Artist's conception of Mars trojan asteroids; by Pablo Carlos Budassi, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Retrograde period: October 30, 2022- January 12, 2023
Mars in Gemini: August 20, 2022- March 24, 2023
Mars will increase in brightness and visibility in the night sky over the next several months as it reaches its opposition to the Sun. At this point in the two-year Martian journey around the Sun, the red planet will display an optical illusion known as apparent retrograde motion. Mars retrograde cycles occur roughly every two years (every 26 months) and repeat in the same zodiac sign every 15 years. This year's Mars retrograde will appear in the tropical sign of Gemini, a sign it is currently transiting since late August. This upcoming Mars retrograde cycle will last two and a half months. Mars will occupy Gemini for a total duration of nearly seven months! It is extremely rare for Mars to stay in this sign for so long.
The last Mars retrograde cycle that occurred in Gemini was in January 2008, when Mars stationed retrograde initially in Cancer in December 2007, moving backward into Gemini and striking an opposition with Pluto across the Aries Point (the first degree or so of all cardinal signs: 00 degrees of Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn). Pluto had also then recently moved into Capricorn. January 2008 was interestingly the buildup to the Global Financial Crisis, which impacted numerous world economies. In the U.S. horoscope, Mars is placed at 21 degrees of Gemini, and in 2008, Mars stationed direct (ended) at 24 degrees Gemini.
This year's Mars retrograde cycle begins at 25 degrees Gemini on Oct. 30 and crosses over Mars in the U.S. horoscope, stationing direct at 8 degrees Gemini on Jan. 12, 2023. My reference to 2008 is not a prediction of a recession or event to the scale of the Global Financial Crisis of 2008-2009. The 2008-2009 period correlated with the buildup of the Saturn/Pluto square, a cycle we just experienced the peak of in January 2020 with the conjunction of Saturn and Pluto. For more on this cycle, view my article written in early 2019. Additionally, Mars is not stationing directly on a planet in the U.S. horoscope as it did with the Sun in 2008, though it will station close to the U.S. Mars position.
However, it is interesting that the U.S. is currently facing a recession related to events correlated with the Saturn/Pluto cycle. The U.S. is additionally experiencing a Pluto return where Pluto transits back to its position at the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Mars will also retrograde into a square with Neptune during this cycle. Mars will be within orb (within a certain degree range) of squaring Neptune for nearly two months and will repeat a final square in mid-March 2023 before leaving Gemini for Cancer. Additionally, Mars will be out-of-bounds for most of this retrograde cycle. Out-of-bounds refers to a planet going beyond the Sun's highest or lowest declination. It will be interesting to note the quality of world events, especially in the U.S., as this cycle unfolds.
Mars' retrograde square with Neptune this year is a complex integration. Yet, it is not beyond our ability to work through and utilize for personal, collective, and spiritual growth. My astrological worldview sees such difficulties as serving a purpose and places our conflicts in the context of greater meaning. In this article, I will explore the potential significance of Mars' retrograde cycle in Gemini, its square with Neptune, and what insights we might uncover to best prepare for it.
Lastly, it is important to note that not everyone will experience this cycle as significantly as others. Those with mutable sign placements in Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces will note correlations more in their personal lives. Most notable would be placements such as Mars crossing or stationing on an angle of the natal chart (such as the Ascendent, Descendent, or Midheaven), or the Sun, Moon, Mercury, Venus, or Mars. Even more, will be placements within the degrees of Mars' retrograde cycle (8 to 25 degrees Gemini with a few degrees on either side). Of course, any aspects Mars retrograde makes to natal placements can have significance.
Mars Retrograde General Meaning
Diagram of the geocentric trajectory of Mars through several periods of apparent retrograde motion (Kepler, Astronomia nova, Chapter 1, 1609)
Retrograde cycles such as those involving Mercury, Venus, or Mars often correlate with complex situational dynamics. In the case of Mercury and Mars especially, aggravating or irritating issues sometimes emerge via the reemergence of problems thought to be resolved or dealt with. This is one reason these cycles have such a bad reputation within astrology circles, though, as we will explore, there are constructive and positive potentials to these cycles.
Mercury, Venus, and Mars retrograde cycles are significant because these planets typically move rapidly through an area of the sky and our natal chart. Thus, a transit from Mars typically lasts only a few days to a week. When Mars turns retrograde, it spends several months in a sign, three weeks at specific degrees, and passes over areas of the chart multiple times over several months.
Mars retrograde symbolizes the emergence (or reemergence) of Mars-related themes and issues that develop more complexity in a specific sign and area of the natal chart (house or aspects to planets). There are other dimensions to this, such as revisiting unresolved issues from the past, serendipitous-type encounters, or experiencing significant life events (more so if Mars stations on or near natal placements in the chart). Yet, overall, the Mars archetype dominates a specific area of the sky and chart and develops more significance and meaning during this time.
What Does Mars Mean?
MOSSOT, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
Like Saturn, Mars was considered by classical astrologers as a malefic planet. Malefics were traditionally believed to cause or foreshadow misfortune and destruction. Unlike Venus and Jupiter (known as benefics), Saturn and Mars had unpleasant consequences, sometimes described as inherently evil. Of course, the modern conception of this has changed; at least the vocabulary used to describe malefic and benefic planets is vastly more nuanced than classical astrology. Also, on a personal level, Mars transits rarely manifest in such a dire way.
Still, the roots of these concepts are useful because they reveal the correlation between significant Saturn and Mars events and experientially challenging situations, especially as they relate to collective/world events. The Global Financial Crisis is one good example, as is the year 2020 when Saturn and Mars aligned with Pluto in Capricorn in March of that year, the height of the pandemic's onset, global lockdowns, and various authoritarian measures.
Mars is associated with the warrior archetype and is traditionally related to conflicts, battles, confrontations, divisiveness, and destruction. Mars can correlate with the emergence of such things; however, we need to think more deeply and archetypally about those associations. More likely, a Mars retrograde cycle would correlate with the emergence of symbolic versions of those associations.
We all know that life can be difficult and messy. There are painful things that happen to us that we can't control, but there are also painful things we could have avoided if we knew better or had more confidence in ourselves. It is inevitable that we get hurt at various points throughout our lives, and the longer we live, the more that truth becomes real.
Occasionally, we encounter situations or people in life that try to harm, take advantage of, exploit, or dominate us. And life also requires that we afflict harm on other living things for survival or to defend our autonomy.
There are also many dimensions to life that can feel like a battlefield that aren't literal battlefields. For example, there are moments we have to stand up for ourselves, defend someone or something else, or cut some harmful person or experience out of our lives. Ultimately, I believe those experiences have a purpose because we get stronger and wiser if we respond well to them. We become more resistant to threats in the future and better able to avoid them when we see them coming.
We grow from painful experiences. They aren't meaningless, even if we adhere to an exclusive materialist or atheistic worldview. Pain, by the way, can result purely from free will. The challenges or difficulties that emerge under a Mars transit can be entirely self-selected. Building muscle, for example, is something that hurts but something we might choose to do.
Let's think about this further. We encounter this archetype every day. Our immune systems constantly fight off viruses, bacteria, or fungi. We kill plants and animals and eat them to survive. We implement and defend boundaries forged in personal and societal relationships. We experience various forms of cultural segregation. We cannot escape participation in the inevitable destructiveness and divisiveness of life. Creation and destruction are intimately linked. Autonomous entities have to defend their autonomy. No matter how we live our lives, these archetypal experiences will inevitably involve or find us.
The archetype of Mars describes battles, conflicts, and divisions, but it is also a planet that deals heavily with action, free will, and desire. We could say that the archetype of Mars embodies the desire to live and to defend that desire. Mars is often strongly associated with the primal aspects of the brain/psyche, our fight or flight (or freeze) responses to danger, and our aggressive, lustful, and fear-based emotions. Sexuality and sexual desire play a role here too. The Mars archetype could well represent survival and reproduction. Mars cycles or placements can relate to how we express or encounter these aspects of being human. It is a planet that embodies how we get what we want, defend it, and assert ourselves to claim space in life and protect it.
Mars in Gemini
Michelle Maria, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
As ruled by Mercury, the Gemini archetype is associated with the mind. It connects significantly to various domains of the mental and linguistic dimensions, such as the flow of verbal/non-verbal communication and information. We associate this sign with curiosity, high stimulation, perceptual/intellectual diversity, restlessness, teaching, and learning. In sum, we could say Gemini represents gathering information or data to form an understanding or view of the world and the various ways we interact with or describe it.
How can the pursuit of information, or the acquisition of truth or perception, become a battlefield where words, thoughts, ideas, or speeches become weapons or enemies? This is easy for us to conceive today, where Twitter wars happen daily, and powerful institutions have essentially waged war on misinformation. Especially in the shadow of the pandemic, the acquisition and dissemination of information are perceived as dangerous endeavors.
We hear a lot about the dangers of false or misleading information today, yet the response, such as the silencing of free speech, gets overlooked in mainstream discussions. Censorship is a well-utilized tactic of authoritarians to silence information they deem as threatening. This is not to suggest that misinformation is not a problem, but the events of 2020 have catalyzed a concerning wave of censorship and the public's acceptance of it. Regardless of whether one disagrees with the censored information, it is hard to deny that allowing powerful institutions to censor whom they decide is a slippery slope that can quickly snowball out of control.
Linguistic information has incredible power over human beings because we rely heavily on it for survival. The human capacity for sharing information is the most complex among mammals. No other animals on the planet use language to discuss the past, present, and future with the complexity that humans do. The human brain's higher neuronal capacity (more neurons than other primates or animals) also means prioritizing our visual and linguistic advancements over other senses. Thus, our ancestors relied heavily on information shared verbally to survive effectively in natural environments. It likely all started with the question, is this safe to eat or not?
Information is thus a powerful currency, and human societies have fought over it for millennia. Today's Twitter wars, platform bans, and censorship campaigns do not differ much from the motivations behind the Library of Alexandria's destruction, the Spanish Inquisitions, or Nazi book burnings. On an individual and collective level, confronting information that threatens our beliefs is also fraught with stress and fear because it results in cognitive dissonance. This is the psychological discomfort experienced in encountering information contradictory to what we believe to be true, and it can lead to highly irrational behavior. Human beings react to this experience with denial, rejection, hostility, or avoidance of the information, or they can choose to accept it and move through the discomfort. The latter requires some time, courage, and putting egos aside.
Mars retrograde in Gemini reminds me of a specific quote from don Juan, the Yaqui sorcerer that anthropologist Carlos Castaneda apprenticed under while conducting fieldwork in the book, The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (1). At this point in the book, Castaneda struggled to integrate his first experience with Peyote (what don Juan refers to as Mescalito), especially after hearing about his behavior while under its influence.
While Castaneda recalled his Peyote experience as a playful, ecstatic interaction with a dog, the next day, he learned how he had wildly chased after the dog barking loudly, played with the dog for hours while drinking from a water bowl, and eventually peed on the dog before passing out (pg. 46-47). Castaneda explains to don Juan that
"Peyote had produced in me, as a postreaction, a strange kind of physical discomfort. It was an indefinite fear or unhappiness; a melancholy of some sort, which I could not define exactly. And I did not find that state noble in any way." (pg. 48)
don Juan simply replies
"You are beginning to learn." (pg. 48)
Castaneda's struggle at this point in the book could be described as an experience of cognitive dissonance. His behavior contradicted the perception he had of himself. In fact, don Juan lectures Castaneda later about being too self-focused and missing much that is happening around him. Don Juan also explains the way in which Mescalito can pull one out of themselves to teach them, echoing the modern understanding of how psychedelic substances can allow individuals to observe their mind, thoughts, and behavior objectively. Castaneda confesses that he doesn't feel cut out for the learning that Mescalito provides
"This type of learning is not for me. I am not made for it, don Juan."
"You always exaggerate."
"This is not exaggeration."
"It is. The only trouble is that you exaggerate the bad points only."
"There are no good points so far as I am concerned. All I know is that it makes me afraid."
"There is nothing wrong with being afraid. When you fear, you see things in a different way." (pg. 48)
As a result of his discomfort and fear of Mescalito, Castaneda rejects further learning through Peyote use. He has confronted realizations that terrify him and challenge his worldview. Yet, don Juan's response that fear alters perception is the crucial point here and leads to the infamous quote. On a separate evening from the previous discussion, don Juan gives Castaneda wisdom he had memorized from his teacher while he was apprenticing to be a sorcerer himself:
"A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war: wide-awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it might never live to regret it." (pg. 51)
This quote refers to don Juan's earlier suggestion that "When you fear, you see things in a different way" (pg. 48). Fear can throw us off our usual route to developing a perception, either shutting down our ability to think critically and clearly or as don Juan suggests, fear can embolden respect for the knowledge we seek to have. As don Juan further on explains
"When a man starts to learn, he is never clear about his objectives. His purpose is faulty; his intent is vague. He hopes for rewards that will never materialize for he knows nothing of the hardships of learning."
"He slowly begins to learn--bit by bit at first, then in big chunks. And his thoughts soon clash. What he learns is never what he pictured, or imagined, and so he begins to be afraid. Learning is never what one expects. Every step of learning is a new task, and the fear the man is experiencing begins to mount mercilessly, unyieldingly. His purpose becomes a battlefield."
Castaneda then asks
"What will happen to the man if he runs away in fear?"
"Nothing happens to him except that he will never learn. He will never become a man of knowledge. He will perhaps be a bully, or a harmless, scared man; at any rate, he will be a defeated man. His first enemy will have put an end to his cravings." (pg. 84)
Don Juan alludes to the reality that learning is a process of developing the strength to endure the cognitive dissonance experienced due to chronic disillusionment or disenchantment. When one sets out on a learning path, they will inevitably encounter information and perceptions that challenge what they expect to find. The truth is often counter to our ideals, beliefs, and expectations. And yet, to acquire true knowledge, persistence and endurance are required to push through the discomfort.
There is likely some valuable wisdom to gather from don Juan's words as we move closer to Mars' lengthy retrograde in Gemini. Mars in Gemini is a time to utilize our fear to approach information with respect or to endure cognitive dissonance and come out with altered perception and understanding. While we can relate to these issues throughout our lives, Mars' extended trip through Gemini could bring some pivotal events to the surface that deal with the need to approach knowledge as a warrior facing the battlefield.
Other Mars in Gemini issues might involve taking a firm stance on a particular side of a cultural issue, defending a belief, perception, idea, or set of data relating to a specific understanding of the world. It might involve fighting against some perceived misinformation or attacks to censor or silence. Critical opportunities might surface to assert our truth or perception. We're likely to see some critical collective events in the U.S. dealing with these themes, especially as Mars retrogrades over Mars in the U.S. horoscope.
Mars Square Neptune
Murray Foubister, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
The Neptune archetype represents an awareness of something greater than one's self, perhaps greater than the sum of one species or planetary biosphere. We might refer to this archetype as an awareness of God/Goddess or the Universe. However, Neptune equally relates to natural forces that can overpower humanity, such as weather phenomena, natural disasters, or viral pandemics. Is it possible to fight against or fully resist such forces? Or is it better to surrender to what happens and allow one's will to be shaped and guided? Certainly, such experiences give us a true perspective of where we stand in the universe.
Mars in Gemini can feel overwhelmed with strategies, potential targets, or threats. The Gemini archetype represents a myriad of stimulation inundations that can complicate defining a clear action plan amid too many choices. Neptune's square adds another element of confusion or deception. It could be difficult under this cycle to know who or what to fight or defend against. We might find that certain goals are more complicated than we anticipated or that taking on a project or task requires more time and effort.
Mars square Neptune might correlate with losing momentum, strength, or passion, a period of questioning a mission or battle. Disillusionment and disenchantment are other possibile manifestations, especially about information, data, or beliefs that initially fueled motivation toward a particular cause. Perhaps a battle strategy once thought to work is found ineffective. Dissillusionment can occur due to overestimating strength or tactical abilities. We should be aware of overinflated confidence, strength, or power. Humility and a willingness to alter a mission or strategy is a must.
Yet, Mars square Neptune can also be a time to reinvigorate our passion or mission through a vision or ideal that motivates us to act. When it comes to Neptune, surrender the usual Mars-like tactics of fighting, pushing, or asserting control. It is a time to realize we are not entirely in control. There are forces larger than we are, and we can learn from them. Humbly admit your limitations and allow your mission to be reshaped and redirected. If you feel blocked by uncertainty, fear, or loss of faith, trust that clarity will return, and taking some steps back to restrategize will help you ultimately succeed later on.
Conclusion
This is an exceptionally notable Mars retrograde cycle given its length, out-of-bounds status, and the long duration of its square to Neptune. This is a time best utilized to reflect deeper on our actions, choices, impulses, desires, and "battle strategies," especially as they relate to gathering knowledge and information. Anticipate a shift in the assertion of willpower and the targets/end goals you've been after. Trusting and allowing your will to be shaped and guided may be a more beneficial Mars square Neptune strategy.
In the bigger picture, a retrograde inner planet represents a significant shift of activity in the sign and house(s) it backtracks through. Sometimes that manifests as a literal reversal of something in that area, especially if planets occupy that house and the retrograding planet contacts them. It's important to remember that this isn't always a bad thing; there can be both positive and negative reversals. While Mars can bring challenging issues to the surface, as the planet of action, it also deals with opportunities to assert autonomy, independence, and confidence.
Mars will be retrograde for two and a half months, so life will go on as it usually does. However, we should be extra mindful of our motivations and impulses and remain realistic about the nature of our choices more than usual. Remember, this is not a time when we should halt or hold off important actions. Quite often, delays or blocks related to previously mentioned issues prevent us from moving as quickly as we anticipated, especially in the weeks surrounding the stations of Mars (Oct. 30 and Jan 12). This is a time to be patient and trust there is a larger reason for any frustrations or obstacles. Perhaps, a renewed vision for a passion, strategy, and mission is emerging now. Expand your vision of what's possible and trust that clarity will emerge if you're willing to make an effort to alter your tactics and perspective.
Castaneda, Carlos. The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge (New York: Pocket Books, 1974).