Along with being given the responsibility of caring for a child, mothers are also given other amazing talents:

• The addition of a cleansing and healing hormone to saliva
• The ability to induce guilt at any time without warning for the rest of the childs natural life.
• A range of sayings for any occasion. My mother had a heap of these: “no blood- no noise”, “I’m cold, put a jumper on” or my personal favourite “its just a stage”. I have offered the same type of indispensable wisdom to Five Foot Nothing: “no matter how late, tired or drunk you are- take your make-up off before you go to bed” and “when it comes to issues of politics, don’t listen to anything your Grandmother says”. Definitely words to live by.

But what were these “stages” my mother talked about? Given that it usually coincided with somebody’s bad behaviour, I’m inclined to think these stages coincided with Mars returns- or when Mars returns to its natal position- something that happens every couple of years.

We experience the 1^st of these at around 2 years of age…and what happens then? Yep, the terrible twos. Your placid and oh so cute toddler learns the power of the word “no” and continues to repeat it- at various levels of intensity and interspersed with tantrums and tears. He is learning to go after what he wants and assert his own will…but doesn’t quite know how to do it. He is learning how to use his Mars.

Then there is another just before we start school, when language and communication skills are starting to be learned and bad behaviour is accompanied by frustration at not being able to get our message across and “use your words”.

And so it goes, every 2 years or so, depending on retrogrades…

Think also about relationships. How often do you find relationships faltering at the 2 year mark- yep, the Mars return for the relationship? The rose coloured glasses are off, (generally) that first blast of amazingness has died down and the relationship is into business as usual. Along comes a Mars return and an amazing boost of energy and, if it isn’t channelled back into the bedroom or in building something permanent, frustrations and arguments ensue. The heat and energy associated with Mars has to go somewhere- either into an ending or a new beginning.

The same occurs with jobs. Once the initial burst of fire and challenge has gone, you are left with business as usual. It is at this point that you either start looking around again, or channel that heat into a different part of the role to re-energise it.

Every 2 years we get a burst of Mars energy. Like a shot of high octane fuel. Does this mean that every two years we descend into our inner child and the resultant tantrums until we get what it is that we want? If we sit around on our butts and get irritable, that is exactly what will happen. Sort of like those Sundays that start of lovely because there is nothing to do, but eventually you just want a pick a fight with your nearest and dearest just to break the monotony and make something happen…or is that just me?

Instead we can use the Mars return sort of like a reboot: re-start, re-focus. If you still have unfulfilled wishes, maybe that’s where they need to stay. At this point we have the option to continue to fight for those desires or use your new energy to let them go. Perhaps your goals need refining and re-drafting to take them to the next level. Maybe the 5 year plan needs to be broken down into a series of 2 year plans?

Mars transits often signify endings. It is that old adage about how one door has to shut before another opens. Even though you may want to leave one slightly ajar while you try and open the next, in order to completely commit to a goal, generally speaking you have to let go completely of something which you have been hanging onto. Mars helps you cut that crap.

I am in the middle of my Mars return now. Yesterday in fact. This has been given extra oomph by the current sextile between Mars and Pluto and also the presence of my Progressed Moon in the same place. The question still remains- do I waste valuable energy in defending what I have wanted for the past couple of years or do I face up to the fact that those dreams really don’t mean a lot now and push off in a new direction?

Mars is about courage and the desire to assert ourselves to achieve what it is that we want. The little slip inside a fortune cookie that I had on Sunday night said:

The ship is safer in the harbour,

But it is not meant for that.

With Jupiter and Uranus conjunct in Pisces (on my natal Moon) it feels as though some breakthrough is just around the corner… but it will take courage to shut one door and hope that another opens…and that is where Mars comes in.