Which planets were retrograde when you were born?
Put in your birth date to see which planets were retrograde when you were born, from Mercury out to Pluto, with the dates each retrograde ran. Most people have at least one: the slow outer planets are retrograde for close to half of every year.
What a retrograde planet is
No planet ever really moves backwards. Retrograde is how it looks from a moving Earth. Mercury and Venus, on smaller orbits than ours, appear to back up when they pass between us and the Sun. Mars and the planets beyond it appear to back up when the Earth overtakes them, the way a slower car seems to drift backwards as you pass it.
In a birth chart, astrologers read a retrograde planet as turned inward. Its energy works privately and on its own schedule, often maturing later and in a less conventional way than the same planet moving forward.
How common each one is
The figures below come from 200 years of each planet's path.
| Planet | Retrograde for | Happens about every | Lasts about |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mercury | 19% of the time | 4 months | 3 weeks |
| Venus | 7% | 19 months | 6 weeks |
| Mars | 10% | 26 months | 2 to 3 months |
| Jupiter | 30% | 13 months | 4 months |
| Saturn | 36% | 12 and a half months | 4 and a half months |
| Uranus, Neptune, Pluto | 41 to 44% | once a year | 5 months |
Venus retrograde at birth
Born with Venus retrograde, about one person in fourteen, you come to love and value on your own terms. Early relationships can feel out of step, and people often say they only worked out what they really wanted in love later than their friends. Taste is personal and sometimes out of fashion in a way that later turns out to be ahead of it. See Venus signs.
Mars retrograde at birth
About one person in ten. Drive and anger work inwardly: you think before you act, plan before you push, and hold anger longer before it shows. The strength is strategy and stamina, a slow build rather than a sprint. See Mars signs.
Jupiter retrograde at birth
About three people in ten. Faith, luck and growth come from within more than from outside approval. You build your own philosophy instead of borrowing one, and generosity tends to be quiet and specific.
Saturn retrograde at birth
More than a third of people. Discipline and authority are self-made: you set your own rules and judge yourself by them, often harder than anyone else would. The lessons of your Saturn return tend to be personal more than public.
Uranus, Neptune and Pluto
These are retrograde for almost half of every year, so they're shared by huge numbers of people and read with a light touch. When they are retrograde, their generational themes, change, dreams and transformation, are said to work more privately in your life.
Questions
Is it bad to have retrograde planets in my chart?
No. Retrograde describes how a planet's energy works, inwardly and on its own schedule, not whether it's good or bad.
Why does it say a planet was stationing?
You were born within a day of the planet turning, when it stood almost still in the sky. Astrologers read a stationary planet as unusually strong in a chart.
Does my full chart show retrogrades?
Yes. Every retrograde planet is marked in your placements.