Mars Retrograde Cancer and Bedrotting Brought to Light
(Originally posted March 3rd 2025)
Mars retrograding from Leo to Cancer may have unearthed a cycle that feels like quicksand, one that grips tightly, making it hard to see a way out. Leo is a sign of pleasure, expression, and movement. It fuels our joy, our creativity, and our desire. But as Mars slipped backward into Cancer, that energy became heavier, murkier, and deeply internal. For many, this shift may have coincided with a loss of joy or a feeling that joy had been stolen from them or it may have brought these emotions back to the surface, demanding they be acknowledged and healed.
Cancer, the sign of home and protection, can also become a space of retreat so deep that it turns into isolation. It may have amplified the experience of bed rotting. Not just in the casual sense of lying in bed all day but in the much deeper experience of being emotionally and physically trapped in your own space.
But this isn’t just about feeling unmotivated. Bed rotting, in its more serious form, is often tied to complex PTSD, burnout, and the lingering effects of living in a constant state of survival. When the body has been running on stress for too long, it crashes. Adrenaline, cortisol, and norepinephrine aren’t meant to be experienced at constant levels. When the fight-or-flight response finally burns out, what’s left is exhaustion so profound that even existing feels like a task. The bed stops being a place of rest and instead becomes the center of life: the office, the kitchen, the social space. Because stepping beyond it feels impossible. For many, even their own living room feels uncomfortable, unsafe, or unfamiliar. Mars retrograde in Cancer may have confronted us with this reality, forcing us to see just how deeply these patterns have taken root.
But now, there is an energetic shift and an opportunity to break free. Mars is now direct in Cancer and moving into Leo on April 18. If Mars in Cancer pulled you inward, Mars in Leo is here to pull you back out into the world.
Let’s use this post-shadow period to start making small but meaningful changes so that, by mid-May, we feel ready to reclaim our space. The way out doesn’t have to be drastic it just has to begin. Move your workspace to a different corner of the room. Open a window. Tonight, try watching a movie in your living room, even if it’s on your phone because the TV has been moved to your bedroom. That’s okay. Take up that space and remind yourself that you are allowed to exist beyond survival.
Eat dinner in your kitchen, or if that’s not possible, in your living room. Start with small shifts in routine. Creating better sleep hygiene, stepping outside for five minutes, reducing the anxiety around leaving your literal comfort zone. Because healing isn’t about forcing yourself into the deep end, it’s about wading back in, step by step.
Leo doesn’t just want to move it wants to shine. It’s here to remind you of who you are, beyond the weight of trauma or fatigue. This energy doesn’t demand perfection, it simply asks you to remember that your new home is worth fighting for, and so is your own light.
Yes, this is hard. Some people remain stuck in this pattern for years, even decades. I know. I myself was trapped in my own bedroom long after my parents let me out of it. But Mars is here to reignite the fire within you. And even if it feels dim now, I promise you it’s still there. You are still here.
You don’t have to leap out of bed and run a marathon. But you do have to take the first step. And then the next. Because life is waiting for you outside that door. And you deserve to meet it again.
