Mercury Retrograde Dates

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

In Parashara's shadbala a retrograde graha holds full chesta bala, so a retrograde Mercury is a strong Mercury turned inward. Its intelligence works on what is already known, through revision, correction, rereading and a second look. First drafts and new agreements suffer.

Contracts signed in the period tend to need amendment. Messages are misread. Travel plans change. Old friends and old matters also return, which is the useful side of the same motion. Editing, reconciling accounts and finishing correspondence get full value from the three weeks.

The house Mercury retrogrades through, counted 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 as well, since it passes between the Earth and the Sun at the inferior conjunction, and the two states together call for extra care in speech.

The retrograde exposes the habit of speaking before thinking, and it shows what a pause is worth. Students and writers gain more from it than merchants.

The remedies are 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.