It’s Autumn here in Australia and the Autumn Equinox happens on 21 March. This is the day when the Sun reaches 00 Aries and starts its year-long journey around the zodiac. It’s a time of renewal. The Sun has travelled the whole 360 degrees of the zodiac over its past year and is now ready for a new adventure. Whether we live in the Northern Hemisphere (where it’ll be Spring Equinox) or the Southern Hemisphere, we are all now offered the fresh enthusiasm of Aries. As with every new adventure, generally we’re a bit tired from the end of the last one. Yet after 21 March our enthusiasm increases for the next round of the 360 degrees of the zodiac, which will take a year.
In astrological terms, it’s the zodiac’s New Year on 21 March. So if you don’t feel as if 2010 has started quite the way you would’ve liked it to, here’s another opportunity for new year’s resolutions and shaking off the old. Not far from Easter every year, the March Equinox highlights themes of death (crucifixion) and rebirth (resurrection). Yet it’s early days with the rebirth. We see the new path ahead and become fuelled with inspiration but we’re still shedding our old skins and getting accustomed to the new ones.
Overall March is a month of relinquishing old ways and nourishing new ones. This is especially emphasised by the long-awaited event on 11 March of Mars coming out of Retrograde and finally moving Direct. It’s not unusual when Mars is Retro to experience dips in energy levels or to feel frustrated or thwarted in our efforts. So the combination of Mars going direct and the Autumn Equinox in Aries (Mars’s favourite zodiac sign) brings a big cosmic ‘yes’ to finally being able to move forward.
The movement forward is a slow one though. We may have learnt a lot about the wise use of our energy while Mars was Retro, but just as the Sun has to adjust to being at the start of its new astrological year at the Equinox, when Mars goes direct there’s tweaking time. We’ll be wanting to charge ahead gung-ho after feeling blocked over the past 3 months of Mars’s Retro phase, but we’re unlikely to fully fly until Mars moves beyond the degree it went Retrograde at. Here’s the relevant dates & degrees:
- 17 October 2009, Mars moved into 00 Leo
- 21 December 2009, Mars shifted retro at 19 Leo 42
- 11 March 2010, Mars shifts direct at 00 Leo 18
- 17 May 2010, Mars returns to 19 Leo 42, the degree it went Retro at
- 7 June 2010, Mars shifts into 00 Virgo
Notice how Mars doesn’t leave Leo until the start of June. All up it will have spent 8 months in Leo – almost the length of a pregnancy. Between now and May we can start taking our tentative first steps with what we’re birthing, and then for the 3 weeks from 17 May to 7 June we can fly ahead more confidently with our Leo goals before Mars moves into Virgo. The movement into Virgo will help ground and solidify the Leo goals and take them even further.
To explain what Mars Retro in Leo means, I’ll look briefly at three events that particularly caught my attention during the Mars Retro period. They were the Tiger Woods drama, the Winter Olympics excitement and NASA’s robot ‘Spirit’ getting stuck on Mars. Yes, can you believe it! While Mars was Retro in Leo, an exploration robot called ‘Spirit’ (a Leo word) got bogged (Retro) on the actual planet Mars! Getting bogged is a major Mars Retro in Leo theme. Yet although the robot ‘Spirit’ is stuck in one spot on Mars, it’s not dead. It’s now beaming back data exclusively from its one location that will help scientists learn more about Mars’s core (again a Leo word – Leo is concerned with the ‘heart’ or ‘core’ of things). Being ‘bogged’ has turned into an opportunity for immense focus – a chance to specialise.
This is how it might have felt for us with Mars Retro in Leo. Like Spirit, until December last year we were going along as usual either enjoying or not enjoying (Leo is about joy) our lives, when suddenly we got stopped in our tracks. The ‘getting stopped’ could’ve been a relationship ending, a job loss, an illness diagnosis, a trip cancellation or a sudden loss of confidence. Yet after recovering from the initial disappointment we were able to take a good hard look at what options are still available to us. For example, we might’ve lost our job but we can now go out freelance and have more time to study our passions (Leo).
As for Tiger Woods, he demonstrated another facet of Mars Retro in Leo to us. When there’s a focus on Leo we are cosmically urged to look at our attitudes towards success and how we handle it. Do we get carried away with it? Do we believe we genuinely deserve it or does a hidden part of ourselves sabotage our success? Mars has a tendency to rush and dash about, grabbing as much as it can from life. But when Mars is Retro things slow down so that we see what we’re up to more clearly. It’s been Tiger Woods’s time for having attention (Leo) drawn to some of the side effects of his success. He’s recently rolemodelled a positive way forward by publicly apologising and taking time out for therapy. Some say he’s not genuine but only time will tell. Mars Retro in Leo asks us to eat humble pie if success has ‘gone to our heads’. Leo is about the heart. To be sustainably successful, it’s important not to lose touch with our hearts – including our connections with the loved ones that support and nourish us.
Finally, the Winter Olympics was an incredible display of what’s possible when we focus on our passions and follow our dreams. Yet we must not forget the tragic death of the Georgian luge athlete in a practice-run before the Olympics. There are claims that the luge track was too fast and dangerous (an example of negative Mars). The Olympics are pure Mars in Leo events where athletes (Mars) go for gold (Leo). There were many inspiring examples of dedicated athletes who’ve put in the long hours, days and years to reach their goals. Of course, how nice to reach the top, but ‘getting gold’ isn’t all about winning, as many of the athletes showed us. It’s about committing time and effort to what we are passionate about and enjoying ourselves in the process. As we enjoy ourselves we not only relish our own lives, but also light up the lives of others.
We don’t need to be as hard core in our training as Olympians, but Mars Retro in Leo asked each of us to slow down, listen to the voice of our essence, our Spirit, and come up with fresh plans for finding time in our lives for it. Because of course life isn’t about the daily grind. It’s about following who we are by expressing the gift of our own specialty, our own passion, our own reason for being here. If you feel your light went out over the Mars Retro phase and you’re still none the wiser, don’t give up exploring what your true light is. Sometimes it takes a while to find it, but as long as you’re looking, you’ll find it. There’s no need to force it, but a small effort each day in doing something practical to find it will have it staring you in the face before long. And then you’ll laugh with the humour of it and say ‘but I always knew that!’
On to other March news… March is a Blue Moon month here in Australia, just like January was. So in March we have two full moons. The first was on 1 March in Virgo and the second will be on 30 March in Libra. Full Moons usually bring something to our awareness. So the Virgo Full Moon on the 1st is likely to have inspired us all to be more effiicent, healthy and realistic, and the Libra Full Moon on the 30th is likely to guide us with relationships, harmony and balance. This month’s New Moon is on the 16th in Pisces providing a perfect opportunity for forgiveness meditations toward ourselves and others. Psychic energies are likely to be strong on that day enabling us to send intuitive heart and soul messages to our loved ones, past, present and future. It’s also a time when you’re likely to hear your soul’s voice louder than ever, so find your favourite quiet spot and enjoy communing with your soul-self.
Finally, the beautiful, compassionate, healing connection of Chiron and Neptune is still in force this month. With the Pisces New Moon also increasing opportunities for forgiveness and spiritual connection, March could be the month for really letting go of old wounds and moving with clear heart into life experiences that depend on open heartedness (e.g. relationships, creative projects, and anything Leo-like mentioned above). Really, our whole lives benefit from open-heartedness! I mentioned forgiveness meditations for the Pisces New Moon on the 16th because forgiveness is essential to healing. If we’re still angry at ourselves or others for past grievances it makes it difficult to allow the current gift of Chiron/Neptune healing energy into our systems. We can’t ignore sadness, pain, anger or grief, but this month we can make huge advances with working on issues that trigger those reponses and clearing them. The Chiron/Neptune energy can then cleanse, purify, invigorate and renew us.
March truly is a month for fresh starts for our hearts. Let’s enjoy the new energy coming through but also go gently and slowly as we find our way.