Sky events

Mars retrograde

to

Mars retrograde from February 14, 2029 to May 5, 2029 makes room to reconsider desire, effort, assertion, and the use of available energy. The apparent reversal through Virgo and Libra describes a review period in astrology, not a promise that ordinary plans will fail.

Pre-shadow begins
December 10, 2028 · 02:32 UTC
Stations retrograde
February 14, 2029 · 08:16 UTC
Stations direct
May 5, 2029 · 18:59 UTC
Post-shadow ends
July 9, 2029 · 03:59 UTC
Crosses back from
Virgo into Libra

The station times are NASA JPL's, from its DE441 ephemeris.

When it happens

Mars turns retrograde

Exact at

  • Mars turns retrograde
  • Mars turns direct

Times are shown in UTC until this page reads your device’s time zone. The zone stays on your device.

Retrograde motion is an effect of perspective as planets move at different speeds, while the astrological tradition uses the interval for return and revision. In the February 14, 2029 to May 5, 2029 cycle, Virgo begins with craft, routine, and the useful detail that changes the whole result; Libra shifts the emphasis toward reciprocity, proportion, and the terms that let two sides meet. The advantage is decisive action and honest contact with what you want.

The caution for this Mars cycle is reactivity, needless contests, and motion without a useful target. Between February 14, 2029 and May 5, 2029, choose a clear aim before spending force on it; use a second pass to improve a choice rather than assuming every delay carries a message.

Reading confidence 40%. This reading uses the sky alone. Your own chart, with a birth time and place, makes a reading more specific.

Questions to carry

  • Which part of desire, effort, assertion, and the use of available energy would benefit from a thoughtful second pass during this Mars cycle?
  • What could you choose a clear aim before spending force on it before calling the matter settled on May 5, 2029?

In the real sky

From Earth, Mars seems to slow down, stop and drift backward against the stars for a few weeks. Nothing about its orbit changes: Earth, on the faster inside track, overtakes Mars, and the view from a moving planet makes it look like a reversal.

The start and the end are stations, the days the planet seems to stand still before it turns. Those are the moments counted down here.

What to look for

  • Mars is near its closest and brightest during a retrograde, a steady orange point that does not twinkle. In the middle of the cycle it rises around sunset and is up all night. Noting its place against nearby stars every week or so shows the backward loop.

Ask Guide about it

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Around this date

Keep following

Behind this eventExact times, positions, sources, and method
Retrograde station
2029-02-14T08:16:19.000Z
Direct station
2029-05-05T18:59:54.000Z
Pre-shadow begins
2028-12-10T02:32:12.850Z
Post-shadow ends
2029-07-09T03:59:58.542Z
Ecliptic longitude
193.92° · 13°55′ Libra
Fact source
sky.json, generated 2026-09-30
Derived for display
station signs and degrees read from the engine at the committed instants
Derived for display
exact stations from NASA JPL Horizons (DE441), src/data/nasa-event-instants.json; the engine catalog gave 2029-02-14T08:12:52.118Z and 2029-05-05T18:58:41.337Z

The times of planet ingresses, stations and aspects come from NASA JPL's DE441 ephemeris, read through its Horizons service. Other instants and the positions come from the site's astronomy engine and its committed yearly and monthly sky catalogs, the same data behind the Almanac and the daily horoscopes. Times are universal time; in the Americas an instant can fall the evening before the date printed. Sign-by-sign notes, where present, use whole-sign solar houses. The readings are a tradition being applied, not a forecast. The methodology page sets out both halves.