Mercury Retrograde 2016

Mercury is retrograde four times in 2016: from January 5 to January 25 in Aquarius and Capricorn; from April 28 to May 22 in Taurus; from August 30 to September 22 in Virgo; from December 19 to January 8, 2017 in Capricorn and Sagittarius. The next Mercury retrograde after 2016 begins on April 9, 2017 at 4°50' Taurus. Dates are in UTC.

For the retrograde that begins January 5, 2016, the pre-retrograde shadow starts December 19, 2015 and the post-retrograde shadow ends February 14, 2016. For the retrograde that begins April 28, 2016, the pre-retrograde shadow starts April 14, 2016 and the post-retrograde shadow ends June 7, 2016. For the retrograde that begins August 30, 2016, the pre-retrograde shadow starts August 10, 2016 and the post-retrograde shadow ends October 6, 2016. For the retrograde that begins December 19, 2016, the pre-retrograde shadow starts December 2, 2016 and the post-retrograde shadow ends January 27, 2017.

From January 5, 2016, Mercury turns retrograde at 1°02' Aquarius and turns direct at 14°54' Capricorn. From April 28, 2016, Mercury turns retrograde at 23°36' Taurus and turns direct at 14°20' Taurus. From August 30, 2016, Mercury turns retrograde at 29°04' Virgo and turns direct at 14°49' Virgo. From December 19, 2016, Mercury turns retrograde at 15°07' Capricorn and turns direct at 28°50' Sagittarius.

Mercury spends about 79 days of 2016 retrograde.

Mercury retrograde is traditionally associated with reviewing plans, conversations, contracts, devices, and travel arrangements. Astrologers read it as a time to review rather than launch.

Most astrology sites print a single date without a time zone. An ingress at 10:49 PM in New York is already the next day in London and Sydney, so two correct sources can disagree by a day. Selfgazer gives every time in both US Eastern time and UTC, and the tables switch to your own time zone in the browser.