Mars retrograde
Mars Retrograde
Mars retrograde is the roughly two month stretch, about every two years, when Mars appears to move backward. It is a check on how you use your drive and your anger, not a reason to stall.
Dates & rhythm
- How often
- About every two years, for roughly two to two and a half months
There is no Mars retrograde in 2026; the next begins in early 2027.
Modern
Mars is raw drive: energy, desire, assertion, and the push to get things done. About every two years it turns When a planet appears to move backward through the zodiac from our view on Earth. Its energy turns inward, slows down, or revisits old ground rather than pushing ahead. for two to two and a half months, and the forward charge it usually supplies turns inward. Motivation can feel uneven, plans stall, and frustration looks for somewhere to go. The useful move is to slow the throttle on purpose: review your strategy instead of forcing the action, train rather than compete, and revisit a goal you abandoned to see whether it still matters. Picking fights or starting an aggressive new venture now tends to backfire, because the energy behind it is not running clean. Channel the heat into work you can redo and refine.
Traditional (Hellenistic)
Mars retrograde was among the more cautioned periods in older astrology. As a A planet that tends to challenge or restrict, traditionally Mars and Saturn. Its contacts often mark friction, effort, or hard lessons, though not without their uses. turned backward, its capacity for harm was thought to fall on the one who acts rashly. Soldiers, surgeons, and anyone whose work is cutting or contending were advised to wait. The classical counsel is to avoid initiating conflict, surgery, or any bold campaign, and instead to consolidate, repair, and hold position until Mars resumes direct motion.
- drive
- anger
- strategy
- patience
- redirection
Lean in
Reviewing strategy, training, and finishing work you can refine rather than force.
Watch for
Starting fights, launching aggressive new ventures, or pushing through resistance by sheer force.
Sources
- Sullivan, Retrograde Planets: Traversing the Inner Landscape (2000)A book-length study of retrograde planets as an inward turn of the planet's function.
- Hand, Planets in Transit (1976)The standard modern reference on how transiting planets, retrograde included, are actually experienced.
- Ptolemy, TetrabiblosThe classical source that treats a planet's station and retrogradation as a change in its strength.