Mars will station retrograde in Gemini on October 30, 2022. Due to the retrograde cycle, we’ll have Mars in Gemini for seven whole months, August 20, 2022 – March 25, 2023. The purpose of this article will be to share with you a thematic overview of this Mars retrograde so that you can deepen/enhance your relationship with the transit and receive some inspirations of where to lean in!
The major themes I am encouraging you to consider for this retrograde are: 1) accessing more vitalizing perspective, 2) striking dream imagery (and dreamwork), and 3) motivation/morale around prayer and our relationship with something larger than ourselves.
Welcome back! Or in case this is your first time here, I’m Sabrina Monarch and I’m a soul-centered astrologer. I love providing perspectives on the opportunities of transits and putting into words what the zeitgeist feels like at this moment in time, to support you on your path & open a dialogue between us and the cosmos. If you would like to receive my writing to your inbox and be notified of upcoming educational opportunities, sign up for my mailing list here.
Continue reading below, or watch the video version of this article:
Significant dates:
August 20, 2022 – Mars ingress into Gemini
September 3, 2022 – Mars pre-shadow phase begins at 8 degrees Gemini
October 30, 2022 – Mars stations retrograde in 25 degrees Gemini
December 7, 2022 – Mars in 16 degrees Gemini opposite Sun in 16 degrees Sagittarius – occurs exactly with the Full Moon in Gemini
January 12, 2023 – Mars stations direct in 8 degrees Gemini
March 15, 2023 – Mars leaves post-retrograde shadow at 25 degrees Gemini
March 25, 2023 – Mars enters Cancer
Understanding Mars in Gemini
A very basic look… consider your own associations you form from reading this as well as your own knowledge of these archetypes, too!
Mars associations & keywords: action, will/willpower, energy/vitality, self-assertion, defense and protection, masculinity/the masculine principle, speed, instinct/impulse, desire for freedom and unhindered movement/action, anger, life force.
Gemini associations & keywords: logic, mental agility, capacity and act of making connections between data points, synthesis, collecting information, research, endless perspective (infinite number of ways or angles to approach a situation), novelty, cleverness, language and communication, mapping.
Mars in Gemini: vitalizing conversation, lively conversation or debate, forming connections that feel life-affirming, being activated/enlivened by information, speaking excitedly, defensiveness or aggression through words/argument, active or hyper-active mind, hummingbird/butterfly rapidly speeding from one thing to the next kind of energy, the will/urge to communicate or convey.
Mars Retrogrades in general
Mars is an archetype that relates to movement, action, the impulse to be free, instinct, how we respond/react to life in a moment-to-moment way. Mars slowing down and then stationing retrograde can be an intense sensation for us in our lives, in that you have an archetype Mars who is chomping at the bit to just GO & just do it – having to slow and re-stabilize or re-orient.
I had a personal trainer who changed my life who is a Mars retrograde native (Mars in Gemini, actually!). We worked together over zoom during the pandemic. The way she described each exercise to me was impeccable – her capacity to translate the movements with her words and demonstrations & guide me into them was refined beyond anything I’d ever experienced in the fitness field. She showed me diagrams of muscles and taught me how to isolate certain ones, and stop relying on other ones. It was not lost on me that she was a Mars retrograde athlete – the detail and understanding she had at a technical level about her craft reflected a Mars that had passed over the mark more than once.
Not being able to move forward normally is potentially frustrating, but if we can have the perspective that we are re-calibrating, the game changes entirely. It is possible for the Martian principle to be refined during Mars retrogrades.
Mars retrograde could relate to the inner-work we do to become less reactive – slowing down in a moment of activation, noticing the somatic signals of our heart pounding or our ears getting hot, and learning how to be with those sensations in a different way than just lashing out in a way we’ll regret.
Mars retrograde could relate to the inner-work we do to make different choices instead of acting unconsciously from our patterns – finding a moment of lucidity when we’re “doing it again” and creating a new pathway in the moment of activation.
See where you have the spaciousness to allow for these re-calibrations in your life. With Mercury retrograde we talk about needing a little bit of extra time or leeway for technical errors or taking a wrong turn and being late to an appointment – with Mars retrograde we’re talking about forming shifts about our gameplay in life.
The way we train for Mars is having a good relationship with our impulses and instincts, so that in a moment of emergency we can take clear action and then settle back to a regulated state afterward – as opposed to not having access to our instinct, or being in a hyper vigilant, hyper-irritated/rageful state all of the time. During a Mars retrograde, it helps to become more discerning about what situations require immediate response and where pause/reflection before action is okay.
Up in the Air Feeling & Finding more vitalizing perspectives
Mars will be stationing retrograde in a square to Neptune in Pisces, and at the heart of the retrograde (the Sun-Mars opposition on December 7) the Sun and Mars will square Neptune in Pisces. This could relate to a dynamic in our lives where our grasp on “what is happening” is more diffuse/chaotic than normal, up-in-the-air feeling, for a few reasons:
- Mutable energy (Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius and Pisces) is highlighted. Mutable signs relate to the shift between seasons – the fullness of the summer turns into autumn, the depth of winter makes way for spring. Mutable energy works to un-settle compact, fixed content and create movement and change. This is really helpful when it comes to accessing new perspectives, taking a different path than normal, traveling, movement. It can feel unmooring when it comes to trying to achieve stability.
- Mars in Gemini can have an agenda around the pursuit of logical understanding – wanting to either promote/assert a particular viewpoint or more combatively, challenge/unthrone a viewpoint. The mind is activated toward perspective, in a general sense. But the square to Neptune adds diffusion – there may be data points we don’t even know how to organize yet (they feel beyond our register) or information that feels disillusioning.
In this liminal space of not being able to grasp stably at a perspective on our situation(s), literal space is made for new perspective and even new adventures.
I’ll share a personal example with you. Finding a place to physically root as ‘home’ has been a place of confusion for me at times because my work is online/remote. At certain points this was a source of stress and anxiety for me because I wanted to figure out where the perfect place to live was, and having options felt more confusing than it did helpful. I wanted a reason to live somewhere, like going to school. Becoming nomadic didn’t feel like an easy option because I have a cat.
When I traveled this summer with a catsitter taking care of my baby 🙂 I started to experience not having fixed plans (like not knowing where I’d be in the next week or two) to be liberating and magical. Every week, I had new fantasies of where I wanted to live, or what new things I wanted to study (go to beauty school, study Greek language, etc.) and not having definitive plans began to feel more fun than it felt confusing or disempowering. I could basically say through laughter, “I don’t know what I’m doing with my life! I have new fantasies and dreams for my life every week.” Albeit I don’t feel totally unmoored in my life as a whole, a place where I used to want a definitive “answer” it now feels free to have things up in the air.
What creates the momentum for you where instability/not knowing/a dash of chaos is less disempowering/upsetting and more of a doorway for new and surprising adventures?
Sometimes it is:
- a change in perspective
- saying yes to an opportunity
- placing ourselves in a new and less familiar environment
- following our excitement
- If you’ve learned anything from meme culture, we know that Gemini is terrified of BOREDOM and this sign can animate our pursuit of finding things to be excited about or a way of approaching our life as it already is but with a more exciting perspective. Shifts in mindset are not just floaty/airy things – there is real impact here. Mindset actually shifts how we relate to life and the course of action we set in motion.
IF instability is really an issue for you (being off with the wind on random adventures is not your idea of fun or wellness at the moment), consider these ways mutable signs support stability:
- When we organize around a particular pursuit or goal – say generating wealth, or cultivating happiness, we engage the quality of vision (Sagittarius) and we can begin to create critical adjustments in our lives to build new patterns and habits (Virgo) related to these visions and goals.
- Our major core issues and challenges in life that keep being the thing we wrestle/grapple with are quite embedded for us – otherwise they wouldn’t stick around so enduringly! Mutable signs help create change. Sometimes an inspiring conversation, a good book, a magical day trip – works to shake loose our attachment and rigidity to our most embedded storylines. It’s good to have focus, but even focus can be tunnel vision. When we want to change our lives, sometime we need a little bit of chaos/randomness to shake loose the gravity of the past.
- Considering the retrograde, we may be experiencing the impetus to go inward and create more stability in the places where we have lost energy from being too diffuse and unfocused.
Ok, but back to vitalizing perspective!
Mars-Neptune is energized by vision and inspiration. Sometimes our perspective on a situation at hand lacks vision that would inspire our morale, gratitude, motivation, etc. When we feel a leaden sense of dread or disenchantment, we may not be connected to higher vision, or our vision about the situation is unnecessary dull and is sucking the life out of us!
The other side of the pendulum is living in a fantasy which works to promote our avoidance/escapism.
Neither extreme is ideal.
Leaning into the edge of having enchanted or more vitalizing perspective that helps us say yes to life, is way more ideal.
Contacting vitalizing perspective means paying attention to sources of inspiration and cultivating those channels in our lives.
Striking Dreams
Mars-Neptune contacts (Mars-Neptune is highlighted this Mars retrograde) can relate to more vivid than normal dreams, striking dreams – waking up from a stirring, impactful dream. Personally, I love when a dream image hits & is so potent that it pierces the fog of forgetfulness upon waking. It would be valuable/meaningful to engage some kind of dreamwork this retrograde, to have a process for reflecting on the dream images that land in our sleep.
Sometimes dream images are disturbing, or bring up challenging emotions. If we lack consciousness technology for facing this, it could just be a sour note to start the day. But from a more reflective standpoint or having tools (some awareness of how to work with dreams), or even just having an insightful mentor/friend to process a dream with, we might uncover something life-affirming or vitalizing.
Having the Motivation to Pray (Mars-Neptune)
Mars-Neptune can relate to morale around spiritual pursuits, such as the pursuit of having a conversation with Life, God, Spirit, etc. (Mars in Gemini definitely animates conversation, too – and Neptune is Spirit)
Whether we have hang ups or preconceived ideas about prayer that have blocked us from investing energy in this type of conversation with Life, or we simply have checked out from an existing spiritual practice, this retrograde could be an amazing time to reconnect or to connect to having conversation with something beyond us.
I’ve always loved learning how people who have a connection to God that I admire pray – the specific prayers they speak, or the energy/relatedness at which they approach God. I also love seeing how my theurgical friends approach particular deities – Apollo, Bacchus, Venus, Aphrodite, etc. I love seeing how people act on their spiritual principles in every day life. These are all sources of inspiration for my own spiritual life.
If you are in need of inspiration, look to how people who seem to be connected with Life in a way that you admire approach the Beyond.
And don’t be afraid to be playful in your own way of contacting the Beyond.
Thank you for meditating on the Mars retrograde with me! If you would like further guidance, I have been increasingly focused on longer-term experiences in the form of the Evolutionary Astrology Intensive and my higher level course METEORITE for alumni – helping people form a depth relationship to their natal chart and personal transits over time, to develop themselves, to be in their power, and to reach their goals, all through the soul-making lens of evolutionary astrology. I would love to support you in building your relationship with astrology. The intensive is currently in session and METEORITE 2022 is currently in session.
Find me on Instagram @sabrinamonarch, get on my mailing list to stay apprised of all upcoming offerings and events, and I’ll see you again soon!
(Please be mindful of scams on instagram. I will not solicit you in your DMs for readings, and any accounts with variations of spelling/punctuation of my actual profile (@sabrinamonarch) are impersonation scams.)
With love,
Sabrina Monarch
No Comments