How Long Does Mars Retrograde Last? The 2027 Dates, From Shadow to Finish

If you've searched "how long does Mars retrograde last," you've probably found two dates: January 10 and April 1, 2027. That's the retrograde itself, 81 days of Mars appearing to move backward. But it's only the middle of the story. The whole arc starts this November and doesn't finish until June.

That matters, because a retrograde isn't one long mood. It has an entry, a build, a turning point, a pass back over the same ground, and an ending. Knowing which phase you're in is a lot more useful than knowing the planet is "retrograde." If you're new to reading a transit's whole length, start with what an astrological transit period is.

The 2027 Mars retrograde, phase by phase

All dates are US Eastern time.

• November 5, 2026: Mars enters its pre-retrograde shadow at 20°56' Leo. This is the exact degree where Mars will station direct next April. From here on, every degree Mars crosses up to 10° Virgo, it will cross three times.
• November 16: Mars meets Jupiter at 25°53' Leo, inside both planets' loops; see Jupiter's full arc.
• November 25: Mars enters Virgo.
• December 4: Mars squares Uranus (3° Virgo, 3° Gemini). The first of three Mars–Uranus squares in this cycle.
• January 10, 2027: Mars stations retrograde at 10°26' Virgo. The turn. Mars slows, stops and starts backing up over the ground it just covered.
• February 17: Mars squares Uranus again, this time from 1° Virgo.
• February 19: the Sun opposes Mars. This is the midpoint of the retrograde, when Earth passes between the Sun and Mars and Mars is at its brightest.
• February 21: Mars backs into Leo.
• April 1: Mars stations direct at 20°56' Leo. The forward turn, right back at the degree where the shadow began.
• May 14: Mars returns to Virgo.
• May 28: the third and last Mars–Uranus square, from 5° Virgo.
• June 7: Mars leaves its post-retrograde shadow at 10°26' Virgo. It's back at the degree where it turned retrograde, and the arc is complete.

So: 81 days retrograde, and about seven months from first pass to last.

Why the same retrograde reads differently from chart to chart

Mars is moving through the same stretch of sky for everyone, from 20°56' Leo to 10°26' Virgo. What changes is where that stretch sits in your chart. There are two things to look at: which house holds those degrees, and which of your natal planets Mars contacts along the way.

Lens one: the house Mars is working through

Someone whose 10th house holds late Leo and early Virgo. Mars is the planet of drive and pursuit, and here it spends seven months moving back and forth across the house of career and public direction. The early weeks, as Mars first moves in, can be a time to notice a pull toward something more visible. The retrograde, from January 10 to April 1, is a natural window to rethink how that push is going, rather than to force it. After April, Mars moves forward over the same ground again. If you're planning a big work move, it can help to know which phase it would land in.

Lens two: the natal planets Mars touches

Any natal planet between 20°56' Leo and 10°26' Virgo gets a conjunction from Mars, three times. Someone with the Sun at 5° Virgo, for example, has Mars crossing it on December 9, again on February 8 while retrograde, and a last time on May 26. That's one question about where their energy is really going, asked in three rounds a few months apart.

Mars also opposes and squares planets in the same modality. While it's in late Leo, that means fixed-sign planets at about 21–30° of Taurus, Scorpio or Aquarius. While it's in early Virgo, it's mutable-sign planets at about 0–10° of Gemini, Sagittarius or Pisces. Someone with the Moon at 25° Aquarius gets Mars opposite on November 14, March 7 and April 29. Oppositions tend to show up through other people, so this might look like the same push-pull with someone close, worked through in stages.

A simple way to plan around it

1. Find the house. Look at which house holds 21° Leo to 10° Virgo in your chart. That's the area of life this cycle keeps returning to.
2. Check for contacts. Note any natal planets from 21° Leo to 10° Virgo, at 21–30° of Taurus, Scorpio or Aquarius, or at 0–10° of Gemini, Sagittarius or Pisces. Those contacts are where the cycle may feel most personal, and each one has its own three dates.
3. Match decisions to phases. Mars is about action. The shadow and the early weeks are good for starting to notice what you want. The retrograde is good for reviewing how you're going after it. After April 1, there's room to act on what you've learned.

It's the same method we used for planning around this autumn's Venus retrograde.

None of this says what will happen. It's a way to use a predictable astronomical rhythm as a lens, and to give yourself a timeline instead of a vague sense that "Mars is doing something."

Saturn runs the same three-pass shape on a slower clock; here's where Saturn's December station leaves things.

Seeing your own arc

The hard part is doing this by hand: working out which house a transit covers, which of your planets it touches, and when each pass lands. That's what Starlit Journey was built for. It maps every active transit in your chart as a full arc, from entry to separation, with the dates calculated from the Swiss Ephemeris. The plain-language notes on each phase are written by AI, and labeled that way.

See your own Mars arc on Starlit Journey →