Stop Sign!

Mars is what makes you go – the planet of energy, force, the accelerator. Like the gas pedal. So how much more perfect could the current, expanding recall of Toyotas for defective gas pedals, during Mars (accelerator) in Leo (reigning car company) possibly be?
In our AstroCocktail December editorial at we warned that several weeks of totally no retrograde planets in a locomotive chart led by Mars, followed by Mars going retro, would be the equivalent of a train wreck led by the locomotive itself derailing, a la the Wreck of the Old ’97. Well, we watched it go down in Congress (health care), a terrible quake in Haiti, and now this almost-humorous automotive manifestation (funny only if it’s not your car that’s wrecked or you own a Toyota or Toyota stocks). And now, we’re in that prolonged period of continuing Mars failure that will make this coming Valentine’s Day, despite its highly-affectionate new Moon/Jupiter/Venus conjunction, more spiritual love than physical passion, even if you double your dose of Viagra.
In general, this biennial tidal period of retreat for Mars is a frustrating time for go-getters and tends to blunt the spear of aggression and even simple assertion. It’s generally a bad time for starting a war (unless you have very limited objectives), perhaps why it characterizes most of the Arab-Israeli wars. It’s a much better time for picking up the pieces of earlier thrusts and redirecting the next forward movement with previous mistakes close in mind. You don’t want to do it like that again, do you? America particularly needs this advice, because its progressed Mars has just gone retro and will remain so for another eighty years. More here…
So, for the moment, don’t go, just stop (unless you’re driving a Prius, which can’t), regroup – then, like the planet, start to pick up speed again after you’ve figured out what went wrong. Right now, we’re just clearing the crash site and installing new gas pedals. But best do a good job, as Jupiter is rushing through Pisces at breakneck speed, almost under the radar, and when it hits Uranus and Aries in the late spring, you’d better be able to pick up speed with confidence and decisiveness, in a world of surprises, as the final Saturn-Pluto-Uranus shootout in the sky commences…

Superbowl Update: Only a few days later, yet another hilarious Mars retro manifestation. A blitz of blatantly hostile, intentionally sexist, “I’ve-lost-my-manhood” commercials dominated the usually-amusing advertising. Get over it guys, don’t get so bent out of shape — Mars retro won’t last forever…