Everything You Need to Know About Mercury Retrograde Shadow Periods

The effects of retrograde are far from over. Are you ready for what’s next?

Camille Michelle Gray
ZORA

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(Photo credit: Getty Images)

Mercury’s retrograde through the sign of Gemini came to an end yesterday , June 22, but don’t breathe that sigh of relief just yet! It will take until July 7 to fully clear the retrograde energies. This is because Mercury retrogrades have two shadow periods: the pre-shadow period and the post-shadow period.

Mercury went retrograde in the sign of Gemini on May 29, but the pre-shadow period started on May 15 — an almost two-week introduction or building up of issues we likely confronted during the actual retrogradation. During this two-week period, Mercury was direct but slowing down in the sky. Let’s give this an analogy: You log on to check your email, but your Wi-Fi is a bit slow. You’re able to stay updated but with some delay or annoyance. That’s pre-shadow. The retrograde period, using this same analogy, is being unable to log on at all — suddenly your password has expired, and you need to jump through hoops to access your emails.

During the post-shadow period, Mercury is also direct but slow in the sky and traveling over the same degrees it retrograded over before. The post-shadow tends to be a time of incorporation, where the foibles of the Mercury…

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