Mars Retrograde: November 15, 2007 - January 30th, 2008


Usually, Mars retrogrades, which happen for about ten weeks every two years, are just another little bump in the road, part of the cosmic strategy to slow us down and move us inwards.

Mars retrogrades aren’t a good time to start a new job or a new sexual relationship (Venus retrograde, Mars retrograde... is anyone having any fun?). In general, energy is lacking for new projects.

It’s not that there is no energy around. Actually, Mars is considered to be quite powerful when retrograde. The thing is, the energy is turned inwards. Rather than expressing it’s power out in the world, Mars asks us to go within and develop our inward power.

All well and good. But this Mars retrograde is different. You’ll excuse me if I speak a little astrologese here for a minute.

Mars will station (appear to “stop” in the sky) at 12 degrees and 27 minutes of the sign of Cancer. That’s pretty significant when you consider that the sun of the United States is at 13 degrees and 19 minutes of Cancer, and the sun of George W. Bush is at 13 degrees and 46 minutes of Cancer. That 52 minutes of breathing room between the Mars station and the U.S. sun might be enough to prevent a major problem, but it’s close enough to really heat things up.

Now on a personal level, Mars might be all about your personal assertiveness and your libido (you’ve seen the symbol for Mars, haven’t you?), but on the level of nations and states, Mars is pretty much identified with his most direct manifestation, the God of War.

Making this more significant by far is the fact that this is the first time Mars has retrograded since the progressed Mars of the United States stationed to retrograde in July of 2006. Progressions are a symbolic movement of the chart (as opposed to transits, which is what is actually happening in the sky), and this is the first time in the history of the U.S. that Mars has gone retrograde by progression.

Progressions kick in slowly, building up in the years before and lasting for some time after. It’s not too hard to see that the U.S. has in a sense “lost its power” to a considerable extent in the world. As far as the military is concerned, the country is stretched and straining to cover its obligations. But the United States has also lost a good deal of its credibility, even among its closest allies, in the last few years.

The current retrograde of Mars is very likely to act as a “trigger” for the Mars retrograde in the progressed U.S. chart, exacerbating the problems that the country already faces and bringing the consequences “home” to the nation as a whole. The country, you’ll have to admit, has not really been suffering under the burden of being “at war” as it did in the Second World War, Korea, and Vietnam. Aside from the nightly depressing news from Iraq, little has changed in our day-to-day life, thus far.

That might not continue to be the case. Among other things, the cost of the war is having a significant effect on the U.S. economy, particularly as it drives the dollar down to record lows against foreign currencies.

Then again, Mars is “energy” and the sign of Cancer has to do with the home, so heating costs are likely to be a problem for many of us this winter. “Energy” in the broader sense is already a problem, a foreshadowing of Pluto’s move into Capricorn, which we’ll talk about in a couple of months.

Change inevitably happens slowly, even when it’s punctuated by major events. And we’re far more adaptable than we give ourselves credit for. This Mars retrograde is just the introduction to the changes that are going to be happening over the next five to six years. Focus your intention on the highest and best outcome, and we might actually make creative use of this time.

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