Mars turns direct in Cancer

Mars comes to a standstill at 17°01′ Cancer on 24 February 2025, 01:05 UTC, and resumes forward motion against the fixed stars.

Nothing is actually reversing. Retrograde motion is a perspective effect: Earth and Mars are on different tracks at different speeds, and for a stretch of weeks we overtake it — or it overtakes us — so it appears to slide backwards across the sky. Astrologers have read that apparent hesitation for two thousand years, and the reading has stayed roughly the same.

Forward motion returns, though Mars will not clear the degree it started from for some weeks yet. The convention is that the backlog does not resolve at the station but at the point where Mars passes 17°01′ Cancer again.