Mars turns retrograde for Winter Solstice
On December 20th Mars turns retrograde until 10th January 2010. Just when we thought we could finally steam ahead with our plans, we may experience hesitation, delay and obstruction. It is important not to feel frustrated by this, nor to simply carry on regardless – the frustrations and delays are there to ensure that we act from our innermost heart and not from our ego. It is time to take stock and wait for the moment of Right Action to occur naturally and spontaneously, which it will when the time is right. Retrograde Mars is “priming” us to act with clarity and pure intent, when the Chiron - Neptune conjunction on 16th February accelerates us all towards the Big Shift in 2012.
Winter Solstice - Click on image to Enlarge
At Winter Solstice, the Sun is poised between Venus (in Sagittarius) and Pluto (in Capricorn). The choice is clear – to allow renewal and rebirth to emerge from the depths of your heart, and move into a place of empowerment; or deny that, and life will continue to challenge you at every turn.
With Mercury conjunct the Moon’s North Node, this is the time to make a conscious choice to do what is right at the deepest level of our being, rather than to continue doing what merely keeps us in our comfort zones. Retrograde Mars in Leo, at the apex of a “Striving Figure” is telling us that we really do need to let go of our ego-based wishes and intentions if we want to receive the new Vision for our lives that Jupiter is offering, as it completes its third and final conjunction this year with Chiron and Neptune.
That individual Vision needs to be based on what is true in our innermost hearts, and freed from our past self-delusions and inhibiting fear-based limitations or boundaries. Uranus can help us to break free of those fears and outmoded beliefs about who we are, whilst Mercury conjunct the Moon’s North Node has the potential to make us consciously aware of what we need to do next in order to put us on track with our true spiritual path…all of this is possible if we can let go of Mars thinking that we know best: the old joke that “if you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans” has never been more true than it will be this Winter Solstice!
Mars is opposing the Jupiter/Chiron/Neptune conjunction, which means that the only way we can truly see what lies ahead for us, is to let go and allow Chiron’s deep healing potential to bring to the surface all of those unresolved patterns from the past which we are still holding on to at a deep unconscious level.
These patterns may go back throughout our entire lives. As Jupiter brings them to light, it is important not to become caught in them, or to believe that they are to do with anything current in our lives; current events or relationships may be triggering the feelings that are brought up, but their roots lie way back in our past.
If Jupiter is not approached in a conscious manner, then it is prone to exaggeration and blowing things out of all proportion; combine that with the tendency of Neptune to plunge us into illusion and self-deception, and it will be very difficult to see things clearly. This is the true value of the retrograde Mars – it is teaching us not to just react, but to think and reflect about what is going on internally before we take any rash action. This may be difficult at times, because the feelings that are brought up will most likely be very immature and child-like; however, we have the insight of Uranus in Pisces and the pragmatic thinking of Mercury in Capricorn to help us in this, and enable us to perceive what is really going on.
Once we have seen the roots of the patterns that are being brought up, then all we have to do is to acknowledge and release the feelings; not to pick them over and analyse them, or think that we need to spend the next three years in therapy, but simply to acknowledge, release and forgive – as soon as we can truly feel that impulse of forgiveness for self and others, then the healing energy of Chiron will engage, and Neptune can release and dissolve what has been holding us in thrall for many years, and enable us to see more clearly the Path that lies ahead of us.
Have a Deep, Still and Blissful Solstice, and a Joyful rebirth!
