COSMIC SWIMMER

The details

Mars goes Retrograde on December 6^th in the sign of Leo. While journeying back, it will enter Cancer on January 4^th, and end its Retrograde voyage on February 24^th. Mars goes Retrograde every couple of years, and it usually lasts for about two months.

Mars Retrograde is a powerful time of learning, measuring and exploring ourselves. Go back in time, around two years ago, and contemplate upon the ways your goals and aspirations have been changing forms. What has shifted within these past two, and even four years?

The last time Mars was Retrograde was in Gemini, around October 13^th 2022 until January 12^th 2023. Before that, Mars went Retrograde in Aries on September 9^th 2020 until November 13^th 2020.

Contemplate upon the ways things, life and yourself changed; who you’ve become and how these past years shaped your vision, perception and strength. If you find yourself reminiscing about old powers that you may feel you no longer possess, this Mars Retrograde is the portal you’re looking for in order to return back to these, and re-activate them.

We often hear how Retrogrades are times of mere frustration and delays. That’s not necessarily the case. Retrogrades just move differently than the pace and motion we’re used to.

That being said, they are powerful portals through which we can gain access to our subconscious mind, and bring forward potent healing. They illuminate the path so, by the time they’re done, we’ll be able to move forward. More or less we’re all looking for a meaningful way forward, and Retrogrades offer just that.

Mars rules all fiery things – ambition, setting goals, forward motion, conquering, libido, dominance. These are all themes deeply embedded in our culture.

Yet, it goes deeper than that. Mars relates to the hero archetype, and the hero’s and heroine’s journey – the path where we’re called to go on a mission, and eventually, this path shapes who we are. In that journey we’re faced with loss, confusion, and also achievement. If the journey is a spiritual one, we lose our ego and find our higher selves. We then return back to our communities and share our gifts with others. The hero’s journey is not about success or dominance; it’s about understanding our place in the Universe, and therefore in the world. In this journey we win, because we eventually figure out what we want to express into the world.

Mars also relates to the idea of the anti-hero. Here, Mars invites us to explore how we’ve disconnected from our vulnerability, lost sense of belonging in the world, and therefore have come at war with our own selves – and perhaps others. We’re currently witnessing this energy in our societies a lot. We’re also missing the tools that can help us express healthily what we’re going through and find healthy outlets and liberation.

This is where Mars Retrograde comes in – in the sign of Leo, it begins a powerful journey of re-finding ourselves, reclaiming our paths and going on that mission that is our very purpose. Going back to the sign of Cancer, Mars Retrograde will allow us to integrate parts of our emotional selves that we’ve forgotten or numbed out due to the pain, and heal important themes of our identity and who we are– perhaps once and for all.

We’re gaining a deeper understanding of who we are during this transit. We’ll be taping into the most vulnerable, fragile parts of us – the places where we long to belong, be of service and be served equally. These can be internal parts that we’re deeply afraid to connect with and see within ourselves, yet these are the places where we’ll be able to find that freedom of expression that we so deeply seek.

Mars Retrograde allows us to tap into our subconscious mind and understand what is true for us, as well as what carries meaning in ourselves and in our lives.

And even more than that, Mars Retrograde allows us to “unearth” all these things that are innate and natural for us – here, we’ll be able to find our very own, unique expression style, as well as our sense of purpose and higher calling.

We’re moving away from mere appearances and “what looks good” on the outside, and are diving into what is raw, true and pure. We can make it look good afterwards, for sure, but we need to get to that open truth first. We’re finding our very own home during this time.

We’ll be working a lot with both the Sun and the Moon energy during this retrograde. While the Sun represents our higher self and how we glow in the world, the Moon shows the in-depth physical environments, such as our families, communities and our work place, that are connected with our inner world – our needs, our deeper or hidden desires and our emotional core.

Again, the communication between the Sun and the Moon under this Retrograde becomes a profound portal of answers especially around themes of identity, purpose, and self-expression.

Mars Retrograde also has the power to make clear the difference between what we think we should be doing, and what we know deep inside we should be doing because it’s who we are.

That being said, one of the fastest ways that we can gain clarity upon what we are called to do, is to journey back into our childhood and remember what we used to love doing as children, mostly because this is the time that we are the most connected to our higher selves.

And when Mars moves into Cancer, we may feel called to let out our emotional sides, learn how to regulate and communicate our emotions, and understand the value of those feelings that are well-nourished within us. These are not the emotions that come and go in waves, rather than these feelings we can actively grow in us because they are valuable – these are the emotions of compassion, sympathy, and empathy.

Mars Retrograde in Cancer is a powerful portal through which we can identify in what ways we’ve been oppressed or how we’ve been suppressing our feelings, as well as seek healthy outlets of expression. 

It’s a time when we can tap into our infinite, internal wisdom, activate our “intuitive ears”, and clarify what motivates us on deeper levels. If the world gets too much, we can always return back into that inner palace that knows the answers, feels things deeply, understands everything, and therefore, is also at peace.

Have a blessed one,