Mars Retrograde & the Incredible Sulk

Cancer Full Moon 2025 conjunct Mars Retrograde

Today, as Moon entered her home sign of Cancer, waxing to fullness and applying to conjoin the fallen Mars retrograde, I wanted to honour the feelings that may be swamping us as we try to gather momentum and enthusiasm for an(other) epic year of change and challenge. If you’re anything like me, you may have been at a pretty low ebb the past few weeks, and wondering why?? It’s Mars! The high energy planet of will, drive, verve and the hot pursuit of desire, seeks forward progress. Mars retrogrades (every two years) can be a bit of a dampener, leaving us feeling depleted and drained of energy. This one (we’re almost halfway through the retrograde) is particularly tiresome because Mars is debilitated in the sign of Cancer. Mars’ usual and preferred offence is reluctantly substituted with defence and/or retreat. Crab-walking sideways, or cowering under a rock somewhere...

You’ll know where to find me 😉

On Tuesday the 14^th of January the year’s first Full Moon will be in close quarters to Mars retrograde in Cancer. As la Luna illuminates the path to Mars’ opposition with Sun on the 16^th, we are invited inward to introspect upon the inklings that have been infusing our experience in recent weeks. Reminders of our own human frailty and encounters with our own depths may be taken to heart, appreciated as prompts to keep in touch with our human condition and capacity for compassion, for both self and others. It is too easy to gloss over the real suffering that exists in the world. I do believe that we shouldn’t suffer for nothing if we can help it. Which is to say that we can learn something, take something away from our own hard times. I think (I could be wrong) that this is always possible because even people who have suffered through some of the worst possible conditions, like Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Viktor Frankl, have returned from their ordeals with a bigger heart and some profound offerings for humanity around hope and courage and truth, against all odds.

Mars went retrograde on the 7^th of December and remains so until 24^th February. The zodiacal territory Mars will occupy over these weeks spans from almost 7 degrees of Leo back to almost 16 degrees of Cancer. This area of the sky and our birth charts will be charged during this period, though perhaps suffer from a loss of agency and direction. The God of War in retreat can correspond to frustrations as obstacles prevent progress and the attainment (or even any tangible sense) of desires; perhaps we have been forced or reminded to take a break, or schedule a strategic departure from duty. Or maybe we are soldiering on, getting by, making do despite a loss of vigour and vitality. However we find life now, our conditions invite us to examine our own relationship to desire, passion, conflict, willpower, pursuit, action, aggression and anger, among other things. The red planet has become increasingly insistent bright and visible in the eastern evening sky, peaking over the nights ahead, reaching “full phase” on the 16^th of January ‘25. As we witness this reddening, it is interesting to consider how the ancients interpreted this presence in the sky. The Cancer Full Moon will alert us to the approach of this ominous entity, and we may even be confronted with (or at least perceive a form of) enmity at play. My social media situation (being repeatedly hacked and having my accounts inaccessible and/or suspended) gave me cause to consider the experience/perception of being unwittingly preyed upon. Iain McGilchrist describes the dangers of left-brain dominance in terms of a creature hunting for its lunch: hyperfocused on its own source of sustenance, it fails to maintain awareness of what is going on around it, and it gets eaten. So I read my circumstances as a reminder to be more vigilant around my online presence, and as an opportunity to depart from the world of social media, letting my fbook and Instagram selves die.

Image credit: Frida Kahlo ~ What the Water Gave Me ~ 1938

The mid-January moment of opposition between Sun and Mars represents the culmination of the synodic cycle that began November 18th ‘23. We might reflect upon our efforts, actions and perhaps inaction during the waxing half of the cycle to glean insights into how these approaches help and hinder us, as well as aid our charting the course through the remainder of Mars’ synod. This is a powerful Mars cycle to be working with because it began in its dignified (nighttime) home of Scorpio, and Mars’ heliacal rise (when it became visible) was in its sign of exaltation, Capricorn. It is interesting to think about how, now, Mars is fallen in Cancer and yet at peak light brightness. Looking rather ominous. A bit like a cornered crab perhaps?! Mars retrogrades can be frustrating and in Cancer this may be particularly noticeable. So things may have come to something of a head in ways that leave us feeling somewhat disempowered, lacking direction, a bit lost or flat or dejected. Retrograde Mars in Cancer can be very defensive. Not overly emboldened to act. Not feeling a great sense of agency. Which may be in stark contrast to how things felt in the earlier parts of the cycle, as Mars was seeded in the powerful heart of the Scorpio Sun and then reborn in determined Capricorn. There may have been a potent sense of purpose that may have lost its momentum, or currently feel as though it requires review or refinement. This period of demurrment should not necessarily be interpreted as a need to discard projects that were rooted in late 23 – early 24. But we can use the opportunity to retreat and review and reflect upon what has been working or not in our process and pursuit. Retreat is often part of the effective battle plan and when handled strategically and used mindfully for honest self-appraisal, we can genuinely benefit from the exercises to further advance our cause when conditions improve.

In alchemy, the rubedo or reddening is the final phase of the magnum opus, and consisted of a period of fermentation followed by a long distillation. Mars retrograde seems to correspond to the fermentation process, during which visions, insights and inspirations may avail themselves to the attentive alchemist, to inform the final stages of the long and arduous journey of transformation

Lead into gold

Stay tuned for any new sensations that may be emerging in the subtle realms.

Time space (all those weird contraptions and vessels, bubbling and dripping and foaming and fizzing) for both curious inquiry and mysterious enigma are essential to alchemy. Trust the process.

With several unexpected happenings in my own life recently, I have been forced to lay low and take it easy. This had me reflecting on how hard life can be and how our culture does not make much room for periods of withdrawal. Though weekends, holidays and vacations are worked into our schedules, they may often be rushed, stressful and demanding in ways that do not allow for full decompression. In such a society as ours, where true retreat is rarely afforded, sickness and injury might impose themselves in order to allow time and cause to really slow down. I believe that these departures from normalcy are crucial to equilibrium, health and wholeness in the psyche and soma of any organism. In other words, dare I be so bold as to suggest in this nauseatingly wellness-oriented time, its healthy (natural, necessary, vital...!) to get sick.

It is not easy to be low in energy. The winter of our discontent. And there are invariably times during the course of our lives when there is no willing oneself out of the low mood mode that captures us. We are spent. Admitting and justifying the need for rest at such times is likewise not easy. It can be very confronting, inconvenient, disruptive and troublesome. But sickness and injury make possible (indeed imperative) the invitation for self-care to be acted upon. Perhaps we might (I moan!) learn to take seriously the need for regular self-care and periodic retreat before reaching our physical and psychological limit. Lol. I’m a slow learner. But I am not really moaning about having been sick and sore and repeatedly hacked on social media. All of these situations came about as a direct result of my own choices and actions/inactions over periods of time where my priorities were elsewhere. And in the end I was placed in the precise conditions (bed) whereby I could consider how it all came to be.

In situations where there is not be adequate time space for reflection to take place, we are just stuck, feeling increasingly depleted and frustrated. Perhaps its as though no-one cares or even notices that our needs are going unmet (again!). And we are aware that if we want to do anything about it we will have to fight to claim space for ourselves, and for the right to meet our own needs. And we don’t have energy for a fight! Why can’t someone see that I need [insert relevant need]...?!

This is a common narrative for the Moon~Cancer archetype that is so busy mothering the hell out of anyone and anything that it forgets (this self-sacrifice may be genuinely unconscious) to look after itself. Paradoxically, it then regresses into infantilism and a childish whinge and whine, even tantrums and meltdowns. My partner used the wickedly brilliant term “the incredible sulk” a few days ago and it struck me as the perfect description of this Mars retrograde in Cancer, and especially this Full Moon. If we can hold space for our own and others’ genuine and legitimate sense of unmet needs at this time (what we might label as self-pity or sulking), there may be an opportunity to soften into vulnerability and “hear” the feelings that are emerging. Whether this is an inward introspective process, or something we are called to provide for/yield to with a loved one (both?) it is a significant act of surrender~submission that can transform a very volatile and emotional lunation into a meaningful turning point: conscious mothering of self and/or others. Attending to the needs that feel unmet in a way that is not judgemental, analytical or intended to teach. But just present. Soft. Quiet. Strong.

This ideal image is sure to be pressure tested and indeed shattered over coming days and weeks. Even so, it represents a potential with which we might engage and participate, knowing that, as time wends on, something will happen and our comfort and security of being held will be lost again. By design. Care for others and self-care are, like all the important things, a practice. They demand mindfulness and real sensitivity and attunement. Time. Effort. Energy. Bandwidth. And life is busy. With so many distractions it is difficult not to lose track of the little things, so easy to elude in fair weather.

But when we remember, are reminded of, our vulnerability, our humanness, we come back.