What this period actually is
Between July 10, 2032 and August 3, 2032 Mercury moves back through 10.7 degrees of the zodiac, from 7°33' Leo to 26°49' Cancer, without changing its own direction at any point. Mercury is an inner planet, so this happens as it swings between Earth and the Sun; the loop it appears to trace from 7°33' Leo back to 26°49' Cancer is Earth's own motion showing up in the line of sight.
The mechanism behind the Mercury station of July 10, 2032 is the same one described in what retrograde motion is. Read astrologically, the convention is that Mercury — thinking, wording, contracts and short journeys — turns inward between July 10, 2032 and August 3, 2032, which is a habit of reading rather than a claim about the sky.
The dates in full
Station retrograde: July 10, 2032 at 7°33' Leo, 02:34 UTC. Station direct: August 3, 2032 at 26°49' Cancer, 06:52 UTC. It begins in Leo and backs into Cancer, crossing the boundary between 7°33' Leo and 26°49' Cancer rather than working one stretch of a single sign.
Mercury first reaches 26°49' Cancer — the degree it will retrograde back to — on June 22, 2032, and does not clear 7°33' Leo, the degree it stationed at, until August 17, 2032, so counting both shadows the passage runs 55 days rather than 24.
What the period is good for
For the 24 days between July 10, 2032 and August 3, 2032 the workable version of the advice is narrow: re-read anything before signing it, back up what you cannot replace, and expect arrangements to need confirming twice.
If one thing is worth timing around the stretch that ends August 3, 2032, it is launching a product, signing a lease or buying the device you will depend on for three years — not because the sky forbids it, but because a marked period is a reasonable prompt to check work you would otherwise wave through. Treating the whole of July 10, 2032 to August 3, 2032 as a general curse is the version worth ignoring.
Which house it falls in for your sign
Counted from each sign as the first house, this Mercury retrograde, stationing at 7°33' Leo falls here:
| Sign | House | What that house covers |
|---|---|---|
| Aries | 5th house | play, romance, children and anything you make for its own sake |
| Taurus | 4th house | home, family, roots and private ground |
| Gemini | 3rd house | conversation, short trips, siblings and daily information |
| Cancer | 2nd house | money, possessions and what you consider yours |
| Leo | 1st house | your own bearing, appearance and the first move |
| Virgo | 12th house | rest, solitude, what is behind you and what runs unattended |
| Libra | 11th house | friends, groups, networks and what you are aiming at |
| Scorpio | 10th house | career, public standing and what you are known for |
| Sagittarius | 9th house | distance, study, belief, travel and the long view |
| Capricorn | 8th house | shared money, debt, intimacy and what is not said out loud |
| Aquarius | 7th house | partners, opponents and anyone you deal with one to one |
| Pisces | 6th house | work, routine, health and the small maintenance of a life |
The cycle either side of this one
The previous Mercury retrograde ended 102 days before this one began, and the next station comes 91 days after August 3, 2032.
- Previous: March 7, 2032 to March 30, 2032
- Next: November 2, 2032 to November 22, 2032
- All Mercury retrograde periods: the full list
Questions people ask about this
When does Mercury go retrograde in 2032?
On July 10, 2032 at 02:34 UTC, at 7°33' Leo.
When does it end?
The direct station falls on August 3, 2032 at 26°49' Cancer, 24 days after the turn.
What is the shadow period?
For this passage it runs June 22, 2032 to August 17, 2032: the stretch in which Mercury crosses the same degrees it covers three times in all.
Does Mercury retrograde break things?
No. Between July 10, 2032 and August 3, 2032 the planet only appears to reverse, and the tradition reads that as a stretch better suited to review than to launch.