Mercury Retrograde Dates

What Mercury retrograde is, and what it isn’t

Mercury never actually turns around. It’s the planet closest to the Sun and laps it every 88 days, far faster than Earth. Every so often it catches up with us on the inside track and passes between Earth and the Sun, an alignment astronomers call inferior conjunction. Because we’re watching from a planet that is moving too, the changing angle between the two orbits makes Mercury look as if it is sliding backward against the background stars for about three weeks around that pass. Retrograde is apparent motion, a matter of perspective.

At the start and end of each retrograde, Mercury seems to stand still. These turning points are called stations. First Mercury stations retrograde, switching from forward to backward motion; about three weeks later it stations direct and resumes its forward course. The start and end times in the table are those two stations. For a few days on either side, Mercury barely moves at all, and many astrologers treat those days as the most concentrated part of the cycle.

In the middle of a retrograde, Mercury sits so close to the Sun that it’s lost in the glare. Over the course of it, the planet shifts from the evening sky in the west to the morning sky in the east. Occasionally the inferior conjunction happens near the point where Mercury’s orbit crosses the plane of Earth’s orbit, and Mercury can be seen crossing the face of the Sun as a tiny black dot. These transits of Mercury only ever happen during a retrograde.

How often Mercury goes retrograde, and for how long

Mercury passes between Earth and the Sun roughly every 116 days, which works out to about three retrogrades a year. Some calendar years catch the tail of one retrograde in January and the start of another in December, so four separate retrogrades touch the year. Each lasts about three weeks, adding up to a little over two months a year, or roughly a fifth of the time.

During a retrograde Mercury backtracks somewhere between about 10 and 16 degrees. Sometimes the whole loop stays inside one sign; sometimes Mercury backs out of one sign into the one before it. The signs column in the table shows whether each retrograde involves one sign or two.

There’s a pattern worth knowing. Consecutive retrogrades are about four months apart, and in that time the Sun moves roughly a third of the way around the zodiac. So the three retrogrades in a given year tend to fall in signs of the same element: all water signs, say, or all air signs. Each year the set slips back by more than half a sign, and over a year or two the retrogrades drift into the signs of the previous element.

The pre-shadow and post-shadow periods

Astrologers talk about shadow periods on either side of the retrograde. The degree where Mercury stations retrograde and the degree where it stations direct mark out a short stretch of the zodiac. In one full cycle, Mercury covers that stretch three times: once moving forward, once moving backward, and once moving forward again.

The pre-shadow begins when Mercury first reaches the degree where it will later station direct, and lasts until it stations retrograde. Mercury is crossing ground it will soon retrace. Astrologers often describe this as the opening act, when the topics that need a second look start to surface.

The post-shadow begins at the direct station and ends when Mercury passes the degree where it originally stationed retrograde. It’s walking that ground for the third and final time, so this phase is usually read as the wrap-up: finishing what the retrograde brought back into view before moving on. Each shadow typically lasts around two weeks, so a whole cycle, shadows included, runs close to two months. The table lists the shadow dates for anyone who likes to leave extra margin.

Why Mercury retrograde dates differ by a day

A retrograde begins and ends at a single moment, not across a whole day. That moment falls on different calendar dates in different time zones. A station at one in the morning in London, for instance, is still the previous evening in New York and the previous late afternoon in Los Angeles. Many apps and websites simply copy a date worked out for someone else’s time zone, so if a date here differs by one from what you saw elsewhere, it’s usually not an error on either side.

Stations themselves add a little noise. Because Mercury is barely moving around a station, small differences in method or rounding can move the computed time by a few minutes, and if that happens near midnight the date changes too.

This site computes Mercury’s position moment by moment from the ephemeris and finds the instant its motion reverses. Times in the table are given in Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). To convert, subtract four or five hours for New York, depending on daylight saving, add zero or one for London, and add ten or eleven for Sydney. The shadow dates are found the same way, by locating the moment Mercury reaches the relevant degree.

How astrologers read Mercury retrograde

In astrology, Mercury governs thinking, speaking, writing and learning, along with messages, paperwork, commuting, short trips, buying and selling, and the devices we use to stay in touch. When Mercury appears to move backward, astrologers read the period as one that turns attention backward too.

The usual vocabulary is full of words that start with “re”: review, revise, reconsider, reconnect, repair. A draft you set aside can get a second edit. A plan on hold can be reassessed. An old friend may come to mind, and this is a natural time to reach out. Many astrologers suggest that these weeks suit finishing and refining what you already have more than launching something brand new.

Communication and travel are the two themes people mention most. Astrologers say retrograde makes small slips more noticeable: a message read the wrong way, an email sent without its attachment, a tight connection that didn’t account for delays. Those things happen all year long. The point of the retrograde, in this reading, is to slow down and double-check, not to expect trouble.

The sign Mercury retrogrades through adds its own color. In fire signs the review tends to center on plans, drive and initiative. In earth signs it’s work, money and daily routines. In air signs it’s ideas, information and conversations. In water signs it’s feelings, memories and family. These are symbolic themes, not forecasts of specific events.

Being born during Mercury retrograde is a separate matter. Around one person in five has natal Mercury retrograde, and it’s usually read as a thinking style: processing things internally before speaking, and finding the best words on the second draft. It describes rhythm and style, not a problem with communication.

Practical ways to work with a retrograde

There’s no need to hide from Mercury retrograde. Life goes on as usual. If you’d like the weeks to feel calmer, start with small habits: reread important emails and messages before sending, and check names, numbers, addresses and times; back up your phone and computer; confirm train times, flights and bookings before you leave, and build a little slack into the schedule.

Big decisions such as signing a lease, starting a job or making a major purchase don’t have to wait. The advice astrologers give more often is to read the terms twice, ask about anything unclear, and leave room for revisions. That’s good practice at any time of year; the retrograde is simply a prompt to take the second look.

You can also treat the weeks as a time to tidy up. Clear out the inbox and the photo roll. Go through half-finished projects and decide which ones deserve more of your time and which you can let go. Send a message to someone you’ve lost touch with. Looking back is part of moving forward.

Above all, don’t let retrograde season become a source of anxiety. When something goes wrong, it’s more useful to find where it actually got stuck than to blame a planet. Astrology offers a way of looking at time; the pace and the choices stay with you.