By Len Wallick
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Big Day. Long time coming. Mars finally gains release from its long retrograde cycle. When the red planet transits nineteen degrees, forty-two arc minutes Leo today it will be in new territory for the first time this year. Taking a hint from the Moon, which conjoins its South Node hours later, it would do us well to pause and look back before plunging headfirst into the future.
It all started on October 16 of 2009 when Mars made its transit into Leo. One day later it was in the first echo phase, the furthest point at which it would roll back. The retrograde station was December 20th, just before the Capricorn solstice, at the same degree Mars finds itself today. It stationed forward, in the first degree of Leo March 10th of this year, all leading up to today. That’s a long process. Seven months. Think back to mid-October, to late December, even to early March and think how much has changed. Mars retrograde in Leo was a through line, a part of the whole shebang. Now that part is moving on.