retrograde planets
while lately studying about retrograde planets in vedic astrology, i was trying to understand how it influences you. while most of my studies are mostly from youtube videos, it feels like trying to pick important knowledge from a garbage dump. i have decided not to use youtube to study vedic astrology because of the presence of so much noise.
talking about retrograde, it basically means the planet appears to be moving in the opposite direction to the earth, which is some form of optical illusion. when this happens, the energy of the planet changes, and it starts doing things in its influence that do not make sense, creating a lot of introspection on the aspects and house it influences.
typically, when that happens, you might end up taking bad decisions because you are overthinking, not able to get a clear perspective, and do not have any solid understanding of the subject matter at hand. basically, during those times, your intuition fails.
when the planets are in the birth chart (or natal chart), you would find those people are very much "fuck around and find out" type of personality, with a lot of internal introspection, which creates a strong sense of self-awareness as well.
while retrograde creates deep internalization leading to delays, it is considered better to keep taking actions so that mars does not get afflicted. while there are other important things to consider during retrograde, i think the core idea eventually comes down to you not being able to rely on others, take others' advice, and always doing what you want. i feel that's completely okay as long as it is calculated to a certain extent.