25th) making its first pass over the degrees it will be moving back over during its retrograde that lasts from September 10th to November 13th, 2020. 

The best answer to anger is silence.
-Marcus Aurelius

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Rules for Working With the Mars Vibe

1.  In general, this is not the time to engage, and it is absolutely not the time to be the one who starts something.  Mars retrograde is when the wise and seasoned warrior retreats back, regroups, gets more info, and figures out what is working and what isn't.  We are withdrawing, not attacking, and ideally we are not engaging at all.  If we have successfully backed away from hostility and any attempts to draw us in, this won't be a problem.

2.  When triggers arise, observe rather than react.  (Yep, easier said than done - see tools and tactics for dealing with this in real time below.)  In fact, it may be best between now and November 13th, when Mars stations direct, to respond to anything that even hints at escalating with a standard protocol of silence/or as minimal as possible and to use as many personal time-outs as needed to not get drawn into any action.  

3.  Observing the triggers and tracing the threads of our own reactions, anger, and fear, and the need to assert, attack, protect, or defend, is the reconnaissance mission of Mars retrograde.  Mars is the planet of action, the warrior, the leader, and the pioneer.  This energy when channeled property moves mountains and when it is left unchecked it is highly destructive and even violent.  This is our opportunity to deepen our relationship with it in our lives and be able to effectively harness even more of its power.   Mars retrograde does not mean turning inward as in turning our anger inward or just sitting on it.  Mars energy is ACTIVE no matter what and demands attention - don't ignore it.  

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Tools and Tactics for Navigating Mars RX

Mars retrograde is time to work on fortifying our personal infrastructure.  By this, I mean our sense of self and personal boundaries. 

Mars rules "the self".  It represents energetically our sense of self and therefore our separateness from others.  When we talk about that, we talk about boundaries.  

We associate Mars also with anger, asserting, protecting, and defending, but when we take a closer look, many times all of these things come about as reactions to feeling that our boundaries have been violated.  Our sense of personal rights and human rights are related to Mars energy - literally our life force and right to exist - and violation of those rights are a violation of our boundaries at the deepest level, and naturally, can invoke some of our deepest anger.  

Beneath that, we have a few more supporting ideas.

First, we can start by giving ourselves and everyone else a break and a lot of space and compassion.  No one is perfect, we all have triggers, and we all can be awful in the right circumstances.  We will all be swimming in these energies, only some of us will get hit by them more acutely, on a more personal level than others, if this transit is lighting up sensitive points of their birth chart.  

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MarRetrograde Pre-shadow:  From 7/25/20 to 9/10/20, Mars will be making its first pass over the territory of the upcoming retrograde, moving from 15 degrees Aries to 28 degrees Aries. This is where we pay attention.  Notice what comes up and when around Mars-themed issues like anger, assertiveness, boundaries, sense of self, protection, defense, leadership, trail-breaking/being first, and going after what we want.  What comes up is in your life is going to be a clue to what your retrograde theme will be about 9/10 - 11/13, and when it comes up will tell you the degree of Aries that is the trigger and that will tell you when it will be coming up again when Mars makes its 2nd and 3rd pass over that territory. 

Lead Up: 
6/18:  Mercury stationed RX in Cancer (Vibe:  ruler of the mind dives deep into the subconscious, emotions, and past helping us to realize and release outdated beliefs and emotional patterns)
6/25:  Venus stationed direct in Gemini (Vibe:  ruler of love/money/law of attraction/self-value drills down into what beliefs are generating our thoughts, words, emotions, and behavior, and therefore driving what we attract into our lives)
6/27:  Mars entered Aries (for a 6 month stay) (3x the normal transit for Mars of any sign, very rare, and Aries is ruled by Mars, so very powerful.  This is action-oriented, assertive, even confrontational - Mars is the warrior - use this vibe in the inner realm, until after 11/13/20 - its good for starting things a as long as it is not a dispute/argument/altercation..)
6/30:  Jupiter conjunct Pluto in Capricorn #2 of 3 (#1 was 4/5, and the final conjunction will be 11/13) (Vibe:  Growth meets Transformation; Wealth meets Power; in the sign of financial/social/political systems/government, achievement, business. - also historically Jupiter-Pluto conjunction have been associated with widespread disease - a kind of macro meets micro.)
7/12:  Mercury stationed direct in Cancer

Mars Retrograde:  9/10/20 - 11/13/20, from 28 degrees Aries to 15 degrees Aries.

Notable Dates:  
*(9/10-10/14 will be the most intense time period of Mars Retrograde.)
​9/14:  Jupiter stations direct at 17 degrees Capricorn
9/23:  Mercury enters RX shadow at 25 degrees Libra - on 10/14 it will station RX at 11 degrees Scorpio, making this its 3rd retrograde in a water sign of 2020 - the 1st was in Pisces in February and the 2nd was in Cancer in June.  
9/24:  Mars RX in Aries opposes Mercury in Libra, both at 26 degrees.
9/28: Saturn stations direct at 25 degrees Capricorn
9/28:  Mars RX in Aries squares Saturn in Capricorn, both at 25 degrees.
10/2-10/4:  Mars Rx in Aries squares Epona in Cancer, both at 24 degrees.
10/4:  Pluto stations direct at 24 degrees Capricorn
10/5-10/7:  Mars RX in Aries sextiles the North Node of the moon in Gemini and trines the South Node of the moon in Sagittarius, all at 22 degrees.  
10/8-10/11:  Mars RX in Aries squares Pluto now direct in Capricorn, both at 22 degrees.
10/14:  Mercury stations RX at 11 degrees Scorpio (direct 11/4 at 25 degrees Libra)
10/18-10/20:  Mars RX in Aries squares Jupiter now direct in Capricorn, both at 19 degrees.  
11/13:  Jupiter conjunct Pluto #3 of 3, at 22 degrees Capricorn, in square to Eris in Aries (#1 was 4/5, #2 was 6/30)
11/13:  Mars stations direct at 15 degrees Aries.

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When things get heated, silence as a response, taking and giving space, and then burning off that Mars energy with some vigorous exercise (or even sex) are go-to's.  When there is a lot of Mars energy around, or if two people living together have strong Mars energy, it can escalate quickly if not given a productive outlet.  This energy requires some handling.  When in doubt, sweat it out.  Get out of the house, get some space, get some air, go run, go to kickboxing, channel it creatively, but don't sit on it.  

Second, when we find it necessary to employ these tactics, we can take the opportunity to go deeper and do that reconnaissance work that is going to give us valuable intel for after Mars resumes direct motion on November 13th.  

Anger is a secondary emotion - when we are feeling anger, that is our clue to look beneath it.  We might express anger to cover up fear.  We might feel fear because we don't feel safe expressing the emotion we are truly feeling.  The more aware we are of this, the more empowered we are with this energy, and the less we will find ourselves manipulated or pushed around by it.  

When working with boundary issues, here are four great questions to ask ourselves:

1. Did I even know I had a boundary around this issue prior to this, or am I just learning this about myself?
2. If I did know I had a boundary, did I actually communicate it clearly to the other person?
3. If I do feel I communicated the boundary clearly, am I sure the other person actually got it/understood?
4. If the answer is yes to all of the above, then it is probable that the other party just doesn't care about respecting my boundaries.  And that means that person needs to be kept at a safer distance - circle back to silence/back away from danger and inflammatory situations. 

One Last Thought for Mars Retrograde

When I was staying on Lake Atitlan in Guatemala a few years ago,  I heard a teacher say that energetically, protection invites attack.  He was talking specifically about when we begin doing a lot of spiritual protection, but it is the same energy whether we are buying crystals or ammo, or we are just defensive and argumentative.  If we find ourselves spending a lot of energy on protection, what that probably means is we are fearing attack.  In this way these two things are engaged in an intertwined energetic dynamic.  

I was listening to someone speak on energy recently and he brought up the idea of permission to use in place of protection in our energetic dealings with others and the world at large.  He made the point that if someone is experiencing lack of love and abundance, it is many times at least in part due to them using the energy of protection rather than permission.  He explained that protection shuts down energetic flow and actually invites attack, because it comes from a belief that it is likely we will be attacked and we are therefore not safe.  Protection and defense tend to invite the very thing we are afraid of, because like attracts like.  

Instead of protection, he suggested permission, and I believe this is a very valuable concept to put into practice during Mars retrograde.  What he suggested was to shore up our own grounding and energetic boundaries, and then on top of that, layer the energetic boundary at the edge of our aura (about three feet out from our bodies in all directions) with the dictate that all of the space inside of this auric boundary is 100% our own space and on the other side of that boundary we give permission for everything to exist.  My personal astrologer described it to me once as, "put your arms out - everything you can touch is what you have control over...period".  

When we go into protection and defensiveness, energetically, we are actually engaging.  Mars retrograde is about not engaging.  But to be able to give permission, we first must have healthy and firm boundaries of self.  If we are at all unclear on this, or maybe just practicing this for the first time now, we can go back to fall back, give space, take space, take time out.  (Make time out self-care time or make it fun time - it just needs to be not communicating about things or around people that get heated easily.)

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What we are doing essentially with Mars retrograde is bringing our focus in - way in. 

​Retrogrades are when the planets appear to stop and reverse direction for a while.  The energetic effect is one of that planetary energy slowing in our lives and turning inward.  This is a time of reflection and review of our relationship to this particular energy in our lives.

There is a lot of unrest right now, and most of it is beyond our control.  We know what Mars retrograde means, and we know how to most successfully navigate it and harness its magic -  falling back, pulling in, and doing the reconnaissance work.

In short, if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all.

~Kasey

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Sometimes the astrological energies at play end up being profoundly personal for us.  This is especially true when the astrological transits at work are working over sensitive points of our own birth charts. Some are fleeting influences that seem to flare up and dissipate just as quickly, and others, like a Pluto transit for example, bring several years long phases of personal growth and transformation.

I offer astrology sessions to help us understand life's ups and downs.  Sometimes just wrapping our head around a bigger perspective and knowing that something does indeed have an end date can help us gather the fortitude to harness the magic even the most daunting of  life experiences.  Astrology is also a useful tool in understanding our subconscious patterns.
If you are interested in scheduling a session, don't hesitate to reach out.
I will be sharing guided meditations soon as well! ~Kasey

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