Mars Retrograde Has a Much Wider Interval Than Mercury
Mars retrograde occurs only about once every 2 years and 2 months. Whereas Mercury goes retrograde three times a year, Mars retrograde is read as a break in yearly units.
In 2027, retrograde begins in Virgo on January 10, and returns to direct motion in Leo on April 1. The period is about 80 days. The sign where it begins and the sign where it returns differ because, during retrograde, Mars apparently moves back to the previous sign. A length of 80 days is a period close to a quarter. For that reason, this retrograde fits reading as a marker for reviewing ways of proceeding on a quarterly basis, not arrangements in monthly units.
Mars is a star read in connection with action, driving force, and the power to push things forward. A period when Mars goes retrograde is read as a period for reviewing how that pushing-forward power is used.
What the Movement Back from Virgo to Leo Shows
Virgo, where retrograde begins, is a sign read in connection with practical work, procedures, and checking details. Leo, where it returns to direct motion, is a sign read in connection with stepping forward and showing policy.
This sequence can be read as a period where review begins from how practical work is carried forward, and returns to how policy is shown. At the beginning of the year, first, the parts where strain has appeared in daily procedures and the allocation of assignments come to the surface, and in the process of fixing them, the need to review how the overall policy itself is shown also arises. In order, reviewing procedures comes first, and deciding policy anew comes afterwards. Even if you decide policy anew first alone, if procedures do not catch up, movement on the front line does not change.
How to Divide and Use About 80 Days
If you treat about 80 days as a single mass, it feels long, but the usage is simple. Divide the first half as a period to bring things to the surface, and the second half as a period to fix them.
The first half is read as a period when, among the ways of proceeding you have pushed forward so far, the parts where strain has appeared come to the surface. Bias in assignments, gaps in procedures, strain in how deadlines are set — parts that in ordinary times you pushed through by force. The work of the first half is to treat what has come to the surface not as a failure, but to record it as an object to fix.
The second half is a period for fixing ways of proceeding in small ways, based on what has been recorded. Rather than changing everything at once, you put in concrete changes one by one, such as dividing assignments, adding one procedure, or changing how deadlines are placed. After returning to direct motion on April 1, it is read as a period for pushing forward with the fixed way of proceeding. The form is to have the content to decide ready during the retrograde period.
Use the Power to Push Forward for the Judgment to Stop
What is important in Mars retrograde is not weakening power. It is changing where the power to push forward is directed.
In work in your forties and fifties, the judgment to stop is required as much as the power to continue. A Mars retrograde period can be read as a period suited to placing a judgment to stop, or to remake something smaller, about work that has been pushed forward on the premise of continuing. A judgment to stop is one that tends to be postponed in ordinary times. If you use the break of about once every 2 years as a marker for placing that judgment, you can prevent work that is simply held from continuing to increase.
As a concrete work example, if you consider a regular task that has continued for a long time, a form where, in the first half of retrograde, you record the time that task takes and its actual necessity, and in the second half, you choose one of continuing, spacing it out, changing the person in charge, or stopping, is suited. Deciding not by feeling, but based on records, is the way of proceeding in this period.
How to Use the About 2 Years Until the Next Retrograde
That Mars retrograde is about once every 2 years and 2 months means that the period when it is not retrograde continues for about 2 years. That period is a period for continuing the fixed way of proceeding and building up results.
In this site's monthly horoscope, readings are written with the monthly movements of the stars as the basis, but a long break such as Mars retrograde is one to keep hold of within a yearly outlook. Place the first about 80 days of 2027 as a break for reviewing ways of proceeding, and use the period after that as a period for advancing in the reviewed form. Dividing use into long cycles for the year's outlook, and short cycles for monthly arrangements is the basics of how to read Mars.
An interval of about 2 years is also a length that is easy to layer with the breaks of your own work. If you look back at what you reviewed in the previous retrograde period and how you advanced after that, the content to be handled in this review also becomes visible. By looking at a past break and the current break side by side, a review can be placed as a judgment that lies on an accumulation, rather than an idea of the moment.
Using Mars Retrograde and Mercury Retrograde Differently
Mars retrograde and Mercury retrograde are both retrograde, but their usage needs to be thought of divided. Mercury retrograde is three times a year, about 3 weeks each, and is a short break used for checking communication and arrangements. Mars retrograde is about once every 2 years and 2 months, continues for about 80 days, and is a long break for reviewing the way of proceeding itself.
In 2027, during the Mars retrograde period from January 10 to April 1, the Mercury retrograde from February 10 to March 3 also overlaps. The overlapping period can be read as a period when review of how to proceed and checking of communication are needed at the same time. Because it is also a period when misunderstandings in communication tend to occur while advancing talk of fixing how to proceed, a form of sharing the content to fix not only by word of mouth, but in writing, is especially important.
The principle of using them differently is to decide the direction at a long break, and check communication at a short break. Use the direction of review decided in Mars retrograde, in a Mercury retrograde period, as material for checking how it is conveyed to related parties. If you layer them in this way, a period when the two retrogrades overlap can also be used not as a period of confusion, but as a period for advancing review reliably.
A period of about 80 days is almost the same length as a quarter of work. For that reason, review in this retrograde period can also be thought of layered with how quarterly goals are placed. It is a form of placing, in this period falling on the first quarter, review of how to proceed at the center, and placing the second quarter onward as a period for advancing with the reviewed way of proceeding. When making the year's plan, if you decide in advance that January 10 to April 1 is a period not to attack, but to prepare, room arises in judgments in the second half of the year.