Feb. 26 – March 20, 2026
Mercury Goes Retrograde Feb. twenty sixth at 28 Levels Aquarius
Everybody dreads Mercury retrograde, and it will get much more dangerous press than it deserves. Let me say it plainly: this transit is just not dangerous for everybody. However this specific retrograde has a novel and complicated sky image value understanding rigorously — as a result of Mercury is just not touring by way of Aquarius alone.
First, the fundamentals. For those who had been born with Mercury retrograde in your natal chart, you’re naturally extra intuitive than analytical, extra pattern-oriented than linear. Watch whether or not this era truly feels considerably pure to you — that inward, reflective high quality could also be extra acquainted than international. For everybody else, the circulation of Mercury’s regular vitality will get disrupted. Communications, expertise, contracts, and logistics develop into areas requiring further endurance and redundancy. Again up your computer systems now, deal with vital enterprise dealings earlier than Feb. twenty sixth, don’t assume your messages arrived or had been understood, and provides your self and others further room for misunderstanding.
The Signal: Aquarius and Its Karmic Weight
Aquarius is an air signal — and I wish to be exact right here, as a result of this issues. In Vedic astrology, Aquarius is just not the watery, flowing signal that some descriptions counsel. It’s fastened air: structured, internalized, and pushed by intense psychological focus. Its co-rulers are Saturn and Rahu, and that mixture provides Aquarius a top quality of deep karmic strain — an indication that’s working by way of outdated money owed, outdated patterns, outdated obligations that demand decision.
When Mercury strikes retrograde by way of Aquarius, it truly beneficial properties what we name Cheshta Bala — a sort of power that comes from the retrograde movement itself, as a result of the planet is nearer to Earth and transferring with higher depth. So Mercury right here is just not weakened or obscure. It’s stronger, however erratic — like a strong engine operating in reverse. The thoughts turns into extremely internalized, churning by way of unresolved questions, karmic money owed in communication and relationship, issues left unsaid or unfinished. This isn’t a interval for inventive wandering or religious openness within the dreamy sense. It’s a interval for reckoning — for resolving what Mercury governs that has been left incomplete. Pals, kinfolk, communications, agreements, psychological patterns that hold recycling. Aquarius will maintain you to that work with Saturn’s self-discipline and Rahu’s relentless strain till it’s carried out.
Purvabhadrapada: The place Mercury Begins
Mercury stations retrograde at 28 levels Aquarius, inserting it within the nakshatra Purvabhadrapada at first of this transit. This can be a nakshatra of deep depth — linked to nice scientists, probing philosophical minds, and transformational perception. There’s a burning, piercing high quality right here. When Mercury begins its retrograde journey on this nakshatra, the thoughts is being requested to go deep somewhat than huge, to research somewhat than conclude. It isn’t a snug place for surface-level pondering, however it may be terribly productive for analysis, interior work, and penetrating questions you’ve been avoiding.
The Conjunctions: March 14th and March sixteenth
Right here is the place this retrograde turns into notably vital. Mercury doesn’t journey by way of Aquarius alone — each Mars and Rahu are additionally in Aquarius throughout this whole retrograde interval.
Mars and Mercury are bitter enemies in Vedic astrology. Once they cross over one another on March 14th, the friction between them turns into acute. Mars needs to behave; Mercury needs to suppose. Mars pushes ahead; Mercury retrograde pulls backward. This mixture can generate intense psychological agitation, disputes that escalate rapidly, and the basic Mercury/Mars accident sample — being so caught in an argument in your thoughts that you just lose deal with what’s straight in entrance of you. Additional care on the roads and in sharp communications is genuinely warranted round March 14th.
Then on March sixteenth, Mercury crosses over Rahu. Rahu amplifies, obsesses, and obscures. When Mercury meets Rahu, the thoughts can develop into overwhelmed — too many ideas, too many instructions, confusion about what’s actual versus what’s projection. Rahu/Mercury combos intensify psychological restlessness and may create a fog round clear decision-making. This isn’t the second to signal contracts, make main commitments, or belief that you just’re seeing a state of affairs clearly. If you wish to perceive Rahu’s deeper nature and the right way to work with it somewhat than be consumed by it, my Rahu and Ketu: Understanding and Therapeutic the Karmic Axis course goes into this in full depth — 21 lessons protecting precisely the right way to navigate Rahu’s vitality in your chart and your life.
Mercury Stations Direct Conjunct Rahu: March twentieth
That is essentially the most hanging characteristic of this retrograde. When Mercury stations direct on March twentieth, it does so at lower than one diploma from Rahu. A planet stationing — pausing earlier than altering route — is already at its strongest and most concentrated. Mercury stationing straight on prime of Rahu intensifies every part each planets signify: communication, data, the pondering thoughts on Mercury’s aspect; obsession, phantasm, and karmic amplification on Rahu’s aspect. The fog may very well really feel thickest proper because the retrograde ends. Give your self just a few further days earlier than assuming the waters have totally cleared.
The Grace Be aware: Jupiter’s Side
I don’t wish to go away you with solely the challenges, as a result of there may be real help on this sky. Jupiter in Gemini is casting its fifth home facet to Aquarius all through this whole retrograde interval. Jupiter’s affect right here is sort of a smart elder watching over a turbulent river — it doesn’t cease the present, however it brings a top quality of grace, perspective, and safety that softens what may in any other case really feel overwhelming. For these doing honest religious follow throughout this era, Jupiter’s facet may help you discover the educating contained in the turbulence somewhat than simply being tossed round by it.
Cures
Meditation is your strongest instrument throughout any Mercury retrograde, and particularly this one. The mixture of Mars, Rahu, and a retrograde Mercury in Aquarius creates circumstances for vital psychological agitation — the type that meditation is particularly designed to handle. Constant day by day follow creates the interior distance to watch the psychological churn with out being consumed by it.
Past meditation: sluggish, grounding yoga to counter the Rahu/Aquarius scatter; bodily train to channel Mars’s compressed vitality constructively; and acutely aware communication practices — hear greater than you converse, write vital issues down, affirm receipt of key messages. If outdated disputes resurface with pals or group members (Mercury governs pals and kinfolk), resist the pull to escalate. These conversations are virtually actually being coloured by the retrograde fog.
The planets will not be punishing you. They’re educating you. Mercury retrograde, at its core, asks you to mirror earlier than you react, to belief your deeper figuring out over floor logic, and to let some issues stay unresolved slightly longer. March twentieth will arrive. The waters will settle. And you could discover that what felt like confusion was truly mandatory preparation.
GO DEEPER
Rahu and Ketu: Understanding and Therapeutic the Karmic Axis 2.0
Rahu’s vitality is without doubt one of the trickiest to navigate — and this retrograde places it entrance and middle. In my 21-class Rahu and Ketu course, we go into the total depth of the right way to perceive and heal the karmic axis: previous life patterns, how Rahu operates in your particular chart, and sensible instruments for working with its amplifying, obsessive vitality somewhat than being swept away by it.
Secrets and techniques of the Moon, the Thoughts, and Feelings
Mercury governs the pondering thoughts — and when it’s retrograde and below Rahu’s affect, understanding the connection between your thoughts, your feelings, and your chart turns into extra vital than ever. In my Secrets and techniques of the Moon course, we go deeply into how the nakshatra of the Moon shapes the whole emotional structure of the chart, and the right way to work with psychological and emotional patterns somewhat than be dominated by them.
Concerning the Writer
Barry Rosen has been training Vedic astrology since 1987. He has visited and studied in India on 4 events and has spoken quite a few occasions on the Sedona Vedic Astrology Convention since 1999 and likewise the British Affiliation of Vedic Astrologers in London since 2006. He has been concerned in Vedic tradition since 1973 and is a longtime meditation and yoga trainer and a broadcast poet.
Just lately, he has been pioneering analysis in different areas of Vedic astrology together with Vedic Astro-locality, the consequences your present bodily location have in your chart, connecting astrology to hatha yoga for therapeutic functions and creating transformational therapeutic work to maneuver by way of karma and the religious dimensions of Vedic astrology. He’s a Neo-Vedic astrologer and makes use of the outer planets. He’s notably involved in Jaimini astrology and the soul’s journey by way of the bodily world and its karma and goal and has taken stay seminars in London with Sanjay Rath.
For questions, please contact Barry by electronic mail at: [email protected] or name Fortucast at 800-788-2796.