While we manage our lives during these weeks in the Eclipse spin cycle, let's shift gears a bit and take a look at Mars. The upcoming Mars retrograde looks pretty impactful.
Mars will not actually station retrograde until December 6th, but we will start walking the repeating degrees of this retrograde cycle on October 7th, so it can pay off for us to be aware of what is coming, because what we do between October 7th and December 6th will likely face some revisions and re-dos and is subject to a change of direction.
Mars' backward movement (from our vantage point here on Earth) is associated with times our overt actions might NOT be as effective/sometimes peter out, anger backfires, passions and actions reverse course.
It might impact our ambition, energy-level, motivation and libido.
We might find ourselves dealing with unresolved conflicts especially within home and family situations and old efforts/projects/actions we had previously left dangling can be brought back to life.
It's a time to be re-working the ways we deal with anger, the ways we go about getting what we want, the ways we assert ourselves, our home and family triggers, our security triggers, the ways we START and initiate and motivate ourselves.
Mars, God of War - ruler of our masculine energy, our action, initiative, passion, self-assertion, anger, young men, the sign of Aries, your Aries natal house, the ancient ruler of Scorpio - has been in home and family and security focused Cancer since September 4th. Mars will be here, off and on, until April 18, 2025 - that is a long time for the planet of war to be in the sign of what keeps is safe.
Early September - when this whole Mars in Cancer transit started - was when Uranus stationed retrograde (changes/trauma/the future postponed) on Algol (losing our heads), Pluto backed into Capricorn (again) for a couple months bringing us one final crash and burn through stale careers/leaders and structures AND we had a New Moon in Virgo (time for a clean sweep).
AND Mars slipped into Cancer.
Very quietly, I think.
Mars will get all the way through Cancer over the next few weeks and when he gets to 29 degrees Cancer - and this will be a big part of the whole point of this retrograde - MARS WILL OPPOSE PLUTO (retrograde in Capricorn).
We knew that 29 degrees Cappy would not go quietly!
This is happening on NOVEMBER 3rd -
This is about power struggles. Threats to our safety that may feel like life and death. Threats of loss. Hidden issues can erupt violently. Oppositions are like Full Moons - situation peak, culminate, often end. Reactions/anger will be rooted in the past - in home, family, tribal situations.
Then Mars will station retrograde on December 6th at 6 degrees Leo (the United States North Node of Fate). His retrograde takes us pretty much from the United States Sun over the United States Mercury and ends at the United States North Node of Fate on December 6th and then he (as we) retraces his steps/actions.
(on December 6th - the United States will have Mars on its North Node of Fate, Venus on its natal Pluto, the Sun and Mercury on its ascendent, the transiting North Node on the United States IC - root of the chart, Saturn trining the United States Sun exact, Chiron on the United States natal Chiron, this is within hours of the anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, so was a very patriotic day here for a long time - something BIG is going to be going on here - this also puts Mars on Israel's Moon and Venus on Palestine's Moon, the Moon is 'the people' in mundane charts - we will look at all this plus the Election in part II)
So, the degrees of 17-29 Cancer and 0-6 degrees Leo will be getting a triple dose of Mars action.
Check your chart for the themes of your natal Leo and Cancer houses. Also check in with your natal Mars because that house/area of life can reverse course for some needed repairs and renovations, too, when Mars stations retrograde.
Mars retrograde works its magic through three cycles:
1. Passing in a forward motion over the degrees 17-29 degrees Cancer and 0-6 degrees Leo - this is when we are introduced to the POTENTIAL (October 7th, 2024 - December 5th, 2024)
2. Turning retrograde and moving backward over these same degrees – this is when we have to find our "RE-SOURCEFULNESS", we turn our attention inwards, what isn't working? We revise. We redo. Sometimes in a water sign we re-minisce. (December 6th, 2024- February 22, 2025)
3. Going ‘direct’ and moving forward AGAIN over these same degrees – this final phase is the period of INTEGRATION (February 23, 2025 - April 18th, 2025) - what have we learned? what do we do with it?
It plays out like this:
OCTOBER 7TH - Mars reaches 17 degrees Cancer and starts walking degrees we will REPEAT
NOVEMBER 3RD - MARS OPPOSES PLUTO retrograde (29 degrees Cancer/Capricorn) *
DECEMBER 6TH - Mars stations retrograde at 6 degrees Leo
JANUARY 3RD - MARS retrograde OPPOSES PLUTO (1 degree Leo/Aquarius) *
JANUARY 5TH - Mars trines the North Node (0 Leo/Aries)
JANUARY 6TH - Mars backs into Cancer
JANUARY 23RD - Mars sextiles Uranus - REPEATING ASPECT
JANUARY 25TH - Venus trines Mars (22 Pisces/Cancer) - repeating aspect
FEBRUARY 3RD - Mars squares Chiron (19 Cancer/Aries) - REPEATING ASPECT
FEBRUARY 9TH - Mars trines Saturn (18 Cancer/Pisces) - REPEATING ASPECT
FEBRUARY 23RD - Mercury trines Mars (17 Pisces/Cancer) - Mars stations direct
MARCH 8TH - Sun trines Mars
MARCH 26TH - Mars squares Chiron (22 Cancer/Aries) - REPEATING ASPECT
APRIL 4TH - Mars sextiles Uranus and trines Saturn - REPEATING ASPECTS
APRIL 6TH - Venus trines Mars - REPEATING ASPECT (Venus is at degree of Lunar Eclipse)
APRIL 18TH - Mars reaches 7 degrees Leo and cycle completes
The repeating aspects are - Mars opposes Pluto (power struggles, intensity, danger). Mars sextiles Uranus (opportunities for change, opportunity comes from doing it differently), Venus trines Mars (action gets us what we want, masculine and feminine working together smoothly), Mars squares Chiron (painful action to maintain comfort or security), Mars trines Saturn (responsible action, actions harmonize with authority, limits and rules).
A couple things about this retrograde that come to mind right away are:
1. right now and in the warm-up to Eclipse season we have had Mars squaring the Nodal Axis (nodes of fate Aries/Libra) which presents as a kind of 'skipped step' and, happening in Cancer, FORCES US OUT OF COMPLACENCY, so we are kind of starting on this unsteady ground/not knowing what is going to happen
2. Mars will begin his retrograde answering to the Sun and end his retrograde answering to the Moon - from fire to water/maybe some need to put the fire out, to return home to lick our wounds maybe or to see why we do the things we do or why we are so damn angry/to bring the war or the initiative or the energy HOME
3. we have just had a Mercury retrograde that took us from Virgo back into Leo - the return to the royal roots of the problem - and now we are going deeper/further back with this Mars retrograde (Leo to Cancer), so back to family, home, what makes us feel safe and secure, mom and apple pie, our REAL roots before we return to Leo once again - our heart, our center-stage, the way we shine - and because the Moon is about our past and the Sun is about our future - we have to return to the past before we move into the future. Which sounds like a cliche, and it is, but so is "you can't go home again" and that one is tossed out the window now. Because we are.
We talked about Mars in Cancer and some of the challenges HERE.
Now when Mars goes retrograde in Cancer maybe what Mars is charged with learning is something like - we don't always have to face the music to HEAR the music.
We don't always have to confront emotional or family issues head-on and we don't have to drag decades old baggage into a fight with us.
When Mars is in Cancer and answering to the Moon, the cyclical nature of the Moon becomes more important. Trying to rush things doesn't work out so well. You can notice in your own life how your Cancer house seems to have a mind of its own. When we try to rush things here, like Mars wants to do, we lose the natural rhythm. We need to develop patience because the Moon's processes are internal and often hidden. The Sun always wants to force things/to make things happen. But the Moon is on 'womb' time/some things cannot be rushed.
Try to keep this in mind. Bake some extra time into the things you have to do over the next few months when you can. Know that rushing will be more stressful because Mars is moving through water and everything is not within his/our control.
The Cancer energy has been so damaged over the years - even to the point of becoming the name of a dreaded dis-ease.
Cancer was once a mellow sign with a great capacity to form and preserve ties whose love of family and family life was fairly simple to maintain. Cancerian's longing for the "good old days" is not without merit.
Think about the way Trump's Mercury (words/communication) in Cancer and his popular slogan "make America great again" has appealed to so many people in this Cancer country.
But now with ties frequently being broken - divorce, we move or they move, etc - Cancerian energy has become (and this is understandable) either clingy or self-protective. Cancer wants to be secure and make other people secure and it is only because modern life is so filled with insecurity that the Cancerian, through the stress of continually trying to re-establish connections, loses touch with life's natural rhythms which are their/our birthright.
So, Mars comes into this space that is designed to work with natural cycles and he is all gung ho to take action and this was right after that Virgo New Moon, so action was NEEDED, and he, as us, immediately squares the Nodes, so is faced with pivot points and decisions and we are kind of TOSSED OUT OF BED/out of our complacency with something.
Then we go through Eclipse season which is where we are now and we will have to see where we end up with Eclipse season - because Eclipses are wild cards.
Jupiter in Gemini is going to get held up, too, right around the time Mars starts walking the steps he will re-trace, this will be in early October and this is all about exactly a week after the final Eclipse of the season at 10 degrees Libra on October 2nd. And this Eclipse, the Solar Eclipse is EXACTLY conjunct Black Moon Lilith - and we'll talk about her part in all this when we get to part II and look at world events and how her retrograde in Cancer two years ago plays into what will be happening.
I am going to leave this here for today because I think I am a bit all over the place and we will pick up part II next week.
Autumn is shaping up to be VERY INTERESTING.
Back with the weekly tomorrow as the Eclipse Spin Cycle continues!
xo all
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