We can start with Saturn to get our bearings on how I’m viewing retrogrades at this time. However, my main concern is the Mars retrograde that looms over the inaugural period, which I get to later in the post.  

Saturn will slow down and station in Pisces toward the end of June. Then, it will go into retrograde motion on the 29th. 

The stationing of planets is when they slow down and stop before going into and coming out of retrograde. They are associated with transitions, stationary movement, and slow movement. I like the way Austin Coppock teaches about stations. He says they are the cusps of change between motions. When a planet stations, events stand out. Station = Phasis = Making an appearance that speaks. The planet is holding a press conference that says, “We are going in a different direction now.” 

Saturn is a colossal complex planet often depicted as the stern father figure. Associated with responsibility, discipline, and commitment, Saturn represents limitations and boundaries, reminding us of the consequences of our actions. This planet embodies hard work, patience, and the ability to see things through to completion, yet it can also symbolize hardship, restriction, and a sense of melancholy.

Pisces, a mutable water sign ruled by the expansive yin Jupiter, embodies the concept of unifying the disparate. Like a fish navigating the vast ocean, Pisces takes an intuitive, almost Taoist approach, feeling their way through the world. They dissolve boundaries, seeking to understand the universal oneness that underlies everything. This focus on the big picture can make it challenging for Pisces to get bogged down in everyday details. Still, it also fuels their boundless compassion and creativity, blurring the lines between dream and reality, the tangible and the intangible.

This Saturn retrograde period will last from June 29, 2024, to November 15, 2024. I can’t help but consider this coincides with the United States election season. The months leading up to this term in particular, will be filled with events, commentary, and debates likely to excite, inflame, bewilder, impress, and depress us all. 

The chart shows that everyone but Venus goes retrograde between now and the inauguration on January 20th, 2025. While I do not weigh retrogrades of outer planets heavily compared to more concretely felt astrological operations, there is value in observing this activity to project what the general background tone of the second half of the year might feel like.  

Dreamy and hypnotic Neptune is about 10° from Saturn, also in Pisces, and will station and retrograde around the same time and a little longer in duration. Revolutionary and idealistic Uranus makes its announcement and undoes things to shake us up. Inflationary Jupiter, albeit supposedly beneficial by default, will also make station statements and retrograde review, rewind, and rehash during that period. 

Retrograde activity alone, the astrology looks like it describes a turbulent election period that will fulfill our expectations of notions and claims, both realistic and not. Even if we think we’ve seen it all, the promise of surrealistic unfoldings will find proof or discredit right around the corner in the coming months.  

All of this seems like normal political posturing and propaganda until, like a portentous storm,  Mars, impatiently confined, strikes back with a flanking attack on the ensuing interim and inaugural period, which balefully includes January 6, a date that etched an ugly entry into American history in 2021. 

From December 6, 2024, to February 23, 2025, Mars moves backward from 6° Leo to 17° Cancer and then stations direct to return to 6° Leo.

Some of the more intense descriptions of a Mars retrograde signify dreaded portents: 

The dragon emerges

Things get crazy 

It's hard to hold on to your ideals

Others key it down a bit:

Slowed Down Energy 

Frustration and Impatience

Relationship Challenges

Inner Conflict 

While the second list sounds more reassuring than the first, watering things down is not my style. What that second list really is: Safer. It’s safer for us to use the safer words and hope everything works fine. I’m not trying to scare anybody, and I hope everything works out fine. Remember, everything always works fine as far as the cosmos at large is concerned, but what about our life on Earth on our way to 2025? 

For at least this astrological exercise, let’s allow the current tragic conflicts within humanity, like in Eastern Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean, to serve as examples of dragon emergence. Things are crazy, and many ideals seem chimeric and Frankensteinian. It should be well within the scope of the modern world for us astrologers to take the first list into consideration.    

Remember, we are talking about astrology here, a system meant to be used to contemplate and understand our experience of the world. The planets do not dictate events. However, this might be one of those times where we use the wisdom of astrology’s knack for obviousness in hindsight to seriously contemplate what that implies about its knack for foresight, if not just so we can help prevent bad situations like the atmosphere that created the insurrection on January 6th, 2021. 

So, what can we do about this troublemaker Mars? 

First, you can establish the practice of reciting Mars’ beej mantra* 108 times on Tuesdays and when your Mars is otherwise activated. You can find them on Youtube to get started. It is a straightforward way to improve your relationship with Mars. I use it as a tool to suport my natal Mars, which is complicated, and I find it remarkably helpful.  

Next, you can spend some time with each of the things we have said about Mars retrograde associations:

Emergence of the dragon:

For fun, you might want to plug “How to win against a dragon” into your favorite AI language application. There are some great ideas there. Seriously, each of us has a dragon to face. As long as we resist facing it, it persists. However, there is treasure on the other side of victory. At some point, to attain that alchemical gold, we must not run.  

Things get crazy:

We have months to consider our personal vulnerabilities and our country's vulnerabilities. If we are in tune with what is happening, events surrounding charged times shouldn’t surprise us too much. One uncomfortable dragon we all should face continually by the concerted effort of consuming good journalism and reliable news. “Crazy” is only one’s perception of an expression that exists outside their acceptance of what is likely or possible. It’s universal, but not absolute, if you follow me. This astrological observation asks us to think about that ahead of time so we are acclimated to the possible terrain, therefore, less of it is outside our understanding and awareness, and you kind of deactivate the crazy. Tragic events and asinine logic are unfortunately not nonexistent. 

Hard to hold on to your ideals:

Do you know what your ideals are? Do you know where you sit in the face of the knowledge you pledged to learn by accessing reliable information? Is this a place you can continue to hold when things get tough? Covid is a recent test of this. What did you learn about yourself and your ideals throughout that test? What can you do better during the next test, whatever it is? This evaluation also assists with the inner conflict associated with Mars retrograde. 

Slowed down energy:

The antidotes might sound cliche, but only because they continue to be repeated for their effectiveness. Sleep well, drink enough clean water, exercise, eat nutrients, get out in nature, and talk with friends. Smile. Be intentional about these things. It feeds back to you with energy.

Reevaluation and Replanning: This can be a good time to re-evaluate your goals and plans. Are you approaching things in the most effective way? Mars retrograde can be a time to course-correct and refine your strategies.

What’s next?:

I will revisit this configuration in other posts as the months roll along. At the very least, it should be interesting to track its course. If you have an astrological observation that can expand, enhance, or correct an aspect of this project, I will be honored to review your insight. Please find myselfismycards on Instagram or email me at ethan@myselfismycards.com

Include your socials if you want me to tag you in the conversation.

If you want to know more about beej mantras, here’s an article:     

*  https://www.rudraksha-ratna.com/articles/bija_mantra