Mercury Retrograde Starts Soon—Here’s What That Actually Means

Starting July 17, Mercury will be retrograde until August 10. During these three and a half weeks, many people expect life to go haywire—phones will break, contracts will fall through, you’ll accidentally hit “Reply All” on a company-wide email.

Mercury retrograde is blamed for all kinds of problems, but what is actually happening with this planet, and should you be worried? We talked to Jackie Faherty, an astrophysicist, and Susan Miller, an astrologer, to break down the science and the superstition.

What Does Retrograde Mean?

Retrograde means “backward,” and during Mercury retrograde, the planet appears be moving backward in the sky.

Typically, like the other planets in our solar system, Mercury moves west to east. If you were to make note of Mercury’s position in the sky every evening, it would seem to be journeying a little more eastward night after night.

Three or four times a year, however, it follows an east-to-west path for about three weeks, appearing to move backward. That’s Mercury retrograde.

All the other planets go retrograde too, though less frequently than Mercury—between once a year and once every two years. Also, the farther away a planet is from the sun, the longer the retrograde period lasts (Neptune, the most distant planet, stays retrograde for over five months).

Mercury Retrograde, According to Astrophysics

That backward movement is an optical illusion, Faherty says.

“Imagine the planets are on a racetrack around the sun,” she explains. “We’re all moving, but we’re moving at different speeds. The closer you are to the sun, the faster you go around the track.”

Mercury, the closest planet to the sun, moves faster than Earth. It orbits the sun in 88 days, as opposed to our 365. So about every four months, “Mercury laps us on the track, and that makes it appear to shift direction,” Faherty says. “It’s just a trick of perspective.”

Venus, the second planet from the sun, passes us every 18 months, which is when it goes retrograde (lasting about 40 days each time).

As for the outer planets—Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—they move more slowly than Earth does, and about once a year or (in the case of Mars) every two years, we pass one of them. That’s when they appear to move backward.

None of it has any deeper meaning, Fahery says. “The planets are just going around the sun, and we’re looking up at the sky and seeing a visual projection of it. That’s it. It’s a misunderstanding to think that the location of Mercury is going to change your day.”

Mercury Retrograde, According to Astrology

Modern-day astrologers understand that the planets aren’t actually moving backward, but they still believe that the apparent motion of the planets affects us.

In the world of astrology—much of which is based on Greek myth—the planets rule different areas of life. When they’re retrograde, it means they’re in a resting state and not in control of their domain, Miller says. As a result, those areas of life fall out of whack for humans. “We’re used to getting the planets’ help, but when they’re retrograde, we make mistakes,” she says.

“Mercury is the planet of communication and travel,” Miller says, explaining that anything related to these areas can get messed up during Mercury retrograde. “You shouldn’t sign contracts or accept a new job or a new apartment, for example. Sometimes you have to because you can’t stop your life, but keep your antenna up and ask a lot of questions.”

In addition to Mercury retrograde, “we feel Venus and Mars retrogrades strongly because they orbit close to Earth,” Miller says. Venus rules love, beauty, and affection, according to astrology. “Don’t make dramatic changes to your appearance during Venus retrograde,” Miller says. Mars, which retrogrades every two years for 8 to 11 weeks, “is the energy planet. He’s the gas you put in the car to make it go. When he retrogrades, everything seems to take longer and require more money.”

Venus next retrogrades from October 3 to November 13, 2026, and Mars retrogrades from January 10 to April 1, 2027. Miller has all the dates through 2050 on her website.

Should You Be Worried About Mercury Retrograde?

There’s no scientific reason to believe the planets alter the course of our lives. “Astrology does not take into account any fundamental law of physics,” Faherty says, noting that astrology developed thousands of years ago, before people knew that the sun was the center of our solar system and the planets revolved around it. Mercury retrograde—or any planet appearing to move backward—would have seemed like a mysterious and even mystical phenomenon back then. “At this point, we know so much, the principle of retrograde motion is completely outdated,” she adds.

Also, psychologists warn about confirmation bias: the tendency to interpret information in a way that aligns with our worldview. So if you expect Mercury retrograde to affect you, you might start noticing a lot of communication- and travel-related problems over the next few weeks. But keep in mind that those are very broad categories, and issues that fall under those umbrellas are likely to occur at any time. It’s just life!

A 2024 Pew Research Center survey found that almost 30% of U.S. adults believe in astrology, but most of those people engage with it for fun and don’t make major decisions based on it. That seems like a wise approach to Mercury retrograde—we can enjoy the myth and storytelling around it without taking it too seriously.