Mercury turns direct in Leo

Mercury comes to a standstill at 4°15′ Leo on 11 August 2025, 07:17 UTC, and resumes forward motion against the fixed stars.

Nothing is actually reversing. Retrograde motion is a perspective effect: Earth and Mercury are on different tracks at different speeds, and for a stretch of weeks we overtake it — or it overtakes us — so it appears to slide backwards across the sky. Astrologers have read that apparent hesitation for two thousand years, and the reading has stayed roughly the same.

Forward motion returns, though Mercury will not clear the degree it started from for some weeks yet. The convention is that the backlog does not resolve at the station but at the point where Mercury passes 4°15′ Leo again.