Mars Rx: Slow and steady. But mostly slow.

As Erin Sullivan points out in her excellent book Retrograde Planets, Mars retrogrades so seldom – only every two and a half years – that its retrogrades take us by surprise. We don’t develop the same practical or spiritual reflexes we have for dealing with, say, Mercury’s retrograde periods, which occur approximately every fifteen minutes. (Okay, more like three times a year, but gah, it does feel like every fifteen minutes, doesn’t it?) So we tend to get caught in a psychosis-inducing loop of work – work – frustration – head banging -throw something – work some more, until we finally hit a brick wall and end up on the sofa in a fetal position, whimpering softly.