The first Mercury retrograde of 2026 lasts from February 26 to March 20 and travels from 22 to 8 Pisces.
Mercury retrograde often causes problems with thinking and communication, and negatively impacts relationships and travel. The astrology of this Mercury retrograde 2026 phase focuses on love, friendship, and diplomacy.
The general meaning of Mercury retrograde is followed by more details about Mercury retrograde in February 2026. Information about Mercury retrograde in your birth chart can be found at the end of this article.
Mercury Retrograde Meaning
Mercury retrograde is generally challenging, affecting your thinking and communication. The most common effects include confusion, anxiety, disagreements, technology failures, bad news, travel delays, and lost items.
Business negotiations may be in flux. Some crucial details may not yet be available, and others may be unreliable or inaccurate.
However, you may experience déjà vu, reminisce about happy times, unexpectedly meet an old friend or lover, or recover suppressed memories or skills from childhood or past lives.
The most critical point in the Mercury retrograde cycle is when Mercury stations retrograde. The few days around the exact retrograde and direct stations are the riskiest for decision-making, negotiations, communication, and transport. For more information, see Mercury Retrograde Natal and Transit.
Mercury Retrograde 2026 Astrology
| Date | Mercury | Degree |
| Feb 11 | Mercury Enters Retro Zone | 08♓30 |
| Feb 26 | Mercury Stations Retrograde | 22♓33 |
| Mar 20 | Mercury Stations Direct | 08♓30 |
| Apr 09 | Mercury Leaves Retro Zone | 22♓33 |
The chart below is for Mercury stationary retrograde. Mercury conjunct Venus is the only direct aspect, and it stays within a three-degree orb from February 25 to March 1.
Mercury Retrograde February 2026
Mercury conjunct Venus makes you think about love and helps you share affection. It encourages personal interaction and usually makes communication more harmonious and pleasant. It is also usually favorable for artistic and creative work, negotiation, cooperation, and financial and business matters.
However, the challenging nature of a retrograde station can make it harder to express love and affection, straining intimate relationships. Differences in your ideas or plans may become more apparent.
The passive or relaxing influence of Venus can exaggerate Mercury retrograde’s tendency toward mental carelessness. Not listening carefully or saying the wrong thing could lead to misunderstandings and disagreements.
It becomes harder to cooperate and compromise. Negotiations and diplomacy become more complicated. Peace and harmony become harder to achieve.
Other symptoms of Mercury retrograde conjunct Venus include social awkwardness, poor social skills, poor decision-making, errors of judgment, embarrassment, overspending and laziness.
- 22♓15 – Mercury conjunct Venus
- 22♓33 – Mercury Retrograde
- 23♓50 – Fixed star Markab
The Winged Horse
Fixed star Markab in the Winged Horse brings good fortune, wealth, and high honors, but the risk of misfortune, unrealized ambitions, disgrace, fevers, cuts, blows, stabs, fire and violent death.
With Mercury and Venus: Mental alertness, quick thinking and speech, spiritual power, intuition, favorable for numeracy, writing, diplomacy, propaganda and taking calculated risks but not gambling.
However, Mercury retrograde brings criticism, false friends, involvement with questionable associates that could lead to embarrassment, friends becoming enemies, illness, and self-destruction from drink and other excess.
A tendency to be rash and headstrong can lead to bad decisions that could prove unfortunate for many people for a long time, resulting in romantic, domestic, and legal problems.
Constellation Pegasus, the Flying Horse, gives ambition, vanity, intuition, enthusiasm, caprice and bad judgment. It portends events concerning ships and the ocean, as well as changes in the weather.
Mercury Retrograde February 2026 Summary
Mercury retrograde in February 2026 aligns with Venus to focus on love, friendship, and diplomacy. Because Mercury retrograde is a challenging influence, difficulty expressing love and affection may cause relationship tension, misunderstandings and disagreements.
It will be harder to cooperate and compromise. Negotiations and diplomacy become more complicated. Peace and harmony become harder to achieve.
Fixed star Makab brings mental alertness and intuition to aid diplomacy. However, it also indicates false friends, enemies and complications from poor decisions.
Mercury Retrograde February 2026 Times
- Los Angeles – November 9, 11:01 am
- New York – November 9, 2:01 pm
- London – November 9, 7:01 pm
- Delhi – November 10, 0:31 am
- Sydney – November 10, 6:01 am
Mercury Retrograde 2026 Dates
- November 9 to 29, 2025 – 06♐51 to 20♏42
- February 26 to March 20, 2026 – 22♓33 to 08♓30
- June 29 to July 23, 2026 – 26♋15 to 16♋18
Diplomacy is basically negotiating for a common interest. I looked at the Bored of Peace and found that those buying in common interest is to operate outside of ongoing diplomatic negotiations. There is honor among thieves . I reference who’s running the BoP. I think they are short on risk assessment. Rashness. I guess in that case Venusian desire for dollars would play in.
So I guess I will be thinking about the common interest glue in associations.. Could even be values I suppose, other than $$$. And what are the values of those associations. The mission statement outside the $$$.
Moon Neptune aspect lends itself to vulnerability. Being sweet talked or baited came to mind.
Over sensitivity. Like what the hell do you mean you don’t have fresh basil. That would be a mars uranus response? Yeah I don’t think mars uranus is a long term well thought out response. Just causes problems says natal Mrs uranus sesqui.
Last post talked about potential Bronze medal, where we have silver and gold, which I think is reasonable, silver not very far from gold, and we see it often comes down to the final contest. Bronze is a little different, where we talk about a tolerance, and in the composition of bronze there is metallurgy, and one can say it’s a Copper metal for the most part, in astrology Venus. Recent astrology show it trine Jupiter, and we look at Mercury retrograde, 26 Feb 2026, compare it to various charts, my location for instance and look at Trumps progressions, as he is the lead person. ‘Canada ripped us off” he mentions, and who is us exactly? Artwork said the same thing and provide copious detail going back to JFK, and further back..what s the oldest chart? Axial age?
https://postimg.cc/G8DKNK7R
Sagittarius rising, and we look at Jupiter already, and if Canada and USA examined, as well we look at Mexico. Great Attractor added because Mercury retrograde a little different in New York, and ascendant conjunct great attractor in NYC. But in my city we don’t see the Venus square ascendant, but we see Venus conjunct Mercury trine Jupiter. And once one sort out ascendant issues, the dominant triangle fits into the picture.
With Bronze, copper is primary and we add asteroid Tinker 22830. Compare my chart with local Mercury Rx.
https://postimg.cc/qtVL0CNB
We see the dominant triangle where Sagittarius and Leo ascendant trine. The square Sag Asc and Pisces Sun, Sun quincunx Leo Asc. Moon at cusp of magic sextile a well studied cusp of exposure stellium. And we see Tinker at the apex of the yod conjunct Saturn, which is also the 1,2,3,4,5 position of Saturn-Jupiter era chart.
Therefore to find Bronze medal, one must be like a Tinker, or one day add zinc or phosporous, the usual market ready amalgams.
Gold medal plated gold? Bronze, copper and zinc? Silver real deal? and, surprising cuz silver price is up.
First rounding of $.00 happened yesterday at store. The penny is out.
Copper demand and electronics?
Geez Louise. If this is a precursor to mercury retrograde I will spending it on my knees in awe. Tuned into Al jazeera and watched Gaza Breathe and zpsint videos. Art amongst the rubble. I was sobbing. But didn’t stop there. Watched the zelensky/eu spiritual leaders with that awesome choir. Stateliness usually does not get to me, but the power of that video had me dropped to my knees in awe of the power.
I texted breathe and paint link to friend. Her response: that is so powerful. So I am not off there. I just had a deeper reponse. I am moved to my core.
That kind of power can’t be bought. The power of beauty. That kind of power can be experienced, it can be known, but it cannot be bought or be manufactured for sale.
What about mars activating the recent solar eclipse square uranus the day after mercury goes retro? It doesn’t seem very diplomatic.
Mars 26°Aqr33,, at Mercury Rx, and the astrologer degree 27, action on someone’s astrology. Case has been made whose, by diplomatic means first choice, higher light of Algol.
Yo Paul Mars square Algol too…
That should be up for review? Have been considering that energy mix in my natal chart and life events and the triggers.
Does there have to be degreeing for it to play into upcoming Saturn Pluto sextile?
SOTU speech begins, 9:12:30 pm Washington, Seginus conjunct ascendant
https://postimg.cc/n9LYDD5d
Per him, we are in a gold plated age.
I love metal. Especially wraught iron. And rusty metal. Something so endearing about the corrosion. Unless it’s on my car or impeding object functioning.
My mind wanders into another terrain as I go to Xmas box of frozen meats to pull out some flesh. I don’t really like meat. Bland . So looked at why my body screams out for meat once or twice a week. I need metal in my body. like iron. It has to hook up with protein carriers or it runs free and can damage organs. They call it organ rusting. That would not be good rusted metal, American pickers style. Mercury Jupiter wandering mind? It is a trip. And I don’t have to buy a ticket.
Per him, we are in a gold plated age.
I love metal. Especially wraught iron. And rusty metal. Something so endearing about the corrosion. Unless it’s on my car or impeding object functioning.
Medal metaphor and Artwork, the time had come to frame it within objectives, use it as a communication tool, because gold medals are rare, and life is precious, and whether you’re on a gold, silver or bronze path, the Artwork provides guardrails, or tolerances, in the spirit of the times. I’m grateful for the United States having a political platform to air it’s competitiveness, we have something similar in Canada. Technology and capitalism, it’s not perfect but where on Earth do you see it otherwise? A work that models the other side of the peak, old methods like human obliteration war belong to another age, but we have this, which troubles me
It feels like quincunx or two at the time of that post, indeed, we see them
https://postimg.cc/mcHGcpWb
The pivot on Venus between two dominant triangles. And well meaning or just behavioural tendencies, USA has a pirate genome, and like a Viking, he wants to raid the countryside or by ship, but it’s in parlaying the Saga where one captures new recruits, I mean SOTU is very much a platform to vie king. And if a woman was President and women’s gold was in the audience, same thing. Think of the endorsements, leverage the self. We champion Artwork Looters but who has done it? for women and men, but especially women, Artwork medal a better expression of Mars than in hockey. The Venus pivot in the chart.
An hour goes by and look at the chart again
https://postimg.cc/0zcNdyjR
Add radix and we see Part of Fortune conjunct natal ascendant, time stamp ascendant conjunct natal mid heaven, and natal Mars conjunct time stamp mid heaven. Perhaps look at Mars conjunct ascendant again. There’s bubbles of Fortune and trade, war or not, negotiation, diplomacy. There was a time when Jupiter at nadir suggested submarines.
2 hours* approximately, and one can see probably military with that Mars exalted in Capricorn. Our fighting forces eying an important trade zone or several, and unemployed brokers wishing to expand, build discos for looters to fly to, and employ pilots and fuel service technicians..Iran produce web pages of glitterati frolicking about, what else has the West to offer? Mirage of competency, masked in comedy routines and bad acting, movie sets and Iranian riveira. But call Modi for Boilywood real estate. And soon we have secret religious ceremonies, scandal and an Iran Trump.
https://www.eavartravel.com/blog/2024/10/18/161040/iran-free-trade-zones/
Trying to get his mitts in control of the silk road eh?
I guess western hedge funds etc. in the game there for a long time now…
Larry Fink too ?
How is this different from what is referred to as the black market? As it is used for and allows illegal traficking of goods and people. And the dumping of e-waste. It makes me sick.
You sure have made the Iran Israel us mash up more understandable. Stormy seas for sure.
A commentator said something like Mr sotu lives in a golden bubble. Like it’s his reality. There are others in that bubble with him and he has people around him who maintain that bubble for him. So the question arose this a.m. among mine does he really believe what he says? Or is he just a liar like others say. Who decides. And does it matter.
The bubble gets farther and farther away from more and more people, I think. A stark chasm.
You know Vic not only yr Bonzo lives in his bubble but all our german and european “we save the world from evil russia” politicans too.
Now Selensky is military dictator from whole Eorope and they have their masonic heads in the ass of this from rags to riches jewish-kazhar “comedian-juggler”.
Germany paid up to now nearly 1 trillion € for this border province of Russia (weapons etc.)
Do you really think these masonic idiots are better than yr Bonzo. ?
And we have nearly 2,7 trillion depts.
Just imagine what fools the “german” and europran politicians are.
And btw. Jamie yr beautiful mercury-venus in tropical pisces sign is still ruled by saturn-neptune.
Total bancruptcy is only glossed over by this nice façade.
And not only that – we pay EVERY year 10 BILLIONS for allied occupation troops namely US-army – 80 years after WW2 !
Again, I don’t know. I am not hearing about youse guys throwing people in camps, stealing their papers, and torturing them. I don’t hear of youse guys taking away birth certificates and drivers licenses from transgenders. Are you shooting your own citizens in the streets just for being there? How about smashing people’s car windows and breaking into their homes. Are you attacking school children? If you are I don’t hear it
And what I am hearing here is that the Europeans involved with Epstein have the good old dignity of admitting ‘I screwed up I am stepping down.’ People need to see that.
It’s kind of funny to hear him speak about Iranian people’s freedom as he builds his USA gulag to house his dissidents. Big government contract money in prisons. Build them and they will be filled.
Canada citizenship Bill C-3 Amendment comes into effect 15 Dec 2025. We look at It in a Synastry with Mercury retrograde 26 Feb 2026.
There was a time when Quebecers moved around quite a bit, and they still do. Cotton mills employed hundreds and we look at both charts from New Bedford, MA.
https://postimg.cc/N2sVtRGq
Why New Bedford? because the target appears New England, and perhaps the best example is to site New Bedford, where if one is to research this, check biographies on Warren Buffett. It’s mentioned in the one I read, the Quebec connection as describing original source of the work force.
The chart, perhaps an analysis or two, Virgo rising, and we see the Moons trine. ‘A strong sense of well being,’ Call around and enquire as to the fine print in this bill. It’s like Moons quiescent, but roused from a slumber and looking around at a changing world,
Add Hygiea and Ceres. These two are square at Mercury Rx. Virgo a health sign, and often we hear astrologers mention to look at the quincunx from 6th house to ascendant, and we see one, Solar Eclipse/Asc (21 Sept) to recent solar eclipse. Solar and lunar eclipses are interesting in the judiciary chart, and with citizenship amendment it’s a good experiment to see where the bill goes.
https://postimg.cc/tnxFJ4qY
We see two quincunx, and they are part of dominant learning triangles, with one outcome described, ‘sense of well being’ . The other one is 17 Feb solar eclipse conjunct Mars trine Mid heaven, and we include Polaris at mid heaven too, an aide one could say in ‘getting’ a new bearing. And of course this isn’t uniquely Massachusetts, French all over in places like Michigan, and one day Trump trades these places for Alberta, just kidding.
Warning * Michigan an AI intrusion, look around who may be ‘nom de plume’
https://montrealgazette.com/opinion/op_eds/opinion-at-least-20-per-cent-of-new-englanders-are-now-canadian-citizens-lets-hope-they-have-canadian-values
Miss Chicklets with her photo prominent, a clue who may behind the backdoor purloin of the Artwork. Her AI wants to say ‘outliner of the Artwork’, but biased, y’know, and maybe hands of Artwork meddling chicklets. Worry about my retirement, and resolve the cover up.
Announcement from Canada and USA that things in Cuba may have reached their nadir yesterday with the Florida incursion, and aid coming or sanctions easing. We look at Havana founding chart and 26 Feb 2025, 4:30pm transits
https://postimg.cc/XGQPfsc5
It’s a pretty good place for a winter vacation, and not long ago several hundred Russians were on their way down the runway but had to abort because no fuel in Cuba to take the plane back.
But looking at the chart, Havana has an interesting Jupiter conjunct pre-solar eclipse, mind you this is 1519 and Cortez and others, that’s an expansion energy, and study how he sets off from Cuba to make history in Mexico. Moon 10Can makes a trine with this pre Solar eclipse/Jupiter, and with goodwill anð diplomacy, try not to over dribble the football before making the shot.
Oh boy, time for a deep dive? This rx is affecting my mars rx. The dawning release was great. Do I need to delve further. It ain’t pretty. Sidereal mars rx natal pkacement end of aq explains so much. In its uranium flavor of breaking free from it since it involves being entrapped in torturous situations which has been a cut off point for me in situations my whole life. Maybe it’s enough to come to know that without regressing into the past life pictures. I just want to stop getting stuck in the middle of others insanity. I mean I once jumped from a moving vehicle to escape a torturous older sibling. She is mellower with age but sometimes it creeps out again and I seem to be her target. Maybe that’s a cue for me. She smells it on me and goes in for the kill.
Torture has to do with mars aggression Saturn confinement and Pluto power play. I guess?
Under George Bush it was introduced after 9/11 in so called war on terror.
There was saturn opposite pluto and when war in iraq started mars participated.
And Guantanamo concentration camp still in use..
Yeah that Cheney dude just seethed stinky nasty. Big into torture like abu ghraib. That was in 2003. It was quite the scandal. Water boarding had teeths on edge. Torture is ugly ugly ugly but this shit these sick monsters are doing needs to be called out. It just cannot become the standard.
Teaching children that torture is the norm does not bode well for the future. Uranus could be helpful there unless Neptune leads them into a daze. And personality disorders are freaky. Like one famous twisted person on the stand said, I am four different people. Try living with something like that.
“Justice is might” (song by Sonic Youth)
And now Vic: USA-ascendant sign sag you might think USA is bout justice cuz tropical signs sag and (libra) are widely seen as the tropical signs of justice.
But if you see Antares as head of the siderial scorpio on their ascendant with mercury-pluto and sun in the eight house you see a lot of scorpionic elements.
So i think being biggest world power ranks much higher than justice and human rights and USA-history proves that.
Playing world police is more important than preserving independant and self-determined nations.
“E pluribus unum” is a masonry slogan for building NWO world domination and unification pyramid with the help of technologic all seeing eye.
Just take a look on one dollar note then you know what (not only) USA is all about.
The thing that always puzzles me is that she will use a man in any group as a vehicle against me. Vyikes I am smelling Maxwell. 🤮. Proxy.. 🤮🤮
Natal mars rx progresses direct end of the decade. What the heck would have happened had I not resolved this before then. The insane situations had been accumulating rapidly affecting my life and taking a great deal of time to resolve putting the rest of my life on hold. I am not sure how this stuff works. Bound to resolve it by direct time or if not, dragged into escalating insane situations? The intensity of these situations makes me fell like they could kill me. Literally.
I know the feeling well just this last 3 years most especially.
But what i really wanted to say Vic, is I truly appreciate that you do give personal examples of real time effects your observing, or having for better or worse, from Astroking’s and your own chart study. I too caught and was floored by that Al Jazeera article. The amount of people globally, standing in the streets many risking jail if not death, depending where they are, is quantum leaping and the signs of light against the archaic Cult of Money runs the World MO.
🤘
So – now we know 🔯🕎 ruled USA the self-called liberator of the nations has struck again in Iran.
Now – why ? The REAL reasons are:
First: Cuz atomic weapon owner Israel doesn’t want Iran with nuclear weapons.
Second: Trump wants their oil.
Humanism ? Better living conditions for the iranian people ? Only lies we hear.
And diplomacy ? Really ?
And i forgot a third very important reason:
Trump wants to distract from Epstein – a war is always a good idea if you have skeletons in yr cellar…
Henry Kissinger is widely quoted as saying: “It may be dangerous to be America’s enemy, but to be America’s friend is fatal”. Often used in discussions about U.S. foreign policy and alliances, this quote implies that the U.S. can be unreliable, putting its allies in precarious positions.
USA Sibly and Mercury Rx, both Philadelphia
https://postimg.cc/VSvkcwn3
Ascendant and mid heaven similar, and Kissinger quote can only really be derived from astrology, and we see in 7th house, hard aspects and quincunx, 7th Jupiter and Mars, one will find many occurrences of open enemies (Jupiter) and an aggressive partner (Mars). Look around today for instance and we see a very long duration American type action show up, and one of the things mentioned about late February astrology is an ambivalence, and we see that with an early Libra mid heaven, how it in a Kite pattern with the oft cited magic triangle. It’s like we see dominance type behaviour in the 10th, or mid heaven angular, with a minor grand trine of long duration. Of course the mood is bound to change with casualties, which people mostly see as failures, and Venezuela has set a high bar, and palace coups are more desirable, because it switches out management, assets which bankers want, and are relatively left intact. One group of criminals subbed out for a different group of looters, may do well here with side deals and prior arrangements, but Artwork actually doesn’t matter who is in control, it makes blackmail/bribe regimes obsolete anyway. Program that into AI.
Henry Kissinger was a mars-pluto character as Wernher von Braun was.
Both were ruthless in achieving their goals.
Oh i have to correct that: Kissinger had no mars-pluto but he had mars near his ascendant like von Braun.
And Mars conjunct Betelgeuse (marsian star).
Americans,y’know they have KIssinger quote 7th house, and it’s not easy, but it’s what others worry about as much as the Americans themselves, and they have Venus in 7th too. Judiciary chart has a Venus 7th. 12th house cusp Sagittarius, and secret games or adventures, institutions built around it. I’ve got a Cancer 12th, and we see a secretly constructed family arrangement, the Universe gives it. Australia with a 12th Aries, and the pandemic shock and reaction gives an Aries impulse. We see Neptune/Saturn in Australia chart and one wonders the country trying to protect itself from a growing global idealism, but recently they seem to be handling America’s latest probably more circumspect because they have Mars square Uranus in the natal, and they have had unlucky diplomacy with Iran.
This site has become too political, and why are we constantly seeing headlines from weeks ago?
Politics IS life. No?
So how can astrological study not or never be looking at Politics.
To lament 2 week old Headlines, I really don’t know what to say to that but wow, seriously, ever heard of Reflecting. Contextual reflection?
One can describe diplomacy use on this thread as a diversion, I’m not so sure the astrology supports it, but there are attempts. And also prediction software knows astrologyking posters and bots will follow Jamie’s lead out of respect.
What I think (Gemini Moon), is to look at Street roses and the Hungarian Revolution (Oct-Nov 1956) also Gemini Moon, because we see 1956 Uranus at the hexagon vacant degree, and from a brief review of 1956, someone’s done the comparison, and notices many of the same characteristics, especially the military diversion, and French and British politicians were Epsteined.
https://postimg.cc/sBGdvQv4
It could be said it’s become political at astrologyking because Artwork was put up here, and became valuable and monetized due to its utility amongst groups. Herein an example.