Big Picture: Accept that life doesn’t always go our way. It’s not personal. It is up to us to determine next steps.
Musical Solar System. Amazing and Mesmerizing
April 7. Aries New Moon
April 17. Mars Retrograde at 8° Sagittarius 54′
April 18. Pluto Retrograde
April 21. Scorpio Full Moon
April 29. Mercury Retrograde at 23° Taurus 36′
Mars Retrograde April 17- June 29, 2016
Our astrological binoculars are on the crusader, Mars, who has been on fire… traveling in the 9th sign of the zodiac, Sagittarius.
Whoo, hoo! What an adventure…
…as the month progresses the journey slows down. By April 17, Mars stops (!) and decides to retrace his steps. Well, it’s less of a decision, than the gut feeling of not being ready to confront the wall of fire in the distance. It’s a matter of respecting one’s Elder, Saturn, who turned around last month and is 7 degrees away from Mars at the retrograde point.
Mars Retrograde in Sagittarius. Consider personal desires and the journey to fulfill them. Are they still relevant? Is the expedition the best one or is there another path? This is a time to reconfirm or to gather kindling to restart the flame.
Visions, dreams, intuition, philosophies, culture, religion, beliefs and so on are in the field of “attack” for Mars while it travels in Sagittarius searching for Truth.
Mars in Sagittarius, a Fire sign, is an on-the-go, quick moving, adventurous powerhouse. In general, nothing can stop the fervor. It is on a mission from God/Goddess. It will burn through every desire like wildfire. But when the breaks are on (retrograde), whoa!… Mars, in the sign of the Archer, is blocked. Freedom is reigned in. The Zealot may be reduced to apathy.
From April 17 through May 27, people born in the first eight days of a sign, especially the fire signs, and the mutable signs, may wonder what happened, a bit more than the rest of us.
Mutable Signs: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces
Why the barrier to progress? The ride was FUN! Oh, the visions and the glory of righteousness. Now the warrior enters into retreat. The missionary backs off. Eventually the path back, leads to the cave of the Dark Night of the Soul when Mars returns to Scorpio May 27.
What can we do in that cave? Light candles. Get clarity on our desires. Consider priorities. Take a look at our dreams and our beliefs. See what we can do to break through any resistance or fear of failure. Pay attention to and understand our own psychology of action. What spurs us to pursue a goal?
This Ted Talk might help process this cycle. Draw your life into Reality.
Considering our past, even our ancestors’ paths, may reveal clues. This article was recently shared on Facebook by Amy Brucker and the Dream Tribe suggests we’ll get smarter and more confident.
To learn more, look at Mars in your birth map. What sign is it in? What house? What aspects to other planets?
Even Mars needs a stretch from time to time to review and recover. Every two years. This is the year.
By June 29, Mars returns to direct motion and by August 24, 2016, takes its place next to Saturn.
The last Mars Retrograde was in 2014 in Libra.
The last Mars in Sagittarius Retrograde was in 2001.
If time and resources permit, there will be another post closer to April 17th, with a look at Mars Retrograde for each Rising Sign.
The Evolutionary Perspective
Mars expresses the masculine, yang, and external energy of initiation in a chart. It is active through our cravings and instinct. It partially describes our physical body.
Mars represents Desire and Passion. It acts out the Desires of the Soul. If Pluto describes the desires that emanate from the Soul relevant to the specific evolutionary journey in this incarnation, then Mars represents the instinct that pushes us toward what the Soul Desires.
The process can appear convoluted if only our scientific brain tries to understand. This is how it may work:
Mars tries out every ‘this that or the other’ desire, infatuation, and hunger by primal instinct. The Mars, hormone, testosterone, elevates.
From the Sagittarian big picture, this exercise means to eliminate everything in the way of Soul’s awareness of its Source, or its True Nature. Not this, move on, not that, what’s next?
Neti, neti, as Jeffrey Wolfe Green, would quote the Sanskrit expression. Not this, not that.
Eventually by experiencing every desire and realizing that nothing is as tempting as reunion with Divine Nature, one drops the struggle. One is present to each moment and remembers that blessed connection with Spirit. The memory of who we really are is known.
Sometimes, we are lucky or through our efforts, a teacher may take the burden of our desires, as Yogananda describes in Autobiography of a Yogi.
Big Picture this month: Accept that life doesn’t always go our way. It’s not personal. It is up to us to determine next steps.
