A friend mentioned to me recently that the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, the single most popular podcast in the world today, was launched during Mars retrograde. Of course, I had to go look it up, because as I just talked about in my retrograde workshop, it’s generally suggested to refrain from initiating something new during retrogrades of the more personal planets (Mercury through Mars). This rule of thumb is especially pertinent to the rare retrograde period of Mars, the planet of initiating, asserting, pioneering, animating.
[Mars is stationing retrograde this Friday, Dec. 6th at 6 Leo, and will remain retrograde through February 23rd. Mercury went retrograde on Nov. 25th and goes direct again on Dec. 15th.]
If I had been advising Rogan on when to launch his podcast, I would hope I looked further than the retrogrades. He chose a powerful day to launch, despite both Mercury and Mars stationing retrograde at that moment. The Sun was exactly conjunct power planet Pluto. Jupiter (expansion) and Neptune (imagination and dreams) were exactly conjunct. Saturn, the planet that rules both his 9th house of publishing and 10th house of reputation and career, was exalted in Libra.
Although he did switch platforms shortly after launching, something to be expected with the retrogrades, there is no disputing the immediate and lasting success of his pioneering creation.
Here’s the thing about astrology in particular, and externalized guidelines and experts in general: you are unique. Your chart is unique. The way in which the whole picture of today’s sky interacts with the whole picture of you belies generalities and rules of thumb.
Which is not to say that generalized astrology guidance is not useful. It can be incredibly freeing to understand that the confusion and lack of initiative you might be feeling at the moment is just you picking up on Neptune stationing in preparation for turning direct this weekend, for instance. Or maybe you remembered to set aside a little extra time to do that online administrative task during Mercury retrograde.
It is when we give away our own agency and autonomy to the ‘experts’ that disciplines such as astrology dampen rather than strengthen our intuition and self-trust.
And it is only going to become more imperative to trust yourself as everything continues to shift wildly over the next couple of years. Pluto’s move into Aquarius will continue to upend the way we understand the world. The coming shift of Uranus into Gemini (20205-26) will radically alter the information landscape. Neptune’s move into Aries alongside Saturn crystallizes a new ideological backdrop.
You might note that all of these shifts are from yin signs into yang signs. Change will come even faster. It might be even more challenging to stay grounded and embodied than it is now. The world’s focus will shift from a material, 3D viewpoint to perhaps, finally, understanding the energetic dimension of life, but not without some potentially shocking revelations.
I am still researching and unpacking what these changes might mean separately and together, coming as they are over such a short time period. The one thing I am certain of, though, is that the best way to thrive through this period of history is to learn to trust yourself.
Hone your intuition; spend time getting to know your unique frequency - what is ‘you’ and ‘not you’. Question everything you read, watch or listen to, especially if it comes through a screen. Get intimately familiar with your body and its subtle sensations, and what they are telling you.
Trust your gut, even as you gather insight into what the astro-weather is offering.
I bet Joe Rogan trusted his when he began his podcast.
Here are a couple of recent podcast episodes (free) and workshops (paid) you might find useful:
Thank you for being here! May we co-create a more beautiful world together.
P.S. You may not have noticed, but the name of this publication changed recently (Mercury retrograde, after all). The original title when I shifted over to Substack was “Co-create with the Cosmos”, from a year-long group program I had intended to market on navigating the big planetary shifts.
But after thinking further about it, I went back to my long-time tagline of Reclaim Your Natural Wisdom - which is the foundation of of everything I create. Let’s remember ourselves as part of nature (including the cosmos) and learn to live in sync with the natural cycles.