Mercury retrograde in 2026, computed.
Mercury stations retrograde three times in 2026. Each row below is a zero crossing of Mercury's longitude rate, found by the same VSOP87 ephemeris pipeline that casts every chart on this site, with the direct station that closes the cycle and the shadow window on either side: the pre-shadow opens when Mercury first reaches the degree it will later turn direct at, and the post-shadow closes when it re-passes the degree it turned retrograde at.
Stations are shallow turning points, so read the clock times as good to a few hours and the arcs — the degrees Mercury re-walks — as exact. A retrograde that crosses a sign boundary is listed with both signs, because the two halves of that cycle are read differently.
Next up: Mercury stations retrograde at 20°59′ Scorpio on October 24, 2026 at 07:13 UTC, direct again November 13, 2026 at 15:56 UTC.
This page is a 2026 calendar of Mercury stations — retrograde and direct instants with the shadow windows on either side. Sky now is the live tropical sky for this UTC instant, including whether Mercury is retrograde right now, not a year of station dates. Daily horoscope columns are tropical one-sign letters from today's sky, not this station list. A sidereal Vedic birth chart recasts a birth moment through Lahiri ayanamsa and Vimshottari, not a tropical retrograde calendar.
A station calendar is not a natal chart. How Charting Stars calculates birth charts is the natal pipeline that casts a birth instant — VSOP87 and IANA historical timezones — not this year of Mercury turns. Einstein's birth chart in Hellenistic, Vedic, and BaZi is one 1879 natal read three ways, not a 2026 retrograde list.
Station dates are not natal-Moon interiors. The Moon sign catalog indexes twelve emotional interiors — not this year of Mercury turns. The zodiac sign encyclopedia is tropical personality traits, not this station table.
This dated Mercury-station calendar of retrograde, direct, and shadow instants is not a birth-instant fixture suite. The Birth Chart Accuracy Test Set holds 7 named natal casts — birth-instant fixtures with engine deltas — not these station dates.
Every computed instant, 2026
Common questions.
When is the next Mercury retrograde?
Mercury stations retrograde at 20°59′ Scorpio on October 24, 2026 at 07:13 UTC, direct again November 13, 2026 at 15:56 UTC.
How many Mercury retrogrades are there in 2026?
3: Mercury stations retrograde at 22°34′ Pisces on February 26, 2026 at 06:50 UTC, direct again March 20, 2026 at 19:35 UTC. Mercury stations retrograde at 26°16′ Cancer on June 29, 2026 at 17:37 UTC, direct again July 23, 2026 at 22:59 UTC. Mercury stations retrograde at 20°59′ Scorpio on October 24, 2026 at 07:13 UTC, direct again November 13, 2026 at 15:56 UTC.
How are these dates computed?
Each row is a root-found instant from the VSOP87 ephemeris pipeline behind every chart on this site: conjunctions and oppositions of the luminaries for lunations, zero crossings of longitude rate for stations, and longitude crossings for shadow periods. Nothing is reprinted from a third-party almanac.
Where does it land in your chart?
A calendar tells you when. Where it lands depends on your own chart: the free cast returns your Big 3 — Sun, Moon, and Rising in under a minute, no signup — and the paid readings map your natal chart in full, house cusps included.