Mars Retrograde and Out of Bounds
Mars Retrograde: October 30, 2022 to January 12, 2023; Mars Out of Bounds: October 23, 2022 to May 5, 2023
Please note that I am a sidereal Vedic astrologer and my calculations are based on the sidereal zodiac, Lahiri ayanamsa, not on the tropical calendar system used by most western astrologers.
Mars will begin slowing down on Friday, October 28, in preparation for its retrograde station on Sunday, October 30, 2022. It will station retrograde between 9:18-9:26 AM EDT, depending on the software one uses. You can use World Time Buddy to convert this event to your own time zone if necessary.
Mars retrogrades for about 60 to 80 days every few years. The last Mars retrograde cycle was in Aries, from September 10 to November 14, 2020. The time before that was in Capricorn, from June 27 to August 28, 2018. The last time that Mars retrograded in the same zodiacal vicinity as this time was from late 1975 to early 1976; and before that was in late 1943 and early 1944 during WW II.
The day of the Mars retrograde station, as well as the two days before and after, may be especially fraught with tension, contention, or violence. The specific impact of this event will depend on how this transit interfaces with an astrological birth chart or mundane (world) horoscope. As Mars turns retrograde, it’s an especially important time to be mindful and peaceful, and to remember that we are in the driver’s seat, as we create much of our reality through our thoughts and actions.
Mars will retrograde at 1 degree of sidereal Gemini. It will remain retrograde until January 12, 2023, when it will station direct at 14 degrees of sidereal Taurus. Please revisit my previous in-depth articles about the current Mars transit and retrograde cycle: Part One, and Part Two.
Mars represents the fire element, which is expressed through the third manipura chakra. This relates to Mars as the warrior archetype which seeks to create security. Mars symbolizes ambition, desire, passion, determination, courage, and logic. It signifies our drive, the strength of our convictions, and the capacity to overcome our problems and weaknesses.
When Mars transits retrograde, we may be challenged in the areas of our personal power and vital energy. We may experience erratic energy flow or digestive issues, or conflicts, accidents, or surgeries. Again, the effect depends on how the transiting position of Mars falls in one’s own astrological birth chart. Whatever the result, Mars retrograde gives us an opportunity to change our pace, chill out a bit, and do some deep inner reflection and healing to balance, strengthen, and rejuvenate our fire energy.
Mars will station retrograde in a challenging quincunx/inconjunct aspect with Pluto. Vedic astrology describes this as a shasta-ashtakam (or a 6/8 relationship), in which Mars is exactly 150 degrees past Pluto, and Pluto is exactly 210 degrees past Mars (they are six and eight signs and houses apart).
This aspect of Mars with Pluto at the retrograde station suggests that there may be a great deal of turmoil ensuing in the coming months related to Machiavellian power plays within national political arenas, via propaganda, anger, and divisiveness in mainstream and social media outlets, and also within already inflamed areas of international conflict.
The latter may be even truer because of what is known as an “out of bounds” Mars, which came into place on October 23, 2022, and will remain so for an inordinately lengthy period of time, until May 5, 2023. To understand what this means, we first need to know that in addition to measuring the celestial longitude of the planets east and west zodiacally, astrology also measures their movements north and south of the celestial equator. This is called “declination” (or kranti in Vedic astrology).
When a planet travels outside the bounds of the point of the Sun’s declination on the solstices, beyond 23 degrees 26 minutes (some sources say 23 degrees 27 minutes), either north or south of the celestial equator, this is known as “out of bounds,” which is commonly abbreviated as OOB. In the current period, Mars is traveling OOB in its northern declination.
https://www.astro.com/astrowiki/en/Out-of-Bounds_Planets
The astrological qualities of an OOB planet are highly exaggerated, or we could say, stretched to the limit. Some astrologers have described OOB planets as being “on steroids.” An OOB Mars can manifest with extraordinary passion, originality, independence, energy, and courage. However, in its less positive manifestation, it may manifest in extreme anger, warlike events, accidents, criminality, or social unrest.
Mars OOB adds even more intensity to the Mars retrograde cycle. Further, it is especially concerning as Mars is stationing retrograde in conjunction with the United States chart’s Mars in the seventh house of foreign enemies (as I discussed in Part One of my previous article series).
According to a brilliant article titled Forgotten Astrology: Declination and Out-of-Bounds Planets by Alexander Kolesnikov, Mars is OOB for shorter periods quite frequently, but it is rare when it takes place for a longer period of time, like for over half a year as we have now from October 2022 to May 2023. According to Kolesnikov, these longer Mars OOB cycles have been associated with disasters in the past:
“Periods of OOB Mars sometimes attract special attention of astrologers as they are believed to coincide with uncontrolled outbursts of energy both in nature and society. There can be abnormal destructive weather conditions, natural disasters, incidents and violence. Such periods are not rare, they happen every year. Sometimes they are short, less than a month, like it was in January–February 2022, when Mars went out of bounds for 28 days. Sometimes, they are longer — a couple of months, maybe more.
But occasionally Mars becomes OOB for more than half a year, and these long periods are relatively rare. They are often associated with some disaster. For example, in 1986 Mars was OOB for 194 days, from March 27 to October 7, and that was when Chernobyl disaster happened. Next time a super-long Mars OOB period took place in 2001, it lasted for 188 days from April 15 to October 20. That was the year of 9/11. In 2007/2008 a 203-day long OOB Mars period coincided with the global financial crisis.
And the next such period, 194 days long, will start on October 23, 2022 and last until May 5, 2023. I’ve calculated the periods of extreme Mars (i.e., when Mars was or will be either OOB or near the celestial equator) for the 20th century and the first half of the 21st century. You can see the result of that calculation on my website.”
With our thoughts we make the world, so it is helpful to envision the divine manifestation of the planets which symbolize the best qualities within us and the world. Mars has many positive expressions, as described in the following:
May Paravara, the form of Mars as supreme goodness, show us the way.
May Mars as Lord Skanda, the vanquisher of mighty foes, help us take responsibility to overcome the weakness and darkness within ourselves.
May Parvatipriyananda, the beloved son of Shakti and Shiva, teach us unconditional love and compassion.
Om Mangalaya Namah! I bow before Mighty Mars and ask for your peaceful blessings for myself and all beings. May peace rain down on us…Peace of Body. Peace of Mind. Peace of Spirit. Peace…Peace…Peace, Eternal Peace. Om Shanti! Shanti! Shanti!