A retrograde is when a planet appears to move backward in the sky — a powerful time for review and revision. Explore each planet's retrograde meaning.
No planet actually reverses. Retrograde is an optical effect: Earth and the other planet are moving at different speeds on different tracks, so from here the planet appears to slow, stop and drift backwards for a few weeks. In astrology that appearance is read as a change of direction rather than a disaster — the planet's theme turns inward, and the re- words take over: review, revise, revisit, repair.
Mercury retrogrades three or four times a year for about three weeks. Venus does it roughly every eighteen months for around six weeks. Mars retrogrades every two years for two to three months. The outer planets — Jupiter through Pluto — spend four to five months a year retrograde and are felt more as a slow collective mood than as a personal inconvenience. Each page below covers the timetable, the meaning and what to do with the time. For the planet's core meaning outside of retrograde, see planet meanings.
It does not cause anything physically. What people notice is that communication-heavy tasks — contracts, travel, negotiations, sending the email to the wrong person — go sideways more visibly during that window, usually because the error was already there and the retrograde just made it surface.
Mercury about three weeks, Venus about six weeks, Mars two to three months, and the outer planets four to five months each. Add roughly two weeks either side for the shadow period, when the planet is still travelling over degrees it will later retrace.
Avoid signing final, irreversible agreements if you can move the date, and avoid launching something you cannot later modify. Everything else is fine — retrogrades are excellent for editing, researching, finishing, repairing and reconnecting, which is exactly what the inward turn is good at.