Leo Season: Initiating Fearless Actions Now for Winter's Mars Retrograde by Deirdre Tanton

Leo season is coming up and indeed when Sun enters this sign, it does so with dramatic flair. This particular Leo season will radiate greater depth than usual for several reasons:

— Sun enters Leo on the heels of a turning-the-wheel-of-fate solar eclipse on July 22, 2009.
— There will be a lunar eclipse on August 6, 2009.
— But mostly what I am thinking of is that from Fall 2009 to Spring 2010 Mars will be spending seven whole months in the sign Leo as Mars stations retrograde and then forward. We can get a head start now on taking action before the retrograde begins because re-acting works better than acting when Mars appears to be moving backward.

From July 23, 2009 until August 12, 2009, Sun will be passing through the first 19 degrees of Leo, one degree per day as usual. What is so extraordinary about this is that the Sun will be shining on the path Mars will be on from October 17 2009 - May 17 2010. What this means is we can pay close attention to what is going on this summer and align our intentions because the first 19 days of Leo can hold a microcosm or framework regarding the Mars retrograde. This is why I am writing about the Mars retrograde now, because fixed energy like Leo, is conducive to planning a pounce, the way a cat does so still until she has found her line of attack.

Although the sky is packed with rare events this summer, like the eclipses and the triple conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune in Aquarius, there is no Mercury retrograde activity until August 18, when Mercury will enter the shadow of its retrograde. Cosmically there is clarity for us to imagine what creative actions we want to be accomplishing this coming Fall through Spring.

Just to compare, the last Mars retrograde period spanned from September 16, 2007 until April 4, 2008. As Mars dipped from Gemini into Cancer at that time, many people may have been concerned with family and housing issues. Some people moved far across the ocean during that time; others tried to. This year, as Mars passes through the degrees of its '07 - '08 retrograde, we may get some recall on some issues, and again we may work on them again during this coming retrograde. The upcoming Mars retrograde season will be solely involved with the sign Leo. Mars in Leo is about taking fearless, creative action. Mars enters its shadow on October 19, 2009 at 0° Leo and stations retrograde on December 20, 2009, at 19° Leo. As I said, it's much better to initiate actions now, compared to on December 20 when Mars may seem inside-out and backstage.

At this station, Mars will be opposed the triple conjunction. Actually, it will be a quadruple conjunction, because Moon will be there too -- at 13° -- which is the same degree as this next lunar eclipse on August 6, 2009, a clear link between the lunar eclipse and the mars retrograde.

There may be some issues around where we belong, if at all, in a group whether it be friends or family. I think this trigger will add more insight into how the Chiron - Jupiter - Neptune conjunction is playing out in our lives. Mars will station forward on March 10, 2010. MEOW! And when Mars leaves its retrograde shadow on May 17 2010, the triple conjunction will be astrological history, Jupiter will have left Aquarius and will now be conjunct Uranus in Pisces. Now that's a Lion of a different color.

A conjunction of Uranus and Jupiter is innovative, suggestive of an optimistic, forward thin king collective movement. It is as if Jupiter moves from the triple conjunction to resolve the Mars retrograde and the eclipses with Uranus in Pisces.

I will give you an example of how this can play out: If we take the sign Aries as an example, the Mars retrograde will be in their solar 5th house, which means this winter they may dealing with issues around children, and or creative projects. For Aries, their solar 11th house is Aquarius, where the lunar eclipse this August will fall, and where the quadruple conjunction will oppose Mars as it retrogrades in December. Because Chiron and Neptune are involved, a friendship issue, fitting into a group, or a reversal in the feeling of obtainable goals may come to the fore as Mars in Leo is saying MEOW at the retrograde station. When Mars leaves its shadow in May 2010, Jupiter and Uranus will be conjunct in Aries' solar 12th house, an optimistic kind of energy in the house of spiritual psychology. Group therapy or a new kind of therapy may have extremely positive effects on the original 5th house issue. This is a great chance for Aries to bring creative projects into the collective.

As Leo season is fast approaching we can all get a headstart planting creative seeds now which will come to fruition in the spring.

UPDATE: DECEMBER 18, 2009

Other Posts I have written on Mars Retrograde

Here & here.

Leo Flag Design: Deirdre Tanton
Photographs Courtesy of Wikipedia Commons;
Illustration of The Cowardly Lion
by W.W. Denslow who died in 1915