Retrograde

Retrograde describes a planet that appears to travel backward through the zodiac as seen from Earth. The motion is an illusion, created when Earth and the planet pass each other in their orbits, much as a slower car seems to drift backward when a faster one overtakes it. Every planet except the Sun and Moon turns retrograde from time to time. A retrograde planet turns its energy inward. Instead of expressing itself outwardly in the usual smooth way, it works through review, reflection, and reworking. The matters that planet governs are internalized, reconsidered, and often experienced in a private, personal manner. This is an inversion rather than a fault. Mercury retrograde, the best known example, is tied to rethinking, revising, and going back over communication and plans. In a birth chart, a retrograde planet often marks a part of life a person processes internally and relates to in an unconventional or intensely individual way. The work of a retrograde planet is reflection, using the inward turn to refine and rework rather than to push forward.