Mars retrograde isn't just any type of review period like a Mercury retrograde, it's when Mars goes on strike, staging mutinies and coups. The sign where Mars goes retrograde can indicate the areas of society that are likely to be particularly inflamed.

Aries is the diurnal fire sign of Mars and where the Sun is exalted. So transits through Aries are relevant for societally/state-sanctioned authorities of force - the military, the police, fire departments, sports and leaders generally.

This is why Venus retrogrades in Aries bring up issues of gender equality/sexual abuse in the military. This is why Saturn transits through Aries gave us the FBI, gun registries and (successful) gun control attempts.

Neptune in Aries coincided with the first morphine addiction crisis, nicknamed "the soldier's sickness". Pluto in Aries coincided with the establishment of major weapons manufacturers that still sell weapons of war today.

The Sun-Mars conjunction in Aries in mid-April 2013 coincided with the Boston Marathon bombing, a terrorist attack on an athletic event. The first 3D printed gun was released while Uranus was in Aries.

So we can see that transits through Aries bring up a particular planet's perspective on topics related to the sign, primarily through the planets which have domain in Aries, Mars and the Sun.

Mars in Aries conjures up archetypal images of the warrior, the soldier, the athlete. So I anticipate that this Mars retrograde will show us these figures acting in unusual ways-

- athletes on strike, police on strike, soldiers defying orders, generals defying orders or turning on their own. All of which are already surprisingly plausible scenarios given, well, *gestures broadly at everything*

Only problem is I currently don't have a way to identify where these sorts of things will happen. Last time Mars went Rx in Sep-Nov 1988, Mars seemed to be particularly hot in Burma and Algeria.

There is a theme for the Mars Rx's in Aries for the US, but I'm not sure it would be responsible to speculate about it in this forum. Overall Mars transits ask us to have courage in big and small ways, and in this particular time, against truly daunting odds.