Mercury retrograde 2026

In 2026 Mercury turns retrograde three times: from 26 February to 20 March, in Pisces (Vedic: Aquarius); from 29 June to 23 July, in Cancer (Vedic: Cancer → Gemini); from 24 October to 13 November, in Scorpio (Vedic: Libra). Dates are in Universal Time (UTC); the tables give each moment in US Eastern and India time too.

Mercury is moving direct now; its next retrograde begins on 24 October.

26 Feb – 20 Mar 2026 · Pisces

Retrograde for about 23 days.

29 Jun – 23 Jul 2026 · Cancer

Retrograde for about 24 days.

24 Oct – 13 Nov 2026 · Scorpio

Retrograde for about 20 days.

The other planets' retrogrades in 2026

The Sun and the Moon are never retrograde. In Vedic astrology Rāhu and Ketu, the Moon's nodes, always move backward through the zodiac, so they have no retrograde periods to list.

What retrograde motion is

Every planet moves forward around the Sun. Seen from the Earth, which is moving too, a planet nevertheless appears from time to time to slow down, stand still, and drift backward against the stars for a few weeks before it turns forward again. That backward stretch is its retrograde. Nothing about the planet's own path changes; it is an effect of watching from a moving viewpoint, as a slower car seems to slip backward while you overtake it.

Mercury circles the Sun in 88 days, so the Earth's view of it changes quickly: it turns retrograde three or four times a year, each time for about three weeks, around the time it passes between the Earth and the Sun. The moments it appears to stand still are its stations — it stations retrograde, and some three weeks later stations direct. Near a station it barely moves, which is why a station's minute is hard to pin down: published times differ by a minute or two.

How astrology reads it

In Western astrology Mercury rules communication, learning, travel and trade, and its retrograde is traditionally read as a season to review, revise and return to unfinished things. In Vedic astrology a retrograde planet is vakrī, and Ṣaḍbala counts it strong in motion (cheṣṭā bala). In either tradition what a retrograde means for a person depends on their own chart — where the planet falls and what it rules there — rather than on the retrograde alone.

Two zodiacs, two sets of degrees

The Western (tropical) zodiac counts from the spring equinox; the Vedic (sidereal) zodiac counts from the stars, using the Lahiri ayanāṁśa. The two are about 24° apart, so the same station has a degree in each — often in neighbouring signs.

The times are for the planet's apparent position, as published ephemerides give it, and the turn shown is the one in the Western reckoning (the ecliptic and equinox of date). Counted against the stars, as the Vedic reckoning counts, each of Mercury's turns in 2026 comes within 2 minutes of the time shown. For the slow planets the difference is larger — up to about an hour for Saturn — so their Western and Vedic dates are each worked out in their own reckoning.