by Robert Wilkinson
From 1:30 pm PDT March 14 through 6 pm PDT on March 16, Mars is at 26 Gemini, the outer boundary of its “Shadow Zone,” and then moves into the future. What does this mean?
First, for those who don’t know the term, a planet’s “Shadow Zone” is the span of degrees between the point it goes stationary retrograde back to where it goes stationary direct. When a planet which was retrograde goes direct, it moves across the same span of degrees it did when retrograde, and then a third time when direct again. That is the Shadow Zone.
Mars went SRX at 26 Gemini on October 30, 2022, and retrograded back to 9 Gemini, where it went direct January 18. It’s now in forward motion and is leaving the forward boundary of its shadow zone at 26 Gemini. As Mars, symbolizing our style of “attacking the problems of life” is now speeding up, we can expect all things related to Mars to speed up as well for the next few months.
As Mars began its retrograde review on a degree of “seeing the bare trees” and the archetypal forms Spirit externalizes through Nature herself, we’ve all gotten a real sense of how things are when stripped of outer appearances. It went direct on a degree of “marksmanship,” of skill in hitting any target our mind chooses to focus on. We now have the ability to move with greater ease in the social and emotional levels of discovery, and have now traversed the 9-26 Gemini span a third time, giving us a well-rounded look at that span of the “whole cycle.”
Time Triggers
Much of what was delayed or diverted or obstructed in November and December will be seen in a different light as the inner planets transit the Mars shadow zone over the next few weeks. Venus will bring value and appreciation to what Mars taught us during its transit of the span between April 17 and May 3, followed by the Sun illuminating those lessons in ways we can integrate into the larger Light of our Life when it transits the span between May 29 and June 16. Mercury will bring its understanding of how to coordinate it as part of our Soul’s journey between June 15 and 24.
What we did, what we didn’t do, how we adapted methods and timing during this period from September 2022 through March 2023 will condition how we are able to respond to the rapidly expanding opportunities promised by Jupiter’s transit of this span. Jupiter transits 9 Gemini beginning July 1, 2024, goes up to 22 Gemini, and then goes stationary retrograde in early October. That is our first expansion based in the recent Mars retrograde.
We then get a Jupiter review of those Gemini lessons from mid-October 2024 through early February 2025, when Jupiter goes direct at 12 Gemini, also within the Mars shadow zone. Jupiter transits 26 Gemini on May 18-21, and then moves into Cancer shortly after.
What’s Coming
Now Mars begins its transit of Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, and Sagittarius through the end of 2023, hitting maximum speed in early 2024. These areas in your charts will be most activated this year. We now we have a new way of externalizing our “fight or flight” principle in mental or intellectual ways. From here, Mars makes very important aspects to the outer planets, making the first non-Lunar opposition since November 2022 to an outer planet when it opposes Pluto between May 18-25.
As I described in the Mars SRX article, the Sun opposed Mars is the midpoint of the larger Sun/Mars cycles in play. We’ve been in the second half of that cycle since the opposition in early December, and now accelerate toward the coming Sun conjunction with Mars on Nov 17/18 at 26 Scorpio. That sets a new cycle into motion wherever we have 26 Scorpio in our charts, which I explain in the article on Sun/Mars cycles 2000-2025 linked below.
So enjoy the new territory Mars is leading us into, which should fulfill an individual and spiritual understanding before the “change of allegiance” shown by the coming Mars entry into Cancer and immediate quincunx to Pluto followed by a trine to Saturn. From here Mars accelerates rapidly, en route to its extremely favorable conjunction with Venus in Leo which begins in early June. Lots of love in the air in June, July, and August!
Here’s what I wrote about Mars in Gemini back in August.
Mars Entering Gemini – What’s Coming Between August 2022 and March 2023
Here are the Mars retrograde articles:
Astrology in October 2022 - Mars Stationary Retrograde at 26 Gemini
Mars Retrograde in Gemini 2022 – Past As Prologue
Astrology Class – Sun-Mars Cycles and Mars Retrograde Periods 2000-2025
Copyright © 2023 Robert Wilkinson
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