Astrology calendar 2026–2027: Mercury retrograde, eclipses, full moons

Mercury retrograde 2026–2027: dates and times

Mercury retrograde is the best known of the retrogrades: three or four times a year, for about three weeks at a time, Mercury appears to stop and drift backwards through the zodiac. In the tradition Mercury rules messages, travel, trade and the thinking that connects them, so its retrograde weeks are read as a season for going back over things: reviewing, rewriting, reconnecting, returning to something unfinished. Many people who follow astrology treat these weeks as a reminder to reread before they send and to leave a little room in their plans. The astronomy says only that Mercury, on its smaller and faster orbit, is overtaking the Earth; what you make of the three weeks is your own reading.

The shadow period column widens each retrograde by the weeks around it. The shadow begins when Mercury, still moving forwards, first reaches the degree where it will later turn direct, and ends when, moving forwards again, it passes the degree where it turned retrograde — the stretch of the zodiac it crosses three times. The astrological tradition reads the shadow as the retrograde's approach and its wake: the weeks when its themes begin to surface, and the weeks when they settle.

The other retrograde planets 2026–2027

A planet is retrograde when, seen from the Earth, it appears to slow down, stop and drift backwards against the stars for a while. Nothing in the solar system actually reverses: the effect comes from the Earth overtaking a slower planet farther from the Sun, or from Mercury and Venus passing between the Earth and the Sun. The two dates in each row are the stations — the moments the planet seems to stand still before it turns — with the degree of the zodiac where it turned.

Astrology reads a retrograde as a time when a planet's themes turn inward: a season for looking back over what is already under way and bringing it to a close. Mercury turns retrograde three or four times a year, Venus about every nineteen months and Mars about every twenty-six; Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto each spend four to five and a half months of every year retrograde, which is why their periods crowd the list.

Solar and lunar eclipses 2026–2027

An eclipse happens when a new or full moon falls close to the two points where the Moon's path crosses the Sun's. At a new moon the Moon can cover the Sun — completely, partly, or leaving a bright ring in an annular eclipse; at a full moon the Earth's shadow falls across the Moon, fully, partly, or only as its faint outer edge in a penumbral eclipse. Eclipses come in eclipse seasons about six months apart, and each season lasts about five weeks — long enough for both a new and a full moon — which is why they tend to arrive in pairs a fortnight apart, and now and then in threes.

Astrology has long treated eclipses as the most emphatic lunations of the year; modern astrology reads them as markers of beginnings and endings that invite you to notice what is changing. The degree in each row is where the eclipse falls in the zodiac — the Sun's position for a solar eclipse, the Moon's for a lunar one — and the time is the moment of greatest eclipse. Where on Earth each one can be seen is a separate question that this list does not answer.

Moon phases 2026–2027: full moon and new moon calendar

The Moon's cycle from new to full and back takes about twenty-nine and a half days. At the new moon the Moon stands beside the Sun and is lost in its light; at the full moon it stands opposite, fully lit, in the zodiac sign across from the Sun's. Astrology reads the new moon as a time for intentions and quiet beginnings, and the full moon as a time of culmination, release and seeing clearly what the month has brought. The sign listed is the one the Moon was in, and each full moon is named for it, as in «full moon in Aries».

Between them come the two quarters, when the Moon stands at a right angle to the Sun and is half lit: the first quarter, about a week after the new moon, which the tradition reads as a time to act on what was begun, and the last quarter, about a week after the full moon, a time to clear away and let go.

Zodiac sign dates 2026–2027: when each season begins

The Sun takes a year to travel through the twelve signs, spending about a month in each, and the dates below are the moments it crosses from one sign into the next — the start of each zodiac season. Four of them are also the turning points of the astronomical year: the Sun enters Aries at the March equinox, Cancer at the June solstice, Libra at the September equinox and Capricorn at the December solstice. The exact day shifts a little from year to year, which is why a birthday on the cusp — near the edge of a sign — is worth checking against the year it fell in. Beside each entry are the first and last days of that sign's season. The day the Sun changes sign closes one season and opens the next; for someone born on that day, the time of birth decides.

Jupiter, Saturn and the outer planets changing sign 2026–2027

The slow planets change sign rarely, and astrology gives each crossing weight. Jupiter spends about a year in a sign and Saturn about two and a half; Uranus stays about seven years, Neptune about fourteen, and Pluto anywhere from about twelve years to more than thirty. When one of them enters a new sign, the tradition reads it as a change in the background weather — of a year or two for Jupiter and Saturn, of a generation for Uranus, Neptune and Pluto — rather than of one person's week. A slow planet sometimes crosses a boundary, turns retrograde and steps back, then crosses again — so an entry below can be the second crossing of a line it first reached the year before; the list gives the first crossing's date beside it.