|
Mercury Stations Direct
February 11, 2026. Mercury enters Retrograde Arc (Shadow).
Tropical. 8° Pisces 29’. Sidereal. 14° Aquarius 21’. śatabhiṣaj
February 26, 2026. Mercury-Budha stations Retrograde (vakra).
Tropical. 22° Pisces 33’. Sidereal. 28° Aquarius 26’ pūrvabhadrapadā
March 7, 2026. Sun-Surya Mercury-Budha Inferior Conjunction.
Tropical. 16° Pisces 52'. Sidereal. 22° Aquarius 45’ pūrvabhadrapadā
March 20, 2026. Mercury stations Direct.
Tropical. 8° Pisces 29’. Sidereal. 14° Aquarius 21’. śatabhiṣaj
April 9, 2026. Mercury leaves Retrograde Arc (Shadow).
Tropical. 22° Pisces 33’. Sidereal. 28° Aquarius 26’ pūrvabhadrapadā
With Mercury stationing direct on March 20, there will be no retrograde planets until Pluto stations retrograde on May 6th. This might indicate that things will move quickly in the world, but may be a good omen if you want to initiate anything in your life or make changes. There might be a clear path that you can follow before Pluto, Mercury again, Neptune and Saturn move retrograde. For now, things that may have been slow to materialize in the last few months with Jupiter and then Mercury going retrograde, will begin to move forward or at least have resolution.
What follows below is adapted from other newsletters about Mercury, but the dates and degrees are different.
As we see above, Mercury stations direct on March 20, 2026, but it will stay in the retrograde arc or shadow until April 9, 2026, when Mercury crosses the degree where it stationed retrograde on February 26, 2026. That means that if you have a planet, point, or angle around that degree you may be especially affected by the current Mercury retrograde cycle. Otherwise as a general rule, the three weeks of the retrograde (though often bringing petty disagreements due to lack of clarity or inability to listen to others, communication and transportation delays, and other slowdowns) was the perfect time to review situations, revise projects, and even getting counseling for a situation you want to change.
This Mercury retrograde period was especially challenging and continues in that vein due to the fact that the solar eclipse of February 17 occurred during the retrograde arc, Mars conjoined the degree of that eclipse on February 28 (the start of the Iran war), and the lunar eclipse of March 3 occurred during Mercury retrograde. In this particular Mercury retrograde period, Israel and the United States initiated a war against Iran, there is still a partial United States a government shutdown, that continues to interfere with travel, but hopefully it will be resolved before Mercury leaves the retrograde arc (shadow) on April 6th. Mercury retrograde these last few weeks certainly did not help the negotiations to reach a compromise, which has to do with funding for the Department of Homeland Security and ICE. At least that is what has been stalled in the United States, and I am sure there are other countries that are experiencing the same.
The same goes for your personal lives so think about your personal life and work at meeting someone halfway and compromising rather than prolonging a standstill about something. Seeking clarity, understanding, and working together is most important.
Everyone should feel a change in the energy around us, especially the fact that Mercury's direct motion causes it to speed up, and can restore better communication, clarity, and more ability for understanding and listening to others with patience and compassion. Many of the snafus that you may have felt under Mercury Retrograde will begin to clear up, but may still linger until Mercury leaves the retrograde arc (shadow) on April 9, 2026.
As I said above, the fact that Mercury will station direct is a mark of optimism. That means that even though the world will continue to be tense, and especially the markets will go up and down, sometimes, over a period of one day it will rise, and the next day it will fall, and so on. Peace treaties are negotiated, but then changed and rejected, only to go back to the drawing board, but maybe with a bit more optimism. On a personal and professional level, we can aim for clarity, better communication, and sound business judgment. Use these next few weeks to increase communication, and to try to resolve differences with people close to you personally and professionally. Some of those differences may require honesty, and each party agreeing to disagree and not to blame but to just move on and think about the positive connectivity that you share. Other differences you may have may be trivial and in retrospect seem very silly.
It's important in that if you have a planet, point, or angle in between Tropical. 8° Pisces 29’-22° Pisces 33’ or Sidereal. 14° Aquarius 21’-28° Aquarius 26’ where Mercury
retrograded, you may have felt this particular Mercury retrograde more than usual. Because retrograde and direct stations are points of power and intensity, often powerful events occur around the station both in the world or your personal life, and even if that Mercury did not hit a significant planet, point, or angle in your chart, it will still travel through a particular house. (In this case it is where tropical Pisces and sidereal Aquarius lie.) At least there is more opportunity for negotiating on a direct Mercury, though I would suspect that things will begin in a new direction and will really take shape after April 9, 2026, when it leaves the retrograde arc. You can also look at this to measure things in your own life that you would like to be started, resolved, or even ended so that you can move forward. The good news is that we won't have to deal with that pesky Mercury retrograde again until June 29-July 23, 2026.
Now that Mercury goes direct, get used to moving ahead with plans that may have been put on hold, or that may have slowed down. You can start making those plans now, but especially once Mercury leaves the retrograde arc on April 9, they will begin to manifest. Since retrogrades are a period of reflection and revision, and since the planets slow up, think about what you realized or worked on over the last month or two and get to work on now realizing those goals and plans. This area of your life might have become unpredictable, may have slowed down, or taken an unexpected turn but now they will straighten out and move forward. Scroll down for whichever zodiac you use.
Read if you use sidereal Indian astrology. If you have a planet, point, or angle in your chart between Sidereal 14° Aquarius 21’-28° Aquarius 26’ where Mercury retrograded, it will hit those degrees three times when Mercury is direct, retrograde, and direct between the retrograde arc period of February 11-April 9, 2026. If you have something on one of the stationary degrees, it will be there twice with the station being very potent but just for a day or two, since Mercury moves so quickly. Whatever the planet, point, or angle represents, or whichever house the planet rules, may have slowed down, been reviewed, and revised, but ultimately reinvigorated and reinvented slowly after March 20, 2026, when it goes direct and at a faster pace after April 9, 2026, when it leaves the retrograde arc. General descriptions of the grahas (planets) are as follows:
Sun. power, vigor; Moon. maternal, mind; Mars. strength, courage; Mercury. speech, learning; Jupiter. knowledge, wealth; Venus. love, happiness; Saturn. sorrow, fear; Rahu. intensity, compulsion; Ketu. extremes, spirituality; Lagna. destiny, vitality. If you want to use Uranus, Neptune, Pluto and other angles, you can look below at tropical Western astrology for their keywords.
Mercury spans sidereal Aquarius between February 3-April 10, 2026. Mercury stations retrograde on February 26, 2026 and stations direct March 20, 2026.
The house that Aquarius occupies is the area that may have been slowed down, reviewed, revised, but ultimately reinvigorated and reinvented slowly after March 20, 2026 when Mercury goes direct and at a faster pace after April 9, 2026 when it leaves the retrograde arc. If you look at the dates above when Mercury is in Aquarius then you know which area of life is affected and when they manifest. If you do not know which house sidereal Aquarius occupies, look at your lagna (ascendant), or Moon, or even your Sun (if you do not know your ascendant or Moon), and just count from there. General descriptions of bhavas (houses) are as follows:
1. appearance, destiny, temperament, personality, constitution; 2. Money, family life, food, speech, early childhood; 3. Siblings, Fine arts, courage, desires; 4. Mother, happiness, real estate, vehicles; 5. Children, romance, investments, speculation; 6. Open enemies, work, competition, obstacles, illness; 7. Marriage, partners, contracts, passion; 8. Life and death cycle, research, accidents, other's money, inheritance; 9. Father, teacher (guru), religion, higher learning, opportunity; 10. Career, status, public recognition, reputation; 11. Profits, rewards, gains from work, awards, older siblings; 12. spiritual practice, secret enemies, foreign travel, debt, confinement.
_______________________________________________________________________
Read if you use tropical Western astrology. If you have a planet, point, or angle in your chart between Tropical 8° Pisces 29’-22° Pisces 33’ where Mercury retrograded, it will hit those degrees three times when Mercury is direct, retrograde, and direct between the retrograde arc period of February 11-April 9, 2026. If you have something on one of the stationary degrees, it will be there twice with the station being very potent but just for a day or two, since Mercury moves so quickly. Whatever the planet, point, or angle represents, or whichever house the planet rules, may have slowed down, been reviewed, and revised, but ultimately reinvigorated and reinvented slowly after March 20, 2026, when it goes direct and at a faster pace after April 9, 2026, when it leaves the retrograde arc. General descriptions of the planets are as follows:
Sun. vitality, individuality, ego; Moon. emotions, habits, conditioning; Mercury. communication, intelligence; Venus. love, beauty, creativity; Mars. physical energy, aggression, courage; Jupiter. expansion, abundance; Saturn. limitation, disciplined, fear; Uranus. originality, independent, rebellious; Neptune. spiritual, immaterial, imagination; Pluto. intensity, power; North Node. power, place where you must strive; South Node. place where it is easy, habits; Ascendant. personality, destiny; IC. home, family, mother; Descendant. partnerships, contracts; Midheaven. career, father
Mercury spans tropical Pisces between February 6-April 14, 2026, and retrograded between February 26-March 20, 2026. The house that tropical Pisces occupies is the area that may be slowed down, reviewed, revised, but ultimately reinvigorated and reinvented slowly after March 20, 2026 when Mercury goes direct and at a faster pace after April 9, 2026 when it leaves the retrograde arc. If you look at the dates above when Mercury is in Pisces then you know which area of life is affected and when they manifest. If you do not know which house tropical Pisces occupies, look at your ascendant or Sun (if you do not know your ascendant), and just count from there. General descriptions for houses are as follows::
1. personality, body, appearance; 2. finances, possessions, values. 3. communication, siblings, short journeys, learning; 4. family, mother, home; 5. children, recreation, entertainment; 6. health, service, pets; 7. marriage, contracts, partnership; 8. business transactions, sexuality, life and death matters; 9. higher education, travel abroad, publishing, law; 10. profession, status, father; 11. gains, friendships, hopes, dreams; 12. compassion, spirituality, limitations, solitude.
|
