Coming of Age: Mars to the Rescue in These Crucial Times
The Uplifting Message of the Mars Retrograde Cycle Happening Now
Mars is stationing retrograde on December 6th, bringing with it lots of good inner energy spurring us to become more of who we are. I share my perspective below. Paid subscribers: An audio version is coming tomorrow, Mercury's retrograde permitting.
In Iron Will, a 1994 Disney movie based on a true story, Will, a boy on the verge of adulthood, played by MacKenzie Astin, enters a grueling dogsled race, a fictionalized version of an epic 522-mile race from Winnipeg to Saint Paul that took place in 1917.1
Will’s chances of winning the race are slim and he is written off from the start. As the race progresses, he surprises everyone by staying in the race and emerging as a contender. In the guise of a hardened reporter played by Kevin Spacey, the movie captures the archetypal transformation of the human mind from conditioned cynicism to exhilaration when watching another’s impossible dream come true. That happens when someone refuses to back down from their heart admidst adversity and doubt.
Falling behind in the final stages of the race, a point comes where Will, if he is to have a chance at winning, has to make a choice: take a treacherous short cut along a river down a ravine or go the safe, longer way around. He pauses, the demons from his past flooding his mind. Will entered this race because his father died in a mushing accident when he and Will were out on a work trip. Somehow, the father lost control of his sled and drowned in the frigid river.
In the wake of his father’s death, Will’s mother was in need of money to keep their home and Will was in need of money to pursue his dream of going to college, a dream his father encouraged. With no other options, he entered the dogsled race. He had nothing to lose and everything to hope for and gain.
At this crucial fork in the race and in his life, Will sees the demons of his past holding him back, braces himself, and chooses the path down the ravine. In doing so, he says yes to his dreams and heart, wins the race, and emerges his own man, solid in his belief in himself and in his ability to pursue his own path in life.
Iron Will is a resonant, satisfying story of human triumph. For Will, the satisfaction was in his triumph over the ghosts of his father’s death and the cynicism of those calloused by life’s failures. His success was the success of billions of human souls on their own enduring paths towards human triumph.
For some of us walking this path on Earth, there is some inner Gordian knot that stumps us over and over until, one day, after the millionth time going back over it, we figure it out and slice right through it with the knife of our newfound inner clarity. When we do, the next stretch of our heart through life miraculously opens up for us and, presumably like Will, we take the next steps deeper into ourselves.
We can think of these moments captured so well in Will’s triumph as coming-of-age moments. I want to explore this theme further as Mars, planet of courage to stand firm in ourselves in the world, is entering into a retrograde period on December 6th.
As I have walked with the energies that are up in my life and in these times as Mars heads into this inward-turning time and considered them from the perspective of the Mars retrograde chart, it is this theme that has surfaced as a universally cohering, sense-making theme, a theme that reminds us of both our humanness and our possibility.
I hope what I share inspires, uplifts, and encourages all of us as, together in spirit, we navigate these quickening frontier times in our human journey.
Coming of Age
Coming-of-age moments don’t just happen. They arise in moments of clarity that free us to take decisive action, action that declares our new level of independence, of selfhood, of realization of who we are, to ourselves and others.
If we think of life as a progression towards greater and greater independence, or realization, we might think of it as a series of developmental steps punctuated by coming-of-age moments. In these moments, we get the thing we needed to get to take the next step towards becoming our own, inwardly-realized beings. If we’ve had the support we’ve needed along the way, we will feel challenged, yet also feel able to meet the moment.
If we have not received the support we’ve needed and so have been stuck, these clarifying coming-of-age moments allow us to slice through the complex inner knots that have been confounding our ability to integrate some level of development, that inability keeping us stuck in a state of dependence no longer resonant with what we want or need. In these sudden moments of insight, we are finally able to free ourselves from a past level of dependence and enter into a new level of autonomy and agency.
Notice that it does not matter at what developmental level this coming-of-age moment is happening, whether a new one unfolding before us or a past one now surfacing for integration. What matters is that the energies are supporting us in realizing the next level of our self-governance.
Let’s consider this coming-of-age theme as it relates to the Mars retrograde cycle. To do so, as I laid out in an article series covering this topic,2 we can look at the Sabian symbols for the significant degrees in the cycle. I will be using those provided by James Burgess through his site, Sacred 7 Academy, using a mix of Burgess’ and my own insights.
Sabian Symbols for the Mars Retrograde Cycle
The Retrograde Point
Mars turns retrograde on December 6, 2024 in the seventh degree of Leo.3 This degree represents the furthest reaches of Mars’ current transit through the zodiac. Before it goes further, it needs to turn back to gather itself for the next developmental leg of its journey. The Sabian symbol for this degree is The constellations in the sky.
This symbol is deeply evocative and there are two themes I want to focus on. The first theme is that of a cosmic journey. We are travelers through this Cosmos on a quest to find ourselves. This quest is never-ending, like the Cosmos itself, as each time we find an aspect of ourselves, the next depth opens up, allowing us to travel further into our own depths. We are never not those depths and we are always discovering new layers, just as is so in any enduring relationship of love.
Our task as humans is not to hit the enlightenment jackpot so we no longer have to incarnate again as humans, as though human incarnation is punishment we must endure or a spiritual test to prove our worth. Our task is to surrender ourselves to the opportunity we have been given to explore ourselves through this particular human form in all its nuance and complexity.
This Sabian symbol also evokes the idea of dreaming. When we look up into that deep, lulling sky and see the raft of stars, we are inspired to wonder and dream. Consider that the feeling we feel when we look up at the stars is awe, not fear, belief, not doubt, possibility, not foolishness. During white water times like these, looking up at the stars may help us tack true to ourselves when buffeted by the listing world around us.
Consider that when we look up at the stars, our heart expands, both physically and spiritually. Consider that only when we turn away from the stars does our mind start to doubt the dream the stars call us to each time we look up. Consider that we spend a lot of time looking down in our modern world.
The Sabian symbol for the retrograde point tells us that the next leg of our developmental unfolding as it relates to Mars is this Cosmic re-aligning with ourselves. To get there, the retrograde cycle says there’s something we have to go back for, something we need to touch base with to help us ground and anchor before stepping onto the next leg of our journey.
To get a sense for what that might be, we can look at the Sabian symbol for the direct degree.
The Direct Degree
Mars will turn direct on February 23, 2025 in the 18th degree of Cancer, marking the end of its retrograde motion and the beginning of its final integration period, two of the three phases of the retrograde cycle. The remaining phase is the reconnaissance period, which initiates the cycle. Mars first crossed over the direct degree at the start of its reconnaissance period. Thus, this degree ties together all the phases of the retrograde cycle. For a review and deeper understanding of the phases of the retrograde cycle, I refer you to my article series on the topic.4 The Sabian symbol for this degree is a A hen scratching for her chicks.
We come into this life completely dependent and vulnerable. To survive and thrive, we need others to do the work of feeding us and finding the food that we need to strengthen and grow. Eventually, with the help of others, we learn how to do this for ourselves. We scratch for our own seeds, rather than relying on someone else. Reaching this level of self-care, we realize another level of independence, a level we are wired to realize as souls incarnated as humans.
But, we live in an imperfect world. Maybe we learned to prefer nutrient-deplete but powerfully sweet processed foods because our bodies, like our ancestors’ bodies, relying on their organismic wisdom that more sweet means more life-giving energy, were fooled by these imitation products. Or maybe we learned the habit of dismissing our dreams as unrealistic or impractical or selfish because our ancestors, scrabbling to survive, never thought of dreaming. Or maybe some ancestors’ dream quest ended in tragedy and heartache and so a family ethic braced against dreaming took hold.
During this Mars retrograde period, if our life has not been working for us, we may realize it is because we are not eating the foods or dreaming the dreams that nourish us. In that realization, we may finally see the solution to the tired old patterns that have been keeping us chained to some form of misery and cut right through them.
In this newfound freedom, we may find ourselves dreaming dreams we never knew we had or letting ourselves dream the old dreams we kept under wraps and never let ourselves believe in, this new dreaming power lifting our spirits during these trying times. We may also find ourselves stepping into a deeper relationship with ourselves, finally surrendering with love and compassion to the vulnerable reality of our body’s needs. With these psychic freedoms, we may finally feel able to embark on the next leg of our quest, this leg one where we actively engage in learning the art and craft of nurturing and nourishing our precious light so it can keep shining in these darkened times.
Like Will in Iron Will, to get to this point of newfound freedom, we may first need to face an unresolved challenge from our past. We can see that possibility represented by the midpoint of the cycle.
The Midpoint
Mars will reach the midpoint of its retrograde period on January 15, 2025 in the 27th degree of Cancer. It first reached this point during its reconnaissance period on October 24th. If we think back to that time, we might notice something significant that occurred then that is now resurfacing. The Sabian symbol for the 27th degree is A storm in a canyon.
This symbolism speaks of a challenge, some variation of which each of us affected by this Mars retrograde cycle may find ourselves facing, just as Will had to face his challenge in Iron Will. For him, the canyon manifested on two levels, the piercing inner ravine of trauma and the treacherous outer ravine he would have to navigate if he was going to give himself a chance to win. In facing the former, he was able to cut through his fear and choose self-belief and thus the path that gave his dreams a chance.
The Message
Whatever our challenge may be, looking up to the sky and remembering the promise embedded in our souls that it evokes, that it signed up to evoke ages ago when the human soul set out on its journey knowing it would need an everpresent companion on its arduous path, this looking up may help us meet the ask of this challenge and grow just a little more sturdy and assured in ourselves.
Sabian Symbols for the Mars Retrograde Cycle
All Sabian symbols are from James Burgess’ Sacred 7 Academy website.
—> Mars Reconnaissance: A hen scratching for her chicks (October 6, 2024)
<— Mars Retrograde: The constellations in the sky (December 6, 2024)
<— Mars Solar Point: A storm in a canyon (January 15, 2025)
—> Mars Direct: A hen scratching for her chicks (February 23, 2025)
—> Mars Integration: The constellations in the sky (May 2, 2025)
Mars Retrograde Chart
Cover Image Credit
References
1994 - Movie: Iron Will is Released. Mushing. https://mushing.com/timeline/movie-iron-will-is-released/
Notes
See 1994 - Movie: Iron Will is Released.
The link to the article series on the retrograde cycle provided in the body of this article is to the first article in the series. Here are the links to all three:
part 1: The Retrograde Story
part 3: Jupiter’s Retrograde Story
All dates are based on eastern standard time. Depending on where you live in the world, the dates for the Mars retrograde cycle may different by a day one way or another.
See footnote 2.