Let’s break this down first – retrogrades are a cyclical phenomenon caused by differences in orbital speed between Earth & the other planets wherein a planet appears to move backwards in the sky from our perspective here on Earth. The days when the planet in question (in this case, Mars) appears to halt movement and then change direction is called the “station” and it’s said to be the time where the energy of a planet is at its most potent and palpable.
Case in point: Mars stationed (turned) retrograde on March 1, 2014. Mars is the planet of war, and not coincidentally this astrological event coincided with Russia’s “occupation” of the Crimea region of Ukraine in the wake of civil unrest that had resulted in the ousting of the Ukrainian president just days prior. The interim Ukrainian government – along with members of the international community – has decried Russia’s actions as an open act of aggression interfering with the sovereignty of the country. Many see this as an invasion, as an act of war.
It will be very interesting to watch what happens with Russia & Ukraine from an astrological point of view as the story continues to unfold, as declaring war when Mars turns retrograde is said to be particularly ill-advised. During Mars retrograde, being the one to instigate hostility usually means we’re only going to burn ourselves in the end, and as I stated in my March newsletter, looking instead at how our rash actions can precipitate this is much more befitting to the internalized quality of Mars retrograde. So let’s *NOT* take a cue from P!nk and wind up starting a fight during Mars retrograde, k?
Remember I said in a previous post that a highbrow use of Mars in Libra is TACTFUL CONFRONTATION – Russia should really take notes on this, because I think its actions in Ukraine are only going to strain (if not outright burn) some of their (already tenuous) alliances. Short term, I think social pressure and the forced diplomacy route are not likely to be effective tools of conflict resolution, but this is only my speculative opinion without looking at Russia’s or Ukraine’s charts since mundane astrology (the branch concerned with world events) isn’t really my bag. My interest in pointing out the correlation between Mars’ retrograde and Russia’s military action in Ukraine lie in using it as a teaching tool for retrogrades in general and for Mars retrograde specifically – sort of a “what not to do”! We can clearly see Mars at work in this event, so let’s observe how it all shakes out in the coming months – April should be the most interesting with the Cardinal Grand Cross we’ll have in play, so this story is far from over!
****Addendum – Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, is a Libra Sun with 3 other planets also in Libra that span from 13-23 degrees of this sign. Mars rolling over his Sun et al has no doubt made his trigger finger extremely itchy in recent months! This will continue to be the case through July of 2014, when Mars has finished its retrograde and finally moved away from his Libra planets.
03/03/2014
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