by Robert Wilkinson
Around 6 pm, May 3, Mars left 7 Leo, the outer boundary of its “Shadow Zone,” and moved into the future. What does this mean?
For those who don’t know the term, a planet’s “Shadow Zone” is the span of degrees between the point it goes stationary retrograde (SRX) back to where it goes stationary direct (SD). When a planet which was retrograde goes direct, it moves across the same span of degrees it did when retrograde, and then a third time when direct again. That is the Shadow Zone.
Mars went SRX at 7 Leo in early December 2024, and retrograded back to 18 Cancer, where it went direct February 23. It’s now in forward motion and is leaving the forward boundary of its shadow zone at 7 Leo. As Mars, symbolizing our style of “attacking the problems of life” is now speeding up, we can expect all things related to Mars to speed up as well for the next few months.
As Mars began its retrograde review on a degree of “the constellations in the night sky” and the permanent cosmic patterns symbolizing our Earthly nature and existence, we’ve all gotten a real sense of how spontaneous we are or aren’t. We also got a look at how cautious we are or aren’t, and have begun to search for new forms of security through actions which help us integrate our personality or integrate into our world in a more caring way.
It went direct on a degree of providing nourishment to sustain our outreach, we now can move forward with confidence in what to express and find a new transfigured sense of who we are in the world. We now have the ability to move with greater ease in the social and emotional levels of combustion, and have now traversed the 18 Cancer-7 Leo span a third time, giving us a well-rounded look at that part of the “whole cycle.”
Time Triggers
Much of what was delayed or diverted or obstructed in December and January will be seen in a different light as the inner planets transit the Mars shadow zone between now and the end of August. Mercury will begin its visit in June, followed by its retrograde in July. The Sun will transit the span in July, and Venus will bring value and appreciation to what Mars taught us during its transit of the span during the last half of August.
What we did, what we didn’t do, how we adapted methods and timing during this period from October 2024 and May 2025 will condition how we are able to respond to the rapidly expanding opportunities promised by Jupiter’s transit of this span. Jupiter transits 18-26 Cancer beginning in late August through November, and then retrogrades back through 18 Cancer until early February 2026. It then transits 18-30 Cancer between mid-April and late June, finally traversing 7 Leo in late July and early August. Those periods will open doors depending on what we learned during the time Mars was between 18 Cancer and 7 Leo.
What’s Coming
Now Mars begins its transit of the rest of Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, and mid-Capricorn through the end of 2025, hitting maximum speed then. These areas in your charts will be most activated this year. We now we have a new way of externalizing our “fight or flight” principle in caring and creative ways.
From here, Mars makes very important aspects to the outer planets, making a Yod in late June when it quincunxes Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto. The interesting thing is it also sextiles Jupiter with both quincunx Pluto, making for interlocking Yods, a highly spiritual configuration involving multiple interlocking “expansion through sacrifice” energies pointing to Mars in the first configuration and Pluto in the second.
As I described in the Mars SRX article back in January, the Sun opposed Mars is the midpoint of the larger Sun/Mars cycles in play. We’ve been in the second half of that cycle since the opposition in mid-January, and now accelerate toward the coming Sun conjunction with Mars on January 9, 2026 at 20 Capricorn. That sets a new cycle into motion wherever we have 20 Capricorn in our charts, which I explain in the article on Sun/Mars cycles 2000-2025 linked below.
Here’s what I wrote about Mars in Leo and Cancer the past few months.
Mars Enters Leo – What’s Coming in April, May, and June 2025
Here are the Mars retrograde articles:
Astrology in December 2024 - Mars Stationary Retrograde at 7 Leo
Mars Retrograde Re-Enters Cancer Affecting January through April 2025
Astrology Class – Sun-Mars Cycles and Mars Retrograde Periods 2000-2029
Copyright © 2025 Robert Wilkinson
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