Are you ready for a change? I hope so, because we have a couple of big ones coming up.
Sunday, April 17th at 8:14 am EDT, Mars will station to go retrograde at 8:53 degrees Sagittarius, right on on top of the fixed star Antares. He will be moving backwards in the sky for a whopping 70 days. He doesn’t clear his shadow till the end of the summer!
All planetary retrogrades ask us to review, revise, and reverse decisions made when the planet was moving forward. When Mars goes retrograde, the “Mars” things in your life are most strongly influenced. Work projects may stall, sources of conflict must be renegotiated, ex-lovers, ex-partners, ex-friends and former enemies show up, and men act weird.
The situation is intensified by the fact that the fixed star Antares happens to have a very Mars-like energy in and of himself. In fact, the name Antares comes from the Ancient Greek for “equal to Ares” or “rival to Ares,” which is of course the Greek name for the God of War.
So the presence of Antares basically DOUBLES all the Mars energy flying around right now. This may indicate an uptick in military conflict around the world, as well as increased potential for recklessness and accidents. Don’t be foolhardy! Buckle your seat belt and go to the doctor. Think STRATEGY. It’s a good idea always, but especially in the next couple of weeks.
And that’s not all. During his retrograde journey, Mars will be retracing the same path through Sagittarius and Scorpio that our buddy Saturn has been traveling since October 2014. Mars crosses this portion of the sky three times altogether – he already came through it once, and has two passes left.
Essentially, Mars has volunteered to go in and clean up behind the Lord of Karma, to finish off whatever Saturn got tired and left undone. At the end of his journey, when Mars clears his shadow in August 2016, he will meet up with Saturn and start a new two-year cycle: a clean slate for both of them.
How does this apply to each of us here on Earth? To start, take a look at your natal chart and find the degrees between 23 Scorpio and 9 Sagittarius. What Houses are those degrees in? What planets do you find there? These are the areas of your life that have been and will be touched by Mars during his retrograde journey.
These are the areas of your life where you are being invited to clean up any messes – physical (clutter), psychological (unprocessed trauma), relational, spiritual, etc. etc. Essentially, it is time to get things ship-shape for Saturn and Mars upcoming journey through visionary Sagittarius.
If you’d like to know more about the role of Mars in astrology, you may be interested in my new educational program “Harness Your Mars,” now available for download. It costs $26 and includes the MP3 audio, MP4 video, and PDF slides from my recent two-and-a-half-hour class on the subject. Here’s the link to purchase and download through SendOwl: https://sowl.co/r64wV
Get ready for a rocking and rolling summer as Mars is the closest he’s been to earth since 2001! Use that energy to get things done in your life ~ or rather re done!
