Caring is the issue

As we get closer to Mars retrograde (December - February)— I am the first to admit I am probably more affected by it than you—a pattern is starting to emerge. It's happening because Mars is starting to slow down, and I'm slowly becoming more clear on what the battle of the next 6 months looks like. And unfortunately, it is the following: not being able to take action on something you care about very much. Mars will retrograde in Cancer and Leo: both signs are about caring, but different kinds of caring. Cancer is warm and fuzzy and Leo is loud and proud. Of course, the motives of these signs contradict, so you could find you are doing the hokey pokey with your caring: for a couple of months, you care deeply about something, then it shifts, then it shifts again (warm fuzzies—> pride/ego—> warm fuzzies—> pride/ego). You just kind of have to wait for the dust to settle in spring, but the problem is that it won't because immediately after Mars retrograde, Venus goes retrograde (March - April 2025). Mercury will also retrograde twice during this period (late November/early December and late March/early April). We'll get to those later. This is a "one thing at a time" situation for everybody.

Have I mentioned lately that one of the 2024 offerings is a retrograde report? If you have your birth time (or if I have it), I will happily do one of these audio files for you and go over the themes I'm seeing so you can at least be prepared. This energy is not straightforward, because retrogrades aren't by their very nature. That's not me trying to sell you on anything: I actually forgot it was on the list until now and if you're feeling confused by everything, I can help unpack it for you. Probably, anyway. Just keep it in mind if you get stuck.

With this incoming energy, I am very much focused on handling one clusterfuck at a time. My nature is to divide, conquer, and attack, but Mars retrogrades have taught me that my tendency to do this brings me bad results if I decide to fight prevailing energy, "fight" being the key word, because the main rule is "no fighting." If you get big mad, go sit by yourself, and for the love of god, don't text anybody about how mad you are, lest you start a proxy war. Just go rage-journal on paper. Analog anger is your friend.

I already talked about the Pluto-Mars opposition and power struggles. That's still coming and will begin to be felt later this month. With that in mind, I'd recommend you begin to pay attention to what you're mad about and what that anger is costing you. "But Josie, I'm not mad about anything!" Great—can I come sit with you? If that sentence is still true in January, I'll move in with you so I can learn your ways. Anyway, something I've learned a lot about this year is that I have things in my life I can be very angry about indefinitely and feel fully justified about it (just ask me and I can bring up a justification storm while you desperately try to change the subject), but at this point it's really to my own detriment because it's preventing me from having other things I enjoy that aren't directly related to the anger. As an Aries rising, I have little tantrums that last about a day (Aries energy fights immediately and then takes a nap), but I can resent someone/something for years (Scorpio energy). I've spent time coming to terms with that, and I mention it because you might find yourself in the same boat: either having to admit "no, I'm mad mad" or "I am far angrier about ____ than I'd like to acknowledge." While the cardinal rule right now is "no fighting" the second rule is to do something productive with your anger that isn't fighting and doesn't piss anybody else off, either. This is going to be difficult when it's something you care about very much. Just sayin'.