Cool it
Check thyself lest ye wreck thyself
Mars retrograde is upon us (October 30: little red dude is "backwards" from the earth's perspective until January 12). I wrote a Mars retrograde guide I am not going to use this time around because it's not interesting: it just says don't fight people and don't have surgery unless you're dying. Not difficult to abide by, right? But let me tell you what I see right now: flailing. People who are Mars-ruled are used to pressing forward despite any obstacles or rationale to the contrary. "It must get done!" we tell ourselves. "Someone must do something about this!" If left unchecked, that impulse can become an all-out crusade. Now's really not the time for unchecked impulses. The tide's going out. It doesn't feel like the right time for the tide to be out, but it is. That's the whole point: for people sensitive to Mars energy, something feels off, so rather than just accept that things aren't quite right, we do what we do best: fight it. When that doesn't work, we get mad. And all of that is a waste of energy.
Mars is in Gemini. Jupiter's going back into Pisces from Aries, the sign Mars rules, which is why I bring it up, because, as I said before, there's a diminishing sense of oomph out there. The sun is in Scorpio. The south node is in Scorpio, too (and Venus). Things can feel like life or death. Drama seems important to pay attention to, and fighting with words seems like the right way to save everything and everyone.
But the Mars-Gemini-retrograde deal tells us it's not the time to get into arguments or try to save someone from themselves. It's not time to fall all over yourself trying to prove some shit with words or supporting documentation. Put your receipts back in your little file folder. Sit on your hands. Watch what happens. Observe. Report.
Yesterday at work there was this technical difficulty (Gemini!) that might wind up being nothing or it might wind up being a big, inconvenient deal. I have no idea which one it will be. You really can't plan for things right now: you have to improvise. We talked about this. That's all you have to do right now: what's called for and no more.
If you are looking, you will find some wars of the words. I know of one person who is in a lengthy email battle about a difference of opinion. It fits the vibe. If you're trying to prove something to someone who clearly isn't listening or doesn't want to be on the same page as you, go find something else to do.
As someone who is Mars-ruled, I say all of this because trying to do the most is the energy trap I've fallen into the most often. I've been in situations that clearly aren't working and definitely won't go my way and thought that if I just *tried something else* it would work out, and wound up tired and mad and that's about it.
Finally: an example. When I was 16, I was in a new relationship and the guy was being less than responsive to me. So I borrowed my mom's car and set off to go hang out with him, and caused a car accident on my way (see the consequence of me trying to force the issue?). My mom was out of town, because my grandmother was actively dying (we were waiting for The Call at the time), so my dad came to bail me out, which involved apologizing to everyone on the scene and making me drive his car home while he drove the one I'd totaled home (it was excessively smushed and the power steering was ruined, among other things). Then he had to figure out what to do with his crying mess of a child. His solution: drop me off at a prayer meeting, as his answer to most problems is religion, and it was intended as punishment rather than a nice thing to make me feel better. I was so hysterical I couldn't talk or I'd start crying again, so I sat in shell-shocked silence while everyone prayed, and I have no concept of how long that meeting lasted, but afterwards, the younger people in the crowd said they were going to a movie and asked if I wanted to join them. I called my dad and said that the group was going to the movies, realizing that if it was the religious group's decision and he'd left me with them, he couldn't argue much with their next activity (his punishment backfired). And that is how I wound up seeing The Matrix: not at all what I'd set out to do that day. Then my grandmother did die and we had to leave the state, so I couldn't see that boyfriend for an extended period of time. Everyone was mad at me about the car thing, and I had dreams I was in car crashes for about a year. Sign Mars was in: Scorpio.
Yours in doing less,
J