We're not even three months into 2025, and Mars has already left its scorched footprint on the year. Named after the Roman god of war and mayhem, you don't have to look very far to see his handiwork. One would think that the planet's retrograde (Mars turned retrograde on December 6th) would have dialed down the fiery anger, but retrogrades tend to make this planet worse. That's because the backward motion switches the Mars energy from fight to flight. This creates an atmosphere of fear, panic, and hysteria. We see it in our politics, we see it in our media, and we see it in our society. But Mars also stands for good things like chivalry, heroism, and honor. Mars comes out of retrograde on February 23rd and marches forward through that patch of sky it just backslid through. This gives us all a chance to summon our gumption, stiffen our spine, and reach for our better selves so that situations that proved too daunting before are confronted and mastered the second time around.