Back to the Drawing Board: Mars Retrograde in Cancer

What's on your drawing board?

A half-finished rough sketch of how you wanted life to be?
We sigh and groan when we're told we have to get back to it, but isn't everything begun at the drawing board?

Mars, the planet of 'Place your Energy HERE', 'I WANT this' and 'Let's make it happen NOW' is turning retrograde tomorrow (November 15) until well into January, to give us a second chance, a second go, another reason and opportunity to go BACK to our drawing board to see if what we're creating and working on is really what we want.

Mars will be moving through Cancer, the sign that relates to a number of things:

Your Home, Family, Domestic Situation: Can we say repairs? How about some home improvement. It's likely. Anger? You betcha, if someone can't be a little more patient. Clearing the air is no doubt the best way to go here. But do louder voices really help people hear? Smoke alarms and fire alarms are either going off, being checked (make it a point), or else someone is burning toast or throwing gas on their furniture because they're 'done'. Either way, heat, aggression and a lot of energy suddenly is sucked into everyones home space, their private domain where no one else can see what's going on. Oh, the things said and done between now and January in homes across the world...

Your Roots and Past
A heck of a lot of reviewing pulls us back to repeat or relive facets of our life story that we're particularly pained over, or proud of. The choice is yours. If it worked well, by all means try it again. If it caused stress, then back off. For everyone's sake. You can get angry about what happened to you back then, but why bother? if anything, channel anger into improving your present situation.

Your Emotions
Digestion problems or stomach complaints now could be a sign of emotional indigestion - being unable to deal with your feelings. Mars retrograding back through such a sensitive sign gives us all a chance to release volatile feelings. Emotions aren't pretty, but who said they were meant to be? Volcanic eruptions of anger, roadrage, the desire to kill kill kill, or self-inflicted wounds on ourselves or on those closest to us are all ways of using mars retrograde. The message is - anger is a fire we can feed, try to stifle or let burn warmly and toast marshmallows over. Using anger to achieve something less destructive is a great idea, especially now.

Okay, so you're angry. great. You tapped into something that doesn't make you happy. mars Retrograde has bestowed its gift to you. Now what?

1. Make amends, clear up the crap, move on.
2. Put all irritation and angst into a plan to improve your situation.
3. Do something good for yourself.
4. Realize you may just be fighting your own guilt, anxiety, inabilities, mistakes, behavior through someone else.
5. Know this too shall pass, have your say then go off and find something useful to do.

Mars, the bringer of War could see a turnaround in military plans. No one 'wins' any war. Maybe retrograde mars will bring a few home explosions as the anger is turned BACK on the propagator.

Since the US is a Cancer country, it's likely we'll see a show of more warrior themes, attacks, anger, bloodshed or violence.

Let me ask you this:

How are things in YOUR home?
When I say home i don't just mean your house, apt, flat, box, dungeon or wherever else you may call home. I'm talking YOU - your skin, your soul. How are things deep within you?

That's a marker for what you'll get involved in with mars Retrograde. If you're repressing anger, something at home may explode or need fixing. If you feel comfortable, you escape from the pains others who are repressing may face. Your HOME is a strong indicator of how much internal peace you have.

Mars relates to:

Anger - so we'll be tested during retrograde, on how well we use our anger, how easily irritable we are, how unkind we can be when we're pissed off, and how we tend to make matters worse by responding to them in this mode. In Cancer, a sign known for its 'sideways' moves, we get to play out an entire period of MAJOR PASSIVE AGGRESSION - my advice, if you're pissed off, tell us. if you bottle it up, you make it worse for everyone. Our emotional trigger points are HOT this period.

Assertion - can you stand your ground? Do confrontations make you freak out or can you handle them in a way that not only establishes your rights, but also allows others room to have their say too? Are you defending your own interests in a healthy way or backing off and letting others dominate space?

Action - retrogrades often pull energy inside of us, so LOOK (and FEEL) before you leap - this is the planetary cycle of WHOOPS - impulsive and impatient actions that can't be taken back or undone. We can however regroup and reformulate our mission, our plan of attack (Mars loves a plan and even more so, an attack).

Response-ability

How well do you respond to 'bad vibes' - annoying people, things, situations or incidents? How do you react when someone accuses you of something, or calls you names or treats you with disrespect? Do we REACT or RESPOND (reacting means to re-act, to act AGAIN repeating a learned knee-jerk reaction) whilst responding is just that - replying, not replaying.

Retrograde Mars will give us a chance to see how we all act and react or respond. Call it our responsibility (response ability) that governs how our lives play out. Chances are pretty high that when you get wrapped up in something ugly, that you're playing some energy game with another of similar vibration (angry people attract angry/triggering people). It's energetics. How will you respond with what you're faced with during this time?

Sex & Desire - What will you do to get what you want? How much do you want? Is sexual frustration masked as irritability and a short fuse (when it comes to fuses, size doesn't matter...). is your desire a problem, as opposed to the NOT getting what you want. Are you pushing for something that is pushing you away or uninterested? Retrograde Mars asks us to reformulate our desires - as it could turn out you don't REALY want what you have become so used to fighting for or chasing....


Launching things
From getting up in the morning, to starting a company to throwing a party, everything has a launch. A beginning. Mars as the impetus behind movement, could reflect a few frustrations and upsets in getting something off the ground. Again, if emotions aren't fully engaged, now is the time when you'll likely be faced with enough delays and blocks or disappointments to help you refocus and relax more (hopefully). Once you let up, energy frees up. Remember that this cycle.

Mars and Health
Mars relates to heat - skin rashes, temperatures, burns. Mars relates to Bangs - cuts, bruises, bumps, wounds, bleeding. Mars relates to adrenalin - adrenal glands, muscles. Mars relates to the Head - headstrong, headfirst, head wounds, headaches.

Retrograde we may see some old symptoms reappear, and in Cancer the sign of the chest and stomach, problems in these areas would reflect an emotional imbalance. Don't eat when angry. Don't comfort eat. Chest issues could reflect a lack of proper self nurturing (we hug people to our breasts, we feed through our breasts, we emotionally keep our feelings close to our chest or need to get things off our chest.
See the connections?

That's a wrap here. Enjoy slowing down. We need to. Follow feelings to their natural conclusion - back to the past, and back to their source. You.

You are in control of your Emotional Experience in this lifetime.