The best Mercury retrograde do's and don'ts are ordinary good habits with a deadline attached: back up your files, double-check bookings and addresses, reread messages before you send them, and read contracts properly before you sign. The main don't is panic. Mercury goes retrograde about three times a year for roughly three weeks, and life carries on through every one of them.
In astrology, Mercury is the planet of messages, paperwork, short trips, devices and quick thinking, so its retrograde is read as a few weeks when those things want a little more care. Nothing in the sky actually reverses: the backward motion is an effect of watching Mercury from a moving Earth, and our explainer on why Mercury goes retrograde has the astronomy. For the dates of the next one, see the Mercury retrograde calendar. Here is the list.
The do's: a practical checklist
Do back up before it starts
Photos, contacts, the document you've been writing for three months. A backup is the single most useful thing on this list, and the retrograde gives you a date to do it by. If your phone dies in week two, you'll be mildly annoyed instead of heartbroken.
Do double-check the details
Confirm flight times, train platforms, hotel dates and the address of the restaurant. Check the time zone on calendar invites. Write the confirmation number somewhere that isn't the email you can't find.
Do reread before you hit send
Read the message once more, slowly, as the person receiving it. Check that the attachment is attached. Check the "reply all". Mercury is the messenger, and a retrograde is a good season for sending fewer, clearer messages.
Do finish things
Astrologers like the "re" words for this period: review, revise, repair, return. The half-written report, the drawer of receipts, the wobbly shelf. Finishing is satisfying at any time; doing it now gives the weeks a purpose.
Do get back in touch
Retrogrades are associated with the past resurfacing, so let it. Answer the email you've been avoiding, call the friend you lost touch with, return the borrowed book.
The don'ts: mostly about fear
Don't put your life on hold
You can travel, buy things, start a job and throw a birthday party. A tradition that asks for care isn't asking you to stop. If something can wait without cost, waiting is fine. If it can't, go ahead and do it carefully.
Don't sign anything you haven't read
This is the famous one, and it's often misquoted as "never sign during Mercury retrograde". Signing is fine if you have read the thing. Read the small print, ask about anything unclear, keep a copy, and you've done everything the tradition asks. For anything legal or financial, a qualified professional outranks any planet.
Don't blame Mercury for everything
Printers jammed long before anyone checked an ephemeris. Trains run late in every week of the year, and autocorrect needs no help from the sky. The retrograde gets the blame because it's a memorable story: we notice the glitches that fit and forget the ordinary ones. Blaming it is fun. Relying on it as an excuse is less useful.
Don't send the 2 a.m. text
Old flames have a reputation for turning up during retrogrades, and late-night messages have a reputation for being regretted. If you want to say something important, write it, sleep on it, then decide. Our guide to Mercury retrograde and love covers what to do when the ex texts first.
Can you buy a phone, travel or start a job?
Buying electronics. Astrologers who follow the tradition closely prefer to buy new devices outside a retrograde, because Mercury rules gadgets. If yours has died, buy a new one. Keep the receipt, register the warranty and set up your backups on day one.
Travel. Go. Leave a little more time at each connection, carry offline or printed copies of your bookings, and check departure times the night before.
A new job or project. Start it. Use the first weeks to ask questions and learn how things work, which is what new starts need anyway. Some astrologers say plans made during a retrograde get revised later. Plenty of plans made at any time get revised later.
A big launch. If you have a free choice of date and you enjoy picking dates by the sky (what astrologers call electional astrology), you might choose one outside the retrograde. If your date is fixed, proofread twice and launch.
Before, during and after
The weeks leading in and out of a retrograde are called the shadow, when Mercury crosses the stretch of the zodiac it will retrace or has just retraced. Our guide to the Mercury retrograde shadow period explains how it's measured. A simple rhythm for the whole cycle:
- In the week before: back up, confirm bookings, list your loose ends.
- During the three weeks: review, repair, reconnect. Pick a few loose ends, not all of them.
- When Mercury turns direct: don't rush everything out the door on the first day. Mercury is still moving slowly, so give it a few days, then move ahead with what you've revised.
If you'd like to give the period more shape, our Mercury retrograde ritual turns it into a week-by-week practice.
Why the advice exists at all
Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo and, in traditional astrology, communication, commerce, travel, writing and the quick, restless part of the mind. When a planet is retrograde, astrologers read its themes as turned back on themselves: less about launching, more about revisiting. So Mercury's retrograde becomes a time associated with crossed wires, delays and second thoughts.
There is no scientific evidence that a retrograde causes any of that. What makes the tradition worth keeping is that its advice is sound regardless: double-check, back up, listen carefully. If the sky prompts you to do those things three times a year, that's a fair bargain.
How a retrograde feels to you also depends on your own Mercury: its sign and house in your free birth chart describe how you think and talk, which is the part of you the period asks you to slow down.
Questions readers ask
Is it bad to sign a contract during Mercury retrograde?
No. The tradition asks for care, not avoidance. Read every page, ask about anything you don't understand, keep copies, and get professional advice for legal or financial agreements, as you would at any time.
Should you avoid starting a relationship during Mercury retrograde?
There's no need. Some astrologers say early conversations are prone to crossed wires, so say what you mean and ask what they meant. Plenty of good relationships begin during a retrograde.
Can you get a haircut during Mercury retrograde?
Of course. Folk almanacs time haircuts by the Moon, not by Mercury. If you want to honor the spirit of the retrograde, bring a reference photo so nobody misunderstands "just a trim".
What should you not do when Mercury turns direct?
Some astrologers suggest waiting a few days before big launches, since Mercury is still slow and is passing back over the degrees it retraced. It's a gentle suggestion, not a rule.
