Birth Chart Basics
A planet is retrograde in your chart if it appeared to be moving backwards at your birth. It is common: about one person in five has Mercury retrograde, and nearly half have Pluto. The usual...
Much more common than the way people talk about it suggests. Mercury is retrograde about 19 per cent of the time and Pluto about 44 per cent, so a chart with no retrograde planets at all is the unusual one.
That is worth saying because retrograde placements get treated as a special condition. On the numbers they are closer to a normal feature of charts than to an exception.
The planet covers the same ground three times during a retrograde, forward, back and forward again. The interpretation follows from that geometry: the function gets a second pass, happens inwardly first, or takes longer to come out.
Mercury retrograde in a chart is commonly described as thinking before speaking, or needing to write something down before knowing what you think. Venus retrograde as taking longer to work out what you value. Mars retrograde as anger that goes inward before it goes out.
It is not a weakness and it is not karma. It is also not the same thing as a Mercury retrograde period in the sky, which is a three-week transit everybody shares. Being born with one is a permanent feature of your chart; the transit is weather.
| Planet | Retrograde | So roughly |
|---|---|---|
| Mercury | about 19% | 1 person in 5 |
| Venus | about 7% | 1 in 14, the rarest |
| Mars | about 9% | 1 in 11 |
| Jupiter | about 30% | Nearly 1 in 3 |
| Saturn | about 36% | More than 1 in 3 |
| Uranus | about 41% | 2 in 5 |
| Neptune | about 43% | Close to half |
| Pluto | about 44% | Close to half |
A planet does not stop instantly. For several days either side of a station it is barely moving, sitting on one degree far longer than usual. A planet that was stationary at your birth is generally read as unusually emphatic, whichever direction it was about to go.
If your chart has a planet within a day or two of its station, that is worth more attention than the retrograde flag itself. Most software shows the speed; a figure near zero is what you are looking for.
Mercury retrograde, then Venus retrograde, then how to read a birth chart.
Everything on this page is general by necessity. A reading built from your own date, time and place is the version that names your placements rather than describing the categories they fall into. If you do not know your birth time, this covers how to find it.
That the planet appeared to move backwards at your birth. It is usually read as the planet's function working inwardly or needing a second pass.
No, and it is common. Nearly half of everybody has Pluto retrograde.
No. One is a permanent feature of your chart, the other is a three-week transit everybody shares.
RubyAstro writes about astrology for reflection and self-understanding. Nothing here is medical, legal or financial advice, and none of it is a prediction of events. Read our full disclaimer.
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