There are times in ones life where one feels one has arrived in a place so far from where one expected to be, that the only metaphor one can relate to is one of a beached whale or dolphin. Indeed, this past Monday I had an epiphany that can only be described feeling beached, landing on the shore when I expected to be in the water. The sensation is rather horrific and humbling. “How could I go so far without realizing where I was going?” one asks oneself. It is literally as if ones sonar direction has been so fouled up, as to not know how one arrived where one is or how to get back in the water.

In times like this, however, I am grateful that a Retrograde has almost arrived. Because Retrogrades offer the ability to Re-Do things, and Re-Think life, and how one has arrived where one has. Pre-Retrograde Shadows usually show us where we have dramatically gone off course, and the actual Retrograde allows us the opportunity, if not to get exactly right what went wrong during the Mars Shadow (in this case from Nov 19 to Jan 23), at least to find the correct direction we should be heading in once Mars goes Direct on April 13.

Interesting enough, Mars will go Retrograde on January 23 at 8:20 pm EST, and we will have had a New Moon at 2:39 am that morning. For almost three moon cycles Mars will be Retrograde–that’s a long time, but Mars, the planet of Action goes Retrograde the least of all the planets–only every two years. So use this time wisely to do either a literal or figurative house cleaning. Purging psychic demons and one’s clothing wardrobe are equally auspicious! More suggestions for what to do during a Mars Retrograde to come!