Mars direct Archives - Astrology readings and writings by Lynn Hayes

Planetary news this week: Mars turns direct and the Moon sings

Astrological update for the week of January 9-16, 2023

This week we are in the waning phase of the Moon, just after the fullness of last week’s Full Moon and heading towards the second of three Super New Moons in a row. This is an interesting time of letting go as the Moon wanes, but also building anticipation as we move into a Super New Moon, a time when the Moon is at its closest point to Earth.

Throughout the month of January there are no major planetary alignments, so the smaller planets have a bigger story and will have a say in what is released this week as the Moon continues to wane, and in what is created at the New Moon on the 21st.

Mars turns direct. Mars, planet of action and desire, has been particularly troublesome while retrograde in Mercury-ruled Gemini and the double whammy with Mercury retrograde has wreaked havoc on communication (the botched election for the U.S. House Speaker is a good example!). Mars is stationary as it prepares to change direction, and Mercury will turn direct on the 18th so they are both prominent in the sky in anticipation of the direction change.

Let’s take a look at what else is in store for us this week. (Dates and times are for the Eastern time zone, here is a time zone converter to adjust for your locality.)

Monday January 9. As the week begins, the Moon is still in the sunny sign of Leo where we are motivated to look for bits of sunlight in the midst of any darkness or drama that we find ourselves in. A Mercury/Uranus aspect lingers from Sunday to help us […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2023-01-09T08:28:25-05:00January 9th, 2023|Planetary news this week|1 Comment

In which Mars changes course and healing is possible

Mars has been traveling retrograde since March 1st, and on the 17th it will change direction again. Planets don’t really orbit backwards, but astrologers observe the motion of the planets from our perspective on earth and watch as they periodically APPEAR to move backwards. A retrograde planet works underground, causing us to look backwards and repair the past – retrogrades offer us a Mulligan – a do-over if you will.

Mars will turn direct on May 19th, and for the past week or two it has been at a virtual standstill. We call this “stationary,” and when a plant appears stationary in the sky its influence is at a peak. Mars energizes us and motivates us to follow our dreams and desires – when thwarted it turns that energy into anger and ultimately rage. When Mars is stationary it can be difficult to motivate ourselves and we may feel that we are stuck. Just be patient: in another week the wheels will begin rolling again and forward movement will become easier.

At the same time we have a Grand Trine of planets that smooths all of the rough edges and assists us as we find our ways out of the difficult waters of the past few months. Jupiter (abundance and opportunity) is exactly trine Chiron, opening pathways to the healing process which ultimate liberates us from the bondage of our wounds (Chiron) and helps us to gain greater realization and wisdom. Later in the month, Jupiter will trine Saturn, forging stability and linking an optimistic viewpoint (Jupiter) with the ability to work hard and create solid structures (Saturn) – a combination that is the key to successfully navigating life’s joys and challenges.

Unfortunately, supportive planetary events don’t do all […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2018-11-01T09:31:40-04:00May 15th, 2014|Planetary cycles|2 Comments

Mars turns direct, April 13-15 2012

Note: Planets are said to be “retrograde” when they appear to move backwards from our perspective on Earth. They are not actually moving backwards, or “the wrong way” as a friend of mine likes to say. And there is nothing “wrong” about retrogrades – it’s a normal planetary cycle. Retrograde periods help us to reassess and revisit areas of life that require more attention before we can move on with our lives, but for this reason they can be somewhat frustrating and demand attention.

Although Mars didn’t actually turn retrograde until January, its motion began to slow down in December 2011 marking the actual beginning of the retrograde period. From my observations and from a practical standpoint, retrogrades begin when the planetary movement slows down in anticipation of the retrograde turn, and end after the planet has turned direct and picks up steam again.

In my own world this has been a particularly problematic time, especially with both Mercury and Mars retrograde at the same time. While Mercury retrograde periods are rather frequent — usually we have four three-week periods in a year — Mars retro periods only occur every couple of years.

Managing these retrograde periods is rather like riding on a boat in choppy waters. If you allow your body to move with the waves you tend not to get seasick, but if you resist the movement of the water you can become very sick indeed. And even the most experienced of sailors can experience motion sickness if the rough waters continue for too long a period of time, and this is what many of us have experienced.

The stationary period of the Mars cycle begins April 13th and Mars turns direct on April 15th around […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2021-07-30T07:18:40-04:00April 11th, 2012|Astrology, Planetary cycles|1 Comment

More on rage as Mars turns direct

We have been seeing an unbelievable number of high speed car chases and road rage incidents in our local paper, as I wrote earlier, and it seems as though every day there’s another shooting from someone angry at something. A search of Google news reveals that it’s not just in our area that people are chasing and shooting each other, and now an Ohio State University worker has killed a colleague and himself over a poor work evaluation. The gunman was 51, the age at which Chiron returns to its place in our birthcharts and stimulates a healing crisis that is often emotional as well as physical. With Chiron and Neptune conjoined in the sky, that Chiron return for this age group is packing a major wallop.

But much of the fault for the heightened rage right now belongs with Mars which has slowed down to a standstill in preparation for its change of direction tomorrow at the zero degree point of Leo, where it is very powerful and expressive. Mars is the planet that presides over the aggressive instinct, but also our ability to become inspired and excited about our lives. It energizes us, fuels us to achieve our goals, and instills us with enthusiasm and passion. So Mars has a very positive place in our lives, but when thwarted and distorted it can become a difficult enemy.

If you find you are having trouble right now with anger or depression (depression is often the result of a thwarted Mars, or rage turned inwards) this is an excellent time to channel Mars in a positive way. Kickboxing, lifting heavy things (either at the gym or in the garden), running – doing something to release any pent-up energy in […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2010-03-09T08:15:50-05:00March 9th, 2010|Astrology|Comments Off

The Mars Station and road rage

I wrote a post with this title back in December when Mars was slowing down in preparation for its retrograde turn, and now Mars has slowed down as it prepares to turn direct on March 10.

Mars typically is a fast-moving planet, spending on average two days to travel one degree. At the moment Mars is traveling only 11 minutes of arc (about 1/6 of one degree) a day, and will only move another degree or so before making its turn to move forward again.

When there was a great deal of celebration back in December over the passage of health care, we astrologers just laughed. “Mars just turned retrograde,” we said, ‘It’s not over yet.” Once again, we were right!

As Mars slows down, the intensity of the aggressive energy that it brings will become more pronounced, especially if it hits a sensitive point in your chart (the early degrees of the fixed signs Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius). It’s very important to be able to express and release this intensity so that it doesn’t back up into some sort of explosion. We are seeing this amplified on the world stage with political rage reaching new heights in every area of the world. And recently there have been vicious accounts of road rage incidents in Miami, Orlando, Dallas, Pennsylvania, Sydney Australia, Massachusetts, Lincolnshire and West Cumbria UK, even Utah and Iowa.

Even after Mars turns direct it will take another two weeks or so to pick up the pace of its motion, so we will be in a Mars-y period for the next month or so. Mars is impulsive and rash – it tends not to think through a problem or situation but instead to react instinctively. This is our […]

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By Lynn Hayes|2010-02-23T12:59:19-05:00February 23rd, 2010|Astrology|Comments Off