Mercury Retrograde Dates

Three times a year, for a little over three weeks each time, Mercury turns retrograde. It is the most frequent retrograde and the one most people notice, since Mercury rules speech, writing, trade, travel and daily messages.

A retrograde graha holds full chesta bala in Parashara's shadbala, so a retrograde Mercury is a strong Mercury turned inward. Its intelligence works on what is already known: revision, correction, rereading and the second look. The first draft and the fresh agreement suffer.

Contracts signed during the period tend to need amendment. Messages are misread, and travel plans change. Old friends and old matters return, which is the useful side of the same motion. A person who spends the three weeks editing, reconciling accounts and finishing correspondence gets full value from a retrograde Mercury.

The retrograde shows how one holds the mind when it will not run forward. It reveals the habit of speaking before thinking and the value of the pause. Students and writers gain from it more than merchants.

The remedy is Vishnu, the deity of Mercury, and the mantra Om Budhaya Namah. Parashara's dana for Mercury is green cloth, moong and bronze, given on Wednesday. Read everything twice before sending it, and keep the old drafts.

The house Mercury retrogrades through, from the Moon and from the lagna, names the field. Phaladeepika lists the second, fourth, sixth, eighth, tenth and eleventh as Mercury's favourable transit houses. Mercury is often combust during a retrograde, since it passes between the Earth and the Sun at the inferior conjunction. The two states together call for extra care in speech.