Retrograde motion is an optical illusion. A planet appears to slide backwards against the stars for a few weeks, because Earth is passing it, or being passed by it, on their orbits around the Sun.

Retrograde is one of the most popular astrological ideas, and one of the best examples of astronomy and astrology meeting in the middle. The astronomy part is clean and easy to picture, so let me start there.

The overtaking car

Imagine you are driving on a motorway and you overtake a slower car in the next lane. For a moment, against the distant trees, that car appears to drift backwards. It has not reversed. You just went past it, and your own motion changes how it looks.

That is retrograde. All the planets orbit the Sun in the same direction, but at different speeds. When Earth catches up with a slower outer planet, or when a faster inner planet catches up with Earth, the planet's position against the background stars briefly appears to reverse. After a few weeks the apparent motion turns forward again.

Mercury

Mercury is the fastest planet, and it goes retrograde more often than any other, about three or four times a year. The reason is its synodic period. That is the time for it to return to the same position relative to Earth and the Sun, and it is about 116 days. Each retrograde lasts about three weeks. Mercury is not moving backwards in its orbit. It is purely a matter of perspective from where we stand. National Geographic has a good short history of the idea.

The next dates

The next Mercury retrograde runs from 24 October to 13 November 2026, according to the Farmers' Almanac's calendar. Astrologers also note a "shadow" period either side, when Mercury is slowing down before and speeding up after. If you use these dates, check them against your own time zone, because a station near midnight can land on different calendar days.

The other planets

  • Venus: goes retrograde about once every 19 months, for around 40 days.
  • Mars: about every 26 months, for around two months.
  • Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto: each one goes retrograde once a year, for months at a time. They do it because Earth, the faster planet, overtakes them each year. That means for a big part of every year, most of the outer planets are retrograde, which is one reason astrologers do not treat outer-planet retrogrades as an event.

(The Moon and Sun never go retrograde, and the lunar nodes move backwards all the time on average, which is a separate thing.)

A bit of history

Ancient astronomers found retrograde loops very hard to explain, because they assumed the Sun and planets went around a stationary Earth. To make the model fit, Ptolemy and others added circles on circles, called epicycles, so that each planet moved in a little loop while travelling round a bigger one. When Copernicus placed the Sun at the centre, the loops were explained without any extra circles, by the simple overtaking motion. It is a beautiful example of a hard puzzle becoming easy once you change your point of view.

What astrologers make of it

In astrology, a retrograde planet is read as turning its theme inward. For Mercury, that means communication, travel and technology: a time to review, revisit and double-check, and not to launch. The idea is popular enough that "Mercury is in retrograde" has become a joke for anything that goes wrong with a phone.

I want to be honest about where I stand. The astronomy is solid. The interpretation is a tradition, and I make no claim that a retrograde causes anything, including broken phones. What I like about it is that it gives you a scheduled excuse to slow down and check your work, which an ADHD mind can benefit from whether or not the planets are involved. Treat it as a prompt, not a forecast.

A practical, no-mystery way to use it

If you like the idea, here is a version that does not rely on any belief:

  1. Put the three-week window in your calendar.
  2. During it, re-read important messages before sending, and double-check bookings.
  3. Finish things you have left half-done instead of starting new ones.
  4. When it ends, notice whether anything changed for you.

That is a review habit with a date on it, and it costs nothing.

Retrograde in your chart

If a planet was retrograde when you were born, your chart marks it, usually with the letter R. Astrologers read that as a planet whose theme is more inward for you. Every chart in my Solar Blueprint reading shows which of your planets were retrograde, and I write and check each reading myself. If you would like to compare notes, the ADHD MindFlow community is a friendly place. And if you are new to charts, start with how to read a birth chart.

Astronomy facts here are checked against the sources linked. Astrology is a way to reflect, not science, and it does not predict events.

Astrology is a way to reflect, not science, and it does not predict events. Astronomy facts here are checked against the sources linked. Read our sources, commercial disclosure and editorial approach.