November arrives and you decide to change everything at once. You are going to change your work routine, join a gym, get moving on the project that has been sitting still for two years. By December it is all in motion. In January, for no reason you can quite explain, the engine stalls: your energy vanishes by mid-afternoon, the project asks for adjustment after adjustment, and the urge to pick a fight with someone shows up over small things.

This is the shape of Mars retrograde. In 2027 it moves backwards from January 10, at 10:01am, until April 1, at 11:11am, Brasília time. It starts in Virgo, at 10°25', moves back into Leo on February 21, and picks up forward motion at 20°55' of Leo.

That is nearly three months moving backwards, across two signs. Virgo speaks of work, routine, the body and method. Leo speaks of expression, creation, pleasure and showing up for others.

Mars is the part of you that wants, decides and goes after things. When it turns retrograde, seen from Earth the planet appears to move backwards across the sky, and tradition reads this backward motion as the drive to act turning inward. The frequency, how long each period lasts, and the reason Mars sometimes goes whole years without retrograding, are explained in Mars retrograde.

What matters for this period: what started on impulse asks for adjustment. The energy is still there, but it works better in review, in practice and in planning than in a sudden burst. It is a time to sharpen the tool before using it again. Anger also tends to arrive late in these weeks, and the right answer to the argument shows up hours later, in the shower.

With Mars, the stretch of sky it retraces is covered slowly. The shadow opens in November 2026 and only closes in June 2027, which is why the matter tends to give a sign long before January.

• November 5, 2026: shadow opens, with Mars at 20°55' of Leo.
• November 25, 2026: Mars enters Virgo.
• January 10, 2027, 10:01am: retrograde station, at 10°25' of Virgo.
• February 21, 2027: Mars moves back into Leo.
• April 1, 2027, 11:11am: direct station, at 20°55' of Leo.
• May 14, 2027: Mars moves back into Virgo.
• June 7, 2027: shadow closes, at 10°25' of Virgo.

If you started something with a lot of enthusiasm between November and December 2026, it will likely come back for review between January and March and settle by June. Write down the date it started: it will work as a measuring stick later on.

The first half of the retrograde happens in Virgo. There, Mars reviews how you work: the routine that no longer works, the body that demands a break, the process held together with patches. It's a good time to reorganise your schedule, get back to the exam you kept putting off, and take apart the method that only survives at the cost of your exhaustion.

From February 21st it moves back into Leo, and the review shifts ground. Leo is where you create, have fun and show up. Here Mars asks about the personal project you dropped, the wish to be seen that you tucked away, the time with your children or the hobby that turned into an obligation. The direct station, on April 1st, happens in Leo: that's where the drive comes back out into the open.

The sign shows the theme in the sky. The house in your chart shows which area of your life it happens in. Mars retrograde is the same for everyone; the house it moves through is different in each chart.

Generate your free chart here on the site with your birth date, time and city. The exact time makes a difference: a few minutes can change the position of the houses. On the wheel, look for the symbol of Virgo and Leo on the outer ring. The house number in each stretch is the area of life being stirred up. If one of the signs spans two houses, both count.

To understand why the wheel is divided this way, read what an astrological house is. And to follow Mars's passage through your chart after April, the piece about Transits shows the way.

• House 1: the way you show up. Impatience with others surfaces, and the new routine calls for a less heroic pace.
• House 2: money. Impulse buying, the price of your work, the financial goal that needs a proper calculation.
• House 3: speech. The argument by message that would have gone better in person, the daily commute, your sibling.
• House 4: home. The renovation that stalls, the family fight that comes back, the move that needs a different timeline.
• House 5: pleasure and children. The creative project picked back up, the relationship that needs less friction and more conversation.
• House 6: routine and the body. The exhaustion that's built up, the exam you've put off, the way of working that needs to be redone.
• House 7: your partner and business partners. The same old fights call for a different strategy, and the tug-of-war with the other person loses its point.
• House 8: what is shared. Debt, inheritance, partnership, and old anger that was never spoken.
• House 9: study and travel. The course picked back up, the trip rebooked, the opinion defended too forcefully.
• House 10: career. The contested promotion, the boss, and ambition that needs a plan instead of a sprint.
• House 11: friends and groups. The group project that stalls, the friendship where you always did the heavy lifting.
• House 12: what stays tucked away. The irritation you swallow, the nameless exhaustion, the rest your body demands.

Mars retrograde brings no bad luck and is no punishment. It's also no reason to cancel a surgery, a wedding or a contract on your own: if you have a date set, keep it, with your usual care. Three months is too long for life to stop.

The general sky describes the mood of a season, and you're the one who decides what to do within it. Nobody can tell, just by looking at Mars, whether you'll fight, get hurt or lose your job. What it shows is the theme of the moment and the area of your chart it moves through.

In the first week of January, before January 10th, make a short list: what you started with great enthusiasm since November. Next to each item, write what's already asking for adjustment.

During the retrograde, pick just one item and treat it as a work in progress: reorganise it, study it, practise it, talk to someone who knows the subject. After April 1st, see what's still standing. What I see most in these periods is people who give up on a project in February and, by May, realise it just needed a better plan.

And the questions that come up most on this subject, with the short answer: