Retrograde planets appear to go backward in the sky. They’re not really going backward in their revolution around the Sun, but they appear to move backward from the vantage point on Earth. All the planets will go retrograde on a regular basis. The further away they are, the more it seems as if they’re going backward, and thus the outer planets (Neptune, Uranus, Pluto), appear to go retrograde for months at a time. However, closer planets, like Mercury and Venus, go retrograde for a few weeks at a time and seem to be felt more acutely because they affect our daily lives.

You may have heard of Mercury retrograde and how it apparently ruins everything. People fear this as if the sun is being blotted out for two weeks and the dead are rising from their graves. In reality, most people go through Mercury retrograde and never feel a thing.

It's trendy to blame Mercury retrograde for just about anything, but in reality, Mercury Retrograde doesn't actually do much. It's the planet of small things, and Mercury Retrograde makes small things go backward. Missed connections, misplacing things, miscommunications, misunderstandings, forgetfulness, and misspeaking are common during the retrograde. Mercury retrograde doesn’t make volcanoes erupt or cause war.

Sure, small problems can accumulate and become big ones, but rarely does this happen because Mercury Retrograde forces people to stop, go backward, and take a look at and examine what happened. It’s a time of fixing what went wrong as much as it is small things going wrong and perfecting them quietly.