Mars in Retrograde....where'd the masculine go?

Mars just went retrograde.

Retrograde. Just the word makes us nervous. Back up your files. Enunciate. Don’t use abbreviations. Make sure there is no possible way to be misunderstood. Oh, wait. That’s Mercury. Different dude.

Mars, tho. Mars is that primal Masculine. That impolite MoFo who’s all grunts and shoves and going places. Feel what you like about his couth, or lack thereof, you still get out of his way. You still, despite your opinions about his means and ways, are quite happy about his ability to get places.

Mars is our drive, our direction and action, our capacity to impact our surroundings. It’s creativity, but not the patient, nurturing, gestating creativity of the feminine, it’s more the mounting desire and creative impact of ejaculation. Sow the seed and move it along. This desire to create, to impact is primal and undeniable. It pushes us forward in life, in our career, our relationships, it picks a point in the distance and runs headlong toward it. It is the unapologetic piece in us that knows what needs to be done and which has the force to do it. Also, it’s hot. Just saying.

…So what on earth could it mean for us if our driving forward impulse goes backward?

A Retrograde is a re-tracing of steps, the planet goes backward for a stint, over the path it had just traveled until it returns direct and re-traces its course again and eventually moves past it. (Ok, the science behind this is that this only happens from the vantage point of us, positioned here on Earth – that it’s a kind of optical illusion, but nobody is here for science).

One possibility is that we are given the chance to re-align. Are our cannons positioned in just the right angle? Before we start to barrel forward with all the power we possess, maybe we can check the coordinates and make sure that when we fire, we land exactly where we want to.

When we are in our masculine doing and achieving, feeling seems like an interruption. It is a nuisance, because it feels unnecessary. Retrogrades bum us out because we want to always go direct, to move forward, but maybe there is something to the wisdom of nature, maybe the ol’ girl knows that we need a minute to re-calibrate. If I were to keep moving forward with the speed and angle of my current trajectory, where will I land?

When the masculine becomes distorted it shows up in two ways; either as disregard or paralysis. Either I move forward and do what I want and fuck the consequences and fuck the reverberations that it may cause in others, or I find myself incapable of moving. Both are refusing to integrate action with environment, to act in a way that considers and participates with reality.

 Look around, that’s basically how the world moves; “It will pollute people’s water source? Whatever, that’s where I want to build my factory!” That’s even how we move with ourselves; “I should really never again eat 57 cookies like I just did, I feel very bad right now” (said while shoving cookie 58 in mouth).

So what would it be like to have aligned action? (I don’t know, I’m actually asking) How would it be to have a clear direction, an impulse, a drive BUT to move forward considering the variables in such a way that you both hit the mark with terrifying accuracy and the vibrations of your arrow bring joy to everyone it whizzes past? How can you make your mark on the world and benefit the world at the same time? Is it possible to plant your seeds with such breathtaking accuracy that the seeds, the soil, and those who eat the fruit are all benefitted to the utmost degree possible? I fucking hope so.

The meditation that can start us all moving in that direction is on a question:

What am I doing with the power that has been given to me?