How to Navigate This Tricky Transit and Protect Your Energy
When: October 30th, 2022 – January 12th, 2023
What: Mars retrograde in Gemini
Takeaway: When Mars is retrograde in Gemini, the frustrations stewing on a collective level get processed through our communications. Resist the pressure to weigh in on every issue of the day. Reflect more than you react. Protect your energy. Your future self will thank you for it.
What you need to know
On October 30th, Mars stations retrograde in Gemini, marking one of the most important moments of 2022. Mars represents a blade, decisive action, severing. And when the warrior is in the sign of the twins, our wit can be our shield or our stumbling block. During this time, pens and keystrokes are our swords, and flexibility is our skill to practice — though we must be careful not to scatter our energy reserves too far and wide.
Gemini is the zodiac’s ultimate cross-pollinator. With its influence, our ideas travel as far as the wind is willing to take them — but so do gossip and toxicity. So this Mars retrograde offers us a moment to reflect on what might be antidotes to those poisons.
Now, Mars stations retrograde every two years. When that happens, it appears to move backward in the sky from our point of view on Earth. Because Mars is the planet of confrontation, any time it makes its tactical retreat, we are invited to scrutinize our anger. Our heat must find outlets of release. Our rage refuses to be written off. While Mars is retrograde from October 30th, 2022 to January 12th, 2023, it will prompt us to defang every last thought pattern or inner script that blocks our potency.
Because this Mars retrograde is in Gemini, it will be well-spent deconstructing the thoughts, beliefs, and ideas that inflame our overheated world. At the same time, misinformation will be all the more apt to run rampant. Conspiracy theories will accelerate. Polarized thinking will disrupt nuanced conversations. It will be crucial in the coming months to count to 10 before hitting send, and even more crucial to lay out thoughtful, deep, fact-based analysis as a way to counter false narratives.
This Mars retrograde invites us to sharpen our critical thinking and pick out the truth with exceeding precision. Mars is a sharp tool, but it’s up to us how we wield it.
Extra-sticky situations
On November 19th, Mars will make the second of three squares to Neptune, the planet of illusion and confusion. The first square occurred on October 11th, before Mars stationed retrograde, and the final square will happen on March 14th, 2023. Challenging aspects between Mars and Neptune tend to leave us feeling unmoored and unsure of how to make our way out of the conundrums we’ve stumbled into. Treat the few days before and after November 19th with care. Make extra sure you are being understood, and if confusion sets in, consider what that confusion itself is telling you about the situation — about what you do and don’t know. Above all, refuse to act before you have the facts, no matter how uncomfortable it makes you. You’re less likely to regret your actions if you give yourself time to understand what’s going on.
How to work with Mars retrograde in Gemini
This Mars retrograde in Gemini will have its sticky moments, but here are some tips, tricks, and hacks to make it as growth-enhancing as possible.
- Learn as much as you can about boundary setting, conflict resolution, accountability, and repair.
- Pause. Take deep breaths. Give your opinions time to marinate. Reinforce your commitment to self-care. Ask yourself: Is this really worth spending my cortisol on?
- Choose your mental battles wisely. Mars retrograde is a time to tunnel inward, so a private journaling sesh will feel much more cathartic than the doom-scroll.
- Vent. Spend time writing without filter. Give yourself the freedom to be as honest as you possibly can and refuse to sugarcoat caustic narratives when they surface. Getting these thoughts onto the page will lighten your load and help you to show up for conflicts with greater clarity.
- Break your decisions down into small, realistic pieces when analysis-paralysis strikes. Give yourself permission to not know the answers or perfect responses right away. Clarity arrives with time, not urgency.
- Ask questions. Gemini’s gift is curiosity. Follow your inklings and discover what you learn as a result. It’s also a great way to stay humble amidst the heat.
- Meditate on your own or with our guided daily and weekly meditations. Learn all the ways you work with your mind, instead of feeling at the mercy of its whims.
- Discover how you will be impacted by this retrograde by listening to your 2022 Year Ahead reading under the Year tab on the CHANI app. (This Mars Rx is covered in your reading for October – December.)
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