Mars Retrograde: What You Need to Know

Mars retrograde is starting on December 6 and will until February 23.

Mars retrograde starts this week on December 6 and lasts until February 23, 2025, so I want to go over what you can expect with this transit. If you have been feeling kind of burned out, low energy, or just confused about what you want to be working towards next, it’s due to this Mars retrograde that is gearing up to start. Mars is the planet that is associated with drive, energy, and motivation, so when it is retrograde, which only happens once every two years, those areas become something you’re reflecting on more than usual. You are being asked to reconsider what it is that gets you up and going, as well as what is the most effective use of your time and energy.

It doesn’t help either that Mercury retrograde is going on at the same time right now. So now until December 15, an area or maybe several different parts of your life may feel especially tricky or just confusing until that Mercury retrograde lifts. Mars retrograde will continue on until the end of February though, so we’re definitely getting a slow start to 2025. Let’s get into some facts on what you need to know about it for the next couple of months.

What is Mars retrograde?

You frequently hear about Mercury retrograde, because it happens so often, but Mars retrograde is felt more intensely, because it’s a more rare occurrence. As I mentioned above, Mars retrograde happens once every two years or so. To be exact, it’s 2 years and 2 months. Typically, in the couple of months leading up to the retrograde (so this would have been starting in September), you may begin to feel confused or frustrated about something in your life, depending on what house or planets Mars is transiting in your chart. You might be brainstorming ways to make a change there, or you could feel burned out and uncertain about what comes next. It could feel like efforts to do something different or initiate a new project or direction could be slow to take place, or aren’t as fruitful as you would have hoped. I feel like Mars retrograde affects career much more than other retrogrades do, because what you do for work has a lot to do with motivation and where you’re putting your energy.

Once Mars retrograde begins, which will be on December 6 in the sign of Leo, you enter into a period of seriously slowing down. I often find that during Mars retrograde periods, it is almost like that movie Groundhog Day, where what you’re doing feels super repetitive and that you’re not breaking into any new territory. Instead, you will want to return to what you already know during this time and improve upon certain knowledge or skill sets. You may be working slow and steadily on one specific task too, but you may not be announcing that project publicly until Mars retrograde lifts. Because Mars also represents anger and frustration, you may have stronger emotions come up during this time, and you may be identifying ways in which you can react differently to conflict or not get so worked up about details or situations that don’t really matter that much in the grand scheme of things. Also, if you’ve been upset about a situation in your life, this retrograde may have you wanting to speak up about those feelings. You won’t be able to sweep your frustrations under the rug as easily.

Then once the retrograde lifts, which will be on February 23, 2025 in the sign of Cancer, you get a burst of new energy. I always love the first few months that follow a Mars retrograde ending, because you feel so reenergized and ready to go. So if you are in a rut right now, there’s always that to look forward to in the first half of next year. Also, once the retrograde lifts, you may be setting off in a direction that you could never have anticipated for yourself before the retrograde had begun. Therefore, don’t get too fixated on one event or outcome happening right now, and stay open to all different types of possibilities for yourself. Think of this two and half month long retrograde period as an energy reset. You’re slowing down to regroup so that you can start fresh in March.

Important Degrees & Dates

Over the years, Mars retrograde advances forward through the zodiac signs each time it occurs, happening either one to two signs ahead of the sign in which it last took place. This go around, it’s starting at 6 degrees of Leo and spending the month of December in that sign. On January 6, Mars will move back into Cancer and will finish out its retrograde at 17 degrees of that sign. Though Mars retrograde ends on February 23, it won’t return to the degree in which it started the retrograde (6 degrees of Leo) until the beginning of May. So any themes that are coming up super strongly now will not get fully resolved or come full circle until then.

To better understand what happens during a Mars retrograde, it is helpful to look back at what took place for you during the past several ones. The last Mars retrograde we experienced was from November 2022 - January 2023 in the sign of Gemini, the one before that was in Aries from September - November 2020. The most recent retrograde that will bear some similarities to the one that we are entering into now would be the Mars retrograde across the signs of Aquarius and Capricorn from June - August 2018. Aquarius and Capricorn are opposite to Leo and Cancer, so that retrograde would have aspected similar placements in your chart. If we go even further back, the last time a Mars retrograde was in Leo was December 2009 - March 2010, and the last time it happened in Cancer was November 2007 - January 2008. If you can reflect back that far, you may identify certain patterns that are reemerging.

Identifying what signs are most prevalent in your chart will show how impacted you will be by a particular Mars retrograde. So if you have a lot of mutable sign placements (Pisces, Virgo, Gemini, Sagittarius) in your chart then maybe that Mars retrograde in Gemini back in 2022/2023 was huge for you and had you seriously rethinking certain areas of your life. For this one in Leo and Cancer, early degree fixed sign (around 0-8 degrees) and late degree cardinal sign (around 15-29 degrees) placements will be impacted the most. And if you have any planets or angles right at 6 degrees of a fixed sign or right at 17 degrees of a cardinal sign, you will feel this retrograde pretty intensely. If that applies to your chart, you might be having a bit of an identity crisis right now, or you could feel very uncertain or burned out. It may also feel like you’re going through a bigger transformation or change in your life that is unfolding over a several month long period. The themes associated with that planet or angle, as well as themes that pertain to the other house(s) that planet rules in your chart will be brought up for inspection as well. See the diagram below for a visual.

In the diagram above, you can see that Mars retrograde starting at 6 degrees of Leo is happening very close to this person’s IC angle at 7 degrees of Leo. Therefore IC angle themes of home and family may feel uncertain or be a point of tension with this retrograde.

For everyone though, you have a house ruled by Cancer in your chart, as well as a house ruled by Leo. Mars retrograde will be moving through those two houses, and will urge you to restructure and make changes to these two different area of your life. It’s like a magnifying glass is being held up to the themes represented by those two houses, and if you haven’t been living true to yourself there or haven’t been fully facing those topics, you will be doing that now. Those two parts of your life will also require a lot more energy and focus than they usually would. Also, it might be that gaining a better grasp on the themes of one house may in turn influence how you approach the themes of the other house.

To give an example, seen in the diagram above, Mars retrograde will be affecting the 6th (Cancer) and 7th (Leo) houses of this person’s chart. With the retrograde starting in their 7th, but eventually backtracking into their 6th, they may currently feel dissatisfied at work, or job projects and opportunities may get delayed or not pan out as expected. However, this person may be finding better ways to balance work with their personal life, or they could be changing the way they take care of their body. By nurturing themselves in that way (6th house theme), they may in turn be approaching their relationships differently (7th house theme).

To give another example, when someone has a Mars retrograde happen in their 5th house, I have seen this many times when they are either about to have a baby or they have just given birth, and so that time spent with their new child is taking up a lot of their energy. Obviously, that won’t be the case for everyone, so another manifestation of a 5th house Mars retrograde is when someone might be going through a frustrating period of dating, and the retrograde is asking them to build greater confidence in themselves or focus on some type of side hobby or passion project. They may be rediscovering ways in which they can express themselves creatively.

If you want to know more about what this Mars retrograde means for your specific rising sign, that is something I’ve gone over in depth in my Sagittarius season monthly horoscopes.

Phases of Mars retrograde

Mars retrograde is part of a bigger cycle that is always ongoing between the Sun and Mars. To understand the current cycle we’re in, we need to rewind to November 2023, when these two planets met up at 25 degrees of Scorpio. This conjunction kicked off a brand new cycle between the Sun and Mars, the results of which are now being made more visible.

Locate the Scorpio ruled house in your chart. Reflect on how a new idea or theme in your life was implanted around that time. How are you now gaining more momentum or working hard to figure out something related to the theme of that house? For instance, the Sun-Mars conjunction in Scorpio happened in my 4th house of home and family last November. Now, as this Mars retrograde is beginning, I am patiently waiting to move into the home my husband and I have purchased. So a more significant activity that involves 4th house themes, like buying an apartment, is now unfolding a year later.

Now that we are to the Mars retrograde period, there are three more distinct phases to take note of. One is the trine between the Sun and Mars that happened right before this retrograde. The Sun in Sagittarius trined Mars in Leo throughout the last week of November. That trine may have shed light on problems and frustrations you’ve been facing recently. You may have momentarily come up with a solution, or maybe you felt slightly more optimistic about something that has been causing you confusion.

With that retrograde starting now, the idea or solution that you may have had last week won’t be the final answer, and you will spend the first half of the retrograde continuing to reflect on it. The Sun and Mars will reach an opposition right in the middle of January, when the Sun is in Capricorn, opposing Mars in Cancer. That opposition may provide further clarity, and you could feel like you’re reaching a pivotal turning point in how you handle the themes of the Cancer and Leo ruled houses of your chart. From there, we move into the second half of the retrograde until the end of February, so you still won’t want to act impulsively, but you may have a better idea of how you want to proceed in the coming months. A light at the end of the tunnel may be more visible.

Then Mars retrograde ends at the end of February, and the next phase to be aware of is the second trine that happens between the Sun and Mars. This time, the Sun will be in Pisces trining Mars in Cancer, which will occur during the first week of March. By then, you may feel ready to move forward with greater confidence in a certain situation, project, or relationship. You may feel like there’s way more momentum building, and it’s easier to get new opportunities off of the ground. That is a time frame you will want to look forward to!

I hope this guide was helpful in breaking down what you can expect with Mars retrograde. It’s not something you need to fear, but rather part of a bigger cycle that is helping you to reshape a certain area of your life. If you have any good examples for how this Mars retrograde or past Mars retrogrades have manifested for you, please leave it in the comments! It’s so helpful to see how these transits have actually played out in people’s lives.