Mars retrograde in Leo and Cancer 2024 - 2025
It's that time again, Mars retrograde. The last time Mars retrograded was 2022 - 2023 in Gemini, where it spent roughly eight months in the sign. Today Mars began its retrograde journey through the early degrees of Leo, going back to the late degrees of Cancer, before turning direct and once again treading the degrees of late Cancer - early Leo before continuing along its path through the fixed fire sign of the lion in 2025, the year where multiple outer planets are set to change signs.
Retrogrades get a bad rap. Planets are said to be moving "backwards." "Backwards" – another way to say out of order. Planets are moving opposite of where they prefer to go (forward). I often remind my clients with retrogrades in their natal charts that retrogrades are perception games. The early star-watchers of the Mediterranean could not know that planets were not really moving backwards, not without telescopes and modern computing. Classical astrology is based on classical astronomy but our capacity for interpretation has grown throughout the decades we've learnt from putting astrology to practice in an increasing diversity of contexts. Retrogrades are an invitation to look inward. To look at how we look at the world. To check ourselves.
In horary astrology retrogrades can sometimes signify exactly what you wish for. The lost object finding its way back. The prodigal son, the lover sorting themselves out. The homecoming, the return, the journey back to where things were. Return calls or e-mails that were delayed so long you've forgotten about them. What houses does Mars rule in your chart and what do they represent? Where are Leo and Cancer in your chart?
Retrograding planets move significantly more slowly. This period might be an invitation for you to move with more care and deliberation, to make sure every action has a purpose and to not spread yourself too thin. Mars likes impact. Impact can be good or damaging. Impact can be minimal or irreversible. Mars likes to cut up and cut into. Mars can be the physical or psychological surgery you need, or it can be unnecessary devastation. Maybe it's a visit to the dentist you've been putting off. Maybe it's cutting ties with friends you've had forever but who are more emotionally distant than strangers. Maybe it's reconsidering the ties you've cut.
Mars in the fixed, Sun-ruled fire sign Leo is about pride, dignity, conviction, loyalty. Retrograde, a question to explore here is: where can you be more humble? Where can you cut slack so you have a stronger grip on what's truly important? When is it important to save face and when is it important to release the need to be right all the time? What's actually worth preserving? Only in your heart can you truly know. Yet as it is written in the Book of Jeremiah, the human heart (Leo rules the heart) is a torturous thing, who can understand it?
Mars in Cancer is about struggling with vulnerability, precarious attachment, and holding on longer than necessary. Cancer is where Mars falls because Cancer is about embracing your hunger, your need, your wanting, and how cringe it is to own up to your desire. Mars cherishes strength, decisiveness and unsentimentality so it finds itself in a tailspin in this moon-led cardinal water sign. Mars retrograding through this sign is the return of the repressed. What holds you back is what you hold on to despite the opportunity to let go. What holds you back is the refusal to hold what's good for you, what you think you're too good for.
If you are in a Mars profection year all of this may be felt especially intensely. If Mars rules your chart (Aries or Scorpio Rising) or your angles, or if Mars is retrograding through your angular houses, the Mars energy may be high. Depending on your appetite for action this could be a good time to get your house in order. It could very well be an invitation to surround yourself with comfort objects, automate all the bills and things you can get away with automating, unplug thoroughly and sleep in more, to take the restorative path in preparation for the inevitable sandstorm.
Look at your diary and social media archives and review your entries during the last two Mars retrogrades. What was on your mind? What was important then? Is it still important now? What are you proud of? What do you regret?
For a bespoke exploration of what Mars retrograde and the end-of-year transits mean for you, book a reading with me, a queer Melbourne astrologer.
Photo credit: Dev Asangbam on Unsplash 