In this app's computation Mars is retrograde only once in the three years 2026 to 2028. It turns retrograde on 10 January 2027 at Leo 16.19, slips back into Cancer, and turns direct on 1 April 2027 at Cancer 26.69, 81 days later (UTC). For the rest of 2026, 2027 and 2028 it moves forward. Mars is a natural malefic in both BPHS and Saravali, and that decides how their retrograde verses read for it, so this page sets out each reading and says whether it belongs to the birth chart, the dasha or the transit. The planet itself is covered on Mars in Vedic astrology and the term on vakri.
Mars retrograde dates, 2026 to 2028
| Stage | Date (UTC) | Sidereal position | Days from the retrograde station |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turns retrograde | 10 January 2027 | Leo 16.19 | 0 |
| Crosses back from Leo into Cancer | 9 March 2027 | The Leo-Cancer boundary | 58.2 |
| Turns direct | 1 April 2027 | Cancer 26.69 | 81 |
India is 5 hours 30 minutes ahead of UTC. Both stations fall in the Indian evening of the same date, the retrograde station at 13:41 UTC (19:11 IST) on 10 January 2027 and the direct station at 13:05 UTC (18:35 IST) on 1 April 2027, and neither is near midnight in India. The crossing back into Cancer, at 19:02 UTC on 9 March 2027, falls on 10 March by Indian clocks.
In all Mars moves back 19.5 degrees: about 58 of the 81 days in Leo and about 23 in Cancer (elapsed time, rounded). On the way back it passes 28 degrees of Cancer, its deep-fall point, before turning direct at 26.69. Mars's sign pages: Mars in Leo, Mars in Cancer and Mars in Capricorn, its exaltation sign. The other retrograde planets: Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn.
Retrograde as this app tests it
Mars counts as retrograde when its geocentric longitude half a day after a moment is lower than half a day before; the vakri page defines the term and the test. The station tool narrows each turn to the minute and checks it against the engine's own transit flag a day either side. Rahu and Ketu, the lunar nodes, are always marked retrograde, as BPHS Ch. 47 Sl. 3-4 calls them, and the Sun and Moon never are.
What BPHS and Saravali say about a retrograde Mars
The books speak of a retrograde planet in general, and for Mars the deciding fact is that it is a malefic. BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 11 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sl. 9 both list it among the natural malefics with no condition attached, unlike Mercury, so wherever a verse splits benefics from malefics, the malefic half is the one that applies to Mars.
| Source | What it says | What it means for Mars |
|---|---|---|
| BPHS Ch. 27 Sl. 21-23 | Eight kinds of motion for Mars to Saturn; Vakr (retrogression) carries 60, the highest, and Anuvakr (entering the previous sign in retrograde motion) 30 | Motional strength; the 2027 period is Vakr, then Anuvakr from 9 March |
| Saravali Ch. 4 Sl. 36 | A planet in retrograde motion becomes strong | Strength, with no benefic-malefic split |
| Saravali Ch. 5 Sl. 39 | A retrograde benefic is strong; a retrograde malefic causes grief and purposeless wandering | The second half applies |
| Saravali Ch. 41 Sl. 66-68 | In the Moola Dasa chapter: the dasa of a retrograde planet brings wandering like a wheel, evils and enmity, for malefics only | A Mars that was retrograde at birth, in its period |
| Advanced Predictive Astrology Vol. II p. 325 | A planet retrograde at birth is generally adverse for health in its dasha; malefic retrograde planets are worse | Natal and dasha, not the transit dates |
Mars is exalted in Capricorn, deepest at 28 degrees, and debilitated in Cancer, the seventh sign from it, with deep fall at the same 28 degrees (BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 49-50; Saravali Ch. 3 Sl. 35-36). The 2027 period takes Mars out of Leo and back into Cancer, its neecha sign. Saravali Ch. 5 Sl. 14 reports a view held by some that a planet retrograde in its exaltation sign, or one that becomes exalted by entering it in retrograde motion from the sign after it, produces no effect; the verse's own example is Jupiter entering Cancer from Leo, which is Jupiter's exaltation. For Mars, Cancer is the sign of fall, which that verse does not address. The three books give no separate reading for a planet retrograde in its debilitation sign, and this page adds none.
Anuvakr is BPHS's name for re-entering the previous sign in retrograde motion. The 2027 period crosses back into Cancer on 9 March and stays retrograde there for about 23 days, so by Ch. 27 Sl. 21-23 that stretch carries 30 where the Leo stretch carries 60. This app's simplified Shad Bala does not separate the two: it gives Mars its full Chesta (motional) point whenever Mars is retrograde, on a rule its code comment takes from a handbook (Kannan p. 23), not from these books. That rule covers Mars, Mercury, Jupiter and Venus, but not Saturn.
Two more engine details. Mars keeps a single combustion limit, 17 degrees from the Sun, retrograde or not; the engine narrows the limit only for a retrograde Mercury or Venus. Saravali Ch. 36 Sl. 7-9 doubles the rays of a planet that has just begun to retrograde and takes an eighth from one just turned direct. This app works out the base figure from Sl. 1-6 only, so neither 2027 station changes it.
Mars's own matters in the texts are strength (BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 12-13, which also make it the army chief in Sl. 14-15), co-borns, strength, qualities and land (BPHS Ch. 70 Sl. 1-6), and blood, copper, the army and red cloth (Saravali Ch. 7 Sl. 7-13). Advanced Predictive Astrology Vol. II p. 310 quotes one rule about a retrograde Mars in transit, from Jyotish-Tattvam (Vol. I Ch. X Vs. 25-26), and it is favourable and conditional: Mars, retrograde in transit through the 4th sign from the sign it held at birth, is said to bestow land. The count starts from natal Mars, not from the Moon, and this app does not compute it. For the 2027 period, Leo is the 4th sign from Taurus and Cancer the 4th from Aries. A search of the three books found no passage asking anyone to put off buying land or property, or anything else, while Mars is retrograde.
Retrograde at birth and in transit: how this app shows it
At birth, the birth chart calculator flags Mars retrograde when the engine's test holds at the birth moment. Of 3,000 sampled birth moments from 1985 to 2060, Mars is retrograde in 277, or 9.2 percent: a sample of moments, not of people. The Shad Bala calculator shows the motional point. BPHS Ch. 47 Sl. 3-4 adds a timing rule: the results a dasha lord gives by its decanate at the start, middle or end of its dasha come in reverse order if it is retrograde (see Mars Mahadasha). Advanced Predictive Astrology Vol. II reads a planet retrograde at birth harshly: rule 18 on p. 124 calls the dasha and antardasha of retrograde planets never good, and p. 259 quotes The Times of Astrology that such a planet usually creates a deficiency in one aspect of the house it occupies.
In transit, the Gochar calculator shows where each graha is at the moment you run it, with a retrograde Yes or No beside it. Its verdict comes from the house counted from your Moon and does not read the flag, so a retrograde and a direct Mars in the same house get the same verdict. Advanced Predictive Astrology Vol. II p. 308 gives the motion a timing role instead: on that page events are set moving when certain planets, which it names as the ascendant lord, the 10th lord and the running dasha and sub-period lords, combust, rise, retrograde or change sign. Mars is the ascendant lord for Aries and Scorpio ascendants and the 10th lord for Cancer and Aquarius ascendants. The page names no direction for the result.
What to take care of
Saravali Ch. 5 Sl. 39 reads a retrograde malefic, and Mars is one, as a cause of grief and purposeless wandering, and its Moola Dasa chapter (Ch. 41 Sl. 66-68) reads the period of a retrograde malefic as wandering, evils and enmity. Both are readings of a birth chart and its dasha: they concern people born while Mars was retrograde, not everyone during the 2027 dates. Advanced Predictive Astrology Vol. II p. 325 is the one cited text that ties a retrograde transit to difficulty, and it does so for a condition in the birth chart: a person born with a retrograde 6th lord in the ascendant has repeated trouble at work, with promotions or transfers held up, while that planet is retrograde in transit, and the matter moves once it turns direct. The same page reads a planet retrograde at birth as generally adverse for health in its dasha, malefics more so. The points below are ordinary care for readers whose chart meets those conditions, not rules from any text:
- Mars rules the 6th house for Gemini and Scorpio ascendants. If that is your ascendant and Mars was retrograde in your 1st house at birth, p. 325's example describes your chart: allow extra time for a promotion, transfer or approval due between 10 January and 1 April 2027. The birth chart calculator shows your ascendant, Mars's house and its retrograde flag.
- If Mars was retrograde at birth and you are in its Mahadasha or a Mars antardasha (the Vimshottari Dasha calculator shows the running period), the grief, wandering and enmity readings concern that period, whatever the transit dates. Talk disagreements through before they harden, and think a move or a job change through before acting on it. If you feel low for more than two weeks, talk to someone you trust or call Tele-MANAS 14416 (free, 24x7, India).
- With the same birth flag and the same running period, p. 325's health remark applies to the period, not to the 2027 dates: book the routine check-up you have been putting off. This is not a diagnosis - see a doctor for any symptom.
- Do not postpone or cancel a sound plan, a signing or a purchase only because of these dates. None of the three books asks for that, and this app does not.
- How many times is Mars retrograde between 2026 and 2028, and for how long?
- Once, in this app's computation: from 10 January 2027 to 1 April 2027 (UTC), 81 days. Mars turns retrograde at Leo 16.19, crosses back into Cancer on 9 March and turns direct at Cancer 26.69.
- Is Mars retrograde at any time in 2026 or 2028?
- No. The station tool finds no change of direction from October 2025 until 10 January 2027, and after the direct station of 1 April 2027 the following retrograde station it finds is 14 February 2029 (UTC), at Virgo 19.64.
- Does Mars become debilitated while it is retrograde in 2027?
- It moves back into Cancer, its debilitation sign in BPHS Ch. 3 Sl. 49-50, on 9 March 2027 (UTC; 10 March in India) and turns direct there. Saravali Ch. 5 Sl. 14's retrograde view concerns exaltation, not fall, and the three books give no separate reading for this case.
- Is a retrograde Mars in a birth chart strong or a problem?
- The books differ. BPHS Ch. 27 and Saravali Ch. 4 Sl. 36 count retrograde motion as strength. Saravali Ch. 5 Sl. 39 reads a retrograde malefic, and Mars is one, as grief and purposeless wandering, and Advanced Predictive Astrology reads planets retrograde at birth as generally adverse. This app gives a retrograde Mars its full motional point in Shad Bala and reports the flag.
- Do the texts say not to buy land or property while Mars is retrograde?
- No. A search of BPHS, Saravali and Advanced Predictive Astrology found no such instruction. The one retrograde-Mars transit rule found, quoted on p. 310 of Advanced Predictive Astrology Vol. II, reads the other way for one chart condition: land when a retrograde Mars transits the 4th sign from natal Mars.
- Why might another site give a different date for the same station?
- Mars is almost stationary for days around each station, so a few hours of difference, or a day, is normal between programs. Dates here are UTC from this app's engine; signs and degrees are sidereal (Lahiri), and a tropical zodiac shows different degrees at the same moment.
Gochar Transits Today
All nine grahas' signs today, read from your natal Moon and not your ascendant.
This date is sent only to compute the answer. Nothing is stored, no account is created, and no email is asked for.