Cool Moon Facts by Whip

Real astronomy and dated history, with sources. Documented traditions and folklore. Modern lunar astrology · symbolic, not predictive.

Motion and the Sun · Beginner

Retrograde

Also called retrograde motion, Rx, Rx, ℞

A planet that appears, from Earth, to move backwards through the zodiac for a while.

No planet ever reverses its orbit. Retrograde motion is a line-of-sight effect: as Earth overtakes a slower outer planet, or a faster inner planet overtakes Earth, the planet appears to drift backwards against the stars. Astrologers read retrograde planets as turned inward or revisiting.

How it is worked out
On this site, retrograde when the planet's apparent longitude is decreasing, outside the stationary threshold.
The astronomy
Mercury is retrograde about 19% of the time, Venus about 7%, Mars about 9%, and the outer planets around 40%.
  • Kind: Astronomy, Interpretation
  • Tradition: Shared across Western traditions
  • In this site’s birth chart: used

Related: Direct motion, Station, Mercury retrograde, Shadow period, Geocentric

Written for Cool Moon Facts in its own words. An astrology source documents what astrologers believe or practise; it does not establish that astrology works.

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