2017 Mercury Retrograde Calendar

The Mercury Retrograde Cycle

Mercury Retrograde is that period of time in which the Planet Mercury appears to be going backwards against the stars in the sky. This usually occurs 3 or sometimes even 4 times in a year.

Why does Mercury appear to go backwards?

Mercury's orbit is closest to the sun, so it completes its orbit in about 88 days, compared to the earth's of about 365 days. As a result, from our perspective we first experience mercury moving forwards as it passes by the earth on our side of the sun, and then it seems to slow down and begin to move backwards as it races along on the farther side of the sun from our perspective.

The Full description of each cycle is found here

Please note that this calendar begins the week with Monday

January 2017
Completion of Mercury Retrograde in Capricorn

2017 begins in the middle of a  Mercury Retrograde cycle that started with Mercury  entering the Pre-Shadow in December 1, 2016, followed with the Mercury Retrograde station  at 10:55 am Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) on Dec 19. Note that UTC used to be referred to as Greenwich Mean Time.

Mercury goes direct in Sagittarius (28^o 51") on January 8, 2017 at 9:43 am UTC*, and 4:43 am Eastern Time, 1:43 am Pacific Time.

Mercury leaves Post Shadow on January 27 at approximately 5:00 pm UTC*.

April 2017 Retrograde in Taurus

The first full Mercury Retrograde cycle of 2017 begins with the Pre-Shadow on March 27 at 4:48 am UTC*.

Mercury Retrograde Station occurs at 11:14 pm UTC*, on April 9, in Taurus (4^o 51")

Mercury goes direct on May 3 at 4:22 pm UTC*, in Aries (24^o 16")

Mercury leaves the Post-Shadow on May 21 at 12:58 am UTC*.

August 2017 Mercury Retrograde in Virgo

Because Mercury rules Virgo, the retrograde in August should prove interesting! The cycle begins with Pre-Shadow at 3:13 pm UTC* on July 24.

Mercury Retrograde station occurs at 1:00 am UTC*, on August 13, in Virgo (11^o38"). Note that in North America, the station occurs on the evening of August 12.

Mercury Direct station occurs at 11:29 am Greenwich time on September 5 in Leo (28^o25"), leaving the Post-Shadow at 3:59 pm UTC* on September 19.

December 2017 Mercury Retrograde in Sagittarius

 Mercury rules Gemini, so its retrograde in Sagittarius, which acts as Gemini's shadow. should also prove interesting! The cycle begins with the Pre-Shadow at 1:49 am UTC* on November 15.

Mercury Retrograde station occurs at 7:34 am UTC* on December 3 in Sagittarius (29^o18"). For those living on the West coast time zone in the US, it will occur at 11:34 pm on December 2.

Mercury goes direct at 1:51 am UTC* on December 23  in Sagittarius (13^o00"). Note that in North America, this would be during the evening of the previous day, December 22. The Post-Shadow ends on January 10, 2018 at 4:31 pm UTC*.

Please note that all times are approximate. The actual times are defined by the observer location and vary due to parallax.

 * Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) replaced Greenwich Mean Time in 1961. They are often used interchangeably.

The Full description of each cycle is found here