Yes, friends, it is that time again. Our beloved communication planet Mercury is about to do its first retrograde period of 2025.

Woo-effing-hoo!

The pre-retrograde shadow begins on Saturday, March 1, at the tail end of Thursday’s (February 27) New Moon, which might give you mixed signals.

New Moons often signal new beginnings, rebirth, renewal, starting over, and finally birthing a project, idea, or creation that you’ve been wanting to do.

Mercury retrogrades signal a “start-nothing-new” zone.

Plus, the 9-Year energy of 2025 is more about finishing, completion, endings, reevaluating, and letting go instead of creating something brand spanking new.

Here are the dates for the March/April Mercury Retrograde Period:

• Pre-Retrograde Shadow: March 1 – 14

• Mercury goes Retrograde on March 15 (in Aries)

• Mercury goes Direct on April 7 (in Pisces)

• Post-Retrograde Shadow: April 8 – 26

You might want to make a note of these dates in your calendar.

I do so at the start of every year. This way, I am aware of when that delightful Winged Messenger Mercury is playing trickster with us so I can prepare accordingly.

Although Mercury is technically only in retrograde from March 15 to April 7 (a little over 3 weeks), the pre- and post-retrograde periods do have an effect on communications, technology, and schedules.

For March and April, you might think of it as an 8-week cosmically induced slowdown.

When I say cosmic slowdown, I don’t mean stop everything and binge on your favorite distractions for 2 months or sleep the days away.

You can work on things that you already started.

Just be aware that schedules may change at a moment’s notice (or no notice), and there may be miscommunication and technology weirdness.

You might also find yourself wrestling with indecision, even if you are normally good at knowing what you want and making decisions.

For those of you who flip flop when making decisions, you may find yourself slogging through a fog of confusion throughout the retrograde period.

Interestingly, you can begin something that you wanted to work on years ago, or started sometime in the past, and then shelved it for whatever reason. These kinds of activities are supported by the energy of the 9-year and Mercury Retrograde periods.

Both the 9-Year and Mercury Retrograde periods tend to bring up the past in some way.

This could be people, relationships, projects, activities, situations, locations, opportunities or anything from your past.

It could be to revisit it, release it, or reconnect with it in some way… or to decide if it is something or someone you’d like in your life going forward.

Mental Wellness Note:

Throughout this time period, and actually all year long, practicing patience would be a huge benefit to you.

Pause, breathe, re-center.

Stressing out won’t get you there faster, if at all.

Keep in mind that the energetic combo of this retrograde plus the 9-vibration isn’t an ideal time for new ideas to gain much traction.

If you do start something, the process may be more “start-stop-start-stop” or “start-stop-rethink-start-stop-reevaluate-rework-start again” rather than flowing with ease.

Of course, your Personal Year Number may influence this as well, not necessarily neutralizing the effect but providing you with more wiggle room.

For example, my Personal Year number in 2025 is 1, which is about new beginnings, among other things. So I am in a 1-year dealing with the influences of the Universal 9-Year.

If I approach starting something differently than I have in the past, using what I’ve learned from past actions and results, this period could support new creations and new projects quite nicely.

Would you like to know more about how your Personal Year and Universal Year play together? If so, I invite you to schedule an Annual Numerology Forecast session with me. There are two options available: 30-minute or 60-minute.

The 5 most common areas affected by the shenanigans of Mercury Retrograde and its Shadows:

1) Technology Glitches: all electronic devices and technology-related things tend to act up and misbehave, often in very odd ways

2) Communication Breakdowns: miscommunications (written, email, spoken, social media posts, news outlets, and so on) and misunderstandings

3) Unexpected Changes: schedule changes, appointment cancellations, and plans changing again and again

4) Disappearing Acts: missing or incomplete information, things get lost or go missing, including important notices, emails, and so on, such as you save something or file something, and poof, it’s gone.

5) Irritating Mix-ups: misreading or misinterpreting things (especially the energy, what someone means, what you hear or read), wrong merchandise showing up (or what you order never shows up), your food order gets messed up, wrong information gets entered when you are making plans, confusion abounds (you think it’s “This,” but it’s actually “That”).

You got this… slow down, breathe, be patient, be present, back up all your tech, start nothing new unless it is something from the past.

If honoring the Pre and Post Retrograde Shadows seems like more than you can deal with. I get it. Focus on preparing for the actual retrograde period of March 15 to April 7.

Lighten up and enjoy this period as best you can.

If you’d like to know more about Mercury Retros are good for, and are not good for, click for part two of this blog post: To Do or Not To Do, Mercury That is the Question.

May you have smooth sailing throughout this Mercury Retrograde period…

With appreciation for you,