Mars Retrograde Survival Guide

Mars turns retrograde at 4:22 pm on Wednesday, Sept 9, 2020. If you consult any astrology book you will see that Mars represents War, Aggression, Pure Power, & Conflict, and it is called a “Malific”, derived from the word “Malevolent”. It’s true, these things are all Mars, but it’s the lower Octave of Mars. Essentially if you only read these books, you would hear “Danger, Warning” every time Mars is discussed. But I believe that Mars has a higher octave. In the Chakra system, Mars rules the solar plexus, so he also governs everything that lives there. He is related to our personal will, our ego, our ability to be assertive, how we direct our voice, and how we use our energy. In my eyes, most importantly he represents pure desire, the feral, raw, authentic kind of desire. Interestingly the word desire comes from the root word dēsīderō (latin) meaning “light from the illumined one” in addition to it’s common meaning. Layered in this way, it deals with issues of Dharma, and the collective. To say it succinctly, Mars, through the process of calcination is asking us to really commune with those pure, vulnerable, and authentic desires of your holy innocent child. What is being called forward in you  to serve the greater collective?  What are you being asked to sacrifice as a holy offering to bring you closer to realizing your collective service? What unintegrated pieces that have arisen in the last year, that are NOT serving you and getting shorn and torn away? Where have you failed to assert your will in healthy ways? What boundaries is the great Marduk dancing upon.  I am reminded at this moment of that old proverb that goes something like “you cannot take hold of your destiny with closed fists”. What that means to me is that if  I am holding on too tightly holding to something that makes me feel comfortable, and safe, I am not available to receive my divine birthright.

Mars is opposing the sun during retrograde, and as such is also closest to the earth. When the sun sets, Mars begins to rise. We pause here to contemplate Mars’” Phasis”, Latin meaning “an appearance that speaks”. Because after all that’s what stationing retrograde is, a pause as he slows down to begin retracing the sky he just marched over. This retrograde is happening at  roughly the midpoint of Mars’ 2 year cycle. Think back to what was happening in your life in September 2019. That was Mars’ first step onto this latest edition of your personal hero’s journey. In Sept 2019 he ventured out to slay a new dragon. The relentless death from superficiality, he is looking to slay the busy details that we keep ourselves preoccupied in an attempt to keep chaos at bay. He is bringing  his heat to breathe new life to unexplored stories, unrealized opportunities. He quite literally wants to turn us inside out. For us to be directed by our imaginal realms first, and to nurse the details of mundane life second. Most of us operate backwards, by tending to the details and then if there’s time left over, we might explore the imaginal spaces. Yes, the archetype of the dragon is always the gatekeeper, guardian of untold treasure. You can see this playing out in the collective. The absolutely rabid aggression between the polarities of people grasping to safety and structures and those who are so hurt by those structures they have drawn swords in favor of transformation. Of course the polarities are an illusion but the effect we are seeing on earth, in her children is very real. So how do we work with this cycle? What tools can we utilize to not fall into despair, chaos, and red faced anger? Mars is often enticing us into a battle. If he can’t draw us into battle outwardly, he will attempt to draw our shadow forward. It’s important to remember that there is a lock-down happening in all of us, there is illusion appearing real in all of us, there is a profound  initiation happening in all of us, we are all battling a dragon right now. The antidote is a cauldron brew of remaining in flow. To not attach too deeply to any illusion of separateness, or give over to the primal violence we feel within. To have deep, profound compassion for self and others. To balance our lives with receptive, cooling, yin types of self care, right down to our diets.  But perhaps most importantly to give voice to the lower octave of Mars, so that the higher octave can be birthed. Give voice to the rage, grief, shame, and disillusionment  through health filled practices.  To not give over to the Leviathan being conjured by Mars, but rather to allow him to conjure something even deeper, even greater, that long buried hidden gem of your most authentic desire. In doing that the gate being guarded by the dragon might be opened to your greatest mythic self.