Foundations
What does it mean when a planet is retrograde?
Retrograde is apparent backward motion — a planet appearing to travel in reverse against the stars. Nothing actually reverses. It is an effect of watching other orbits from a moving platform.
When Earth overtakes a slower planet, or a faster one overtakes us, that planet appears to slow, stop, and back up for weeks or months before turning forward again. Astronomers and astrologers agree completely on the mechanics; they differ only on whether it means anything.
A natal retrograde is one you were born with, read as a lifelong inward angle on that planet's function — you process it privately before you express it. A transiting retrograde is temporary and shared by everybody at once. “Mercury retrograde” is always the second kind.
The Sun and Moon never retrograde. Mercury does three or four times a year, Venus roughly every 18 months, and the outer planets spend large stretches of every year retrograde — Pluto nearly half of it. Outer-planet retrogrades are so common they say very little about you personally.
Cosmic Color Co marks retrograde bodies with ℞ on your wheel, and your Today reading names which colors are running inward rather than outward while a retrograde lasts.