Mars and Conflict—Road Block or Productive Detour?

©12-6-2009 by Donna Cunningham, MSW

 From one viewpoint, Mars stationary or retrograde periods may seem like frustrating detours for projects you’d hoped to finish soon. Seen from another perspective, they’re a window for concerted effort to clear away blockages that have stubbornly refused to budge for many years. Before you can move forward again, you’ve got issues to work out—matters that are highly likely to involve conflict with key players in that area of life.  

You probably don’t WANT things coming to a head in that part of your life—maybe you’d just as soon patch it up one last time, even if it’s falling into ruins around you. Leo, after all is a fixed sign—stubborn and just a tad lazy—and resists change even more than most of us. Addressing long-standing issues is sure to mean a certain amount of conflict with those involved, if not an out and out scream match. Far from being a catastrophe, bringing longstanding but unspoken irritants into the open for discussion is healthy. It can shift the status quo from stagnation to forward motion, revitalizing your joint efforts.

 Airing and addressing disagreements in this part of your life opens the way for a stronger, deeper connection and for action that can bring progress to the vital concerns of that horoscope sector. A meaningful dialogue now would create a space in which the needs of all concerned can be taken into account.

Otherwise, someone in the situation will be forced to remain a frustrated, resentful doormat.  Mars goes away eventually, but the grievance won’t if you cover it over. It’s likely to surface in a less resolvable form under an outer planet transit in the future.  If you have planets in the path of a retrograde, the issues are more clearly defined and the confrontation more intense. There are important matters that need to be sorted out with others who are major players in that area of life, and they can no longer be ignored.  Would there be a rift?  Most likely not, if you take time to learn new mediation and conflict-resolution skills rather than resort to door slamming, loud roaring, or other dramatic Leo tactics.

(For more information about what those issues might be, download a chapter from my ebook, An Astrological Guide to Self-Awareness here: AGSA ch13-houses.  Here’s a downloadable chart blank, complete with house meanings, that you can use to plot your own Mars retrograde postion as well as other astrological cycles:  Blank chart with house meanings.)

Contrary to what classical astrology teaches, Mars is neither a baddie or a goodie in our horoscopes, it just IS.  Using this natural urge in a healthy manner can make us strong, vital, dynamic bundles of Beingness. Blocking its expression, on the other hand, can lead to festering, brooding stagnation.

Several readers have written in to say that they have Mars retrograde in their natal charts and that they are wondering what Mars retrograde by transit means for them. Naturally, it depends on aspects to their Mars, but in general, when a person is born with a personal planet (Mercury, Venus, Mars) retrograde, they seem to do much better when that planet is retrograde than people who were born with it direct. They often make decisions, take actions, and start things and seem to do quite well with them.

The stationary period of any planet is when it can be felt most powerfully, and Mars is stationary just now, about to turn retrograde. Let’s learn how to use it well.  The next several posts will be about that planet and what it represents in our lives. It’s a readily available, fully renewable energy source for all of us.  Properly channeled, it’s as vital an energy resource as Solar Power—it’s just red rather than green.

  More Posts about Mars on this Blog:

• Mars Retrograde 101—Answering your Questions
• Mars Mission 1: Mars and Conflict—Road Block or Productive Detour?
• Mars Mission 2: Anger—the Guard Dog of Denial 
• Mars Alert—Code Red!
• Mars Mission 3: Understanding Mars in the Fixed Signs
• Mars Retrograde: What Other Bloggers are Saying
• Mars—What Great Minds say about Its Functions 
• Mars-Pluto Aspects? Use your Manifestation Mojo!  
• The Law of Progressive Annoyance—Mars or Jupiter? 
• The Mars-Uranus Conjunction in Pisces and Children Born with it

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