Mars Turns Retrograde

Mars Turns Retrograde - Calibrated Assertion

"Some of us think holding on makes us strong, but sometimes it is letting go."

— Herman Hesse

An extraordinary amount of balance is required this week. We are challenged to walk the fine line between patient persistence and illogical stubbornness. The waxing lunar cycle, initiated by last Tuesday's Scorpio New Moon (3:48 AM PDT 2° Scorpio), is encouraging us to build up quite a determined 'head of steam'. We may have clear ideas of how we want to proceed in order to achieve our goals. However, Mars turns retrograde at the beginning of the week, which dampens our ability to simply take charge and 'run the show'. Flexibility is required and curiosity is rewarded. The retrograding Mars will keep us struggling to find the proper amount of force to use in order to effectively achieve our desires. Working in cooperation with others through collaboration and creative partnerships is certain to make our path smoother. However, both Venus and the Sun cross the South Node this week, creating sensitivity and leaving us vulnerable to misunderstandings or trusting the wrong people to help us stay on track. Letting go and trusting the process is crucial but misunderstandings and misinterpretations could easily derail our progress and encourage us to retreat to isolation or ill-advised power plays that only serve to slow our progress. Nonetheless, now that Jupiter has retrograded back into Pisces, we have some hope of expanded, reliable intuitive guidance which will help us to stay balanced and avoid the potential for significant frustration. Patience and self-control are certainly necessary elements. But what is perhaps the most important quality is sincere curiosity — a flexible desire to find new ideas and strategies that can take us where we want to go. If we can set aside what is essentially a 'fight or flight' response to the obstacles and challenges that we run into this week, we will begin to find some intriguing new options that will ultimately serve us much better than what we may believe we need to force into place. At best, the timing may just not be right. We may quickly find ourselves truly perplexed by those around us. But with patience — and listening carefully for intuitive insights — we can learn to see that each of us is doing the best we can from our limited individual perspective. From that perspective, we can more easily offer respect. This week's lessons are geared towards teaching us how to stay flexible and maintain our curiosity about the perspectives of others.

Getting others to openly share their perspectives may be increasingly difficult on Sunday. While we may feel optimistic, our self-sufficiency creates a closed loop. Stubborn determination, possibly arising out of hidden hostilities, surfaces on Monday. We need to use logic in order to avoid holding on too tightly or pushing too hard. We are in danger of trying to hold on too tightly to conflicting goals on Tuesday. We need to focus directly on the tasks at hand. Finding balance requires an especially sensitive touch on Wednesday. Having no answers is preferable to having all the answers. Courage comes in burst of resolve on Thursday. Frustration is eased and collaboration feels less uncomfortable. We are likely to feel quite vulnerable on Friday. There may be a 'fight or flight' response. Relationships are challenging on Saturday. We may be tempted to seek isolation in order to avoid honestly sharing our individual perspective.