Astro4Business Intersections

Hello, everyone.

There are several astrology blogs I follow all the time.  I was reading a post by Frederick Woodruff yesterday and it reminded me of something I wanted to remind you about:  retrograde motion.

Retrograde Motion, revisited

Both Saturn and Mars are in retrograde motion now.  Not only that, but they are forming a very supportive aspect to each other, each reinforcing the other’s retreat.  It’s like Mars, our competitive spirit, and Saturn, representing our ambitions in the world, are on vacation together.  Here’s an excerpt of what Frederick has to say about this:

Stopped by Time. Le Temps, Charles Van der Stappen (Source:Wikipedia)

“With both Saturn (the prime mover) and Mars (the feisty shaker) in retrograde motion, our direction, our sense of time, our desire (Mars) for a forward momentum (Saturn) — all of our leaning toward and lunging for is, well, suspended — left dangling. So when someone asks you, “What are you up to?” You can say, in all honesty, “Just hanging around.” Or if you’re a more melodramatic type: “Man, I’m going down.” 

Mars and Saturn move backwards and there’s a universal stall. To have both timekeepers in retrograde disrupts the mechanical/animal routine of our lives. The dynamism of time takes on a different sense. The impersonal glide of time (Saturn), as we experience it within the collective, feels enclosing and stock still. And personal time (Mars) — as we experience it within the rhythm and robustness of our instincts — feels thwarted; forced to lean towards introspection, reevaluation and psychic excavation.

Cosmic stalling hints at a kind of mystical cessation, and … we notice a different quality of attention available to us, an opportunity to use this new ‘down time’ to reassess our place within time.”

The Cosmic Stall

Have you noticed this sense of time being stalled?  Several of my clients have.  One woman bought new clothes and went to a promising interview, only to have the key players absent due to illness.  Another client is anxious to file her tax returns so she can submit her daughter’s financial aid application for college, but cannot get the information she needs.  One client is hampered in her work by pain in her shoulder cuff, but can’t find the right practitioner to address it.  I could go on and on, but you get the picture – they are all experiencing a cosmic stall.

Reassessing our place within time

When I see people struggling to make progress in their business lives I tend to think in terms of sidestepping or waiting out the trend so they can move forward again.  That’s why I was so interested in Frederick’s post.  He points out that there may be a mystical reason behind our lack of forward motion – that we can take the opportunity to “reassess our place within time”.

Do you have too much ‘down time’?  Can you redefine it as a precious space with something to learn – something that you cannot perceive when you are continually busy accomplishing something?  It takes a lot of faith to be within the cycles of time, to rest and to trust that once again the time for forward motion will come.  If we take the opportunity to gather energy and resources when Mars and Saturn are retrograde, we will be fully rejuvenated and ready to apply what we’ve learned.  Then when Mars resumes direct motion on March 10, the vacation will be over and it will be full speed ahead!

Are you experiencing a cosmic stall in your business life?  Let us know in the comments section.

 For more discussion on retrograde motion, see the category “Retrograde Motion” under Astro4Business Basics to the right.

Don’t forget. If you have an astrology-related business question (or a business-related astrology question) send it to me at ellen@astro4business.com. I’ll answer it in these posts, anonymously of course, and we can all learn from each other’s experiences. I look forward to it! Have a question now? Email it and let’s get started!