Mars Retrograde 2020 — Heart of a Warrior

We are not meant to be comfortable all the time. If we were, there would be no growth. No expansion. No shedding of skins to reveal new ones. Because change, by definition, requires we get out of our “comfort zone”. To transform, change, or grow means we will HAVE to be uncomfortable.

And recently, I have noticed we do not seem to do discomfort well. We resist it. We try to control it. Demand it be different. Maybe even pretend it’s not happening.

Life has a way of calling us out on our spin, though. 

Welcome to the Mars Retrograde in Aries. 

We begin the retrograde cycle at 15° Aries with the set-up/ shadow phase on 7/25. Mars officially goes retrograde 9/9 @ 28 ° Aries, until it goes direct 11/13. If you know anything about sign rulership in astrology, you are likely aware Mars is “at home” in Aries, echoing similar lessons and themes. 

Anytime a planet goes retrograde, it is a call for assessment and review. It slows down time, so we have a moment to allow in new information. Mars goes retrograde every two years or so, and when it does, it dramatically extends its time in a particular sign. It is almost as if we need a more comprehensive lesson in this area of our lives. A deep dive. A master class in discovery. 

Welcome to the university. 

Mars and Aries are the firsts in the zodiac. They usher in beginnings and subsequent endings. The pioneers, warriors, and adventurers. They represent how we announce ourselves in the world and our experience with survival. 

Survival is an innate need and not inherently wrong in any way. It is our source of amazing tenacity, strength, perseverance, grit, courage, and inspiration. Mars in Aries represents what is worth fighting for. This force unchecked and exaggerated, though, can take us into dangerous territory where defensiveness, hoarding, selfishness, and greed take center stage. In this way, nothing is ever “enough” as we seek outside ourselves for something only found within. Ruled by reaction, we become stuck in our personal autocracies, “winning” at all costs with dominance the first prize. In truth, if all you see are battles to win, the world becomes a war zone. 

Thus, Mars retrograde in its home sign of Aries brings us face to face with survival, our very existence, and what is worth defending. A time to review how we’ve got it right and perhaps more importantly, how we haven’t. 

We are living that recalibration. 

And we always have a choice in how we face that correction. Mars in Aries highlights things like assertion, leadership, authority, tension, conflict, and our unique role in the world. These things done well inspire, assert, and challenge our very evolution. These things done less well create overreach of authority, tyranny, and even violence. One uses encouragement to motivate, while the other uses control and fear. 

It is important to note all signs in astrology recognize the polarity of the mandala. The self-focused Aries is always opposite the balancing cooperation of Libra. In this way, we find a balance of enlightened sovereignty. Where what is good for one must also be good for the whole. Existence is not solitary. Extinction happens when we forget that balance. 

Such is the challenge and opportunity of this time. Where this transit is showing up for you is especially important. (Look between 15 °-28 ° Aries in your natal chart, or contact me for a reading), but the following are some overall themes especially poignant and telling.

~Expect conflict. Most of us have been conditioned with scary and dysfunctional examples of conflict, so we try to avoid it altogether or become aggressive or passive-aggressive as we try and throw the fire outside of us. Yet, healthy conflict is the seat of tremendous growth and expansion. Mars joins Eris a few times this cycle heightening the discord and revealing what is worth fighting for. This time is full of opportunity to look at your relationship with discord and where it is revealing you grow. (For more, check out The Gift of Conflict.)

~Expect opportunities to practice healthy assertion. The first part of that skill is speaking your truth from a grounded sense of self, and the second is letting go of the other person’s need to like or agree with it. This can look like revelations where you need to speak up as well as when you need to stay silent. Both are powerful lessons. Where this retrograde is occurring in your chart will reveal where you are being called to assert yourself and lead in some way. (For more, check out Ten Steps to Claim Authenticity.)

~Expect to be triggered. Remember, both Mars and Aries represent our survival instinct. Our lizard brain. This often unconscious reactive part can be quite helpful steering clear of an accident in a split second, but terrible at present moment problem solving that requires actual cognition. Since it is based on survival, it often acts on instinct, which may or may not be accurate to the present moment. Triggers are meant to reveal our story, not validate them. This is a great time to learn to work with your triggers, growing them from the past. (For more, check out The Inner Lizard). I

In the words of one of my favorite astrologers Steven Forrest,

“There is perhaps no truer test of our evolutionary states than how we react in the heat of the moment when the Aries clan comes to call”. 

~Expect to feel angry. Anger is the emotion of both Aries and Mars. There is nothing wrong or unspiritual about anger. In fact, it holds immense wisdom. How we express it and which part is in charge of our anger (see expect to be triggered above), though, IS critical in determining if it is a clear expression or filtered through our reactive fear. Anger can initiate a hero or villain, depending on which part is in charge. (For more, check out Heroes and Villains.)

~Expect to set boundaries. Clearly, saying no and yes is a force of radical self-care and assertion, but it is often confused and shamed in our collective culture. Anger is the force that helps us take this needed action. (For more, check out Let’s Talk Boundaries.)

~Expect to feel afraid Fear often gets a bad rap. And while there is validity to its shadow layers, it also holds immense wisdom. It reveals danger, so we can be careful, take precautions, and honor our natural instinct. Without it, we take careless risks and would literally die out as a species. Clear fear offers intuition and condenses needed information to keep us safe in times of threat. Habitual or learned fear can also keep us stuck. This is a perfect time to invite our fear to the table, get to know it, and assess the wisdom it offers because Aries and Mars also represent our force of courage. Courage, after all, is not given it is earned. Where this retrograde is occurring in your chart will tell you more about this journey. (For more, check out 7 Ways to Expand Your Comfort Zone.)

~Expect to pause. I have said this numerous times but will again. The Great Pause is NOT over yet. This is especially highlighted now as Mars begins its retrograde cycle in Aries, which is literally a need to cease action forward. The pause is needed so we can truly assess what is and is not working in this area of our lives. To remind you, when we do not choose the pauses, they are chosen for us in the form of brick walls of reality that force us to stop.

Expect to be uncomfortable. We are not going back to the way it was. That’s not what change is all about. We are neck-deep in the uncertainty, the forced stops, and the lessons we don’t necessarily want but the ones we need. Please remember though unfamiliar, uncertainty is not a “bad” place to be. It is only there the graces show up, and renewal is possible. We do not need to battle with the turbulence. Our actions during a retrograde are best focused on practices like surrender, trust, and acceptance until we are clear in our course correction. (For more, check out Navigating the Gap of Change.)

Aries and Mars represent our will, the part of us that initiates, moves, and gets things done. They are forces to be reckoned with, fast and sharp, edgy, and compelling. When retrograde, “our” will is silenced briefly so we can look deeper at our intention as we wield this force in the world. 

Because true leadership and sovereignty are rooted in sacrifice not selfishness.

It seems that this is a vital part of the correction. 

In our disconnected and self-based culture, we seem to have forgotten the importance of sacrifice. Sacrifice defined means to “make sacred”. It means to channel our will through a prism of thy will not my will. It means we acknowledge that where we put our energy becomes the divine we worship. Thus, any dance with sacrifice will arouse our inner demons of attachment, avarice, dominance, and control.  

What about me? What about what I want? This is NOT how things are supposed to go!

“May we think of freedom, not as the right to do as we please, but as the opportunity to do what is right.”

~Peter Marshall

Perhaps, it is time to look at how we might confuse freedom with selfishness, identity with the traps of ego, and our will with a constant desire for comfort. 

Perhaps it is because we have lost our link to the sacred nature of it all. We have lost our connection to the deeper meanings and anchors, distracted by shiny objects, instant gratification, and external accolades.

Perhaps, we forgot that we have the warrior spirit within us. We somehow lost touch with the hallowed warrior principles of sacrifice, integrity, honor, honesty, and discipline. Those too are Aries and Mars gifts that require defending. A true hero’s fire is meant to encourage, motivate, and galvanize, not scorch the souls it is meant to defend. 

Mars and Aries do represent beginnings, and where this retrograde is happening in your chart will spell out your personal new start. Collectively we are here as well. Beginnings are choice points with quantum leaps of possible potential. 

So expect to be challenged. Expect to be uncomfortable- welcome it even. Expect to have to make hard choices between what you might want and what is showing up, between what is easy and what is right, between what must be fought for and what is to be surrendered. Expect to have opportunities to sacrifice and, in the process, reignite your humble sacredness. 

Summon the noble warrior. 

Fight the good fight.