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 1838· four 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 10 Jan – 31 Jan (3 weeks), 6°09' Aquarius back to 20°10' Capricorn; shadow from 25 Dec 1837 to 20 Feb. Stations at 15:47 and 07:16 UT.
Retrograde 06 May – 30 May (3 weeks), 0°21' Gemini back to 21°31' Taurus; shadow from 22 Apr to 14 Jun. Stations at 09:08 and 05:20 UT.
Retrograde 06 Sep – 28 Sep (3 weeks), 4°38' Libra back to 19°59' Virgo; shadow from 16 Aug to 13 Oct. Stations at 05:16 and 12:39 UT.
Retrograde 25 Dec – 14 Jan 1839 (3 weeks), 20°11' Capricorn back to 3°57' Capricorn; shadow from 08 Dec to 03 Feb 1839. Stations at 13:39 and 16:37 UT.
♀︎Venus retrograde 1838· once this year
Retrograde 12 Feb – 26 Mar (6 weeks), 22°25' Pisces back to 6°21' Pisces; shadow from 11 Jan to 28 Apr. Stations at 07:28 and 01:48 UT.
♂︎Mars retrograde 1838· not retrograde this year
Mars holds a straight course through 1838; no spell, no shadow, no station to mark.
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 1838· once this year
Retrograde 03 Jan – 05 May (17 weeks), 18°47' Virgo back to 8°48' Virgo; shadow from 08 Oct 1837 to 03 Aug. Stations at 13:47 and 20:33 UT.
♄︎Saturn retrograde 1838· once this year
Retrograde 08 Mar – 27 Jul (20 weeks), 28°49' Scorpio back to 22°10' Scorpio; shadow from 02 Dec 1837 to 02 Nov. Stations at 13:36 and 01:15 UT.
♅︎Uranus retrograde 1838· once this year
Retrograde 17 Jun – 18 Nov (22 weeks), 12°27' Pisces back to 8°31' Pisces; shadow from 28 Feb to 04 Mar 1839. Stations at 08:06 and 05:46 UT.
♆︎Neptune retrograde 1838· once this year
Retrograde 13 May – 20 Oct (23 weeks), 10°25' Aquarius back to 7°38' Aquarius; shadow from 21 Jan to 07 Feb 1839. Stations at 07:32 and 05:10 UT.
♇︎Pluto retrograde 1838· once this year
Retrograde 18 Jul – 30 Dec (24 weeks), 17°56' Aries back to 15°54' Aries; shadow from 17 Mar to 01 May 1839. Stations at 17:10 and 19:34 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.