Welcome to your Mercury retrograde guide! Here you'll find all the details of the retrograde itself, including the station dates, sign/degree of the station, and the astrological energy of the planet as a whole. You'll also find your personalized retrograde guide based on your rising sign! This guide is meant to help you navigate the retrograde energy and see it as an opportunity for growth. Mercury retrogrades are like using spellcheck. They give us an opportunity to go back and edit something we might not have gotten exactly right the first time. These guides are meant to be just that, guides. They aren't going to tell you how to escape the retrograde or dodge its influence. What they will do though is give you a better understanding of the energy at hand. I hope they help you to see retrogrades as opportunities rather than obstacles.
I'll also be including advice from my tarot cards in each of the guides. The card for each rising sign will further refine as to how we can make the best of this astrological event. So, sit back, relax, and don't fear the retrograde. I promise we'll get through it together. Also, "Rx" means retrograde and "Dx" means direct. That's just some shorthand you'll see me use throughout the post.
The Conditions of Mercury
The last Mercury retrograde we lived through partly took place in the sign of its domicile, Virgo. This time around we’re getting a completely different energy, as Mercury will be retrograding the sign of its detriment, Sagittarius. Does this mean we’re doomed? No. Do this mean the Rx energy will be as unpredictable as a Sagittarian night out on the town after a messy break-up. Probably. Mercury will be in mutable Fire for the entire retrograde, so Sagittarius energy will be reigning supreme and wreaking jovial havoc in the area of our lives that is ruled by Sagittarius. The energy of Mercury in Sagittarius is unpredictable and chaotic, but also inspiriting and insightful. Having this natal placement myself, I’ve never viewed it as being “bad” with words or not having a strong mind. In fact, it can be quite the opposite. When Mercury is in Sagittarius it wants to rush around and learn everything there is to learn. It wants to do, see, explore, investigate, and be a perpetual student of life. The tension comes in because Sagittarius isn’t known for heading instructions, following through completely, or having a super strong attention span. When the excitement dies, so too does the interest of Mercury in Sagittarius. This can be hard for Mercury, a planet that has domicile in signs like Virgo and Gemini. Details matter to Mercury, but when in the sign of Sagittarius, details are often the last thing we’re worried about.
The reason details can get glossed over is because of Jupiter. Sagittarius is used to Jupiter taking care of everything for them. Things just work for Sagittarius because well…Zeus. This is not the typical mode of action for Mercury though, and it’s why it can feel uncomfortable when it lands in Sagittarius. Having Mercury Rx the sign of its detriment means we’re getting a chance to go back and look for the details we previously glossed over. It’s like we’re Cinderella at the ball, but instead of the prince returning our glass slipper we go back and look for it ourselves. We need to retrace our steps, find the missing piece of information, and then we can move forward in a much more complete and confident way. Anything we’ve been putting off will need to be addressed. If we don’t go back and look at the details now, we might end up losing the instruction manual altogether. Mercury in Sagittarius is hard to wrangle. The notion of breaking a horse comes to mind. The Rx is not about breaking our spirit, but taming our minds and bringing structure to them in a way that allows us to run free in other ways.
Below are both charts for when Mercury stations Rx and Dx as well as important retrograde dates and aspect details: