Mercury Retrograde: July 18 to August 11, 2025

Mercury retrograde is back, and it’s time to prepare for its cosmic symbolic influence. From July 18, 2025, at 15 degrees 34 minutes Leo, to August 11, 2025, at 4 degrees 14 minutes Leo, the planet relating to communication, travel, and technology will appear to move backward in its orbit. While this period often gets a bad reputation for causing delays, miscommunications, and technical glitches, it’s also an opportunity for reflection, reassessment, and growth.

Understanding Mercury Retrograde

Mercury retrograde happens three to four times a year when Mercury appears to reverse its path across the sky. This optical illusion representatively disrupts the areas Mercury rules: communication, travel, technology, and intellectual pursuits, among others. You might notice e-mails going awry, travel plans hitting snags, or devices acting up. Aside from the nuisances, Mercury retrograde periods are perfect for “re” activities: revisiting, revising, and reflecting.

Mercury Retrograde in Leo: Key Symbolic Influences

Individual impact varies. Your experience depends on your natal and timing patterns.

However, with Mercury retrograding through Leo, a fixed, masculine, fire sign ruled by the Sun, you may sense its general symbolic effects most strongly in these areas:

Creativity: Inspiration might stall, or you could find yourself revisiting old projects with fresh eyes.

Self-Expression: Miscommunications could arise in how you present yourself. Think twice before speaking or posting.

Leadership: Authority figures or your own leadership style might face challenges or require reassessment.

You’ll need your basic natal chart to begin to get into the details of how this Mercury retrograde relates to your life. Start by identifying the natal house that Mercury retrograde in Leo is transiting. If the house is the 1^st, 4^th, 7^th, or 10^th (i.e., an angular, strong house), this particular Mercury retrograde could have a greater chance to be more symbolically impactful to you. For example, if it is transiting your 4^th house, family (or other areas of life related to the 4^th house) might be put in the Mercury Retrograde spotlight.

Navigating Mercury Retrograde: Practical Tips 

Here’s how to stay ahead of the curve during this Mercury retrograde:

Double-check communications. Misunderstandings are common. Review e-mails, texts, and contracts carefully. Clarity is your ally.

Back up technology. Glitches happen. Save your work, back up your devices, and avoid major tech purchases if possible. Exceptions would be a purchase you had planned before Mercury retrograde or an unavoidable purchase due to tech failure, for example.

Strive to mitigate potential travel issues. Delays or cancellations could disrupt trips. Build in extra time and patience.

Revisit and initiate carefully. New projects might falter, but revisiting past ideas can yield breakthroughs. Reflect on what needs tweaking.

Stay patient. Frustrations may mount, but a calm mindset will carry you through. This too shall pass.

Mercury Retrograde General Timetable

My findings show that the phase before Mercury retrograde (17-28 days before Mercury goes retrograde) is more challenging than the official retrograde period.

The first 11-12 days (i.e., the collapse phase) of the actual Mercury retrograde period typically represent a breakdown of outworn beliefs and previously made plans.

The last 11-12 days of the average 24-day Mercury retrograde period are easier than the first 11-12 days; it characteristically consists of rearranging and finalizing plans.

Completely new, important plans, offers, investment ideas, and so on tend to be more credible about two weeks after Mercury goes direct, instead of before or during the retrograde period.

Mercury Retrograde Secrets

There’s more to this phenomenon than meets the eye.

It’s not all negative. Retrogrades can potentially offer chances for personal growth. Some people even thrive during these periods, especially with natal Mercury retrograde (i.e., Mercury retrograde at the time of birth).

Focus on “Re” Activities, as mentioned above: Revise, renew, and reassess. The wind is at your back in regard to these activities during Mercury retrograde. Save bold new starts for after Mercury goes direct. There are always exceptions, but generally, you face headwinds initiating new things during Mercury retrograde.

Mercury retrograde is only one of many possible afflictions. Although it’s more noticeable than others in your everyday life, multiple factors forming patterns, not single considerations, symbolize key events in your life.

Tracking one single indicator like Mercury retrograde won’t allow you to predict events like a coming debt crisis around the year 2029, but it does give you notice of a peculiar quality to your daily state of affairs.

The Hermetic tradition, originating with Hermes Trismegistus and preserved by mystics and astrologers up through the Middle Ages and continuing today, maintains that phenomena in astrology (and numerology), like Mercury retrograde, don’t directly cause things to happen. But they do symbolize and represent life circumstances (collectively). As Hermes Trismegistus said, “That which is below is like that which is above, and that which is above is like that which is below, to accomplish the miracles of one thing.” This foundational Hermetic principle, often linked to astrology, underscores the correspondence between celestial and earthly realms.

By the way, Hermes Trismegistus is known by several alternative names: Hermes (the Greek god of commerce, travelers, and thieves), Thoth (the Egyptian god of wisdom, writing, and magic), and Mercury (the Roman equivalent of Hermes, also associated with Thoth later).

Mercury rules thinking and mental acuity, in part; thus, Mercury retrograde (an afflicted Mercury) in your natal patterns can represent skewed perception. This condition is either corroborated or mitigated by other indicators.

Mercury as a major player and, or retrograde in your comprehensive patterns equates to Mercury retrograde-related circumstances being more important to you. Find out more about Mercury’s secrets here.

Mercury Retrograde Common Circumstances and Frustrations

1. Gaining new clarity about long-standing problems in your personal and professional life and devising viable solutions.
2. Difficulty making headway on your to-do list, particularly with new endeavors.
3. Attempting to rekindle a love relationship from the past and then coming to your senses later and abandoning it.
4. Reviewing early life issues and past failures, experiencing a breakthrough in healing, and then finally leaving the distress behind you.
5. Reconsidering travel to a certain location, an idea you had previously put on hold.
6. Miscommunications, misunderstandings, skewed perception, and scheduling conflicts.
7. Travel delays and interruptions in commerce and trade.
8. Spending more time than usual on existing clients and customers instead of prospective customers.
9. Difficulty making progress landing new clients and customers.
10. Falling for too-good-to-be-true schemes. Be very careful with high-risk endeavors during Mercury retrograde, especially if the investment, offer, or idea is entirely new.
11. Meeting someone new, thinking that person to be a fabulous prospect (personal or business related), then after Mercury retrograde wondering what in the world you were thinking.
12. Dismissing previously cherished ideals.

Final Thoughts

Being aware of common astrological phenomena such as Mercury retrograde, especially how they intermingle with your natal configurations, can allow you to witness the cyclical nature of life and can even help you limit the risk in your business and personal life.

Mercury retrograde from July 18 to August 11, 2025, in Leo is a chance to develop meaningful solutions to existing problems and make headway on long-standing projects. Yes, you might face hiccups in communication or travel, but with preparation and a positive attitude, you can turn this period into a time of meaningful progress. Work with, instead of against, universal energies like Mercury retrograde, and you’ll have a greater chance of success.

Copyright © 2025 Scott Petullo