Slow is the only speed we can go

(Apparently)

January 04, 2023

Mercury and Mars are two things that create forward motion: Mercury is picking up speed (but retrograde) and Mars is slowing to a crawl and retrograde. For those of you who experienced late October and early November as watching paint dry, with life issues coming up that you could do absolutely nothing about, that energy is ba-ack. Only it's a different set of things you can do nothing about at the moment: you can just look at them, think about them, change your mind about them, or come up with strategies to manage them that you'll use...later. Also, there is no multitasking energy available right now. Whatever you're focused on is it, so choose accordingly.

The good news is that we will enter nothing-retrograde season February-April, which is exactly what it sounds like. The bad news is that everything slow-moving in the sky is concentrated into about 3-4 houses in your chart, the same 3-4 as the past few years (Capricorn-Taurus; wherever that falls in your chart). So you get to make more forward progress (or have fun challenges) in the same areas of life you've *been* working on. Once Mars (really) gets moving in April, it'll start throwing some much-needed energy to the opposite side of your chart, and you can feel a breath of fresh air and like you're able to do other things.

Personally, I'm looking at situations that are incredibly up in the air that I can't do anything to influence but will have to deal with the consequences once someone else makes a decision, but I have heavy 11th and 12th house traffic and the ruler of my 12th house is in my 1st house, so... that very much makes sense. I'm used to it and I mostly just wait for someone to tell me what's going on. It's good energy for the intuitive side of my life, anyway.

A couple of dates to note: 

inferior conjunction day for Mercury is January 7: that's the seed time for new ideas or inspirations you don't act on until Mercury's not retrograde anymore. If you have big new ideas, write them down.

January 12: Mars retrograde ends; Mars remains slow and in Gemini until late March

January 18: Mercury retrograde ends

January 29: the sun trines Mars, at which point the feeling that the wind has completely died out of your sails should abate

XO,J

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