Surely this has happened to you:  You head out for a day’s worth of errands and are making really good time when you start wondering whether you left the iron on. Or maybe it was the oven, or the back door, or something else in a condition that could endanger your home. 

Oh, yeah, you know this phenomenon. And you know what happens next: You search for a memory to shut up the thought...and you come up blank. You don’t want to spend the day worrying, and you certainly don’t want to risk coming home to fire trucks or a burglary. So you turn around, because there’s no point in continuing on till you know for certain.

That’s where we are now. The year’s first big shift in energy has arrived, and it’s going to lure us back over territory we’ve recently traveled. Mars, the planet that rules action, drive and ambition, is stationing to go retrograde for just under three months.

Three.  Months.

Yes, that’s a long time. Mars generally blasts his way through a sign in a matter of weeks. Uncharacteristically, he’s spending the entire first half of the year in Virgo, and half of that retrograde. His energy is most comfortable in all-systems-go mode, so it’s probable that shifting into reverse is going to kick up some discomfort and resistance, not to mention irritation, resentment and frustration.

Now, Mars retrograding does not mean that all progress will stall, much as some people react to any inner planet retrograde as a threat to Life As We Know It. The sun will continue to rise. Plants will continue to sprout and blossom. Developments will continue to unfold and grow.

In fact, this about-face has benefits, and they are practical and tangible indeed. Just as Jupiter injected Miracle-Gro into the Taurus area of our lives during his retrograde last fall, Mars is now improving the Virgo aspects of our existence. We get a do-over.

View this as a blessing and the merits will soon become clear. We get to rethink, reanalyze, reconsider, repair, rework and reorganize. Sure, it’s not exciting, and probably some of what you go back to you’d rather not. This second chance is for bringing order and efficiency into your life, though, so that you aren’t tripping on details when you are running forward later.

Hence the importance of reorganizing. It’s especially appropriate for every aspect of your daily routine -- your schedule, your regular tasks, your diet, your habits, your tools and your daily environment. All those tasks that you’ve been meaning to get around to someday? Wait no longer:  Someday’s here. 

I’ll have more to say about Mars as his retrograde goes on. For a head start, listen to my 2012 Astro-Overview mp3. (If you don’t have it yet, you can order it here.)

This week also makes Aquarius the dominant influence of the sky, with a New Moon (on Monday) and Mercury (starting Friday) joining the Sun and Neptune in that sign.  The convergence assists with the wrapping up of the 14-year phase of Neptune’s journey through Aquarius. He’s leaving that sign for good, for our lifetimes, at the beginning of February. This week abounds with information about what that phase has meant for us.

Collectively, that journey moved us into constant connectedness via technology.  (How many people did you know who had a cell phone in 1998? Who were even online?) In the past 14 years we’ve moved from interacting by phone, letter, fax and, yes, even, face to living tethered to computers and other communication devices, even in the presence of physical companions.  This development has made the progressive, brotherhood of man potential of Aquarius a reality in our daily lives and led to the fast galvanizing of networks and action on social causes. It’s also increased the spread of spin and lies and misinformation, too, not to mention “friendships” between people who have never met physically -- and might not be who they seem.

Think about your own relationship to your web of friends, electronic and flesh-and-blood, and to technology, 14 years ago and now. Also think about how your life has changed in terms of artistry, spirituality, dreams, confused perceptions and self-deception.

Messages and increasing mental clarity are coming now that explain or flesh out your personal story line of the past 14 years. Thanks to grounding Saturn making a helpful link to Neptune, you’re seeing what is real and reliable (friends, dreams, goals, guidance) and what is not. (The increasing power and strikes of Anonymous are a textbook example of a different playing out of this link on a collective level.) Don’t obsess over what’s going up in smoke; focus on what remains. Monday’s Aquarius New Moon -- the last, by the way, we will experience with Neptune in that sign -- invites taking this knowledge and looking to the future. We are living the paradox of individual wanderers traveling in a pack. For more on the New Moon, read my mooncast.

My five-minute podcast offers another take on this week’s events. If you like it, please give it five stars on iTunes! (Don’t want to use iTunes? Use the Podcast/Video link at the top of this page.)

Monday: Happy Year of the Dragon! This is one of the three big-action days this week. (The others are Friday and Saturday).  The overall atmosphere is a paradox, appropriate for the different-drummer-beat  of an Aquarian New Moon.  As that begins to take shape above us and Mars stations retrograde, the air is still and clear, like a winter night with a cloudless, star-filled sky.  You can hear your own thoughts under such a sky, and what those thoughts urge is action.  That happens just before the retrograde officially begins, actually. Clarity births motivation and just when you know what you want and have to do .... time stops. Our scope of vision is collapsing from panoramic to nano.  We’re taking on a precision of focus associated with Swiss watch makers.

Tuesday:    Today’s point of focus is the self. Pay attention to how you feel when you step out of bed. Yesterday’s still, clear winter night vibe has enveloped you. During the overnight hours you underwent surgery of the psyche. Your sense of yourself and your mission are streamlined, clearer and more fierce and unshakable.  Note how easy and organic it is not to engage with situations that don’t fit.  There is a cold, even calculated edge to how you (and everyone else) navigate the day.  While it’s kinder to cut with a scalpel than a butter knife, the act can be accomplished gently rather than brutally. Pulling that off today may require a conscious choice and effort.

Wednesday:   The dreamworld offers lovely escape overnight, with the Moon crossing Neptune and sailing into Pisces. It’s a mini-vacation from reality, which refreshes us for a day of growth and unfolding. (See? Mars retrograde does not mean life stops.)  Open your arms out wide and there’s no telling what might pour into them. The options opening up for you are reflections of how much you are allowing your own individual spark to come out and play.  Valuable benefits of yesterday’s psychic surgery become clear by evening. Act from a position of strength and power; no more selling yourself short.  Ride out the late-night relationship squall. It won’t have lasting effects unless you create them.

Thursday:  The only major aspect during daylight  is the Moon meeting up with Venus. Our hearts are happy as the day begins. At least one relationship is satisfying and nourishing, even if it’s the one you have with yourself.  As for dealings with fellow humans, well, watch out for misplaced or misguided motivations. It’ll be easy for appetites and self-entitlement genes to go out of control. Aggressions flair as midnight approaches. As for me, I’d rather that play out in my dreams than in waking time. Put writing materials at your bedside; information is coming.

Friday:   Happy birthday to Mozart, Charles Dodgson, Jerome Kern, Donna Reed, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Patton Oswalt and me! (I admit; I love that line-up.) Our bodies may have slept last night, but our minds did not. They were working out puzzles, pushing through (or off from) barriers and reaching inspired conclusions and resolutions. The process awakens sympathy for the devil, whoever you see playing that role in your life.  Write down your dream fragments; they could piece together into quite the story -- or script.  Watch communication depart the mundane and practical for a more detached perspective as Mercury moves into Aquarius for only two and a half weeks.  His shift enjoys a booster-rocket blast when the Moon meets up with Uranus, the ruler of Aquarius, late in the afternoon. (Background music:  “(I Did It) My Way.”)  Hang on to that detached perspective when evening plans veer into unexpected directions. Dynamic tension will grow between you and others. You can keep it fun and sparking, or you can let it grow into irritation and aggression.                                                                                                                        

Saturday: Once again comes proof that Mars retrograde does not mean no action. The day begins and ends with discomfort, but that delivers the incentive to shift around this way and that. The first bout of this launches the day, encouraging not sleeping in or lounging around reading the paper in bed -- paradoxically alongside an indulgent-to-lazy impulse that wants exactly that.  One solution: get up and dive into something you enjoy. (Or bring your coffee and breakfast back to bed.) By afternoon, cobwebs fall away from your thinking.  It’s beneficial to follow the idea, suggestion or message that hits out of the blue.   It’s also not hard for you to do. You might notice only in retrospect, but you are living more confidently and boldly.  An afternoon development demonstrates how well you’ve come through Tuesday’s surgery on your psyche. Minds and possibly mouths go into overdrive late as the midnight hour approaches EST. Conversations launched then, with another or inside your head, will not be brief. If you get caught in one, brainstorm the future -- and make the vision bigger, bigger, bigger.

Sunday: If you managed to fall asleep before last night’s gabfest erupted, pay attention to what’s running through your head first thing in the morning. That flotsam and jetsam hint at what your mind worked over late last night.  Then kick back. This is, at last, a true day of rest.  There are hardly any exact aspects, only two minors, two by declination and no major ones at all. The morning is quiet and slightly out of sync with worldly, purposeful activity.  The choice is yours to act or react, to do without striving. Why not take advantage of the sky’s inactivity and rejuvenate?

© Kathy Biehl 2012. All Rights Reserved. You may forward this article as long as the copyright notice is intact. No part may be used or reprinted without my prior written permission. Karma, ya know.

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