At Last: Mars Stations Direct

Posted by Amanda Painter

aug26-2018

By the time you read this, the Pisces Full Moon will have already peaked earlier in the day. Yet even if you can feel a situation resolving or softening in one regard, you might still be experiencing a little agitation: tomorrow, at 10:05 am EDT (14:04:52 UTC), Mars finally stations direct after having been retrograde for two full months.

By the time you read this, the Pisces Full Moon will have already peaked earlier in the day. Yet even if you can feel a situation resolving or softening in one regard, you might still be experiencing a little agitation: tomorrow, at 10:05 am EDT (14:04:52 UTC), Mars finally stations direct after having been retrograde for two full months.

aug26-2018

This May 11, 2016, self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover shows the vehicle at the “Okoruso” drilling site on lower Mount Sharp’s “Naukluft Plateau” in a mosaic of multiple images. Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

Only you can say whether you felt this dramatically or barely at all; whether you felt thwarted at every turn, or just a little less gung-ho than usual. And of course, with three eclipses and Mercury’s own retrograde mixed in, it can be hard to tease out the themes specific to Mars.

Yet, for the last week, Mercury has been direct in Leo; the eclipses finished up just over two weeks ago. It’s possible you’ve been able to discern a little better the meaning of this particular Mars retrograde in your own life during the last week or two. You might ponder these questions if you need a hand tapping into it:

Has this past season helped you to understand certain desires better?

Do you have a sharper grasp of the ways you stand out from — or even oppose outright — a particular group or social trend?

Have you reached deeper insights about particular past actions, and how they’ve gotten you to where you are now?

It could help to consider the Sabian symbol for the degree where Mars is stationing direct, 29 Capricorn. (The Sabian symbols are a set of images that were channeled to correspond to each degree of the zodiac; Dane Rudhyar’s version is perhaps the most popular.) The Sabian symbol for 29 Capricorn reads: “A woman reading tea leaves.” It comes with the keynote: “The ability to see the Signature of hidden meaning in every occurrence drawing one’s attention.”

I don’t know about you, but I can definitely say that this keynote describes some of my inner agitation and connection making of the last week. At dinner Wednesday night, I kept joking that I must sound a little nuts as I described what I’ve been preoccupied with for the last several days (well, longer, I suppose; but things got much more specific just before Mercury stationed direct on the 19th). Details that might have otherwise not caught my attention suddenly felt like a web of meaning — the trick seemed to be to stay focused on how I could use it to move forward, rather than getting stuck in “what ifs.”

Even if you can’t relate to that scenario at all, it still might be worthwhile to see if the things drawing your attention feel connected to your deeper life questions, or to actions you want to take. Mars will be spending another week at 29 Capricorn after it stations direct.

The one note of caution I might sound regards the possibility that Mars retrograde, especially while it was in Aquarius, symbolized you standing in opposition to a group. If it did, that situation should be easily verifiable via facts you can check; don’t settle for imagining what so-and-so might have said or done. The idea is to stay grounded in reality so that you can take effective, productive action toward your goals and desires.

aug26-1-2018

Detail of image taken by NASA’s Curiosity rover, showing different geological layers on Mount Sharp. Photo by NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS.

It’s also worth noting that Mercury in Leo makes some interesting aspects this week; it will leave its post-retrograde echo (or shadow) phase on Sunday, Sept. 2.

One of these Mercury aspects is a square to Jupiter in Scorpio on Tuesday. In part, this is a reminder to allow your optimism to help you make big plans and long-range goals, but to mind the details (and your spending) along the way — and to stay flexible in the process.

Then on Friday, the Virgo Sun makes an opposition to Nessus in Pisces. I’ll likely have more to say about this later in the week, but it does appear to describe the experience of coming face-to-face with patterns in life that have tripped you up — especially related to past boundary transgressions or abuses by others — and perhaps the way we often turn that on ourselves.

That might sound uncomfortable or intimidating, but it’s really a valuable opportunity. It means you have a chance to see these dynamics more clearly, and to make new choices around how you’ll take steps in your healing. And Mars direct is certainly about taking steps.

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