Impact of Retrograde Mars-6

Eleventh House: Retrograde Mars in the 11th house shows that, in the past, the individual enjoyed the friendship of inferior types of people, crude, coarse, unrefined. Perhaps too much attention was placed on the external features of friends and social activities, rather than the true meaning behind them. Again, depending upon what planetary aspects and signs are there, the nature of the social activities could be clearly defined as to whether they are sexual activities, wild drinking parties etc.

Retrograde Mars in Pisces would place little value on friendship itself. If it were in Leo, the retrograde Mars would show that the individual dominated friends, controlled friends, dictated to them and, of course, this raised resentment. If in Cancer, the retrograde Mars shows too much emotional involvement with friends, too much possessiveness where they were concerned, too much involvement in their personal lives. If in Scorpio, retrograde Mars indicates the individual held most of his fellow man in contempt and was extremely snobbish.

The lesson of retrograde Mars in the 11th house requires the transmutation of social activities and social involvement constructively, morally, spiritually. It requires that the person acquire true values where people are concerned – to use friends, not to abuse them.

A native with retrograde Mars in the 11th house should never associate with inferior types of people but, at the same time, must understand that these people, too, are evolving in their own way. They could very possibly need the direction that the person with a retrograde Mars could provide, remaining detached, however, from close involvement.

Twelfth House: Retrograde Mars here indicates, from the viewpoint of health alone, since it is opposite the 6th house, that the individual was his own worst enemy in the past. He did not know how to conserve his energy in the past and he assumed more than he could properly handle. The tendency was to over-exhaust himself and go on nerve energy, to the point of near collapse. If Leo were on the cusp of the 12th house, it stresses the arrogance of Leo, the pushiness where the individual has to be the center of attention, and these are the inner drives and energies that we are involved with.

This is the house of the true soul and a Karma. The purpose of the energy of Mars is to provide the driving power or the motor energy to cope with life and to experience and to evolve. It shows that in the past this energy was mishandled and thus Karma was not worked out, but more accumulated. The person failed to meet the challenges of life. He did not use his knowledge and experiences in service to others. In this lifetime, he would be inwardly very impatient, suffer many personal frustrations and disappointments, and would find it very difficult to achieve full self-expression.

The lesson of retrograde Mars in the 12th house is to learn humility, to be of service to others without seeking return, to correlate the inner-self with the outer self, as a unified whole.