Aries MARS RETROGRADE

Mars entered its retrograde period with a literal blaze here in California, retaining the familiar and continual theme of breathlessness in 2020. Mars has been in Aries since June 27th and will stay in Aries for the rest of the year. Although Mars is in its native Aries, it is better steered under the cooler, subterranean energies of its co-ruled neighbor Scorpio. When Mars is in Aries, its velocity is untamed. All of the Mars-ruled areas of our life are stimulated and our appetite to charge through the brick wall is electrified, especially with Mars facing a major square from a retrograded Saturn in Capricorn. We entered a battle between will (Mars) and structure (Saturn). The irreconcilable, long-held transgressions of the status-quo have descended on the collective psyche in one felt swoop. We are reckoning with a system designed to feed its own power, no matter the figurehead. The retrograde motion of Saturn gave us a sober, painful look at how deeply ineffectual these power structures are, and that they must change. Mars has pushed us against these failed forces, and this time, with the retrograde, we are being asked to examine how we embody them within ourselves—all of our self-limiting beliefs, think-prisons, prejudices, weaknesses and defenses. How hurt systems are designed by and produce hurt people. Our inner-child is brought to the surface with all its thrashing tantrums, or conversely, in it’s miserable silence, where truth is withheld and buried. Can Mars be claimed amid the chaos of our pain, and used to transmute hurt into healing? Can we claim the divine father and reparent ourselves? For people with weaker Mars placements, now is the time to stand up for yourself in ways you never could. It’s time to assert your needs and boundaries. If there has been a question of whether you should move forward with something, discard something or say no—now is the time to be firm. For people with Mars in an exalted or domicile position (or in a fire sign) now is the time to examine how your Ego may be getting in the way of your needs. Is there a way for you to secure your needs and remain gentle in your Ego assertion? And for everyone—weak or strong Mars, are you holding onto anger and frustration that has lived in you so long that it has become a part of your identity? Can you ask the anger questions and nurture it? For those of us who have been decolonizing our psyche from the poisonous ideas that these power structures have embedded within us, can we regard the self-directed anger we might feel at ourselves with curiosity? In this retrograde period, we can expect old situations to tingle our skin, relationships with authorities to intensify and fevers to rise.