Natal Mercury retrograde can cause early learning and communication problems but, eventually, a brilliant and beautiful mind. More detail about Mercury retrograde in the natal chart follows the general meaning of Mercury retrograde in transit.

Mercury Retrograde Meaning

Mercury appears to move backward in the sky (retrograde motion) three or four times a year for about 24 days. While this is more frequent than any other planet, Mercury is still only retrograde 19% of the time. This is far less than Jupiter outwards but more than Venus and Mars.

Retrograde Mercury is generally a problematic influence. It can bring challenging news, confusion, communication problems and travel disruptions. Nervous anxiety, disagreement, arguments, technology breakdowns, and lost items are possible. Business negotiations may be in a state of flux. Some crucial details may not yet be available, and others may be unreliable or dishonest.

The riskiest times for decision-making, negotiations, communication, and transport are the few days on either side of the exact retrograde and direct stations.

Mercury appearing to reverse is not all bad news, though. You may experience déjà vu, reminisce about happy times, unexpectedly meet up with an old friend or lover, or recover suppressed memories or skills from your childhood or past lives.

The retrograde phase is just one part of the retrograde cycle. Mercury travels direct, retrograde, and direct again over the same degrees, or “the retrograde zone.” The two direct phases are called the shadow periods. The illustration below shows the apparent retrograde motion of Mercury as seen from Earth.

Each retrograde phase of Mercury has more specific effects depending on the planetary aspects and fixed stars associated with the moment Mercury stations retrograde. More individual effects depend on the aspects that Mercury stationary retrograde makes to your chart. See Mercury Transits for details.

Mercury Retrograde Natal

Natal Mercury retrograde suggests there may have been a problem with how you thought and communicated in an earlier life. Perhaps you gave someone bad advice that had critical repercussions. Perhaps you were prone to making costly mistakes. Maybe you wrote defamatory material about someone in a book or newspaper or verbally teased and abused people.

Whatever the circumstances of the previous significant incarnation, you come into this life with those bad memories etched in your soul. You probably don’t recognize them as memories but as déjà vu or unexplained guilt. A repeating theme of challenging events related to your past is likely, especially when young.

Natal Mercury retrograde can cause mental confusion, learning difficulties and misunderstandings. Difficulty in self-expression can cause missed opportunities, social anxiety and poor self-esteem. You may have been shy, quiet and introspective, and suffered from teasing, verbal abuse, criticism, slander and lies.

However, being born with Mercury in reverse is not all bad news. Early learning and communication problems would have forced to to master that which you were not good at. Perfecting those areas improved your reasoning ability and communication skills, and helped repay any karmic debts.

Lighting fast, non-linear thinking can make you a creative and innovative genius. You can become an entertaining, informative and inspiring communicator with a magical intuition and brilliant memory.

Progressed Mercury Retrograde

Retrograde Mercury lasts only three weeks, so Mercury will turn direct at some stage in your progressed chart (where one day equals one year). After a couple of years, you will notice that your communication style improves, and you can express yourself more freely. However, the opposite can also occur, and someone with Mercury direct in their natal chart may experience progressed Mercury in retrograde motion later in life. I experienced this from age 13 to 37, which was very profound. I even stopped reading books.

If Mercury is retrograde in your natal or progressed chart, you can expect to make more rapid progress during Mercury retrograde transits. Use this ephemeris to see if Mercury changes direction in your progressed chart.