Mars Retrograde: What It Means and How to Get Through It

So what is Mars?

Written By: Imani Bunch

Mars is a fast-moving planet. It can inspire conflict, creates inflammation, and can add insult to injury typically if it’s coming from the wrong place. (check your energy) It’s coming into a 90-degree angle with Saturn causing it to square. The need to know about its squaring is that it can cause friction and invite us to act. It will make it less possible for us to evade our issues. Now if you’re not responding to this too well then that’s ok. It’s natural to want the difficult things to stop. The challenge here is to shift your perspective.

What is difficult can be turned into an opportunity for growth. That conversation that needs to be had, that breakup, those unchecked thoughts, whatever the difficulty may look like for you can be turned into an opportunity to grown and learn from. It doesn’t go to say that it will be easy or fun, just that it’s necessary to move forward.

Mars enters retrograde in the sign of Aries from September 9, 2020 (Wednesday) – November 13, 2020 (Friday)

Energy Management

Mars is the planet of action, desire, energy, initiative, and assertiveness. In the sign of Aries, that means that there is an overall stronger energy force of swiftness, passion, initiative, and action. It’s an overall stronger force because those are characteristics of Aries. This is a great time fuel your drive, develop a healthy ego and sense of personal power. Knowing this makes it more imperative that you’re aware of your energies, emotions, behaviors, and thought processes.

Negative feelings in general can be signs of lower vibrational thinking, emotional reacting, and behaving. It’s not saying that you can’t feel or experience these things. It’s saying to be aware of how you handle these emotions or actions as they occur. Don’t fear them. Embrace them and learn to manage how they affect your life.

Come from a higher place

With all these opposing motions, try finding outlets to release and express any pint up energy. Finding ways to productively exert energy is a great way to avoid fights, arguments, disagreements, accidents, etc. You want to avoid situations that can result in you being in the ballpark of phrases like, “I’m sorry I didn’t realize I was that upset.” Mars is the planet of physical energy so, consider redirecting it by taking walks, painting, gym classes, dancing; just something that will allow you to move productively. The key is to outwardly exert these energies, so they don’t internalize and build.

Mars brings destruction and fertility. It has the power to destroy what was once there and not working to bring in something new. You can’t cook in a dirty kitchen. You can’t heal in the place that hurt you. And lastly, you can’t grow from what isn’t nourishing you. So, in acknowledging that, prepare yourself to be open to change as old things fall away. With the action, drive, and confidence of this retrograde;, there’s an opportunity to create something new in your life.

By focusing this powerful energy on aspects that can help you grow, you in turn begin to give birth to new aspects of yourself and life. This can look like many different things and doesn’t have to be monolithic. You could have beautiful self-discovery during this retrograde or you could decide to begin to act on those ideas that have been collecting dust. Either way from the right perspective and mind frame this retrograde can be the momentum to take you to the next space in your life. The best part about this is that you create it.

Reform & education

Retrograde isn’t hell boiling over. I know it can feel like that at times. It’s an easier connotation for the mind to attach itself too. But let’s shift our perspective by seeing that a retrograde is a time to slow down. A time to catch your breath, to savor the moment if you will. It’s the universe asking you to pause for a moment. And, these moments aren’t here to stop you. They’re here to help you along the way. Consider it critical thinking points, like grade school literature books. Let’s stop and see if you understand what’s been read at this point. And for the next three months, this Mars retrograde will be asking you to sit in reflection. It’ll be asking you to pause and look within yourself to see what all you’ve been carrying.

Ask yourself:

- Do I do things impulsively?

- a) Am I being so subjective that I can’t see the bigger picture?

- b) Am I being so subjective that I can’t see the details?

- Am I being balanced with my viewpoints?

- Do I have all the facts?

- Without factoring in my emotional response what is it that I need to do for my greatest and highest good?

It's simple questions like these that help you to understand your actions and emotions. That is what this Mars retrograde is about, pausing to understand. In doing this you begin to end things that are no longer for your highest and greatest good. One of the major themes for the next few months is closing out chapters. There’s been a lot of loose ends floating around energetically for the last few years now. This retrograde will carry us over into an Aquarian era, putting an end to the Pisces illusion we’ve been looking at. That means these loose ends need to be sorted and handled.

No doubt, this is a lot to process. Finding a positive perspective to stand on amidst destruction can feel like an impossible task. It’s like our present-day climate. A lot of wrong, hurt, pain, death, weariness, sadness, and more have encompassed our daily lives. An insurmountable amount of uncertainty quickly became our new normal. Yet here we are still pushing through and finding ways to interact, to connect. We’re finding our courage to fight, to be heard. Let that universal resilience guide you through these months as you begin to understand yourself better through this retrograde.

Sources:

Rosano,Kelley [Kelley Rosano].( 2020,August, 27th).Mars Retrograde Use It To YOUR BENEFIT! Sept 9--Nov 13, 2020 [video]. YouTube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NaPOhBwSL-U

Vrba,Sarah[VrbaSarah].(2020,September,7th).MarsStationsRetrograde[video].Patreon.https://youtu.be/2p4kWY_ftQw