Retrograde Calendar
About Retrograde Calendar
Station times, degrees, durations, and shadow periods for every retrograde of the year — computed astronomy, not folklore.
No planet ever backs up; the loop is a trick of parallax as Earth laps a slower world or is lapped by a faster one. The tradition reads it accordingly. A changes a planet's gear, not its meaning; matters under its sponsorship come round again for review, revision, repair. The days that carry real weight are the , when a planet stands still to turn. Mark those dates, not the whole stretch.
☿︎Mercury retrograde 1781· three times this year
The classic season of crossed wires; three or four short spells a year. Re-read, re-confirm, back up the files; let the signature wait for the turning day if it can.
Retrograde 24 Mar – 17 Apr (3 weeks), 18°56' Aries back to 7°17' Aries; shadow from 10 Mar to 05 May. Stations at 15:43 and 03:59 UT.
Retrograde 27 Jul – 20 Aug (3 weeks), 25°41' Leo back to 13°18' Leo; shadow from 09 Jul to 03 Sep. Stations at 22:16 and 17:51 UT.
Retrograde 18 Nov – 08 Dec (3 weeks), 14°53' Sagittarius back to 28°38' Scorpio; shadow from 30 Oct to 26 Dec. Stations at 05:57 and 00:39 UT.
♀︎Venus retrograde 1781· not retrograde this year
Venus holds a straight course through 1781; no spell, no shadow, no station to mark.
♂︎Mars retrograde 1781· once this year
Retrograde 12 Jun – 14 Aug (9 weeks), 25°52' Capricorn back to 14°41' Capricorn; shadow from 26 Apr to 26 Sep. Stations at 00:38 and 04:58 UT.
The slow planets
Jupiter outward, a planet spends four to five months of every year retrograde; that is ordinary weather, not an event. The slower the planet, the longer the spell and the less it asks of any single day. Mark the stations; the rest is season.
♃︎Jupiter retrograde 1781· once this year
Retrograde 13 Mar – 14 Jul (18 weeks), 27°25' Scorpio back to 17°33' Scorpio; shadow from 16 Dec 1780 to 10 Oct. Stations at 04:30 and 14:46 UT.
♄︎Saturn retrograde 1781· once this year
Retrograde 28 Mar – 17 Aug (20 weeks), 19°53' Sagittarius back to 13°16' Sagittarius; shadow from 22 Dec 1780 to 23 Nov. Stations at 23:58 and 06:31 UT.
♅︎Uranus retrograde 1781· twice this year
Retrograde 03 Oct 1780 – 02 Mar (21 weeks), 28°28' Gemini back to 24°23' Gemini; shadow from 18 Jun 1780 to 17 Jun. Stations at 14:15 and 06:52 UT.
Retrograde 08 Oct – 06 Mar 1782 (21 weeks), 2°54' Cancer back to 28°49' Gemini; shadow from 23 Jun to 21 Jun 1782. Stations at 10:00 and 23:25 UT.
♆︎Neptune retrograde 1781· once this year
Retrograde 06 Jan – 13 Jun (23 weeks), 5°51' Libra back to 3°04' Libra; shadow from 16 Sep 1780 to 05 Oct. Stations at 09:11 and 16:21 UT.
♇︎Pluto retrograde 1781· once this year
Retrograde 07 May – 17 Oct (23 weeks), 6°49' Aquarius back to 4°24' Aquarius; shadow from 12 Jan to 08 Feb 1782. Stations at 11:24 and 09:29 UT.
All times Universal Time (UT), from the same engine as the sky. Spells that open or close beyond the calendar year are listed with their own year on the date; the window belongs to both years and appears on both pages. On doctrine: a retrograde conditions a planet's expression; it does not doom it. The working tradition keeps no list of forbidden days, a spell that repeats a is one process rather than three misfortunes, and the shadow is context, not an extension of the sentence. The stations are the moments that matter; what a planet touches while standing still, it means.