Precious Hours Ahead

We get such a brief window of retrograde-free time, I’m telling you way in advance, so you can mark your calendar for the next New Moon, when we get a precious twenty-four hours that are retrograde-free. On Friday, February 28, it’s a New Moon, no personal planets are retrograde, and aspects between many of the planets are lovely. Usually we would say a moment like this is great for launching important projects. But whatever starts now will quickly meet the frustrations and/or general slowing-down of Mars, who goes retrograde on March 1.

So maybe we should rather spend the coming Pisces New Moon in luxurious dreamtime. The wise know that the gift of unstructured time brings great rewards. If we get quiet enough, we may get a sudden vision of how best to proceed. So schedule that Friday for something decadently romantic and self-nourishing, as is appropriate for Pisces. Just imagine, two whole weeks to plan that!

2014 is one of those years that begins with a string of retrogrades, first Venus, then Mercury, now Mars. With retrogrades, our progress struggles forward through invisible molasses. Or what has long been simmering on the back burner chooses now to boil over. A metaphorical boulder may suddenly block the road.

But retrogrades can only expose weaknesses that have been brewing for a while. So that’s what this time is good for—fixing what’s shoddy or weak. Verbs with the prefix “re” indicate where our efforts are best directed. We need to repair, renew, return, review, revise, reorganize, remember, revisit, or refrigerate (as in, chill out). Approached this way, retrogrades can strengthen us and our projects. So for this slow start to 2014, perhaps we should be grateful.

Mercury stations direct on February 28 at 9:00 am EST. Mars goes retrograde on March 1 at 11:24 am EST.