Retrograde motion is often described as a heightened focus or internalization of the archetypal functions affiliated with the planetary body. While this description is accurate, it also feels a little bland because this “heightened focus” doesn’t occur arbitrarily. What I have found is that it is usually motivated. More often than not, something has happened in an individual’s life that has triggered them to put that planet under the microscope. Yes, sometimes this can involve trauma or abuse where the retrograde planet may literally symbolize someone in their life who has hurt them. As a result, they may develop a warped perspective of the planetary energy that was embodied by their abuser.

On the other hand, the individual may have adjusted to the experience leaving only a desire to fully understand the planet because it’s energy is so intimate to them. Their reaction to the planet may be something like, “OK. You got my attention. I see what you’re capable of. Now I am going to shine a spotlight on you. Everything you do, I am going to be watching.”

This doesn’t just apply to planetary functions, but extends into its house placement and rulership as well. Those areas of life become part of the focus. All of this leads me to believe that a more appropriate description of retrograde energy is intensification (especially for those at the stations). And the reason for this intensification is due to the fact that behind every retrograde planet is a rabbit hole of a story, and it is usually one that goes pretty deep.

Let’s look at an example. Our individual has Mars in Aries placed in the 4th house. Also, Mars is retrograde. This individual describes their early home life as a “war zone”. There was fighting non-stop between them and their sibling, between Mom and Dad, between them and their father and between them and their mother. It was so constant that they would find excuses to get out of the house just to be away from it. Now the individual is in therapy. Guess what they’re reviewing? The combat they experienced as a child in the home. This experience has placed Mars’ function as well as it’s placement under the microscope for analysis. This review involves trying to untangle and process what is and isn’t normal when it comes to the expression of anger and assertiveness. This example also shows how retrograde status (even for a dignified planet) can correspond to an energy so intensified that it can become something of an obsession.

Intensification may be by design as well. In a way, retrograde may be a method to force us to become more acclimated to specific archetypal energies in a more substantial manner. We get to know each of the planetary archetypes at the most inner, core levels.

All of this is an appropriate segue to the massive amount of retrograde energy coming in September 2022. From 9/10/22 – 10/2/2022, Mercury, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto will be in retrograde motion. If we include the major asteroids of Chiron, Vesta and Juno this adds up to a whopping nine planetary bodies in retrograde.

That is a lot.

We could easily spend an entire article reviewing retrograde manifestation for just one of these bodies, but all nine is a tall order. Instead, I think it helps to note that most of the bodies involved are generational planets. This means that while this upcoming Mercury retrograde phase will have its usual impact on our lives, it will almost certainly be experienced very significantly on the world stage as well. In fact, we can expect some very big things to manifest that may impact many people.

While simultaneous retrograde motion among generational planets is not uncommon, it is a rare occurrence when this synchronized activity also coincides with the Mercury retrograde phase. In fact, if we look back to the year 1900 we see that this occurred only a handful of times (excluding asteroids and shadow periods). Here are some of the major events that manifested in correlation with this combined retrograde energy:

• February 2, 1943 – The Battle of Stalingrad ended with the surrender of the Nazi army. This victory represented a major turning point in World War II.
  
• January 11, 1944 – Franklin Delano Roosevelt unveils his vision for a 2nd Bill of Rights.
  
• April 13, 1958 – The Sputnik2 spacecraft disintegrates upon reentry.
  
• March 26, 1979 – At the White House, the leaders of their respective countries sign the Egypt-Israel Peace Treaty.
  
• June 12, 1982 – Central Park in New York City draws almost one million people to protest the amplification of nuclear weapons. This Nuclear Disarmament Rally is one of the largest of its kind.
• May 20, 1983 – Research groups publish findings in the Science Journal identifying the viruses responsible for AIDS. These viruses would later be renamed as HIV.
  
• July 11, 1986 – The New Zealand Homosexual Law Reform Act decriminalizes consensual sex between men.
  
• October 3, 2021 – The biggest expose’ of financial secrets is revealed with the release of the Pandora Papers. One day later, Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Whatsapp all crash for six hours.

All of these events offer good examples of the intensification of the various archetypal principles. Just the line-up for the 1982 manifestation alone shows the protest (Uranus) in opposition to the escalation (Jupiter) of nuclear weapons (Pluto) by our government (Saturn). The motivation was peace (Neptune) and a desire to redirect (Mercury) funding to needed social programs. With this example, Mercury’s retrograde phase triggered off all the others. The power of all of them resulted in the rally becoming a major cultural event.

For the upcoming phase, there are numerous areas to consider:

• The overturn of Roe v Wade.
  
• Gun Control legislation.
  
• The continuing war between Russia and Ukraine.
  
• The release of the documents seized by the FBI from Donald Trump’s residence.
  
• The January 6th Committee.
  
• Voting rights issues.
  

Because so many large, generational archetypes will be involved with this retrograde phase, any or all of these areas may be highlighted for some type of review that intensifies things. If nothing else, one thing is highly possible: we may expect to see some large-scale surprise event that will impact alot of people and force us to reconsider things. I also would not exclude the possibility of another major system crash similar to the various social media sites last year.

So buckle up and keep your eyes open. The next month will offer some opportunities for all of us to revisit some big energies. It should be extremely educational…and hopefully not too disruptive.