Astrologer Bill Attride

Mars Turns Retrograde (June 26 – August 27, 2018)

Mars: Retrograde/June 26^th, Opposition/July 26-27^th, Direct/August 27^th

Whereas Mercury moves retrograde 3 times a year for about 23 days each time, and Venus retrogrades about every 1.5 years for about 40 days, Mars will move retrograde about every 2 years and 2 months, and this time it will do so for 62 days. It is the planet that goes retrograde the least, so you should always take advantage of this opportunity.

Whenever a planet is moving retrograde it is actually moving closer to the Earth; Mars and Earth will be closer to one another than at any time when we reach the midpoint of the retrograde, when Mars is Opposite the Sun, with the Earth between the Sun and Mars. This time that will occur on July 26-27^th.

Though some might consider a planet to be somehow "weakened" by moving backwards, you must remember that this is only an appearance for us here on Earth. In the matter of Mars, it is we on Earth who are "catching up" to Mars and passing by, as if we were on an inside lane of a race track. Moreover, as we do catch up we make our closest approach to Mars as it "grows" bigger and brighter. Mars, the Avatar of Desires and Actions will shine redder than ever, and much will be stirred within and around you too. You will see Mars most luminous, a glowing crimson orb, when it forms the opposition to the Sun at the end of July.

Mars rules your actions and desires, it serves your "self" (the Sun) by providing the drive to secure your needs and wants. But when it turns retrograde it signals a time for you to turn inward. Mars retrograde offers you the opportunity to re-examine what exactly it is that you do desire, and, just as importantly, it calls upon you to re-consider how you should secure it.

This time Mars is retrograding through Aquarius until August 12^th, and then continues to retrograde in Capricorn until it turns direct on August 27^th, so the review of your desires and aims will be upon your dreams of a better world to be made true, and then shift to considerations about your path of self-fulfillment and your responsibilities. It will principally bring a re-examination of your friendships and communities, and it will remind you that your dreams are made of one another, and you can only be fulfilled if their dreams come true too.

Many observers have noted that whenever Mars turns retrograde the forces of Self-Assertion seem to slip beyond the normative bounds of caution or self-restraint, and we find increasing manifestations of aggression and even violence...yes, there is real "danger" here.

The misunderstanding and misuse of Spiritual Energies is always a problem no matter what is happening "up there". But the time of Mars Retrograde stirs more strongly the shadowed depths of the human psyche where hurts and resentments have festered, and the result of this stirring of painful energies inflames passion, stokes fear and anger, and this collision of passion, pain and anger erupts in actions that can lead to the harming of oneself or of others.

Always remember, the Energies evoked or stoked by Mars are neither "good" or "bad"...rather it is your degree of spiritual awareness and evolution that will indicate how the energy will be received. And, then how you will pass it on equally depends upon your own spiritual development and self-control. How you receive the Energies around you, how you work with them, and in what form will you pass them on is determined by your Spiritual Integration and Awareness.

To the extent that you have become more Self-Masterful, guided by your Higher Self and not your Ego, then to that same extent will you be able to wield your Physical, Emotional, Mental and Intuitional Powers in a Loving and Constructive Manner. And, to the extent that you remain unintegrated, with conflicts within and between your Hierarchical Nature of Body, Feelings, Mind and Spirit, then to that same extent will you act Destructively towards yourself and/or towards others. This is true always.

This is why Mars moving retrograde is such an opportunity for spiritual quickening. What Mars retrograde can and should be used for is to take this time and use it to pierce through those self-made shadows of old fears and hurts. You can transform yourself and your world by over-turning limited fear-formed desires, transforming those misdirected energies into aspirations. Mars retrograde is truly a time to stir your awakening, as you continue on the one true path of greater mindfulness, unconditional love and a centered will.

In the end, as always, it comes quite simply down to one thing, do you Love Yourself? Do you have and know the Love of your Higher Self as real and ever present and before you at all times? Do you stand in its presence, so that this eternal fountain-source of love pervades your entire being and all of your actions too? And, from this experience of your true self you will equally know that you are to treat the other before you as you treat yourself, with unconditional love too.

Mars is the part of your journey informed by your Desire. You are always on the path of awakening, of learning to become a better or more complete human. Yes, as long as you strive to become outwardly what you are in your Higher Self, to be fully awakened, to become a Deva or shining one, you will continue on this journey to discover, accept and embrace your true nature which is Spirit, which is Love.

As Mars grows brighter, night after night, as you move towards that moment of greater revelation, take time to re-consider where you are going and how you are getting there. Look more deeply within yourself and ask:

"Is this what I should aim for, is this the way to move my dreams and the dreams of others closer to the One Universal dream? Is this the noble path forged and formed by unconditional Love and Truth? Is this the way we will enter with song and laughter, to become that shining city on the hill?”

In the end, as it was at the beginning,

We are here to be the Light,

We are here because of Love.

Just Love one another.

Sun Enters Cancer (June 21, 2018)

We all want to know where we are going; we all want to know what is around the next bend in the river of our life. We all want to understand “the what, where and why” of this journey in spirit.

But if you would understand your path and your wonderful destiny, you need to turn around. You need to more clearly understand and hold to the essential truth founded upon where you have come from; you need to understand what makes you what you are. You need to re-connect to your “self” at the center of you if wish to build a life that is right and luminous for you.

Yes, it is always the right time, and it is certainly timely now in the month that is Cancer, to come back to your center, and to align with your sacred sense of home once more. Your home is not merely a space, it is your deep and loving connection to the roots of your being. Yes, here in Cancer it is time to swim once again in the waters of your beginnings, to feel yourself as you are in your innermost and higher self, for you are a divine being made of light and love.

But this must equally remind, reaffirm and bring you to a place of peace as you intuitively come to feel that “you are you” precisely because your journey is not separate from all that is around you. You are part of a very ancient line of spiritual evolution. You are part of the family of human. But most fundamentally and lovingly, you are equally and most marvelously a sparkling dewdrop of the One Spirit, you are a one of the One.

Yes, you will start in any life to feel your immediate connections to your mother and father, to your brother and sister, with grandmother and grandfather, to aunt and uncle too. But then as you lift your awareness you will see the more encompassing, affirming intimacies and shared affections among your friends and colleagues. You will extend yourself beyond the borders of time itself and feel your ancestors stretching back into the mists of history. And then in the present day, you will equally dissolve the borders that separate you from your greater family, as you forge fellowships with other peoples, cultures and lands as part of your family too.

Yes, you are singular, you are one of a kind…and you are so very special. But, you also belong to this greater family of human. And, you will most certainly feel, if not now then someday, that you are related to all of the countless life-forms that fill the entire cosmos too. Why? Because All of this is the One; and you and I and all the stars above are part of this family too.

That is why we look to the example of the great souls, the wise ones we look to as Masters, because we feel their deep caring, unconditional love and compassion. We feel this because they live in the one abiding truth:

We are all related.

And that is why,

Whatever you do to the least of these, you also do to the One.

So, there is but one injunction for your entire journey, and it will bring you home,

Love one another!

Yes, in Cancer we celebrate where we have come from…the stars. And from this we also understand what our destiny is too. We are part of a family that stretches back to the beginning of time and extends to the farthest reaches of this Creation.

We came from the stars,

And we were made to shine.

We are all related,

And we will find,

That our truest home is in our heart.

For we are here for one another,

From the beginning and for all time, 

We are here because of love,

We are here to love and be Loved.

Uranus Semi-Square Neptune (June 16, 2018 and December 15, 2018 and May 1, 2019)

I thought it might be helpful, especially for those who prefer to read rather than listen, to have a Transcript of my comments on this topic on my latest Radio Show:

One of the more consequential themes of human social development through the ages has been the ongoing interdependent, ever-changing balance between the conditions of Individuality and Community. At various points in history, within any culture as well as between different cultures, there has been this reciprocal balance between the degree to which people are freer to express themselves as more individual, to differentiate themselves from their various groups, and times when the larger social order, (of family, community, ethnicity, and state) are able to more closely or narrowly define and often circumscribe that individual freedom.

In examining the cycle of Uranus and Neptune, we can discern a rhythm or heartbeat of this central theme of human development. Their cycle of relationship is about 170 years long, beginning at their conjunction. The last conjunctions were 1993, 1821 and 1650. At each of these moments an old order of the relationship between the individual and their “communities” ended, and a new one began. In 2017 and 2018 and into 2019 we have arrived at the first stage of their new cycle, the semi-square or 45-degree angle, or what we would call a crescent moon phase. The previous times we were at such a moment were 1845-47, and 1673-75.

It is at such a time, at the crescent phase of any planetary pair, when the emerging new theme released at the conjunction (or New Moon) is encountering the counter-vailing forces of the past. It is very much a struggle between a new way of being that is brought face to face with the fearful pulls and pushes of the old order trying to restore itself. This struggle between more individual freedom and more community or communal conformity will play out during the entire 170-year cycle again and again. But at these particular periods or moments it will certainly become more acute. We are at such a time right now.

When either of these energy-forms becomes imbalanced with the other, we either move towards extreme forms of independence, (and break our bonds of fellowship), or we bind ourselves into individuality-denying forms of communalism, (which can or will lead to the breakdown in the integrity of each member of the group). There is a need for Life, for Spirit to find itself by being One and True, but it also can only do this by being part of something greater, of belonging and being formed by something larger too. As I like to say, “We all want to be One of a Kind; but we also can only find our Meanings and Values by being part of some Kind”.

The cycle that began in 1993 has now reached a critical moment. It should be apparent and clear to many if not most people, that we are witnessing throughout the world this higher tension between Freedom and Communal life-ways, and it is ripping cultures, ethnicities, communities and even families into ever more fragmented relationships and groupings. You could say that the Centripetal force of Freedom has become severely unbalanced in its integral relationship with the Centrifugal force of Love. The egoistic, narcissistic and divisive energies appear ascendant; Love, sacrifice and communalism are in retreat. As they become unhinged or out of balance with one another, each seemingly devolves into a twisted or warped version of its higher nature.

In such a time, Freedom becomes ripped from shared affections, becoming selfish and nihilistic; then equally in response, the principle of Love becomes bounded by the fear of the unfamiliar, affections are narrowed and retreat inwardly to often anachronistic anchors like tribal groupings based on “blood and soil”. The true communal foundations of our common ancestry, that we all can trace our physical and spiritual roots to the same cause, this essential root of us all seems to devolve, and the Center that is the force that binds the entire universe, true spiritual Love, that love cannot hold for a time and societies devolve into disassociated groups, made of fear-filled groupings, tribes formed upon fear, who look upon the “the other” as the carrier of darkness, blame and fear.

Yes, it would appear, if we were only to go by the headlines and news stories, that the catabolic forces of fear and hatred are out-pacing the one abiding, true and supreme force of in this universe, Love. But we need not, nor should we retreat or succumb to fear. Because we can also find comfort and reassurance in our history. We can find inspiration and confirmation of our own responses to this challenge by looking at what came before in a time such as this. During the same moment in the previous cycle, during the 1840’s, we saw the emergence of new forms of consciousness and social organizations.

In the USA, the rising tide against slavery, the ceaseless efforts of people and groups, finding common purpose and sensibilities guided by love, flowed into the abolitionist and other social justice movements that were counterpoints to the rising tide of anti-immigrant fears and other retrogressive reactions. These fear-filled and love-countered actions were fueled and fostered by the changes in the economy and culture, as the USA steadily moved from a rural and agrarian culture into a more industrial and city-based one.

You could argue that it is not unlike our attempt to deal with the newly interconnected and fast changing world of technology that we are attempting to deal with in our own time. But as Life equals Spirit, and Spirit equals Life, the one constant truth in our journey is this experience of change. What is not constant or consistent is how we respond or react to this change. We all have a choice, to respond with fear or hope, with love or hate.

Where can we find such stirrings that will to the right balance of Individuality and Community in our time? I would argue that it perennially emerges and/or remains ever-present “locally”. That there are in fact innumerable instances, stories, and struggles of love-formed efforts being made in local towns and larger communities to solve their problems in this fast-changing world. Though we may look to leadership from “on high”, it is in these smaller, more intimate settings that our new world is being formed.

Spirit fills the spaces that are in need of greater understanding and kindliness. Each of us can do our part to right some wrong, to be more considerate of others and to help those in need. All these so-called “little acts” of love are the building blocks for the better world that is coming…for that world is coming through each and every one of us helping to make it so.

Astrologer Bill Attride Radio Show, 2018 – Uranus SemiSquare Neptune, Mars Retrograde – (Saturday June 16, 2018 @ 2 pm EDT)

Astrological Musings –Uranus and Neptune, Mars Retrograde (Saturday June 16, 2018)

In my seventh show of 2018 I will consider current Astrological conditions as we approach the middle of the calendar year. I will re-visit the main aspect for 2018, Uranus SemiSquare Neptune (exact again today), and examine the implications of Mars turning retrograde from June 26^th until August 27^th.

As before, I will answer your questions during the show, whether on these topics or some other matter, including personal questions about your astrological chart. If you do wish to ask a personal question, please be ready to provide at least your birth date and birth place, and time of your birth if you have that too.

If you wish to suggest a subject or topic for a future show, please email me as I would be happy to hear from you. My email is: billattride@gmail.com.

Here is the main link to Astrologer Bill Attride Radio: 

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/astrologerbillattride

Here is the link to the show on Saturday June 16^th @ 2 pm EDT:

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/astrologerbillattride/2018/06/16/astrologer-bill-attride-radio-show-uranus-and-neptune-mars-retrograde

The phone number to call if you wish to ask a question during the live show is: (516) 531-9638.

Please join me on Saturday June 16^th at 2 pm EDT as we look at the current astrological indications and what they mean for you.