The sky today
Is Mars retrograde right now?
As of 19 Oct 2026, Mars is direct. Its next retrograde begins at Virgo 10°26′ on 10 Jan 2027, 13:01 UTC. It ends at Leo 20°56′ on 1 Apr 2027, 14:10 UTC.
Next:
- Retrograde
- 10 Jan 2027, 13:01 UTC · Virgo 10°26′
- Direct
- 1 Apr 2027, 14:10 UTC · Leo 20°56′
- Shadow
- 5 Nov 2026 → 8 Jun 2027
The dates
Mars retrograde 2027 dates
Mars goes retrograde again and again, one window after another, and each window is an apparent backward motion that is easy to misread. The window featured here starts at its station, 10 Jan 2027, 13:01 UTC, and ends at its direct station, 1 Apr 2027, 14:10 UTC. Those two instants mark the edges of the apparent reversal. The span from one station to the other is 81 days. Read the dates as moments on a calendar, not as a switch that turns your life on or off. The times are given in UTC so they match in every time zone, and your local clock will show a shifted reading.
| Signs | Pre-shadow begins | Retrograde station | Direct station | Post-shadow ends |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Virgo → Leo | Virgo 10°26′ | Leo 20°56′ |
This window
The January–April window, step by step
The featured window covers January–April, and it unfolds in steps: the shadow opens, the station arrives, Mars turns direct and the shadow closes. Astronomers call the turning points stations. A station is the moment a planet pauses before it changes its apparent direction. Mars stations in Virgo and turns direct in Leo. That sentence gives the sign span of the window. Between the two stations the planet keeps moving, but slowly enough that most mornings look ordinary. The drift is small from one day to the next. Each step is a good moment to look at the change in your own routine so far.
- Pre-shadow begins: Mars first reaches Leo 20°56′, the degree it will later turn direct at.
- Retrograde station at Virgo 10°26′.
- Direct station at Leo 20°56′.
- Post-shadow ends: Mars is back at Virgo 10°26′, where it turned.
The retrograde begins in Virgo and ends in Leo.
Your sign
How Mars retrograde affects your sign
A retrograde does not touch every sign the same way, because the houses on this page are solar whole-sign houses, counted from your Sun sign. The featured window crosses the sign span given earlier on this page, which names the part of the zodiac the apparent reversal crosses. It is a map of the sky, not a forecast for you. To read it for yourself, find your Sun sign, then read your sign's block below. Not sure of your Sun sign? The birth chart calculator reads it from a birth date.
Aries — your 6th house, then your 5th
Mars turns retrograde in your 6th house and direct in your 5th.
Mars in the sixth house touches daily work, routine, the small duties that keep a life running and the habits that make a week hold together. It is where effort meets the ordinary list of things to do. The practical attention is to finish one routine task without drama, then notice how it changes the rest of the afternoon. This is a question of work habits and daily rhythm only. It is not a judgement about anyone's body.
Taurus — your 5th house, then your 4th
Mars turns retrograde in your 5th house and direct in your 4th.
Mars in the fifth house touches creative play, the things you make for the pleasure of making them, and romance as a matter of attraction and courage. It is the house of games, children and risk taken for joy. Here the drive shows up as the wish to be seen doing something that is really yours. The practical attention is to finish one small piece of creative work that you started for fun rather than approval. Put it somewhere you can return to it.
Gemini — your 4th house, then your 3rd
Mars turns retrograde in your 4th house and direct in your 3rd.
Mars in the fourth house touches home, the private base, family roots and the work of keeping a place in order. It is where a quiet disagreement can linger in a kitchen long after the voices have stopped. The practical attention is to choose one room or one drawer and put it right. A small, finished space can steady a larger conversation. Notice what the house asks you to repair, and let the repair be physical before it becomes an argument.
Cancer — your 3rd house, then your 2nd
Mars turns retrograde in your 3rd house and direct in your 2nd.
Mars in the third house touches short messages, neighbours, siblings, errands and the everyday talk that moves ideas along. It is the part of a chart that holds writing, quick study and the local world you walk through. Tradition reads the drive here as a fast reply or a sharp sentence sent before its time. The practical attention is to read a message through once more before it goes out. Read it once as if you were the person receiving it, then decide whether the tone matches what you mean.
Leo — your 2nd house, then your 1st
Mars turns retrograde in your 2nd house and direct in your 1st.
In the second house, Mars touches what you own, what you earn and how you weigh the things you can hold. It is the part of a chart that deals with resources, with skills you can turn into a living, and with what a day costs you. This is not guidance about money. It is an attention to what is actually in your hands. Pick one thing you own and have stopped looking at, and spend a minute simply noticing it again.
Virgo — your 1st house, then your 12th
Mars turns retrograde in your 1st house and direct in your 12th.
Mars in the first house touches the way you enter a room and the way you start things. It shapes the body you bring to a task, your first move and the impression you give before you have said much. In tradition, the drive here sits closer to the surface. The practical attention is to check your first move. Before you start something new, ask what you would change if you began again. Then make one small adjustment and begin.
Libra — your 12th house, then your 11th
Mars turns retrograde in your 12th house and direct in your 11th.
Mars in the twelfth house touches rest, retreat, the hidden and the unseen, along with endings and the work done behind closed doors. It is the part of a chart that holds what you do when no one is watching. Tradition reads the drive here as quieter, more a pull inward than a push outward. The practical attention is to take a quiet stretch with no screen, and to notice which thought keeps returning. Let that thought be information, not a verdict.
Scorpio — your 11th house, then your 10th
Mars turns retrograde in your 11th house and direct in your 10th.
Mars in the eleventh house touches friendships, groups, communities and the hopes you hold alongside people outside the family. It is where a drive for a shared goal can turn into a useful push, or into a quarrel about who decides. The practical attention is to send one honest message to a friend or to a group, asking for the help you actually need. Name the request plainly, and let them answer in their own words.
Sagittarius — your 10th house, then your 9th
Mars turns retrograde in your 10th house and direct in your 9th.
Mars in the tenth house touches your visible work, your standing, the role you hold in public and the way others see your effort. It is the house of goals and of the deadlines that other people can see. The practical attention is to keep one visible commitment that you have already promised. Choose the one that others are waiting on, and set a plain checkpoint for it. A plain checkpoint keeps a public promise easy to see.
Capricorn — your 9th house, then your 8th
Mars turns retrograde in your 9th house and direct in your 8th.
Mars in the ninth house touches long journeys, study, belief, teaching and the ideas that take you beyond your own street. It is the part of a chart that asks where you are going and why. The practical attention is to test one plan against what you actually know. Write the reason for a trip, a course or a claim in plain words, then check whether the reason still holds. A plan that survives plain words is usually a sturdy plan.
Aquarius — your 8th house, then your 7th
Mars turns retrograde in your 8th house and direct in your 7th.
Mars in the eighth house touches what two people share, owe and keep together, along with trust, inheritance and the private matters that move slowly. It is where an old arrangement can sit unexamined for years. The practical attention is to find one shared arrangement you have not talked about in a long while. Notice the habit that no one has questioned, and ask whether it still suits the people involved.
Pisces — your 7th house, then your 6th
Mars turns retrograde in your 7th house and direct in your 6th.
Mars in the seventh house touches partnership, one-to-one agreements, open contracts and the way you meet another person across a table. It is the house where you notice what you owe another person and what they owe you. The practical attention is to notice how a close partner describes what the two of you have agreed, and to listen slowly. Ask whether they would put it in the same words you do.
What retrograde is
What a retrograde is, and what it is not
A retrograde is an apparent backward motion. It is a feature of how we watch the planets from Earth, not a reversal in the planet itself. Mars does not turn around in space, and its own path around the Sun keeps moving forward. A retrograde describes only how the planet seems to slide against the background stars for a while, as seen from a moving vantage point.
The reason is a difference in speed. Earth moves faster around the Sun than Mars does. Earth therefore catches up with the slower outer planet and passes it on the inside track. During that passing, Mars appears to drift backward against the stars. Once Earth has moved on, the planet resumes its usual forward path. Earth is the one doing the overtaking, so the backward look comes from our own position.
Mars has long been read as a planet of drive, courage, contest and the heat of a fight. In the old scheme it rules Aries and Scorpio. A retrograde, in that reading, turns the drive inward for a while. It asks where effort has been pointed outward, and whether it is still aimed well. That is a reading, not a measurement, and it sits beside the astronomy rather than replacing it.
What a retrograde is not is a fixed sentence on a plan. It does not stop a project, cancel an agreement or make a choice on your behalf. It is a period when the same effort gets a second look, and that look is often useful. People use a window like this to check what they started. They reread a message before replying. They notice where a push has turned into a dispute. The window gives you room to see that. It does not change what you decide.
The shadows
Pre-shadow and post-shadow
Each retrograde has a shadow on either side. The pre-shadow is the stretch before the station. The planet is still moving forward then, but it already lies close to the ground where it will turn back. The post-shadow is the matching stretch after the direct station. The planet has resumed forward motion, yet it still passes over the ground it covered while moving backward. Shadow period is the term for both.
In the featured window, the pre-shadow opens 5 Nov 2026, 15:33 UTC. The post-shadow closes 8 Jun 2027, 01:59 UTC. The pre-shadow runs 65.9 days, and the post-shadow runs 67.5 days. These are the calculated moments, so read them as the planet's own schedule rather than as a set of events in your life.
The shadow matters for one practical reason. A question that stirred during the retrograde can return in the pre-shadow or the post-shadow, and it is worth noticing when it does. Nothing about the return is decided by the planet. It is simply a reminder that the topic is still open. Treat a returning question as an invitation to answer it with a clearer head, and let the answer be yours.
This window's pre-shadow lasts 65.9 days and its post-shadow 67.5. The retrograde itself lasts 81 days, across 82 calendar dates in UTC.
Using it
Reading it, not fearing it
A retrograde is easy to read as a threat, and the word is often used that way in ordinary talk. This page takes a quieter line. Treat the window as a period of attention, one in which you can look again at what you already started, said or agreed to. The attention is the whole of the offer. Nothing in the window requires a particular outcome from you.
One practical approach is to pick a single area to review during the window: a commitment, a piece of work, or a conversation that was left open. Mars is the planet of action, so a review that ends with a small concrete step suits its character better than a long list of worries. Write down what you intend, then compare it with what you have actually done. Where the two differ, decide which one you will change.
Another approach is to slow the reply. When a message arrives that stirs a quick answer, let it sit before you respond. A retrograde is a good time to notice when a disagreement is being carried by urgency rather than by the facts in front of you. Keep the drive of a decision, but give it a little more room before you make it.
If you are reading this before a window starts, the useful question is simple. What would you like to have finished by the time the planet turns direct? Pick the thing that matters most, and let the rest wait for its turn. A window like this rewards a short, honest reckoning more than a sweeping plan. Set the first step where you can see it.
Later windows
Mars retrograde 2028 and 2029
Not every year holds a Mars retrograde window, so the years named in this heading are checked against the calendar rather than assumed. When a window does fall in a year, its station dates come from the same calculation as the featured one. The later window falls in 2029. Its station is 14 Feb 2029, 08:14 UTC, and its direct station is 5 May 2029, 18:57 UTC. Mars stations in Libra and turns direct in Virgo. Counting both shadow periods together, that stretch runs from 10 Dec 2028, 02:31 UTC to 9 Jul 2029, 03:59 UTC. Read those moments as the planet's own schedule, with the same care used for the featured window. Plan around them only where they help, and leave them out where they do not.
2028
No Mars retrograde station falls in 2028.
2029
| Signs | Pre-shadow begins | Retrograde station | Direct station | Post-shadow ends |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Libra → Virgo | Libra 13°55′ | Virgo 24°56′ |
Your chart
Mars in your own chart
Mars has a place in your birth chart too, and it depends on the moment and the place of your birth. That place is not the same as the sign span of a retrograde window. A window is a sky event, while your chart is a fixed picture of one moment. To see where Mars sat at your birth, use the birth chart calculator with your birth date, time and place. The sign blocks on this page work differently: they count whole-sign houses from your Sun sign, so the window is read against the houses of that sign. The house page explains how a whole-sign house is counted.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mars retrograde right now?
Compare your date with the featured window, which runs from 10 Jan 2027, 13:01 UTC to 1 Apr 2027, 14:10 UTC. A date between those two moments falls inside the apparent backward motion. A date outside them falls in forward motion. The live status on this page uses the moment of your visit, so trust it for the exact answer.
When does the January–April Mars retrograde end?
The 2027 retrograde turns direct at 1 Apr 2027, 14:10 UTC, and Mars resumes forward motion from that moment. The apparent backward path runs 81 days from the station at 10 Jan 2027, 13:01 UTC. The post-shadow then continues until 8 Jun 2027, 01:59 UTC, so the wider stretch of attention reaches past the direct station. The dates are in UTC and are fixed for this window.
How often is Mars retrograde, and for how long?
Mars retrogrades again and again, and the gap between one window and the next is measured in years, not weeks. A single window lasts 81 days from station to station, and the later window lasts 80.4 days. Each window also carries a shadow on either side. The length of a window is a fact of the calculation, not a measure of how hard the period will feel.
What does Mars retrograde mean for my sign?
The window touches the houses counted from your Sun sign, not one sign-wide rule. The featured window is described by its sign span, which reads: Mars stations in Virgo and turns direct in Leo. The sign blocks on this page give those solar whole-sign houses for each Sun sign.
What is the Mars retrograde shadow, and when is this one?
The shadow lies before the station and after the direct station, when the planet passes over ground it will cover, or has already covered, during the retrograde. In the featured window the pre-shadow opens 5 Nov 2026, 15:33 UTC, and the post-shadow closes 8 Jun 2027, 01:59 UTC. The pre-shadow runs 65.9 days and the post-shadow runs 67.5 days. Those are calculated moments and spans, on the planet's own schedule.
When is the next Mars retrograde?
The window this page features opens on 10 Jan 2027. The one after it falls in 2029; its station is 14 Feb 2029, 08:14 UTC, and it turns direct at 5 May 2029, 18:57 UTC. Mars stations in Libra and turns direct in Virgo. Its pre-shadow opens 10 Dec 2028, 02:31 UTC. Check the live status on this page before you plan around any single date.
Method & limits
Astronomy first, reflection second.
Every date here is computed with Astronomy Engine, run once into this site's event tables. They are geocentric, in the tropical zodiac, in UTC to the minute, with your own zone beside them once the page loads. The sentence at the top is dated for the data date shown at the top, midnight UTC. Your browser corrects it against your own clock. Readings are for reflection, never health, legal or money guidance. Nothing about you is sent anywhere.