Mars enters Leo on November 12. It won’t leave for good until July.

On Thursday, November 12, 2026, at 9:49 AM Eastern Time, Mars moves from Cancer into Leo. It turns backward there on January 10, slips back into Cancer on March 9, turns forward on April 1 and returns to Leo on April 26. It finally moves on to Virgo on July 4, 2027, 234 days after it first arrived.

What does Mars govern?

Mars is the planet of energy, courage and decisive action. It governs executive action, property, engineering, sport and physical discipline, brothers and close male friends, and also accidents and surgery.

A long visit concentrates those themes on one particular area of your chart for months. Your rising sign decides which area, and whether Mars works for your chart or against it.

Why does Mars stay so long this time?

Because Mars turns backward while it is in Leo, it crosses the same territory more than once. The first visit lasts 117 days, from November 12 to March 9. The step back into Cancer lasts 47 days, and the second visit to Leo lasts another ten weeks, until July 4.

Like Mercury, Venus, Jupiter and Saturn, Mars spends part of its cycle appearing to move backward, and this winter it does so for 81 days, from January 10 to April 1.

Leaving its weakest sign

Cancer is the sign where Mars is at its weakest, and its deepest point of weakness sits near the end of the sign. On the night of the November 9 new Moon, Mars sat almost exactly on that point. Three days later it crosses into Leo, the Sun’s sign, and leaves that low point behind.

January 10 to April 1: the backward stretch

When a planet that supports your chart moves backward, its help still arrives, but less directly. The guidance is to revisit, review and refine rather than launch. When a planet that works against your chart moves backward, its pressure turns inward and becomes harder to trace, so the guidance is patience rather than force.

The tradition holds that a planet near its station, the point where it seems to stand still, exerts heightened influence. For Mars those points fall in the days around January 10 and April 1.

March 9 to April 26: back in Cancer

From early March to late April, Mars spends about seven weeks back in its sign of greatest weakness. It remains in that sign’s final degrees throughout, the stretch the tradition calls a planet’s old age. It passes over its deepest point of weakness twice, once moving backward and once moving forward again.

In the Systems’ Approach, a weak planet that supports your chart cannot protect it fully, so be patient with Mars’s matters in those weeks. A weak planet that works against your chart causes less harm, which softens its pressure.

The dates

• November 12, 9:49 AM — Mars enters Leo
• January 10, 7:54 AM — Mars turns backward in Leo
• March 9, 1:43 PM — Mars moves back into Cancer
• April 1, 10:12 AM — Mars turns forward in Cancer
• April 26, 2:17 AM — Mars enters Leo again
• July 4, 7:05 PM — Mars enters Virgo

All times Eastern; November 2026 to July 2027, sidereal zodiac (Lahiri). Readers farther east may see a date move by one day.

What it means for your rising sign

Each line follows Mars through Leo, where it spends most of the next eight months.

• Aries rising: Mars rules your sign and works for you as it crosses creativity, study and investments; start the course or project in November and refine it from January 10.
• Taurus rising: Mars works against your sign and crosses home and property, so hold major property decisions and keep tempers low at home, above all near January 10 and April 1.
• Gemini rising: Mars works for you and crosses your own efforts, courage and short trips, so independent projects can move; check what you send while it moves backward.
• Cancer rising: Mars works for you and crosses money and family, so speak up for what you have earned, and from January 10 review spending rather than add to it.
• Leo rising: Mars works for you and moves onto your own sign, which favors personal initiative and physical discipline; pace yourself deliberately during the backward stretch.
• Virgo rising: Mars works against your sign but lands in the area of rest, spending and foreign ties, where its pressure is contained; use the months for genuine rest.
• Libra rising: Mars works for you and crosses income, gains and friendships, so shared effort can pay; after January 10, revisit an established contact before you chase a new deal.
• Scorpio rising: Mars rules your sign but works against your chart, and it crosses career and reputation, so keep disputes with authority low, especially near January 10 and April 1.
• Sagittarius rising: Mars works for you and crosses beliefs, higher learning and long journeys, so book the trip or course before January 10, or after April 1.
• Capricorn rising: Mars works for you but crosses the area of sudden change, obstructions and inheritance, where its help is reduced, so allow extra time and take care with physical risks.
• Aquarius rising: Mars works for you and crosses partnership, which can bring energy to joint ventures; during the backward stretch, let a partner’s pace set the tempo.
• Pisces rising: Mars works for you but crosses disputes, debts and health routines, where its help is reduced, so deal with obstacles one at a time and keep your training steady.

Practitioner note

Mars’s mooltrikona, Aries, falls in H12 for Taurus lagna, H8 for Virgo and H6 for Scorpio, so Mars is a functional malefic for those three. From Leo, Mars aspects Scorpio (4th), Aquarius (7th) and Pisces (8th).

Mars stations retrograde at 16°11′ Leo (12:54 UTC, January 10) and direct at 26°41′ Cancer (14:12 UTC, April 1). From March 9 to April 26 it stays between 26°41′ and 29°59′ Cancer: debilitated, in old age, and crossing the 28° point of deepest debilitation twice. No neechabhanga is applied. As a functional benefic, Mars is weakened by its H8 transit for Capricorn lagna and its H6 transit for Pisces.

The forecast is not the weather

A forecast does not make the rain; it tells you when to carry an umbrella. Foreknowledge is not fate: it is the difference between a navigator and a passenger.

The lines above count the twelve areas of life from your rising sign alone. Whether Mars passes close to a planet you were born with decides how sharply you feel these months. The Life Chart maps that for your own chart.

The monthly sky follows moves like this one, month by month, for your rising sign.