Mars Retrograde in Leo: 5 Themes to Watch For

Adam Elenbaas
Adam. Hey everyone. This is Adam Ellenbass from Nightlight astrology. Today we are going to take another look at Mars in Leo. This ingress of Mars in Leo has happened just this week, and we are now going to take a look at some of the upcoming themes of Mars's retrograde, which begins in Leo. Of course, the Mars Retrograde will have a long period of time in which it moves through the sign of cancer, which we've already spent some time talking about in a bunch of different previous episodes. We've done overviews and looking at the entirety of the Mars Retrograde.

We'll certainly continue to look at Mars in Cancer. But today I want to talk about some of the general themes of a Mars Retrograde that are fitting regardless of what signed Mars is in, and then a few specific ideas as to what it might mean that Mars is starting its retrograde in Leo in the month of December, which we're getting a preview of now, by virtue of Mars being in direct motion, moving through those early degrees of Leo, which it will shortly retrograde back through. So that is our agenda for today. Remember to like and subscribe. It helps our channel to grow.

We really appreciate it. It's free to do so. We're seeing if we can get to 80,000 subscribers on the channel by the spring equinox. I'm trying to set some goals for ourselves so we kind of keep stoking the fire of growth, which we really appreciate all of you contributing to. You can find transcripts of any of these daily talks on the website, Nightlight astrology.com, and right now check out on the events page, live talks, my webinar for November, Pluto into Aquarius, AI aliens and new world orders. This is going to be a fun look at the collective significance of Pluto moving back into Aquarius to stay now for the next 20 years. We'll also be looking backward at the last time Pluto was in Aquarius, which happened during the American and French Revolutions. Other things that were happening that were very interesting during that period of time.

And we'll be reflecting on what it might mean for us, both personally and collectively, that Pluto is moving into Aquarius to stay so that's November 21 if you can't attend the live webinar, when you sign up, you'll get the recording link afterward. And then finally, on Courses page, go to the first year course. You still have a little bit of time to sign up for the upcoming class ancient astrology for the modern mystic. Our first year class in ancient Hellenistic astrology begins November 16, happening right under the Pluto into Aquarius signature.

This is a great election for entering into an apprenticeship with astrology, whether you want to practice professionally or you're just doing it to deepen your own hobby and interest in astrology, take advantage of the need based tuition, which you'll find at the bottom, click Apply now. And if you are needing a little bit of help to make the program happen, we have a sliding scale that you can work with, and that is still available all the way up to the start of the program. Classes are beginning next weekend, so you have just about one week left to take advantage of this. After I sign off today, you will find an informational video about the program, so you can learn more about everything the program includes, and all the information is also present on this page here, including a little interview video we have with some alumni from the program. So check that out. I hope to see you guys in class soon, and stick around after I sign off today for an informational video about the program. Okay? On that note, let us now shift our attention to the real time clock and Mars here in Leo. So I have brought this up to the moment that Mars is turning retrograde. This is about December 6. You can see the little s coming under Mars there in Leo. Let me just circle it in case you can't see it. There we go and retrograding by the eighth.

So right around the sixth to the eighth is where we see that change of direction for Mars. Now that's happening at the sixth degree of Leo. If we back this up just a little bit, what we are going to find is that today, as we're looking at this, we have Mars at just the first degree of Leo coming off from the opposition to Pluto and Mars moving through the sign of Leo will take place between now and early December, so about a month of Mars just kind of hanging out here in Leo and then turning retrograde. This is important, because today, what I want to do is I want to give you five themes to watch for when it comes to Mars Retrograde, themes in general. And then I want to include a few little thoughts that will act as some foreshadowing for what this Mars Retrograde might mean, given that it's starting in Leo and the first couple of weeks there it is, turning retrograde and moving through Leo before spending a huge amount of time in cancer, which we will revisit again down the road. But for today, let's focus on the Leo portion of it, and I'm going to do some horoscopes for you in another video as well, just to focus on the whole sign house that Leo is in in your birth chart. So today I want to talk about five Mars Retrograde themes that you can watch for again. This is sort of regardless of you know what, what sign it's in. This would be applicable for really any Mars Retrograde in general. And I am going to.

To open up a program that I'm going to use to show you something really cool. It's called Starry Night Pro, and it is an astronomy program that I like to use in my classrooms. We'll see if I can use it without it kind of crashing things, because sometimes it does that. But here I'm going to move it over to my other screen. Here we go. All right, so see if I can get this going. Now, I think you guys will appreciate this, because it really helps to see so this is my astronomy program called Starry Night Pro. Now what I'm going to do is, first of all, I'm going to artificially hide the daylight so we can get there's the sun in the night. It's kind of weird looking. But anyway, I'm going to go down now. I'm going to add in the ecliptic, which is the green line you'll see here, that marks out the zodiac. That is the path of the sun, that defines the zodiac. I am going to add in Zodiac constellations on these are going to be measured, and these are going to look like, you know, sidereal. So we're not using these to map out the sections of the zodiac. Tropical zodiac measures according to the equinoxes and solstices, not the constellations, although we keep the original constellations as symbolic of symbolic significance, since that that was where the constellations were when the Zodiac first came around. So I'm going to add in the meridian, and then why don't we add in where we go? Here we go. Let's add in some planets, and here you can see Mars. So what I want to show you is what it looks like. Let's see here. Do? Here it is. Here's a Mars Retrograde. This is what Mars looks like when it slows down in Retrogrades.

There you go. And then it makes a little loop, de loop like that. That's from our geocentric perspective. So Mars is moving through direct motion, as you see here. And the sun is, of course, moving faster than Mars. So occasionally the sun will conjoin Mars, and then when it gets enough distance from Mars, usually around the whole sign Trine from Mars, Mars will start slowing down. You'll see it. You'll be able to perceive it here in this image, there it is slowing and then it turns retrograde, and then direct motion, and it comes back. See how it makes that little loop, de loop. So as the Mars, ours, as Mars, is moving along in direct motion through the Zodiac like this. This is considered Mars with its own power, under its own volition, moving according to its own steam, its own direction, its own intentions, with its own agency. When it slows down, it is as though it is falling back into the primary motion of the sky. So what's really interesting about planets is that they are moving against the grain of the primary motion. Let me just see if I can show you this, and I'm going to stop. And now let us go to let's see here. How do I go back to, oh, let's go to let me just pause this and I'll get it figured out. Okay, here we go. It took me a second to reset the view on the screen, but what I want to do now is show you what it looks like. So if I were to go hour by hour in a 24 hour day, watch where everything in the sky moves. It moves to its right hand side, so you see how everything's rising in the east and setting in the west, all the constellations going through the sky in the same way.

So it's that's called the primary motion, the diurnal motion, and that's caused by the rotation of the earth on its axis, right? So pretty cool. Now everything is moving in that way, and that's the swiftest, fastest motion. Nothing can move faster than that. Now, see Mars over here. There's Mars in that portion of the sky. Now, if we're going to advance this day at a time, watch how Mars is very, very gradually moving through the Zodiac to the left. So Mars is moving this way through the Zodiac, even though the primary motion of the sky whips everything in this direction, around our perspective in 24 hours, but very gradually, out in space, moving through the Zodiac, the planets are moving against the grain of the primary motion. That's called secondary motion. So there's Mars. Now let's watch, if we keep advancing this day at a time, we'll just move this perspective over here a little bit more and gradually what we're going to see happening. This is Mars now, gradually turning retrograde and moving. Backward,

Adam Elenbaas
and let's bring Mars up in the sky a little bit more so I can demonstrate this. Here we go. Here's Mars. So notice now, as Mars is moving through its retrogradation, that it's going to be moving backward through the zodiac. From our perspective, you can see it very gradually moving toward the constellation of Gemini. See that there it is, moving in. So the point is that when a planet is retrograde, suddenly it is as though, rather than cutting against the grain of the primary motion going this way, it has now fallen into the primary motion, which is the same big fluid motion that carries everything in clockwise manner through the sky in a 24 hour period.

That becomes a really important distinction, not only astronomically, but symbolically, Mars. What does Mars represent? And what does it mean from Mars going in its own direction and its own course against the grain of the primary motion, versus falling back into it? Well, one of the things that is a part of the symbol of retrogradation for all planets that retrograde is that something larger than the planet itself takes over, and the god or goddess or archetypal field, as it were, is sort of subsumed by a force larger than itself. Generally speaking, the planets have the ability to represent different faculties in human life, of human human experience, human character, human psychology and behavior, and in that way, they also represent the ongoing archetypal fields in and through which we are working with, through our own free will and when, like, for example, when Mercury Turns retrograde. One of the things that happens is we often find that when it comes to mercurial things, we have less control, the schedule, the details, the organizational flow of a day. It suddenly feels as though our ability to navigate with our own volition the world of mercury is very difficult.

That's a common experience in Mercury Retrograde, because we lose some agency with respect to the field, to the field, the archetypal field of mercury and the free will we have relative to it. So one of the meanings of a planet falling into the primary motion and losing its own volitional secondary motion is that it is as though the field represented is taken over by the larger Hand of Fate. Sometimes there are seasons in which there's nothing we can do. There's the amount of like agency we have, or the free will we have is limited by circumstance, and the circumstances arising through things that we don't feel that we have any power or control over. Quite clearly, we don't, you know. So one of the things that any retrograde can point to is forces of circumstance, Fate, destiny or karma that are taking over and temporarily restraining or restricting or making it more difficult for us to freely move about with respect to the archetype.

So again, if it's mercury, your plane is late. You know, there's delays. The communication doesn't work. You know, the technology breaks down when it comes to Mars. That breakdown that some loss of agency or volition, can show itself in a variety of really interesting ways. One of them is going to be through shifts in power. I have a certain amount of power now I don't. I've, I've lost a certain amount of strength or willpower or force or control or persuasion or influence over a situation, something, some circumstance or shift or force or power larger than myself is making it feel like I don't have as much say My will is not as effective, right? This is not the only thing that can happen, but it's one of them. So the other thing that can happen is we can feel disempowered. Now, on the other hand, the exact opposite thing can happen, where a Mars Retrograde may temporarily shift with with respect to our choices, our willpower, such that we're able to do more than we usually can, if we feel somewhat normally challenged in our ability to express our will, our agency to effectively use energetic force in the world, if that feels compromised or thwarted. Interestingly, Mars Retrograde can create almost the reverse, where there's suddenly a little bit more forcefulness or effectiveness available to us. It's really fascinating how that works. I'll never forget when I was coming out of the Bakti. World, and I started using, and this is something I've talked about on my channel before. I started using testosterone replacement therapy, and it had a huge, huge positive impact on my health and sleep, energy, depression, all sorts of stuff that it really, really helped me with, because I had very low testosterone levels, and so small therapeutic dose of testosterone started taking as Mars turned retrograde, and it completely shifted everything. I mean, the physical transformation that you guys have seen me go through, and the the ability to put on some muscle, you know, those things came almost within, you know, within four or five months while Mars was retrograde. I thought that was really fascinating. It also happened to be my natal Mars.

That's a little helpful, too. But the point here that I'm trying to make, I'm just using myself as a story, is that it's not just that suddenly you become ineffective or that you'll you'll lack you. You will lack willpower or effectiveness. Some people will experience what feels like a breakdown of their ability to utilize force. Will aggression, power, strength. They'll feel ineffective and disempowered. And other people, it will be the complete opposite, where there's been disempowerment, there will be empowerment, and it's because we're really just talking about the larger, a larger circumstantial shift that's sort of out of our control, taking place that will either serve to amplify, enhance, or sometimes decrease or diminish the Mars function, or the sort of Mars feature of the psyche and of human psychology. You can read it that way, many other examples of Retrogrades that have nothing to do with our own psychology, or things that we could say are ours, right? So I'll talk about that a little bit more as well, but that's interesting, right? So think about that Mars falling back into the primary motion as shifts of power with respect to Mars, either more of it or less of it, and it's, you know, it's very different, person to person, chart to chart, what that might look like. But there is a like a larger hand of destiny or fate, shifting things with respect to how we experience power or disempowerment and so on. Number two will be changes of direction or momentum with respect to Mars significations.

So let's say that Mars represents ambition, or let's say that Mars represents sex drive, or let's say that Mars represents victory and accomplishment, or athleticism in the body or brothers. Mars may also be correlated to the topics of any house that it's traveling through in your chart. And so if it's in your 10th house, Mars might be speaking to changes of direction or momentum in your career, changes of direction or momentum with respect to things like the body or athleticism or athletic performance, changes with respect of direction or momentum with respect to your sexual drive. It can also be Mars changing directions and that retrograde can speak to change of momentum, as in, I'm slowing down, I'm turning inward. I'm being less outwardly focused and ambitious, and more inwardly reflective, and maybe even thinking about the way in which I use power or will or force in the world and how effective it is.

Adam Elenbaas
So it can also be like, okay, Mars is in the seventh house. There's going to be a change of direction or momentum when it Retrogrades there, with respect to your relationships. So you just think about Mars as an energy of momentum. When it's moving forward, it has a very centrifugal force behind it from the center moving outward, and when it turns inward. It is almost as though it signifies a shift to towards something that's inward, or toward an involution of the will, or a decreasing of momentum. Or it sometimes it can be about a positive shift of momentum into a space that is less conflict oriented. And that's number three. There can also be a disarming or disarming or weakening of Mars, such that conflicts die down. But one of the things I love about Mars is how amazing it is for developing a better relationship with your anger, your irritation, or your how easily you are frustrated, how you cope with or deal with anger or conflict.

Mars Retrogrades are often wonderful periods of time where the sort of hot headed, impulsive, reactive qualities of Mars are muted and a more refined or mature use or development of will can be accessed. I'll never forget one of the things that was like my one of my most like favorite breakthroughs that I had while Mars was retrograde in Gemini, was going through a process of, sort of like allowing myself to snap back at some trolly people. There's trolls, I don't know, whatever we have trolls. You're in social media, and you do this every day, you get people who say shitty things, just it's like part of the job. And so first, during the Mars Retrograde, I allowed myself to sort of say something. Thing, whereas before, I always thought what you should never say anything that's just shallow or it's not rise above it or whatever. And then I needed a little time to be like, No, I'm not gonna rise above it. You ask Goblin, shut up when you're talking to me. Shut your mouth when you're talking to me. And and then by as the retrograde went on, I was like, Okay, I got that out of my system. I'm not going to address the trolls again, but now I'm doing it from a place that feels like I've actually realized the value in not responding, not that I'm just repressing the desire to respond. Do you see what I mean? It was a I love that learning process for me personally, that was really helpful. And since then, you know, you know, trolls can still get, like, get under my skin as a content creator, but not in the same way. It's it things really shifted. That was a Mars Retrograde, that shifting of your relationship with anger, frustration, conflict. There's a there's a classic text called The Art of War.

It would be great if we thought that our life was supposed to be completely free of conflict, and that the universe is a better place without conflict. And those are all great ideas, right? But it's not the reality. The reality is that conflict is a part of life, and it's actually a very creative part of life at its best, at its worst, obviously it's very destructive and cruel and so forth. But how we relate to conflict? Can we access conflict like, I even think of conflict energetically, like the clashing of notes in a musical scale, and Venus is about how we take that clash and move it toward resolution. And I'm thinking of like, and you hit, I don't know, you hit a flat note in a in a blues scale or something, and that flat note, or in jazz music, can resolve itself in depending on the next note you play, you know. So sometimes the Mars Retrogrades are periods of time, oddly enough, that are kind of Venusian in the sense that Mars is working on understanding the necessity of certain conflicts while also understanding when it's right to have them, how to have them and how to have them in a way that works toward resolution, whether it's more constructive or useful Even people Mars Retrograde is classic for athletes going through major periods of revision, for example, on their golf stroke or their the mechanics of their shot in basketball. Mars, Retrogrades are periods of time in which you often just revise the way in which you fight or compete, or an athletic skill you perform to get better at it means to refine it in some way, right? So it can also be that there's a disarming, or disarming or weakening of Mars, that if you're a bully, suddenly you maybe you have to experience getting bullied yourself. You know, if you're someone who is perpetually scared, to stand up for yourself, suddenly you find it's a little easier to do. So there'll be interesting reversals with respect to Mars, but some people will experience Mars getting weaker before it gets stronger, or Mars having to, like, unwind the tension, rather than react in the same old way. It's a fascinating signature. I find that when a malefic goes retrograde, especially Mars, where the Retrogrades are a little bit more acute than the long, lasting Saturn Retrogrades you, you will find that the malefic, the malefic, is almost like it's, it's, it's like under the care and protection of larger forces. And so it's almost as though you can see a better, higher, more divine purpose for Mars in your life. I find that with Mars Retrogrades over and over, number four would be revisions of Mars, which we've already spoken about. But anything Mars like that can go through a revision, even if Mars is signifying someone else. Mars is in your 10th house in Leo, and it's going to retrograde Well, you know, maybe your boss is going through some kind of psychological transformation. It doesn't necessarily have to be you. It could be Mars in the seventh house, a spouse, Mars in the fourth, a parent, Mars in the fifth, a kid. You know, people around you may be going through shifts with respect to how powerful they feel, or they don't feel, you know, or or other changes, changes that really don't necessarily have anything to do with Mars. It's just that Mars signifies the person going through something that is the change, like a retrograde for example, Mars retrograding in the third house might be you that you're witnessing, or bearing witness to a sibling who's going through a major life transformation, like a divorce. It's the retrogradation in the third can just suggest a significant period of transformation or revision for a sibling, right? So you can even think about it that way. Doesn't necessarily have to be something marzy per se, although a divorce might be considered Mars, I guess. But anyway, and number five, and this is where I want to comment. And initially on the role of Leo, we have the sun Mars in the sun's signs. So you think of the ego, you think of leaders. You think of paternal or solar figures, people that are luminescent or famous, or that are military or governmental in their in their role or leadership. And you see them perhaps weakened or very significant, fated events that are happening with respect to those figures that has a way of reversing or shifting their role or their the way they show up, or the way they lead, or the way they're seen. So with Mars Retrograde in Leo, you also think of the karma of fathers, leaders, paternal or solar figures, which could also be like a queen, but you see that shift happening with respect to their power or their role or their place, or their pride or their ego or their fame, something like that. And so Mars is retrograde in Leo can mean like The Return of the King from a displaced position. It could also mean the demotion of the king, or the death of the king from, like a position of tyranny. So it's, it's, it becomes open to interpretation and applicable in so many different contexts. What it might mean for Mars in the sign of the lion right to turn retrograde. There will be scenarios in which that shift of direction, role, presentation, visibility status, will show itself in different kinds of figures, with the retrograde of Mars being fitting for all of them. So it's a pattern that is multivalent, is the point. So pay attention to those things as coming themes that we're going to be working with, which we're getting some foreshadowing on now, as Mars is in Leo, my other camera is out of battery today so it's charging, and I'll be back on my other camera tomorrow. But anyhow, I hope that you're having a good week, and I'm, I've recorded this before any of the week's events have happened, so as you're listening to this, I'm like, still sitting a week out from the election and everything that's happened this week. So it's interesting to make these videos and know that they might be speaking to things that are that have happened at this point. You know, it's like, wow. But anyhow, after I sign off, there's an informational video about the upcoming program. You know, there's a saying, and I think it comes from ancient Chinese culture, and it's considered, I think it's considered a curse. It's like, may you live in interesting times. And I think it's considered to be like a kind of a curse.

Adam Elenbaas
I think that there's an exception to that, which is that you're not cursed by that statement, if you happen to live in interesting times, and you have astrology, because one of the things that astrology does is it allows for us to see these divine, eternal patterns that are just as natural and vivid and beautiful as like a seashell, and it allows us to see them in the unfolding of the rise and fall of empires and the the major cataclysms and shifts of history. It also allows us to see the patterns in the collective reality reflected in our own personal lives, our own little private kingdom, you know. And I feel like, even if we're moving through an interesting period in our life, which is often, you know, they're often challenging or an interesting period collectively, which may feel like a curse, astrology is a language that if you take the time to learn. It grants you that perspective. It's like, oh, reality is a burning bush, and it's speaking to me. And I ought to take my sandals off, you know? And that's why I do it. That's why I do it. Every day, this is my practice. Every day I get in this little room and I map out what I'm going to say, and I make a little altar fire in this video, and I hope the smoke rises up and is pleasing to these divine forces, and that it allows for the people who are listening to have ritual in their lives where we acknowledge and honor the divine presences that are a part of the unfolding Of all things when you have that I really don't feel like you can. You might live with a superficial feeling that you're living in a difficult time, or a curse time, or a diff like unfortunate time or something, but this perspective is like a little magical umbrella, and so it's just a real honor to be sure. Sharing this, and I've been reflecting on this as I'm recording all of these a week out from what I'm sure is a is going to be a big week. On that note, I highly recommend you consider studying astrology. There is no better way, if you like astrology, to really deepen the connection with astrology, and to intensify the connection such that it can act as an even greater catalyst for growth and healing on your personal path and to take up an apprenticeship at some point, find a few teachers that resonate with you and study with them, and if that's you in this channel in my work, then I invite you to check out the upcoming program need based tuition is available, so we try to make sure it's really accessible for people, but join us on a on a journey of taking this in at a very deep level over the next year, starting on November 16, the informational video will be there after I sign off, and I hope to see some of you soon. Bye.