Mercury

Mercury in astrology

Mercury, the swift messenger of the Roman gods, is the planet of the mind. In astrology it shows how you think, talk, learn and connect: your wit, your curiosity and the way you explain the world.

Mercury in each sign

Find your Mercury sign with the birthday lookup below.

Mercury retrograde

Mercury turns retrograde three or four times a year for about three weeks. Folklore blames it for crossed wires: lost messages, tech glitches, travel delays and old friends popping back up. The usual advice is to review, redo and reconnect rather than start something brand new.

In astronomy, retrograde is an illusion: the planet only seems to move backward because Earth is passing it, or it is passing Earth, as we both orbit the Sun.

Mercury facts

How to see it: Hard to spot: it never strays far from the Sun, so look low in the west just after sunset or low in the east before sunrise when it is at its greatest distance from the Sun.

Source: NASA planetary fact sheets.

The planets on your birthday

Positions from NASA JPL for the US Eastern date. No birth time needed, except for the Moon, which changes signs every two or three days. We don’t save your birthdate or link it to you.