I’ve noticed a collective sigh of relief now that Mars is direct, with many believing somehow this magically makes things move forward. Remembering the planets don’t “make anything happen,” let’s take a look at Mars now “moving forward.”

Mars never stopped “moving forward” during its retrograde. It merely looked like it was moving backward, relative to our view of our mutual orbits around the Sun. A retrograde is a slowing of its speed, not a reversal of its orbit, even if it seems that way from the point of the Earth. All planets except the Sun and Moon go retrograde at some point, because planets all slow down and speed up in their path round the Sun.

As I gave you in the 2020 article Astrology in 2020 - When Mercury, Venus, and Mars Go Retrograde, What Does It Mean and How Are They Related To Past and Future Retrogrades?

Since Mars symbolizes momentum, its RX period usually operates at a very evident slower pace, where energy must be redirected before it can resume whatever began before it went retrograde. It's a time to "slow our attack on life," or blunt assertive or aggressive tendencies. The sign it's in shows us the specific retrograde lessons to be worked with.

Mars RX is a good time to take a new look at how you’re doing what you’re doing and why, and examine old internal frustrations to see how to unblock your energies. During the front end of a Mars RX period things can be difficult due to roadblocks which seem to arise out of nowhere, or feeling like the momentum is slowing tremendously. I’ve found that it’s not time to push anything forward until we get past the Sun opposed Mars…

During any Mars retrograde, expect the initiatives of its initial transit of its shadow zone to slow down, or get postponed or redirected in some way. It’s like a beta-launch, or a time when we understand that we’ll have to rework some things based in the information we get during the initial shadow zone transit.…

So we now begin a third transit of the “Shadow Zone” span between 9 and 26 Gemini. That area is where Mars is activating “attacks on the problems of life,” or “taking the initiative with energy and immediacy.” Remember Mars is where we can begin new efforts, as well as what aggravates us. It is the thrill of self-generated momentum into the future, or that which is a hassle and forces us to decide whether to attack, retreat, defend, or abandon the field. It represents that which makes us angry, whether for an instant or a lifetime.

If Your Mars Has Led You To Anger

Anger (Mars) is a natural thing. It only turns toxic if indulged in for more than about 20 minutes. At that point then it needs something to overcome or change so it has a constructive purpose. Mars needs something to do. Just stewing in anger is not “doing” anything constructive, nor is raging at something or someone.

Rage is never helpful in any way. I have been in its presence way too many times, and not once has it accomplished anything productive. When someone is raging they are not listening, they are not healing, and they are not accomplishing anything except for destroying their nerve sheaths which destroys the health of their neurological system. Rage sucks all the oxygen out of a room, and as a wise therapist once noted to me, it makes genuine feeling impossible because of its overwhelming negativity.

Anger for its own sake is toxic and useless. Even righteous anger must have a constructive outlet. We must find a target for our arrows, lest they come back to hurt us because we forgot karmic law.

As I offered Chapter 2 in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend,

Mars' duality is Grace/Sin. This is the aspect of consciousness that shows whether our responses are manifesting error or truth, maladjustment or beauty. By our Martian function we force things before their time or confront abrasive, aggressive, or hostile energies in ourselves and others, and thus we learn how to sever what must be severed, and further what must be furthered, quickly and directly. (As an aside, the original meaning of “sin” had nothing to do with moral failure. It was an archery term meaning “to miss the mark,” or not hitting the center of a target. I use it here in that sense.)

Mars allows us to protect what needs protecting, and sever what must be severed. This is a different function from the Sun, which shows the condition of our heart. A healthy functioning Sun and Mars prevents us from living in a victim state with a closed heart.

I believe even if people feel victimized by life, they can choose to be open-hearted regardless of life’s difficulties. I find the hardest hearts learned it from being fed "crushed stone" (as Rilke put it) for too many years while choosing to ignore opportunities to express tenderness or compassion. A hard heart is the result of a dysfunctional Saturn. As the Sun opposes Saturn, and Mars is exalted in Capricorn, it indicates that a healthy Sun can overcome hardness of heart if Mars is organized in how it deals with our inner Saturn.

So as we now traverse Gemini a third time, see which ideas and perceptions aggravate you to no good end, and turn that aggravation into productive expression. There are many ways to approach any given thing or experience, and Mars in Gemini challenges us to use flexibility and the spirit of discovery to explore and express ideas which show our ability to use force with grace, maturity, and reason.

Our inner Mars teaches us how to protect what is valuable to us. Who else could or should do that? In my books I offer that our parents cannot teach us what is valuable, nor how to protect ourselves, except by example, and even there, they are not us and we are not them. Mars allows us to tap into our inner Spiritual Warrior so we may find the ability to know when to challenge and when to give way.

Each of us is a unique consciousness with experiences we share with countless millions. Each has to find their way through the woods and at crucial times, and break free of the assumptions of the family and cultural matrix. These are challenging moments, when we break down, break through, and move forward into our destiny. Whenever we are breaking down, breaking through, and breaking free, our Mars is in motion!

Reprinted on crystalwind.ca with written permission from Robert Wilkinson. Copying this article to other blogs is strictly prohibited. It is copyright protected. 

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