The sky today
Is Mercury in retrograde right now?
Mercury's state — direct, in its pre-retrograde shadow, retrograde or in its post-retrograde shadow — is read in your browser from this site's almanac against your own clock; the table below lists every window from 2026 to 2028, with each station to the minute.
- Mercury now
- Computed in your browser once the page loads.
- Next change
- See the table of windows below.
- Your clock
- Times are UTC; your own zone is shown beside them once the page loads.
Direct answer
What this page tells you
Is Mercury retrograde right now? The state, countdown and current sign computed in your browser, with every window and shadow period from 2026 to 2028.
Every date here comes from an almanac this site computed — tropical, geocentric, in UTC — and the state above is worked out in your browser, against your own clock. Nothing about you is sent anywhere.
The loop
Mercury's path through the window
Forward into the pre-shadow, a stop, backwards through the retrograde, a second stop, and forward again out of the post-shadow: the apparent path of Mercury against the zodiac, drawn from one position per day.
Advice of the day
One practical attention for today
Chosen by the day of the year and Mercury's state — the same rule for everyone, so tomorrow's is different and today's is the same for every reader. Written ahead of time by this site's authors; a suggestion, never an instruction.
Every window
Mercury retrograde dates 2026, 2027 and 2028
Each window is four instants: the day Mercury first reaches the degree it later turns direct at (the pre-shadow begins), the retrograde station, the direct station, and the day it re-reaches the degree it turned retrograde at (the post-shadow ends). The current or next window is highlighted.
| Window | Pre-shadow begins | Retrograde station | Direct station | Post-shadow ends |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 · Pisces | Pisces, 22°34′ | Pisces, 8°29′ | ||
| 2026 · Cancer | Cancer, 26°15′ | Cancer, 16°19′ | ||
| 2026 · Scorpio | Scorpio, 20°59′ | Scorpio, 5°02′ | ||
| 2027 · Pisces | Pisces, 5°59′ | Aquarius, 20°55′ | ||
| 2027 · Cancer | Cancer, 6°22′ | Gemini, 27°28′ | ||
| 2027 · Scorpio | Scorpio, 4°56′ | Libra, 19°19′ | ||
| 2028 · Aquarius | Aquarius, 19°42′ | Aquarius, 3°59′ | ||
| 2028 · Gemini | Gemini, 16°19′ | Gemini, 7°45′ | ||
| 2028 · Libra | Libra, 18°36′ | Libra, 3°29′ |
What retrograde is
An apparent loop, not a reversal
Mercury never turns around. It orbits the Sun faster than Earth does, and three or four times a year it overtakes us on the inside of its orbit. Seen from a moving Earth, its position against the distant zodiac then appears to slow, stop, drift backwards for about three weeks, stop again and resume — the way a faster car on an inner lane seems to slide backwards against the far buildings as it passes. The two stops are the stations; the backwards stretch between them is the retrograde. The loop above draws exactly this: one position per day, from the almanac.
Because the motion is apparent, the dates depend only on geometry — where Mercury, the Sun and Earth stand — and every careful calculation agrees on them to within minutes. The station times on this page come from the same engine that casts every chart on this site, bisected to the minute from the instant Mercury's daily motion changes sign.
The shadows
Pre-shadow and post-shadow
The retrograde covers a stretch of the zodiac — for the highlighted window, from the retrograde station's degree back to the direct station's degree. Mercury crosses that same stretch three times: once forward before the retrograde, once backwards during it, and once forward again after it. The first crossing is called the pre-retrograde shadow, and it begins when Mercury first reaches the degree it later turns direct at. The third crossing is the post-retrograde shadow, and it ends when Mercury re-reaches the degree it turned retrograde at. The shadows are simply the days when Mercury is covering ground it covers again; nothing else about them is astronomical.
What we do and do not claim
Dates are facts; the rest is reflection
The dates, degrees and states on this page are astronomy, and they are checked against published tables. The advice of the day is not: it is an authored suggestion in the tradition of reading a retrograde as a season for rereading, re-contacting and finishing, offered for reflection. Nothing here says that anything is caused by Mercury, that a plan is doomed or that a device breaks on a date. Cosmic Meridian offers no health, legal or money guidance, and no forecast of outcomes. Read the state, use the attention if it is useful, and decide for yourself.
How this page is computed
The engine, the zodiac, the clock
Positions come from Astronomy Engine, run locally — geocentric, tropical. The windows were computed once into this site's almanac; your browser reads them against its own clock for the state, the countdown and Mercury's sign, good to about half a degree. Station instants are UTC, shown beside your own zone. Nothing about you is sent, and no birth details are asked for.
Frequently asked questions
Is Mercury retrograde right now?
The sentence at the top of this page is computed in your browser, from this site's almanac table against your own clock, so it is right for the moment you are reading it. Mercury is retrograde for about three weeks, three or four times a year; the table above lists every window from 2026 to 2028 with its station times to the minute, in UTC.
What are the Mercury retrograde dates for 2026?
In 2026 Mercury stations retrograde on 26 February in Pisces, 29 June in Cancer and 24 October in Scorpio, and turns direct again on 20 March, 23 July and 13 November respectively. The table above gives each station to the minute in UTC, with the pre-shadow and post-shadow dates around it, and the same for 2027 and 2028.
What is the pre-retrograde shadow, and does it matter?
The pre-retrograde shadow is the stretch before the retrograde station when Mercury first crosses the degrees it is about to retrace; the post-retrograde shadow is the stretch after the direct station when it crosses them a third time. Astronomically they are only that: the same few degrees covered three times. Whether they matter for anything else is a question of tradition and taste, not of measurement.
Why do other sites give slightly different dates or times?
Mostly time zones. A station at 07:15 UTC is the previous evening in Los Angeles and the same morning in Warsaw, so two correct tables can name different calendar days. Beyond that, tables round differently, and different ephemerides place the station a few minutes apart. This page shows UTC beside your own zone, and its stations agree with published tables to within a few minutes.
Does Mercury retrograde cause problems with technology, travel or contracts?
There is no measured link between Mercury's apparent motion and anything on Earth, and this page does not claim one. The tradition reads a retrograde as a season for rereading, re-contacting and finishing, and the advice of the day is written in that spirit as a suggestion. The dates and degrees are astronomy; the rest is reflection, and nothing here is health, legal or money guidance.
How is this page computed, and is anything about me sent anywhere?
The windows were computed once with Astronomy Engine, the open-source ephemeris every calculator on this site runs locally, into an almanac; what ships is a small table with one Mercury position per day, and your browser reads it against its own clock. The page asks for nothing about you, and nothing you do here is uploaded, stored on a server or placed in the page URL.
Method & limits
Astronomy first, reflection second.
Tropical, geocentric, from Astronomy Engine. The states and dates here are computed; the advice is for reflection, not health, legal or money guidance.