If you’ve ever felt like it’s impossible to take time out of your hectic schedule to work out, catch up with a friend, or enjoy a DIY spa treatment, you’re far from alone. The frenetic pace of everyday life makes it feels like we’re perpetually expected to move forward at warp speed, but that’s impossible. Mercury retrograde serves as a regular reminder of not only how impossible but also ill-advised it is. Although the astrological transit has a bad reputation for wreaking havoc on everything from relationships to career goals, it’s actually helpful for tying up loose ends, promoting self-reflection, and revising existing game plans so they’re even more successful in the long-run. And you can figure out the best way to make the most of any given Mercury retrograde by learning how to read your own Mercury retrograde horoscope.

By learning how Mercury’s three-week backspins will affect you personally, you can’t help but feel empowered versus fearful about the astrological phenomenon—something that, as an astrologer of more than a decade and the author of Mercury Magic: How to Thrive During Retrogrades and Tap Into the Power of the Messenger Planet, I’m motivated to explain. Read on to learn how to learn what any Mercury retrograde has in store for you, so you can make the most of it.

Mercury Retrograde’s Silver Linings

Mercury retrograde is the go-to astrological culprit for anything that can possibly go wrong from breakups to fights with a loved one or oversleeping and missing an important meeting. But the fact of the matter is that, just like any astrological event, Mercury retrograde isn’t all positive or negative. In astrology, Mercury, the planet named for the messenger god, oversees communication, transportation, and technology. It’s also the speediest planet in our solar system, and when it moves forward, the areas of life it rules tend to run more smoothly. However, when it’s retrograde and appears to move backward from our vantage point on Earth three to four times a year for three weeks at a time, you’ll be more apt to experience communication delays, technology glitches, and transportation slowdowns among other related headaches.

But there are bright spots, too, as Mercury retrograde often leads to reconnection, revision, and reflection—basically re-tracing your footsteps in a variety of potentially positive ways. For example, you could reconnect with an old colleague who leads you to an interesting career opportunity or brush up a skill set you had previously put on the back burnere. You might revisit an important heart-to-heart with a loved one and finally bolster mutual understanding or finesse your resume or website. And because any retrograde presents the chance to go inward, you may find you can make significant strides when it comes to therapy, meditation, yoga, or similar practices that nurture your mental health.

While any Mercury retrograde could lend itself to any of these activities, each time the planet of communication moves backward, it’ll retrace its path through specific degrees of a particular sign. Learning how that path interacts with your personal astrology can help you get clear on how to make the most of a particular retrograde.

How to Figure Out Your Mercury Retrograde Horoscope

To get a sense of how Mercury retrograde will impact your day-to-day and, in turn, what you’ll do well to focus on over the course of the transit, check out this step-by-step guide.

1. Run Your Birth Chart

If you don’t have it already, you’ll want to cast your birth chart. You can do it for free online, or by working with a professional astrologer. (Pro-tip: You want the full wheel style chart versus just a list of your planetary placements, because the latter won’t provide you with enough information to read your Mercury retrograde horoscope, and the former is the legit format that even the fairest weather astrology fan would do well to familiarize themselves with.)

2. Familiarize Yourself With the Houses

Note that your birth chart is split into 12 pie slices aka houses, each of which oversees a particular area of your life, such as income (the Second House), family life (the Fourth House), and romance (the Fifth House). And each house is ruled by a particular sign, which you’ll notice on the cusp (line that denotes the beginning) of the house. For example, if your rising sign, or ascendant, is in Scorpio, you’ll see the symbol for Scorpio on the edge of the line that sits on the far left hand corner of your birth chart. And then the second house will likely be ruled by Sagittarius, the third by Capricorn, and so forth and so on.

3. Note Where Mercury Will Be Retrograde

From there, find out where—as in, which sign and, ideally, degrees of that sign—Mercury will be retrograde. (CafeAstrology is one spot where you can locate this info, but it’s also often mentioned in Mercury retrograde horoscopes.) It also bears mentioning that Mercury isn’t always retrograde in just one sign. Its backspin may span two different signs over the course of its transit.

4. Find Mercury Retrograde’s Path in Your Birth Chart

Once you know the sign(s) that Mercury will be retrograde in, look for it in your birth chart. For instance, if your second house is ruled by Sagittarius, you’ll know that Mercury will be retrograde there. You can get even more specific by looking for the degrees Mercury will be retrograde in. For example, in November and December 2024, Mercury will begin its retrograde at 22°40’ Sagittarius and move backward until it hits 6°23’ degrees Sagittarius—and this path could encompass more than one house in your chart. (Say your second house starts at 20° Sag, so this particular Mercury retrograde will begin there, but once it moves back past 20°, it’ll activate your first house.)

5. Consider the House(s) Mercury Will Be Retrograde In

Now that you know which house(s) Mercury will be moving backward through, you can read your own Mercury retrograde horoscope by layering in the themes of those houses. 

• First House of Self: You can reinvent how you’re perceived by others and prioritize self-work related to your self-image, confidence, purpose, and self-esteem.

• Second House of Income: You’ll be able to take a microscope to your strategies for earning, saving, and budgeting. This is also a wonderful time to reflect on your self-worth and values.

• Third House of Communication: This retrograde was made for catching up with old friends, colleagues, and neighbors. You can also tend to relationships with siblings, if you have them and revisit a beloved place via a short-distance trip. You might also reflect on how you’re presenting your ideas and exerting mental energy.

• Fourth House of Home Life: You can dive into intense self-reflection around your roots, your family, and what brings you a sense of security. This is a time for caring for your inner world and emotional self. And because this sector oversees your literal home, you can have success with a redecoration or renovation project. 

• Fifth House of Romance and Self-Expression: You can gain clarity around how you’d like to express yourself creatively, how to better own your voice, and how you can bring more fun, flirtation, and lighthearted playfulness into your everyday life, especially alongside a significant other or potential partner.

• Sixth House of Wellness: You can go back to the drawing board on any health-related to-dos that you put a pin in and also reinvent how you’re tackling to-dos on an everyday basis, perhaps even gaining a greater sense of balance in the process.

• Seventh House of Partnership: You can reimagine how you’re showing up in your one-on-one relationships, whether platonic, romantic, or professional. This is also a productive time for rethinking how you’re moving the ball forward on goals you share with a dear friend, loved one, significant other, or business partner.

• Eighth House of Intimacy: You can meditate on your sexual desires and what makes you feel most comfortable and secure within your closest bonds. This is also the zone that oversees joint resources, so reassess and edit financial goals and game plans you share with someone else. 

• Ninth House of Adventure: You can reinvent how you get out of your comfort zone and broaden your horizons. You might revisit a destination you’ve always loved, brush up on skill sets you previously back burnered, and review and possibly freshen up your philosophies and world view.

• Tenth House of Career: You can edit professional aspirations or sit down with a higher-up and review your path for achieving greater recognition. This is also a moment in which you’ll do well to nurture your inner sense of authority.

• Eleventh House of Networking and Long-Term Wishes: You can finesse your approach to getting across the finish line on a team effort and pick back up where you left off with friends, colleagues, or communities you haven’t been in touch with for a while. You might benefit from self-reflection around long held aspirations.

• Twelfth House of Spirituality: You can get even more in tune with your intuition and tap into the power of your dreams while prioritizing rest and self-care that benefits your psychological well-being.