The Mercury retrograde periods of 2025: What to expect?

While most of the readers of this page/newsletter would be conversant with some basic astrological concepts, I would still proceed here with a brief introduction to retrogrades, the planet Mercury, and its retrograde periods and some historical examples pertaining to that, before finally moving on to the Mercury retrograde periods of 2025, and what to expect from them.

What is a retrograde planet?

A retrograde is when a planet appears to move backward in its orbital motion when we observe it from the Earth. Thus, a planet looks advancing on its orbital motion, then it starts seeming slowing down, then it appears as if it is stationary, and then it looks as if it is going backward. Until, after some days (or months, depending on which planet it is), it again appears to be stationary and then starts advancing in “normal” direction once again. The planet is not really reversing its orbital course around the Sun! It is just that looking at it from the Earth, it appears so. 

A stationary or retrograde planet in an astrological chart can imply a greater or different effect of that planet on the subject of the chart. Thus, a retrograde planet in birth charts (that is, at the time when they were born, the planet was appearing to be moving backwards) of any person or business or country can bear a special meaning. 

The significance of planet Mercury in astrology

Talking about Mercury retrograde, one must first understand what Mercury stands for. Mercury is also called as the messenger of gods. Thus, it stands for communication, mediation, intelligence, shrewdness, all kinds of interfaces (including skin, the body’s interface; words and speech, the interface of our thoughts and emotions) and modes of communication, such as journeys by cars, trains, boats or planes. Mercury also stands for youth (the interface between childhood and adulthood, innocence and maturity) and androgyny (the interface between male and female). 

Mercury retrograde and some historical examples

Now Mercury is the closest to the Sun and thus the fastest orbiting planet in our solar system, so it enters retrograde, too, quite frequently, around three to four times in a year. Each time, it is in retrograde for a period of around 3 weeks. When Mercury is in a retrograde period, communications can go a bit haywire. This means, for example, one can have technical issues with telecom networks or equipment or with social media. For example, Facebook or Insta could go down, have a glitch. The frequency of some more serious events, such as accidents of vehicles, increases. Even travel inconveniences can increase, such as more flights or trains getting delayed. 

Let us look at some recent historical examples. The 2021 Facebook outage, which happened on March 4. Mercury in retrograde (and in square with Pluto). On December 11, 2024, there was an outage of Insta, Threads and Facebook. Again, Mercury was retrograde. 

Sometimes, instead of Mercury retrograde, hard aspects of Mercury (0, 90 and 180 degree angles), especially to malefics (Mars, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto), can also cause similar incidents. For example, the famous CrowdStrike outage from July 2024, when Mercury was in a square (90-degree angle) with Uranus-Mars conjunction. Then on October 21, 2016, Dyn DDoS attacks had happened ... Mercury was in tight opposition (180-degree angle) to Pluto. 

Big accidents’ examples abound during Mercury retrograde periods. Of course, a lot of small ones also happen. British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch died during one such period. (In fact, I analysed the sinking of the Bayesian, the yacht on which he died, astrologically, and I had even predicted something like this to happen in my Italy predictions.) The recent Brazil Voepass plane crash from August 2024 also happened during the same retrograde period (which was also there in my Brazil predictions). The Titanic itself sank in a Mercury retrograde period, on April 15, 1912. The Japan Airlines 123 Flight on August 12, 1985: again retrograde. 

Again, Mercury hard aspects can also make that happen. For example, Dona Paz 1987 disaster, Mercury conjunct Uranus. The Azerbaijan Airlines incident and Jeju Air plane crash in South Korea (also there in my South Korea predictions), both in December 2024, with Mercury square Saturn and opposite Jupiter. 

Now of course that does not mean that every single transport means will be delayed or suffer from an accident. But it is just that the frequency increases during the retrograde periods. Why it happens to a particular ship or plane or outage to a particular network, for that one has to draw a lot of charts, often which we astrologers don’t have. For example, the yacht Bayesian, it will have its own chart, based on the date and time it was commissioned. Sometimes, astrologers will try to look for ingress charts when exact date and time are unknown, that is, when the Sun entered a particular sign before a certain event happened, here, for example, the commissioning of the Bayesian. Similarly, every country will have its chart, which will also tell us that an accident is likely to happen during a particular time period. But bringing in all together for the exact voyage, time, date, day can be difficult as astrologers don’t have all the data.  

To take an example, if you remember, in Baltimore, Maryland, USA, a bridge had collapsed in the earlier part of 2024 because of a ship colliding with it. Some labourers working on the bridge at the time also had died. This also led to the closure of the Baltimore port and cruise terminal. I had predicted the closure of something related to leisure and by the seaside in Northeastern U.S. But I had not anticipated that it would be because of a bridge collapse. Once the incident happened, I went through newspaper archives to find when the bridge was inaugurated. Luckily, I could find an old newspaper clipping. And when I created the chart for the bridge, the bridge’s birth chart, all that happened was so apparent! The U.S. had just passed through a lunar eclipse, and the eclipse degree was right on one of the “personal degrees” of the bridge! (Here is my analysis of the bridge collapse.) That reminds me to say that eclipse periods can also be very disaster-prone, with a lot of accidents happening in those periods as well. 

Again, when talking of Mercury hard aspects, it is not that every hard aspect will bring some incident. Mercury moves fast, so it will often come in hard aspects with malefics. That does not mean that every such time, some big accident or communication issue would happen. It depends on the background: if the background itself is somewhat malefic, then yes, such hard aspect would surely produce some malefic incident. 

Finally, remembering that Mercury will govern all kinds of contracts, signings and deals, let us take an example of a business deal gone south under the shadow of a Mercury retrograde. Recently, you may have heard that Japanese steelmaker Nippon Steel failed in its bid to acquire U.S. steelmaker United States Steel, as the U.S. government did not allow Nippon to do so. The acquisition announcement by Nippon had been made on December 18, 2023, in a Mercury retrograde period, and I did a case study of this particular event here. This is just one among the many financial deals that haven't worked out well when announced or signed in a Mercury retrograde period. (I plan to do a separate post on such deals later, analysing several failed deals in business history.)

Mercury retrograde periods for individuals, and general advice

Now, coming to personal charts, while Mercury retrograde of course plays an important role in the delineation of the birth chart itself, the Mercury retrograde periods are not so important, except for a few charts. You will find some astrologers tell you that if you are are an Aries Sun sign or an Aries Ascendant, this is how some coming Mercury retrograde period would affect you ... but such generalisation is not possible at all! A chart cannot be judged just based on which sign the Sun is in or the Ascendant is in. Every degree, every angle, that is, every planetary aspect matters to judge a chart, so no generalisation is possible. It is probable that some astrologers do this in order to make astrology more accessible, but this also vulgarises the astrology and makes it open to disbelief and ridicule. It should not be done, in my opinion, because it does not add any real value. 

What one can, however, advise is that one should avoid travelling, if not necessary, during Mercury retrograde periods, just out of abundance of caution. Similarly, anything involving communication or paperwork, for example, signing important documents or scheduling a very important meeting, should be avoided during a Mercury retrograde period, again out of abundance of caution. Thus, during a Mercury retrograde period, just to play it safe, one should avoid doing the Mercurian activities, if possible. Because if things in your chart are sketchy during that time, then it would play out and things could go awry. 

Mercury retrograde periods of 2025, and what to anticipate about them?

So what are the Mercury retrograde periods of 2025? 

March 14 to April 8; July 17 to August 11; and November 9 to November 30, 2025. 

I anticipate very difficult Mercury retrograde periods this year. Why? 

During the March 14 to April 8 Mercury retrograde period, Neptune will be moving from Pisces to Aries, a big astrological shift, and on top of that Saturn will be getting closer and closer to Neptune. In addition, Mars, in the water sign of Cancer, where it is in its detriment, would be trining strongly Saturn during this time. Not only that but this period is also an eclipse period! As a result, I expect this to be an extremely strong malefic period, producing several accidents, including possibly some major air and boat/ship accidents. 

During the July 17 to August 11 Mercury retrograde period, the Neptune-Saturn conjunction will be extremely tight, that too in the sign of Aries, as Saturn will also have moved into Aries, a fire sign. Again, a highly accident-prone period, and I would also expect some kind of communication breakdown between some countries, or some foreign affairs trouble, during this period, as Mars would be in Virgo. 

During the November 9-30 retrograde period, just before the retrograde period starts, Uranus will have moved back to the earth sign of Taurus and Neptune back to Pisces in their own retrograde movements. (Saturn, too, will have moved back to Pisces in its retrograde motion, and thus both Neptune and Saturn will still be in a loose conjunction, but in Pisces.) Initially, during this period, Mercury will conjunct Mars, and then go on to oppose Uranus. Besides the usual higher frequency of accidents typical of any Mercury retrograde period, I would expect some kind of communication outage during this period and maybe some major seismic activity. (Remember, the movement of tectonic plates, too, is a Mercurian communication activity!)

Note: For those who may be unaware of it, regularly updated lists of some of my successful predictions in the past can be found here. They include South Korea martial law events, Trump win, several earthquakes and other natural disasters, Israel's recent successes in military affairs and the fall of several leaders. And I predict weather and earthquakes here.

Forward to a friend and let them know about how they can subscribe. (Hint: It's here.) For weather & earthquake predictions, head over here. For my palmistry page, you may go here.

Maybe you happen to know some journalist or influencer? Do not be hesitant to forward to them this content!

And do you happen to know of events that matched my predictions? Email me the details of this event!

And if you want me to increase the range of the countries and types of predictions I cover, as well as their accuracy (notably regarding dates of events), one of the best ways is to make a generous donation if you can afford it. It would be greatly appreciated as very few astrologers practise mundane astrology.

Keep reading, keep supporting!

Disclaimer: The predictions or interpretations provided on this website for any individual, region, country, political group or party, organisation or business or for anything else are for entertainment purpose only. This includes predictions or interpretations about corporate firms and/or their stock prices and/or the future of a political party, individual, ruler and/or government. Nothing is guaranteed to happen. Services offered by Palmist Ankur or any content published by Palmist Ankur are NOT a recommendation or solicitation to buy or sell any securities, bonds or any other financial instruments. While the information that Palmist Ankur provides you is with aims to serve as a guide, it does not replace professional advice. By subscribing to the content of this website or purchasing any other type of service, you fully agree and understand this and waive Palmist Ankur off any responsibility and liability from this event and its outcome. Read Terms & Conditions in full for the usage of this website and its offered services here.