Now we come to a part of astrology you’ve probably already heard of. All of the planets – with the exception of the Sun and Moon, which as you know, are actually luminaries, not planets – do something called ‘going retrograde’ from time to time. A retrograde is an apparent motion in which a planet ‘appears’ to move backwards in the sky (although none of the planets actually do move backwards as they orbit the Sun).
The reason why planets appear to move backwards is most easily explained as follows. Imagine you’re on a train and outside the window, a little way ahead, you see a woman riding a horse. She’s going fast, but the train is going faster. So the train keeps moving and you start to catch up with the woman on the horse. Eventually, you are about neck and neck with her. Then, as the train moves past the woman and the horse, they appear to move backwards, from where you are sitting.
This is how retrogrades work from our vantage point. The Earth sees Mercury ahead, for example, but the Earth moves faster than Mercury, so as we catch up and then overtake that planet, Mercury appears to go backwards.
You’ll know that Venus or Mercury are about to turn retrograde when you see them move far ahead of the Sun in the ephemeris or the night sky. Mercury turns retrograde when it’s about 14 degrees ahead of the Sun, and Venus turns retrograde when it’s about 30 degrees ahead of the Sun.
This means that instead of progressing forwards through the zodiac, from one sign to another, Mercury actually appears to be going backwards through whatever sign it was in when the retrograde started. It’s an illusion, but a meaningful one, symbolically!
When a planet goes retrograde, we get a stalling in the proceeding of that planet. (You can find out when the planets go retrograde by reading an ephemeris – or by keeping an eye on astrological websites. Retrograde planets are marked with the glyph that looks like an Rx.) It’s a time when instead of pushing relentlessly forwards, as we tend to do in the modern world, we get a chance to take a breather. It’s also a time when the energies get turned in on themselves.
If a planet is in retrograde on your birth chart, you’ll feel the energy of that planet in a deeper, more internal way. In general, a retrograde planet in your chart can mean the energies are turned in on themselves, turned upside down somehow, or more introspective. When a planet is retrograde, it can be shy and a bit awkward. But it can also possess great depth. It may lack confidence but it will be highly sensitive.
Obviously, if you happened to have been born when there was a retrograde going on, you’ll have that planet retrograde on your birth chart. You’ll see it on your chart, marked with this symbol: ℞ (see below). You may be wondering whether retrogrades are bad luck? Not at all – everything happens for a reason, including planets going backwards. Retrogrades are neither good nor bad.
As you know, each planet has its own unique cycle when it comes to orbiting the Sun, and it also has its own frequency and duration of retrogrades. The way a retrograde affects a person varies, depending on his or her birth chart. However, the descriptions below reveal the main themes of all the planets in retrograde (rx for short).
To see if you have any planets retrograde on your chart, look at the list of planets and degrees at the top right of your birth chart. Retrograde planets are marked with a red ℞ – an R with its tail crossed. In medicine, this symbol is used to mean ‘prescription’; it’s from the Latin word recipere, in its imperative form, meaning ‘to take back’. The planet involved is being taken back.
Mercury retrograde is perhaps the best known of all retrogrades, and you’ve probably heard of it. It happens up to four times a year. Mercury is the communications planet so when it reverses, communications can go awry. However, there’s more to Mercury retrograde than that. For one thing, it’s a chance to rethink and revisit and re-edit and revise. We all need to do that from time to time.
So don’t wish Mercury retrogrades away; instead, look and see where they are taking place in your chart (in which house and over which of your planets) and work consciously with the energies. To do that, work out which sign and house the retrograde is taking place in and think about how that part of your life could use a rethink.
If you have Mercury retrograde in your chart, you’re likely to think before you act. You may be rather introspective. You may be a very good writer, or contrariwise, have issues to do with writing. Self-doubt can be an issue. Many of you have a very highly developed and slightly quirky sense of humour and way of communicating.
This happens once every 18 months. Venus is about love, and sometimes relationships can be a touch strained during Venus rx. It can be a time when partners feel a little more detached than usual and take time to think about how much the other person means to them. Sometimes this can bring a whole new appreciation of someone.
Venus is also about values, so during Venus rx we often reevaluate things. It’s also said that we should avoid buying big-ticket items under the Venus rx because we often change our minds later about how much we value the thing we bought!
Venus retrograde in your chart can be a blessing. You may find it easier to create abundance. Venus retrograde is also often the sign of someone who is artistic or works in the arts. In a woman’s chart, it can be a symbol of trailblazing feminine expression. It can also mark shyness and insecurity.
This happens about once every two years. It can be a drag because Mars is the Go Faster planet and he likes to move forwards at all costs. And yet here we have Mars going backwards (or appearing to), which is really counter to his programming. Mars rx can be a time when we feel like we have to wade through treacle to get anywhere. However, consider the idea that there may be method in the universe’s madness.
The next time Mars is going rx and you’re struggling to get something down, see if perhaps you’d actually be served by slowing down a bit. One issue with Mars retrograde is that Mars is the anger planet. On the one hand, the rx can be a good time to see how your life goes if you don’t lose your cool so often. On the other, it can be a time when people bottle up their anger and that’s rarely a healthy thing to do.
If you have Mars retrograde on your chart, you may dislike conflict more than most. You may not be all that great at standing up for yourself. On the one hand, you don’t like to start arguments and are more likely to move into peacemaker mode. On the other hand, suppressed anger is not good, so do learn to express it well.
The esteemed astrologer Robert Hand once said in a workshop he was giving that ‘there is no such thing as a bad Jupiter transit’. And I’m pretty sure there’s also no such thing as a bad Jupiter retrograde. Yes, Jupiter is the good luck planet and when Jupiter goes backwards, it might be tempting to think that somehow our luck does too. But here’s another thought: what if we see Jupiter rx as a chance to have more good luck pouring down into our charts from the heavens?
For example, if Jupiter is rx in your 3rd house, you’re probably going to be a tad less verbose than you usually are. You also get longer to play with the positive thinking that Jupiter brings you here. Jupiter’s more thoughtful side can come out under the rx, so our Jupiter emphasis is less on wild hilarity and more on inner awareness and spiritual growth. Jupiter is rx for about six months every year.
If you have Jupiter retrograde in your chart, you may have a different set of life philosophies than most, and while you may believe in luck, and even be lucky, you’re less likely to rely on that luck. Retrograde Jupiter can become an unconventional rule-breaker, whereas a direct Jupiter (i.e. not retrograde) is more law-abiding.
Of all the retrogrades, this is one of my personal favourites. Saturn is the building planet; in fact, Saturn rules architecture and buildings themselves. So what happens if Saturn goes rx? No, everything doesn’t fall down! Rather, it’s time to stop trying to build things and instead, rebuild and restructure them. Another thing to consider is that Saturn is the Lord of Karma – karma can be sorted out under the Saturn rx.
Also remember that Saturn is the teaching planet and when he retrogrades, he spends a lot more time in one part of your chart. So ask yourself what lessons you’re learning from his longer-than-expected stay in whichever house his rx falls. Along the same lines, note that the Saturn rx cycle is also a very good time to work on virtues such as patience, self-discipline and self-restraint. Try harder! Saturn retrogrades for about 4.5 months a year.
If you have Saturn retrograde in your chart, you may internalize your fears, which is not a good thing to do. Learn to talk about them! You may have a dislike for authority, or situations in which you need to be on your best behaviour.
Consider this: the planet of chaos and All Things Unpredictable is storming through your chart, causing mayhem and curve balls. When Uranus rx-es, the forwards motion of the chaos stops for a moment. Which is not to say that it stops altogether, it just stops blazing a trail through your chart, hitting planets and moving through houses. To be fair, Uranus is quite a slow-moving planet, but the fact is, he does stop moving forwards with his chaos at the time of the rx.
Does he go backwards and redo some of the chaos he caused earlier, as he retraces his steps? Yes, but there are lessons on this. Keep reading and you’ll learn about the beauty of three-pass retrogrades. Uranus is retrograde for around half the year.
If you have Uranus retrograde in your chart, you may be uncomfortable with change. You may wish to be rebellious but hold back.
Neptune is always so hard to write about because it’s the misty planet of weirdness and deception! What you need to know is that Neptune is rx for about five months every year. Neptune is about dreams and visions and when he’s going backwards, his sensitivity is heightened.
Neptune can also be about confusion, so if you have Neptune afflicting one of your planets (i.e. squaring or opposing one of your planets or even conjoining it), you will feel more confusion for longer. Sometimes there are things we don’t want to admit to ourselves, and the Neptune rx can pull the wool from our eyes so we decide to no longer kid ourselves. We realize we’ve been wearing rose-coloured glasses.
If you have Neptune retrograde in your chart, you may be uncomfortable with spiritual matters; or contrariwise, you may think long and hard about spiritual life.
Pluto is retrograde for about 160 days a year, in one block. These are really important times for us all, if the Pluto rx is affecting our chart strongly (i.e. aspecting a planet or angle). Pluto’s effects are usually psychological rather than tangible. There is always some kind of tearing down.
When Pluto is going backwards and then forwards and then backwards again, it’s like a shredding as something in our lives gets torn down, then torn down again and torn down yet again for good measure. That might sound really intense, and it can be; however, Pluto is the planet of rebirth, so once the cycle is over and you see what you’re left with after the Plutonic storm, you may even find that you’ve somehow either shed your skin like a snake or had some kind of total rebirth.
If you have Pluto retrograde in your chart, you may feel as though you can’t unleash your powers on the world. You may fear being controlled.
Remember, the Sun and Moon don’t retrograde. Since the Earth travels around the Sun and the Moon around the Earth, the optical illusion described above isn’t possible. Consider the fact that the Sun and Moon rule Leo and Cancer respectively. What do you think having a guiding luminary that never reverses means for those signs? What might it mean for the houses in your chart that have Cancer and Leo on their cusp? For one thing, you move forwards in the matters that pertain to those houses, quite relentlessly, rarely pausing.
To recap, when a planet retrogrades, it starts to look like it’s going backwards. In other words, it starts to retrace its steps. So now let’s imagine Pluto is rx and that he just went over your Sun. As the rx starts, Pluto starts to go backwards – to where he has just been. In other words, he’ll reverse right back over your Sun, so you have Pluto on your Sun again. So just when you thought you’d dealt with Pluto, here he is again.
Note that this can also apply if you have Pluto or any other planet opposite or sextile or trine or square your Sun or any other planet. The point is that when a planet retrogrades, any contacts it just made with your chart get repeated and then repeated again. Read on…
So now you’ve had two Pluto passes to your Sun. There was the first one when Pluto was going forwards and went over your Sun; the second one when Pluto retrograded or reversed over your Sun; and then at the end of the rx what happens? Pluto changes direction and starts to move forwards again. So once more he goes over your Sun.
These are the three passes of a retrograde. Something happens in the forwards motion, then the retrograde cycle happens and we get another taste of it. And then the forwards motion begins and we get one more serving.
This can potentially happen every time a planet retrogrades, assuming it’s doing so either in the same place as, or making an aspect to, one of your planets. There’s a reason why this happens and if you would like to live consciously, you can work with this reason. It’s my belief that a retrograde is sent when we have something we have to learn but it will take some time to inculcate. So we get the lessons once, twice, thrice!
In the case of a tricky retrograde (in other words, when it’s a ‘tough’ planet such as Mars or Saturn making a challenging aspect such as a square to one of our planets), the aim is that the first time the retrograde hits, we learn something, we have to deal with it and we process it. One the second occasion, again we’re aware of it, but hopefully it’s less of a major curve ball because we now know how to handle the energies/have learned the inherent lessons. And then, on the third time it passes, we (ideally) barely even feel it, so skilled have we become at handling whatever lesson the retrograde is teaching us.
It’s like the analogy of learning to drive. When you’re a newborn baby, you don’t know that you can’t drive; you are unconsciously unskilled – i.e. you don’t know that you don’t know. Then, at a certain point, you learn that you can’t drive; you’re consciously unskilled – you know that you don’t know. Then finally, you learn to drive. But at first it’s a challenge – you manage it but you have to think about what you’re doing: when to brake, when to accelerate and so on. You are consciously skilled. Finally, driving becomes second nature and you don’t need to think about it – you are unconsciously skilled.
With a three passes retrograde, during the first rx, you might be a bit clueless about the matter that’s about to be brought to your attention. Then you feel the rx and you’re really aware of it. By the time the third pass/the moving forwards again covering old ground happens, you’ve learned how to deal with the issues. You are consciously skilled about whatever issue the retrograde has brought up.
So if and when you experience three passes in a retrograde, work consciously with the energies. Think about what the energies in your chart are all about, combine them with the energies of the transiting planet and see what lessons are in there for you.
If you go on to study and read about astrology more deeply, you’ll hear about ‘stations’. A station is defined from the point of view of the Earth; it’s the point when a planet appears to stop moving in the sky. The planet then appears to move slowly in the opposite direction; at this point the planet is considered to be stationary retrograde. Similarly, once the planet makes a station (stops) and begins to go forwards again, this is called stationary direct.
For example, Jupiter spends more than half of every year moving forwards (astrologers call that ‘direct’ motion), but when Jupiter slows, stops, and turns backwards or forwards, we call that a ‘station’. When Jupiter is in the process of turning forwards, astrologers say that ‘Jupiter is stationary and turning direct today,’ or ‘Jupiter is stationary direct.’
Instead of saying that, for example, Mercury is going retrograde today, we can say ‘Mercury is stationing retrograde today.’ And when the rx finishes and Mercury starts to move forwards again, we can say that ‘Mercury is stationing direct.’
You’ll also hear about the ‘shadow’ periods of a retrograde. This is tied to the fact that a planet’s rx actually covers more ground in the chart (more degrees – remember, each sign has 30 degrees) than just the ones between the official station days.
Take the Mercury retrograde cycle of April 2017, for example. On April 10, 2017, Mercury will station retrograde (i.e go retrograde) at 4 Taurus. On May 3, Mercury will station direct (i.e. the retrograde will end) at 24 Aries. So to find the start of the shadow period, we need to look at when Mercury was at 24 Aries going forwards – i.e. before the rx started. That was March 27, 2017. So the shadow of the retrograde started on March 27 and will end when Mercury gets back to 4 Taurus, where the rx ended: in this case, May 20. So the shadow period was March 27 to May 20.
Personally, I don’t attach too much importance to shadow periods – the start and end of a retrograde are the most powerful; however, you may wish to work out the shadow periods as well. Many astrologers do.