Mercury Retrograde, like all other astrological events, is filled with invitations and opportunities, wisdom, and insights –Â if we so choose to see them.
Perhaps as Mercury passes the Earth and spins into what we call a retrograde, it is venturing out on its own journey for the sake of our growth, for the sake of our joy, and for the sake of our lives being fully lived. And once it returns to its known path of forward movement, we can begin to receive and live all that was gained along its quest.
What is Mercury in Astrology?
Mercury in Astrology represents the mind. It represents the lens through which we look to see the world around us. The lens through which we look that seems to shape how we perceive and understand our experiences. The mind forms our beliefs and our perspectives, and it is during Mercury’s retrograde motion that we have an opportunity to peer within and observe the patterns, beliefs, and narratives that we are operating our lives through.
Known as the Messenger of the Gods, this planet also rules over communication and the dissemination of information. In Greek mythology, part of Hermes’ (Mercury) role was moving from place to place, God to God, mortal to mortal, and realm to realm, receiving messages and sharing messages.
He would travel into the heights of Mount Olympus and down into the depths of Hades – the only god willing to explore both the mortal and underworld. In psychological Astrology, we pull from myth. While Mount Olympus can be equated with the superconscious where heightened wisdom, vast perspectives, and a higher mind lives – the ‘mortal realm’ is our everyday consciousness and Hades (Pluto) is our underworld of the unconscious.
Mercury is our thread of communication between these different aspects of our mind. Sharing information from the heights of our higher mind down into the depths of our unconscious, and vice versa.
It is also the thread of communication between each of us. Mercury is alive within every word written, spoken, heard, and received – a thread of communication bringing us together.
What is Mercury Retrograde?
In Ancient Astrology, retrogrades were understood as a planet moving deep through the underworld on a quest for new perspectives, for greater wisdom, and deeper insight. While the known path can be nourishing, supportive, and safe – sometimes a different direction and scenery, is where our greatest growth, or at least, alternative perspectives, can be found.
As we travel through our own underworld of a retrograde, we are invited inward. We are invited to shift our perspective and see things from a new lens.
While retrogrades are less about actively expressing outwardly or even taking in more information – they are an opportune time for reviewing what already lives within us so that we may bring them into current time. For when we revisit something within our past from our new perspective, what lives within us is completely re-written.
As Mercury retraces its steps it journeys us through our past actions, selves, experiences, desires, ideas, and expressions retracing and re-living what is still awaiting our presence; the endings that never fully ended needing either a reviving or final closure, the old ideas that entered our consciousness before we were ready –Â are they aligned now, or do we release them completely? And the stories and perspectives that simply need an update, a reframe, a refresh that comes from looking at them with the new eyes we have gained since their moment in time.
Take a few steps to one side and more of what you see is revealed. Turn something over and more unfolds. When we are offered a different vantage – what was once thought was truth or fact perhaps begins to reveal more of the story. What we once thought made perfect sense, we see with new eyes. We have grown since this narrative was created; does it still serve us?
What we once never paused to consider, thought to question, had space to ponder on – when Mercury is in retrograde, this is where it is taking us.
Representing communication, while Mercury is in retrograde it is through observing our habitual responses that deep insight is gained. And it is through allowing more time and space within our communication that we can begin to question and re-write our inner scripts. We are rearranging. We are re-organising.
When is Mercury Retrograde in 2025?
March 15 – April 7, 2025: Mercury Retrograde in Aries & Pisces
Key Dates:
- February 29, 2025: Mercury Retrograde Pre Shadow 26° Pisces
- March 15, 2025: Mercury stations Retrograde 9° Aries
- March 24, 2025: Mercury Retrograde Cazimi 4° Aries
- March 30, 2025: Mercury Retrograde enters 29° Pisces
- April 7, 2025: Mercury stations Direct 26° Pisces
- April 26, 2025: Mercury leaves Post Shadow 9° Aries
July 18 – August 11, 2025: Mercury Retrograde in Leo
Key Dates:
- June 29, 2025: Mercury Retrograde Pre Shadow 4° Leo
- July 18, 2025: Mercury stations Retrograde 15° Leo
- July 31, 2025: Mercury Retrograde Cazimi 9° Leo
- August 11, 2025: Mercury stations Direct 4° Leo
- August 25, 2025: Mercury leaves Post Shadow 15° Leo
November 9 – November 29, 2025: Mercury Retrograde in Sagittarius & Scorpio
Key Dates:
- October 21, 2025: Mercury Retrograde Pre Shadow 20° Scorpio
- November 9, 2025: Mercury stations Retrograde 6° Sagittarius
- November 19, 2025: Mercury Retrograde enters 29° Scorpio
- November 20, 2025: Mercury Retrograde Cazimi 28° Scorpio
- November 29, 2025: Mercury stations Direct 20° Scorpio
- December 16, 2025: Mercury leaves Post Shadow 6° Sagittarius
The Medicine of 2025 Mercury Retrogrades
As much as retrogrades can feel like a step backwards, they are a necessary and sacred part of our forward journey. They are the gift of reflection that allows for insight. The introspection that allows for self-awareness. The sacred pause needed for us to build the inner capacity for any leap forward. And the spaciousness required for the assimilation of steps already taken.
They are all about perspective. It is only from our perspective here on Earth that a planet seems to be spinning backward in our skies. In truth, it is simply overtaking the Earth.
Mercury, too, is all about perspective. Perspective shapes how we see ourselves and who we believe ourselves to be. It shapes how we relate to life and move through the world. A change of perspective can change an entire reality. And that is what’s on offer with Mercury Retrograde – a change of perspective to show us the information we have been missing.
As this planet emerges from its underworld it brings with it deep treasures, information, insights, and information – all gathered from a simple shift in perspective.
