STARFIRE

April 2010

April 2010- Living in the Shadow of Mars
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Living in the Shadow of Mars

Is there any good news about Mars this year?

It’s not riotous, exuberant good news (although Mars can provide fireworks for Cinco de Mayo), but there is good news from the red planet. Mars is in the shadow period after its 80 days of retrograde, and it’s time to pick up the broken pieces, make repairs and move forward again.

Please don’t break anything that isn’t already broken on the way out of the dungeon.

What’s the shadow? It’s not actually a shadow, but it’s what astrologers call the time after a planet makes its direct station but before it returns to the degree in the sky it was in when it originally went retrograde.

Clear as mud? Read on.

When a planet is retrograde, it appears to be moving backward in the sky. Even though it’s an optical illusion, we can trace its backward movement through the visible skies. Then it stations and moves forward again. ..

If you had a high-powered telescope, you could take sequential daily pictures of Mars in the sky and trace its apparent but unreal movement backward through the retrograde period and then forward through the shadow period.

Mars went retrograde on December 20, 2009, at 19 Leo 42. It went direct on March 10th at 0 Leo 18 and will return to 19 Leo 42 on May 16th. So now we’re out of the wrecking yard and into the repair yard.

When Mercury is in its shadow period, we repair communications, rework travel plans and renegotiate business deals. With Venus, we try to recover financial losses and ease the pain in relationships that have gone sour. Mars is, of course, not quite that simple.

If you bought equipment with running parts while Mars was retrograde, and it broke, now’s the time to get it repaired or (if it was expensive enough to be worth the effort) pursue your options for getting a lemon replaced. If you’re planning a major purchase, such as a truck or automobile, ask to see the manufacturing date and continue to pass anything manufactured while Mars was retrograde. Made in the shadow is just fine.

Hot, steamy relationships sometimes fizzle when Mars is retrograde. With a little (okay, a lot) of effort, you may be able to relight the spark and get a steadier blaze. But you will have to work at it. Mars is a very physical planet. You may have noticed. And it’s also sometimes angry, resentful, and jealous. If you behaved yourself into trouble, you’ll probably have to take serious action to behave yourself out of it.

Sometimes the repair is walking away. The shadow is not necessarily any safer than any other time, but emotionally it’s a time when victims of domestic violence seem to find it easier to leave. Maybe it’s the time to think while Mars was retrograde or maybe it’s the recently quiet relationship heating up in the wrong ways. But if you need to walk, think about doing it while Mars is in the shadow.

There are, of course, federal incentives like the ones for first time home owners. The Mars shadow could be a good time to look for a house in need of repairs and paint. You get the first time homeowner incentives and use your renewed physical energy to give you a sweat equity profit early in your home ownership. (The housing cycle moves with the economic cycle in the United States, so nationwide there should be good buys for at least another year; the real estate market is tricky, though, so it’s the local market you need to watch.:

If you own your own business, the Mars shadow is a minor windfall. After the long Mars retrograde, you probably know exactly where the flaws in your sales and especially your point of purchase sales processes are. And now you can use Mars retrograde to restock retail stores or put a little zest in your internet site. Mars isn’t about marketing, which is the hands-off gentile side of the business; Mars is about closing the sale, getting product delivered and money into your hands. It does not matter what the product is.

If you’re an author, look now for people who will partner with you and provide unique settings for booksignings, also known as actually selling books to live people. If you’re an artist, now’s the time to reframe everything that’s been slow to sell and rehang the gallery.

Mars motivates and moves you–and it’s important to remember that Mars games are contact sports. You can’t hang back and make the shadow work. You have to pick up tools or get out and shake hands. It’s the old-fashioned way to get your life moving. If you want to meet someone, get out and jog or hike or volunteer; action trumps internet dating until mid-May.

And it’s a perfect time to get back your muscles tone before summer.

Devout couch potatoes are going to hate the shadow. But for those of you who are more than ready to get moving and make life fun again, the shadow should be welcome. Hurry, though. There are only about 45 days left.

Mary O’Gara, Ph.D.