Mercury is retrograde three times in 2027: from February 9 to March 3, from June 10 to July 4, and from October 7 to October 28. The first period begins on Tuesday, February 9, at 12:36 p.m. Eastern Time (17:36 GMT). In each case the planet only appears to move backward as seen from Earth; its real motion around the Sun never reverses.
Mercury retrograde dates and times for 2027
A retrograde period begins and ends at a "station," the moment the planet's apparent motion through the zodiac comes to a halt and turns around. The times below are read from NASA's JPL Horizons ephemeris. The dates agree with the list in The Old Farmer's Almanac, and the times with published astrological tables.
| Period | Retrograde begins | Retrograde ends | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Tuesday, February 9, 12:36 p.m. EST (17:36 GMT) | Wednesday, March 3, 7:32 a.m. EST (12:32 GMT) | 22 days |
| 2 | Thursday, June 10, 2:15 p.m. EDT (19:15 BST) | Sunday, July 4, 3:39 p.m. EDT (20:39 BST) | 24 days |
| 3 | Thursday, October 7, 10:37 a.m. EDT (15:37 BST) | Thursday, October 28, 10:10 a.m. EDT (15:10 BST) | 21 days |
For Central Time subtract one hour from the Eastern time, for Mountain Time two and for Pacific Time three. In 2027 every station falls in the daytime in the US and the UK, so the calendar dates are the same in both countries. In East Asia and Australia most of them fall on the following day.
The previous retrograde ran from October 24 to November 13, 2026, so 2027 opens with Mercury moving forward.
What is Mercury retrograde?
Seen from Earth, the planets normally drift from west to east against the background stars. Now and then a planet slows, stops, and drifts the other way for a while, east to west. Astronomers call the backward stretch retrograde motion.
NASA's explanation is short: it is an apparent change, and the planet does not reverse direction in its orbit. The effect appears when a faster planet catches up with a slower one and passes it. NASA compares it to two people walking the same way. As the faster walker goes by, the slower one seems to slip backward, though both are still walking forward.
With Mercury, the fast walker is Mercury itself. It is the innermost planet and circles the Sun much more quickly than the Earth does. Each time it overtakes us on the inside track, our line of sight to it swings around, and for about three weeks the planet seems to back up. Nothing about Mercury changes: not its speed, not its direction, not its distance from the Sun.
How often does it happen, and for how long?
According to The Old Farmer's Almanac, Mercury turns retrograde three to four times a year, and each period typically lasts about three weeks. 2027 has three, of 22, 24 and 21 days. That adds up to about 67 days, a little under a fifth of the year.
Other planets do the same thing, but less often and for longer. Mars, Jupiter and Saturn all have retrograde periods in 2027; the dates are on our page about the retrograde planets of 2027.
What do astrologers associate with Mercury retrograde?
In astrology Mercury is the planet of communication. The Almanac lists what it is said to rule: speaking, writing, reading and listening, negotiations and contracts, travel, shipping and mail. By tradition, astrologers associate the weeks when it is retrograde with confusion and delays, crossed wires in conversation, travel hitches and technology glitches. Some also describe them as a time for reflection and for going back over unfinished things.
This is a tradition of interpretation and not a finding of astronomy. The station is an effect of viewing angle, and Mercury itself does nothing different on those dates. Whether to read meaning into the dates is a personal choice.
What are the "shadow" periods?
Some astrologers extend each retrograde with a "shadow" on either side. The idea is that Mercury passes over the same stretch of the zodiac three times: forward, backward during the retrograde, and forward again. The weeks of the first and third pass are called the pre-shadow and the post-shadow. The Almanac describes them as adding a week or more before and about two weeks after each retrograde.
Shadow periods are an astrological convention. They are not an astronomical event, and astrologers do not all use them.
Which signs is Mercury in during the 2027 retrogrades?
Astrological calendars also note the zodiac sign in which each retrograde takes place. In the tropical zodiac used by Western astrology, the 2027 periods are placed as follows:
- February 9 to March 3: begins in Pisces and ends in Aquarius.
- June 10 to July 4: begins in Cancer and ends in Gemini.
- October 7 to October 28: begins in Scorpio and ends in Libra.
These are the signs of the astrological zodiac, which is a division of the sky into twelve equal parts. They do not match the constellations of the same names that the planet is actually seen against. How the signs are dated is explained on our zodiac sign dates page.
Can you see Mercury when it is retrograde?
Usually not well. Mercury never strays far from the Sun in the sky, and a retrograde happens when the planet is passing between us and the Sun, where it is hidden in the glare. It is easier to spot in the weeks between retrogrades, low in the west after sunset or low in the east before dawn.
So there is nothing to watch on the dates in the table. A retrograde shows up only as a change in the planet's plotted position from one night to the next.