Mars Retrograde 2020

There are some days where, as an astrologer in 2020, you are seven cups of herbal tea deep into fighting off an astro-inspired panic attack. The celestial forecast has you blasting Lingua Ignota, buying your new all-black Mad Max wardrobe, and looking for properties along the Canadian border, just in case you need to make a quick exit into kinder territory before the end of the world. To be fair, to be blunt, and to be a tough-love-yet-essentially-optimistic friend, those days are upon us.

Mars went Retrograde in Aries on September 9th. Mars will stay retrograde until November 13th of this year and then hang out in sword-clanging Aries until early January of next year. The fact that this happens after the United States election and right before the inauguration is intense. When the planets are retrograde, they are as close as possible to the Earth, so they affect us on a transcendental (but also primal) level. Retrograde moments are all about the “re-” aspect: rewind, remember, rework. And in this case, regret. What is your deepest regret? How does it create a longing within you to make amends? Hypothetically – not literally – but if this was the end of the world, what would your most pressing and driving desire be?

Take a deep breath. I know it’s a lot, but this is chaos magick at work. Despite the social unrest, the pandemic (which my Welsh psychic calls “The Situation”), the economic shit show, and the general anger of Gaia, this is not the apocalypse; it is the completion of a cycle. It is a turning point: a profound transmigration of our souls into another body – the body of the warrior within us. It is the moment where we turn to the light after tending to our deepest regrets. In Greek and Roman poetry, Metanoia is a shadow goddess whose name translates simply to “afterthought.” Metanoia is the grief that you have over that missed moment in time where you could have done something differently. Metanoia is a mirror: a reflection of your soul in times of wanting, desire, and conflict. It is that moment when you decide to fight the societal programming that Terence McKenna calls a “culturally sanctioned and linguistically reinforced hallucination.” What have you been fighting for all along? Do you even know? Mars is going retrograde so you can take the time to know. This isn’t the fight. This is the prelude to the fight. This is the training.

Mars is the Roman name of the Greek god, Ares. Homer writes about Ares as if he is a daft, bloodthirsty bro. It is said that his father, Zeus, detested him. Just like most vicious and terrible young men of his caliber, Mars traveled with a group of fighters, two of which were women: Enyo, or “discord,” and his sister, Eris, or “strife.” Wherever Mars would go (in his golden-reigned chariot with his fire-breathing horses), he was also followed around by the Keres, female spirits of death dressed in crimson cloaks stained with human blood. While we often look at Pluto as the bringer of sorrow in a chart, it is clear from mythology that Mars is the truest source of celestial discord. In the sky, Mars is currently traveling with his sister, Eris, creating havoc. (If you will allow a Gemini astrologer non-sequitur aside, if there was a movie about Mars and Eris, who would you cast as them? Me, I’d cast Travis Fimmel and Margot Robbie.)

This is why Mars Retrograde is very interesting and, if I haven’t scared you away already, why I believe that we are in for that “turning point” moment as both individuals and as a collective. This is where we show up with whatever weapons we’ve been polishing for ourselves and we leave nothing to regret. Nothing.

As Mars stationed retrograde on September 9th, the Sun also trined Jupiter, creating a dynamic point of expansion. Jupiter is Zeus, and since we know that Zeus hated his murderous son, I like to think of this as the moment bad boy Mars gets kicked out of the house. For the collective, that may create a moment of premature optimism, like that feeling when you are finally free of your oppressor, but then real life begins and the challenge of retrograde is that things slow down. Slowing down creates a rage within Mars. He feels trapped, which creates a question for you this Mars Retro period: what part of you feels trapped? How can you learn to set it free during this time? Is there something that you long for, that you desire and crave? What would it mean to give into that desire?

There is a pocket of fierce astro in late September, starting with Mercury opposition Mars on September 24th. The wounds are being reopened and also rebandaged – words are the scissors and the scalpel, but also our sadness and pain is the needle and thread. September 27th sees Mercury stationing into Scorpio, September 28th Saturn goes direct in Capricorn, and September 29th Mars squares Saturn. This is a reckoning – fresh blood fighting against karmic balance. Mercury, the only god who could safely travel back and forth from Olympus to the Underworld, is hiding out in his subterranean domain, watching until the next day when Mars and Eris conjunct. When I see astro like this, I think of the original purpose for powerful astrologers - to predict the fates of kings and kingdoms. We may see a clash of generations, hear a clacking of weapons (words can be weapons, too), or find our leaders vulnerable.

On October 13th, Mercury goes retrograde the same day that the Sun opposes Mars. This is the last press forward before Election Day on November 3rd, which is coincidentally the day that Mercury goes direct. This is where we are being urged to step bravely into the onslaught – to let our fighting songs be heard. And if you haven’t composed your own personal fighting song yet, it’s time to get writing.

When all of this inclement astro weather is over in a year or so, we will be heading into one of the most illuminated periods of civilization ever. One of the most progressive moments of the future will circle back to our truest priority and the biggest mission yet: how to save and protect the planet. All of us will need to have a battle hymn to share with the next generations – a battle hymn that declares that we were on not just the right side of history, but also that we lived with no regrets.

These are not horoscopes for Mars Retrograde,
these are Transcendental Telegrams from the Weird Battlefield.

A little bit about me ~ I am a queer Assyrian-Mediterranean mystic from Los Angeles who grew up getting daily Turkish coffee readings and cartomancy from the matriarchs in my family. After a long career in the music industry (where I would read tarot in bars for free drinks and then began to read tarot for the famous musicians I would interview for my radio job), I decided to tune more into my mastery of the mystical and mythological learnings. I am a certified death doula, hypnotherapist, psychic medium, tarot reader, and mythological astrologer with a love for pop culture, period pieces, and my Virgo wife’s cooking. You can find more about me on my Insta: @nadianoir.