| Stations retrograde | Stations direct | Signs | Shadow | Days |
|---|---|---|---|---|
22° Pisces | 8° Pisces | Pisces | 11 Feb 2026 – 9 Apr 2026 | 23 |
26° Cancer | 16° Cancer | Cancer | 13 Jun 2026 – 7 Aug 2026 | 24 |
20° Scorpio | 5° Scorpio | Scorpio | 4 Oct 2026 – 30 Nov 2026 | 20 |
All times are UTC (Universal Time, the same as GMT outside daylight-saving time). Add your time-zone offset for local time. An event late in the UTC day can fall on the next date in Asia and Australia, and one early in the UTC day on the previous date in the Americas.
Computed by Lunonis with our own ephemeris code (built on astronomy-engine, tested against Swiss Ephemeris): geocentric, tropical zodiac, true equinox of date. Lunation and eclipse times match NASA’s published tables to about a minute. Station times are good to within an hour or so: a planet barely moves at its station, so the exact minute is soft in any ephemeris.
Why Mercury turns back
Retrograde motion is an optical effect. Earth overtakes Mercury on the inside track, and for about three weeks Mercury appears to drift backwards against the stars. The planet itself never reverses.
In astrology Mercury stands for thinking, talking, travel and paperwork, and its retrograde is read as a time to review rather than launch: re-read the contract, back up the files, revisit an old idea. That’s a useful habit in any month. The retrograde is a prompt to slow down and reflect, nothing more.
The shadow is the stretch of zodiac Mercury covers three times: forwards before the retrograde, backwards during it, forwards again after. Astrologers often treat the pre-shadow as the time the retrograde’s themes first come up, and the post-shadow as the time they settle.
More from the sky calendar
- Full moons 2026Twelve or thirteen full moons a year, with their traditional names, signs and lunar eclipses.
- New moons 2026Each new moon’s exact time and degree, the start of every lunar month, with the solar eclipses marked.
- Planetary retrogrades 2026Every retrograde from Mercury to Pluto in the year, with the signs each planet moves back through.
- Eclipses 2026Solar and lunar eclipses: total, annular, partial or penumbral, with the sign of each.
- Mercury retrograde 2027Mercury retrograde: the 2027 table
- Mercury retrograde 2028Mercury retrograde: the 2028 table
- Mercury retrograde 2025–2028All Mercury retrogrades 2025–2028 on one page
- Sky calendarCalendars by year
How this sky meets your chart
These dates are the same for everyone. A personal forecast reads them against your own natal chart: which planets the transits touch, in which houses, by topic. Symbolic guidance for reflection, never predictions about health or money.