This Tues (June 30) Mars turns direct. We say goodbye to the planet of will. Earth, on the inside track, moves on toward the far side of the Sun from slightly slower Mars.
This does not mean we can forget about troubles and strife associated with combating wills. Remember that both the dramatic fall of Egypt 's longstanding dictator and the Boston Marathon bombing took place when Earth was across the solar system from Mars and saw the Sun lining up with the position of the warrior. It is wise to keep in mind that sometimes what looks like the beginning of a new cycle in the chart is actually Earth lining up with the Sun on the far side of an outer planet, bringing to fruition a seed that germinated many months previously when they had been intimate.
Further down is a link to the 2016 year page of the Cafe Astrology ephemeris. Click on the link and scroll down to April 18 to see where Mars went retro. They use a tiny little red 'r' to mark where a planet turns retro. If you see the numbers for Mars' position decreasing instead of increasing after the 'r' you'll know you've found the place.
It was right near Acrab in the night sky in April. The ephemeris doesn't show that. You have to look it up in a star atlas or go out and look south (unless you're in the southern hemisphere in which case you probably already know you look north to see the ecliptic).
If you go out at night now you can see that the brilliant little ember (Mars) has retreated to a position well west of Acrab. After Tues night you can watch it advance through July and August to a second meeting with Acrab. This time Mars will pass the star and keep on going.
I am sending readers to an ephemeris I have never used. (I get all my computer calculations and data from astro.com, but their ephemeris only comes in pdf format.)
I googled online ephemeris and picked this one from a few that I checked out. I have visited Cafe Astrology a few times and really like their site.
So I hope people will check out the column for Mars in the April section of the ephemeris. (Mars is the red circle with an arrow....just to the right of the blue circle with a cross which stands for Venus) Think about whether you became increasingly more intimate with a challenge until around May 21, 22 when Earth was closest to Mars. For me that was a weekend when I realized even the toughest situation could bring real cause for celebration. Once I had passed through all the difficulties they didn't seem as bad as when I first started facing them.
There were still many weeks to follow of learning to be patient with things I can't change. But now that I view Mars reaching the middle of the sky a bit earlier each clear night, I think of the bond I've formed that comes from going through hard times with another person.
Mr. Lyrica and I are real friends now. I think of the little drawing of the dog in my customer's bathroom that says "A friend is not a fellow who is taken in by sham. A friend's someone who knows your faults and doesn't give a damn." We've been through a lot together since April, and seen each others' faults.
As I prepare to bid farewell to Mars until the meeting in 2018 I'm remembering how pumped up I was to tell our story when the planet of heroism was working its way into Sagittarius. Then as it backed into Scorpio I began to realize just how complicated Mr. Lyrica's situation is. It was like I kept bumping into these invisible walls.
I suspect that when Mars gets back into Sagittarius my urge to talk about our friendship will grow anew. Right now I feel like we can only muddle through our time together and breathe a sigh of relief each time we part ways. I no longer try to get him to talk because I'm afraid I'll get mad at what he says. It's neat to trudge through the hard part of getting close to another person.
A last link which I hope will entice people to go out and get a look at our beautiful heavenly neighbor. This blogger took some photos of Mars in March before it slowed down and went backwards. Mars is the brighter and deeper red object next to Acrab. From what I've read it sounds like Acrab is actually a group of several stars. If you go out and look south tonight, or even for the next several weeks, you'll see that Mars slid back a long ways west of Acrab during April-June.