Mars Retrograde Dates

Mars turns retrograde about once every two years and stays so for between two and three months. It is the rarest retrograde of the visible grahas, and Mars is at its brightest and closest to the Earth during it. Jyotish calls the state vakra and treats a retrograde Mars as a strong Mars.

Parashara's shadbala gives a retrograde graha full chesta bala, and Uttara Kalamrita counts a vakri graha as strong as an exalted one. The tradition reads a retrograde malefic as giving its harsh results with more force. Mars is the graha of action, and a strong Mars turned inward is action that cannot find its outlet.

The fields are courage, anger, brothers, land, machines, surgery, disputes and the blood. During the retrograde, effort meets resistance and anger turns inward or arrives late. Accidents and quarrels are more frequent, and projects started with force stall. A person who uses the period for training, repair and planning finds the direct motion carries all of it forward at speed.

The house Mars retrogrades through, from the Moon and from the lagna, names the field. In the third, sixth and eleventh, which Phaladeepika lists as Mars's favourable transit houses, the retrograde sharpens competitive strength. In the first, fourth, seventh or eighth, it asks for restraint.

What is shown is how one holds force when it has nowhere to go. Mars retrograde reveals the habit of pushing and the habit of avoiding, and it teaches the middle: steady effort without haste. Surgery is best scheduled outside the period when there is a choice.

• Train the body and repair the tools; begin nothing that needs a fast result.
• Worship Hanuman on Tuesday and give red lentils or copper, the dana Parashara names for Mars.
• Recite Om Angarakaya Namah, and count to ten before every sharp word.