How Many Planets are in Retrograde?

Posted on 8.7.25

If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, emotionally tender, or like your plans keep hitting mysterious roadblocks—you’re not imagining things. As of August 2025, five major planets are in retrograde: Mercury, Saturn, Pluto, Neptune, and Chiron (a powerful asteroid often treated like a planetary influence in astrology). When multiple celestial bodies are moving in reverse motion (from our Earth-based perspective), it signals a powerful shift both spiritually and physically.

Retrogrades aren’t something to fear—they’re invitations to slow down, reflect, and recalibrate. Each planet brings its own lesson, affecting everything from your relationships and career to your body, mood, and spiritual path.

Let’s explore what each retrograde is doing—and how you can work with it rather than feel worked over by it.

---

Mercury Retrograde: Rewiring the Mind and Communication

Dates: August 5 – August 28, 2025

Themes: Communication, technology, travel, mental clarity

Spiritually:

This retrograde is your cosmic nudge to slow your mind and listen deeper. Old thoughts, memories, or people may return—not as tests, but as mirrors. Spiritually, it's about truth-checking your internal dialogue and rewriting the narratives that no longer serve you.

Physically:

Expect tech glitches, travel delays, and mental fog. You may also feel more mentally fatigued or need extra rest. Take note of headaches or tightness around the neck and shoulders—areas associated with blocked expression.

Recommendations of things to do during this retrograde:

Speak less, listen more. Journal your thoughts instead of reacting. Silence can be more clarifying than answers.

---

Saturn Retrograde: Reviewing Soul Contracts

Dates: June 30 – November 15, 2025

Themes: Responsibility, structure, karma, discipline

Spiritually:

Saturn retrograde acts like a life audit. Are you living in integrity with your soul path? Are your boundaries authentic or fear-based? Spiritually, it demands that you own your authority and examine where you're outsourcing your power.

Physically:

This transit may bring fatigue, back stiffness, or heaviness in the bones and joints—especially if you’ve been overextending. Your body may ask you to slow down and recover. Rest is not laziness under Saturn—it’s wisdom.

Recommendations of things to do during this retrograde:

Create a ritual around releasing guilt. Guilt is not growth—accountability is.

---

Pluto Retrograde: Confronting the Shadow

Dates: May 2 – October 11, 2025

Themes: Power, transformation, control, the unconscious

Spiritually:

Pluto retrograde takes you into the underworld of your psyche. It unearths old traumas, toxic patterns, or illusions of control. This isn’t to destroy you—it’s to liberate you from what’s been controlling you unconsciously.

Physically:

You may experience deep fatigue, vivid dreams, or digestive issues (the gut is often linked to unprocessed emotions). Intense emotional releases may come out of nowhere—don’t suppress them.

Recommendations of things to do during this retrograde:

Shadow work, therapy, or ancestral healing practices are powerful now.

---

Neptune Retrograde: Lifting the Veil

Dates: July 2 – December 7, 2025

Themes: Illusion, spirituality, dreams, deception

Spiritually:

Neptune retrograde pulls back the curtain. You might suddenly see the truth about a person, a belief system, or even yourself. It’s a sobering influence, but spiritually freeing. This is a time to trust your intuition over fantasy.

Physically:

This can cause brain fog, insomnia, or heightened sensitivity to light, sound, and emotions. You're more psychically open—so grounding is essential. Limit screen time and overstimulation.

Recommendations of things to do during this retrograde:

Inner child work, somatic therapy, and heart-based meditations can support deep repair.

---

Chiron Retrograde: Healing the Wounded Self

Dates: July 23 – December 27, 2025

Themes: Emotional healing, inner child, identity wounds

Spiritually:

Chiron is the “Wounded Healer.” When retrograde, it opens the door to old wounds that shaped your identity, especially those tied to rejection, abandonment, or worthiness. This isn’t to cause pain—it’s to help you see yourself with compassion.

 Physically:

Emotional healing can manifest as inflammation, sudden fatigue, or tension in the solar plexus (gut). You may also experience “emotional hangovers” after small interactions.

Recommendations of things to do during this retrograde:

Inner child work, somatic therapy, and heart-based meditations can support deep repair.

---

What It All Means: A Spiritual Reset

With all of these planets retrograde, the cosmos isn’t punishing you—it’s offering you a massive spiritual reset.

This is a season of:

• Inner alignment over outward hustle

• Truth over illusion

• Healing over hiding

• Slow over fast

How to Navigate This Time:

• Rest deeply. This is not the time to push.

• Reflect honestly. Ask: Where am I out of alignment? What’s no longer true for me?

• Release gently. You don’t have to let go all at once. Just loosen the grip.

• Reconnect spiritually. Whatever “source” is for you—God, nature, intuition—spend time there.

---

Retrogrades turn the energy inward for a reason. The world teaches us to perform; the cosmos teaches us to pause, listen, and evolve. So if everything feels slower, heavier, or more intense—know that you're not broken. You're being reborn.