a planet leaving its retrograde phase is not like bolting out of bed at your alarm and diving into your morning routine. a planet leaving retrograde is like waking up in those first few days after being sick or after a long, no alarm set, slowly readjusting to daylight

when you're worn down, not in a rush, you don't bolt out of bed. perhaps you lie still a few more moments, eyes closed, hoping to wring out a few more minutes of restorative sleep. perhaps you reflect on your dreams from the night before, or maybe the worries of the day creep in

perhaps you check your phone, spend a little time scrolling. perhaps you stay in bed for minutes or hours until nature's demands finally become too loud to ignore

a stationary planet is not ready to face the day just yet. it's sluggish and unwilling

inertia is a powerful force. an object in motion tends to stay in motion, and to try to turn on its heel creates quite a bit of friction. a speedy planet like mercury may get going relatively quickly, spending only hours truly stationary and gaining speed after days

but a slower moving superior planet (mars/jupiter/saturn) may stay at the same degree, even the same minute, for days on end. to fully illustrate this, in the almost exactly 48 hours since mars stationed direct, the red planet has moved forward all of 2 minutes, 1/30 of a degree

mars won't even leave 15º, the degree of his direct station, until the 24th. he's been there since the 3rd

all of this is to say, there is no need to force it. you don't need to feel a sudden burst of energy with this direct station. things are still slow here

think of these days like the first morning after a cold where you wake up, still fatigued, and notice that you can breathe a little easier. these stationary days are a clearing of the sinuses, the slow restoration back to baseline after a period of illness

take these days one at a time. notice what feels a little easier, where the tension has eased just a little. we'll get moving again soon, but we don't have to be there just yet. push too hard against the grain and you may fall, so take it easy