PiscesMoon Astrology

Mercury Retrogrades In Water Signs: What 2026 Demands From Your Mind

• Kait Leonard • Season 1 • Episode 74

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We’re closing out 2025 by mapping the three Mercury retrogrades that will soak the year in water energy, reshaping how we plan, decide, sign, and speak. Pisces (Feb 25–Mar 20), Cancer (Jun 29–Jul 23), and Scorpio (Oct 24–Nov 13) each slow the mind in distinct ways, pulling conversation and commerce out of fast logic and into feeling, symbol, and intuition.

I break down why Mercury in water feels like running in a pool—lots of drag, less sprinting—and why the smartest move is to float, not fight. That means building buffers into your calendar, avoiding quick-turn approvals, and being extra careful with travel and contracts. We talk through practical tactics to prevent misunderstandings: slower pacing, frequent paraphrasing, and permission to ask for clarification when emotions spike. You’ll hear how to align work with the retrograde vibe, especially if you create or communicate for a living: read aloud, track the emotional arc, and revise by feel before you tweak by grammar.

We also zoom out to the bigger sky: a fire-and-air year that craves momentum, intersecting with a water-logged Mercury that demands reflection. If your chart is heavy in water, this can be a creative high tide; if you’re more air or fire, expect friction and a valuable lesson in pacing. I offer house-based prompts to localize each retrograde in your life, so you can see where friendships, career, home, or collaborations may need softness, patience, and intuitive checks before you commit.

Subscribe for the next preview on the nodes and eclipses, share this with a friend who schedules everything at warp speed, and leave a quick review if this helped you plan smarter. Want personalized timing? Book a year-ahead reading at my current rates before prices rise in January.

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SPEAKER_00:

Hello and welcome to Pisces Moon Astrology. I'm your astrologer, Kate Leonard, and I'm excited to explore the stars with you. Hi everyone. Welcome to the end of 2025 and part two of our look ahead at major transits of 2026. If you didn't listen to last week's episode, you absolutely want to do that. First, I explain all the reasons why I'm not doing the general weekly forecast. It just seemed to me like right now everybody's really, really interested in what's in store for us next year. And so I thought I would finish up our year. 2025 has been a doozy. Yeah, wait till you see what's coming. Um, anyway, I thought I would finish up giving you just some little peeks ahead so you can start prepping for the energy. And yeah, I strongly recommend you book a year ahead reading if you haven't already done that, so that we can look at what these big major transits are gonna do for you, you know, specifically relating to your chart. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing to do to start the year with. And you will also be booking in at my old prices because prices are going up in January. So I would love to work with you. I would love to hear from you. And um, before I even get into this next little peek at 2026, I just want to say thank you. Thank you for being here for all of you that I have already read for. I am so grateful. I really believe that I have like the best clients in the whole world. I don't know if other people say that, but they're wrong because my clients are the best in the whole world. And I'm just grateful for you being here and listening to the podcast. I'd be super grateful if you would share it. I would really like to see our numbers get up there a little bit, but anyway, one way or another, thank you, thank you, thank you. And let's get into it. So I thought the next thing that I would touch on, I mean, there is just so much happening. 2026, y'all, it is one big year. I've had some people telling me that they've heard that next year is like easier. I don't know who's spreading that news, but I don't think so. I think it's a very mixed bag 2026. I think it gets better. I don't know if better is the right word. It's gonna be at least more clear. I think we're gonna have more understanding about what we've been going through and what it's gonna really mean in our lives when we get toward the end of 2026. But I don't think it's gonna be like an easier year, and I'm not sure who's spreading that crazy information. We'll see. I hope I'm wrong, but I don't think so. Anyway, so let's just talk about one of the more typical kinds of things that's gonna happen. Let's talk about the Mercury retrogrades of 2026. And I will for sure next time be touching on the nodes changing signs and the eclipses. So make sure you're staying up to date with your listening. But I did want to talk about the mercury retrogrades because they are all happening in water signs in 2026. So we've got the Pisces Mercury retrograde from February 25th through March 20th. We've got the Cancer Mercury retrograde from June 29th through July 23rd, and we've got the Scorpio retrograde from October 24th through November 13th. So there are the dates. Get ready. You might want to, in your yearly agenda, just kind of make sure you're not scheduling activities that don't blend well with Mercury retrograde energy. Mercury's interesting in water signs because it's not his element. So let's just jump right in. This is going to be true for all of these. Now, of course, they're gonna play out differently. Pisces is not cancer, it is not Scorpio, but in general, Mercury is the mind. The mind is not water, water is our emotions and our spirit, right? Mercury goes fast, he moves, right? That's why we get all these Mercury, these um retrogrades and everything, right? He moves, he's the messenger of the gods. Water goes slow. Think of, you know, if you've ever done water aerobics, is that still a thing? Or, you know, if you've played in a pool and you try to run in water, it drags you down, right? It holds you back, it gives you that resistance. So while it is very emotional, there's also a kind of resistance to water. And Mercury doesn't like it. The way you deal with water is to not try to run, right? Because you're gonna get that drag. You need to float, you need to let the currents carry you away, you know, whatever it is. Think about how you function most um naturally and easily in water. That's not Mercury, right? Mercury is like, let's talk about it, let's do it, let's have an appointment, let's schedule a meeting, how about some networking? It's not like, oh, let me just float on over here and take a look-see. See how already water makes Mercury weird, and Mercury retrograde is already weird. So we've got like weird squared, or is it weird times two? I'm not sure, but it's something like that. It's big weird. So Mercury retrogrades are about business, communication, including all forms, you know, social media, actual face-to-face IRL conversations, emails, and writing and content creating, and all anything in that communication realm. That's Mercury. But as I said, also business. Mercury is unlike Venus, who has a lot to do with money. She's more about like what money can buy, the luxuries, the good things in life, the beauty. Mercury is more about how we make our money. He's the marketplace. So it's the doing business, it's the transactions. Mercury is all about contracts, signing contracts. So yeah, oh, and travel. I always forget that one because I don't really travel very much. Mercury is all about travel, but mostly short distance travel. Mercury is more the comings and goings of daily life. That's why with retrogrades, we'll sometimes see, you know, cars breaking down or Ubers not showing up and that kind of thing. All right. So let's keep all of that in focus. And now let's apply the water element. So one thing that just know is gonna be part of this, and I already basically said it, everything's gonna go slower than we want it to. And during retrograde, it's really gonna go slow. Yeah, communication, you might not be able to get your ideas out quite as efficiently as you would like. Your thoughts may feel slow and sluggish. You may be like, ah, you know, I'm usually more on top of things and I can't even collect my own thoughts. You may find that you're dreamier and tending to just drift off a little bit during conversations, during business meetings, those kinds of things. You might find that making plans, there's just a lot of delays and things get slowed down. And even travel, you know, you might just find that you're stuck in traffic a lot or whatever, and it's not moving as quickly as you would like. So apply that slowness to those periods. So again, I say I would almost suggest go into your your yearly planner or your digital calendar or whatever it is that you use and mark out these dates so that you're not under any rush, rush, rush deadlines right then, right? These dates are good for some things, but not for quick turnarounds. You know, this is not the time that you want to schedule those meetings where you have to make quick decisions, you know, make your point fast, snap judgments, those kinds of things. Don't do them during mercury retrogrades in water signs. Do not do that. Oh, and of course, as always, look to see where Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio fall in your chart. What houses, what house topics? For example, Pisces is my 11th house. So this is going to affect things with groups, with friends, with my tribe. Communication may be slow, you know, those kinds of things. But better 11th house, like I have it, 10,000 people with Pisces might be finding things really sluggish at work. Work may in fact slow down and you don't get as much work as you'd like, depending on how your work is structured. So you see what I'm saying? It makes a lot of difference. So it's really important to look and see what houses are being impacted by this energy. Now, water, think of it as tides or currents or waves. Things are not coming from the rational. We're coming from the more symbolic. We're more creative in our thinking, it's flowing, intuitive. Think of those kinds of words. But mercury retrograde. So your creativity may need some revision, reimagining. So, again, if I were gonna plan on revising a story during one of these watery mercury retrogrades, I wouldn't be thinking so much of like doing that kind of um nuts and bolts, this word for that word kind of thing. I would be thinking more about how does this story feel to me? You know, when I read it out loud, how does it sound? Do I feel emotionally moved? Am I getting the right emotional response? That might lead me to what needs to be revised. Do you see the difference rather than, oh, um, this sentence is awkward, so I should revise it. That's very intellectual, that's very linear. This is going to be more about feelings. It's emotional, it's intuitive, where your gut will tell you, I don't want to sign this contract the way it is. Intellectually, I know it's a good contract, but something in my inner knowing tells me that we can revise it and make it better. I'm gonna ask that we go back through it and tweak it some because it's just not feeling right to me. So even in business dealings, we're still gonna be coming from that more creative, more intuitive, more inner knowing kind of place because that's water. But Mercury retrograde, we're gonna be going back over things, right? It's a weird fit. See what I said at the beginning? It's a very weird fit to be doing mercury kinds of things in water. Now, if your natal mercury is in a water sign, this is gonna be a lot easier for you because that's your natural way of doing things. You've got your natal mercury in Pisces, Cancer, or Scorpio. That's already how your mercury works. So you're gonna have a way easier time. If you've got your mercury and say, Gemini, Mercury's super strong there, but Gemini is air, and Gemini is all about that. Let's go, go, go, social butterfly kind of thing. If that's your normal way of being Mercury, this water stuff is gonna be challenging. Let's just leave it at that. But what is it good for? It's good for going back over all of these things with your intuition, with your inner knowing. It's gonna be really good for that. Now, when I say it's gonna be really good, what I mean is it it can be. But a lot of us, if we don't have really strong water in our charts, so we even if your Mercury, even if it's not your Mercury that's in water, but let's say you've got your sun, moon, or ascendant in water signs or a stellium in water signs, something like that. If you've got a very strongly watery chart, this is going to be way easier for you. For those people who are much more earth, air, fire, and you're weaker in the water and your mercury's not in water, we can be feeling foggy. We could end up feeling at times like we're kind of going under, we're drowning. We could be feeling like we're being tossed around by the tides and can't get our bearings. It could be really uncomfortable. So we could be trying to negotiate something or even just having conversations with people. It doesn't have to be like you're working on a book or negotiating a contract. We could just be talking about in your social group, you go to lunch with your friends, kind of thing, or have dinner with the family, you know, and you're just feeling sort of emotionally tossed about. That kind of stuff could be up and happening. The other thing is Mercury's gonna be making aspects to other planets. So I just see this watery energy being really big, and that's gonna be very weird. Okay, try to stay with me here. I'm gonna try to make sense of this thing. We're really in a fire and air year. There's a lot of big fire air stuff going on, but we've got this emotional stuff also going on with Mercury. It's gonna be challenging to navigate all of this. That's all I'm saying. So, for a lot of us, we're gonna be feeling overly emotional. We're gonna find that in situations where we really feel like we need to apply intellect, it's gonna be super challenging. And then we're gonna get emotional because we're feeling like we're not doing it right or whatever, right? There's gonna be a lot of room for misunderstanding in communication. When people are feeling foggy and they're not kind of firing on all cylinders, things are moving sort of slow. The chances of misunderstandings, yeah, really, really big. I think, yeah, we're gonna all have to be, and I'll be doing weekly episodes when we get into this energy, each of these retrograde um periods. So I'll remind you, but we're gonna have to really be aware. And one, we're gonna have to really trust our intuition because it's gonna be more on. Take your time when communicating, you know, and be ready to clarify. Don't be offended if people are asking you to repeat or clarify or they're seeming not to get it. Just know they're in the foggy land right then, right? And also be ready to ask for clarification. So just condition yourself now that you're gonna be going through these periods and you're not gonna just act out of emotions immediately, right? Somebody's saying something to you and you get all in your feels about it. Breathe for a second and ask for clarification. Like, you know, the way I'm hearing this is like this. Am I getting that right? And and sometimes you will be, and then you can, you know, burst into tears or punch walls or do whatever emotion is coming up for you. But sometimes you'll find that you actually didn't understand it, that they're maybe having a foggy brain while whoever's communicating to you, and you may be having a different foggy brain while you're receiving it. So just slow down, ask for clarification. Don't act too quickly. When misunderstandings or conflicts come up, maybe give it a minute, especially if you're in one of these phases or even in the shadow phases before and after. Give it a minute and give yourself time to take those feelings and think about them. Yeah, that's that's really the big stuff. It's it's gonna be a weird time. Mercury's just gonna be weird. There are good things for writers if you can get into that space of really doing the deep dive. And this, when I say writers, anybody who communicates for a living, um, content creators, writers, even people who do art forms that are like acting, singing, things that involve words, that kind of thing, this could be a really creative flow kind of year for you. So creativity could be really, really good for some people. And that even means just kind of living creatively. That's a really Good way to look at this year. Like, how do you live more spiritually, more intuitively, more creatively? There can be some really good things. I there's gonna be a lot of mercury retrograde, not great, but there could be some really, really good things. I've already said the people who are gonna find it easiest are going to be people with heavy water placements. They're gonna be, they're gonna be in the best position. The people who are gonna find it most challenging are gonna be, I think, yeah, the air and fire sign placements. Those are gonna be harder to navigate if you and if you have your mercury in one of those. I think I already said that. Anyway, I feel like this is going on long enough. You get it. The year in general is fire and air, but Mercury is gonna bring the water, and that means bringing the water to our brains and our communication, right? Which is very emotional, but creative. Okay. I am grateful that you're here. Thank you so much. I'm gonna talk about the nodes changing signs and the eclipses on the next preview of 2026. And I hope you're finding these episodes helpful. Book a reading, that's even more helpful. And yeah, that's all I've got. Until next week. Go out and seize the energies of the stars. This is my wish for you always, and I will talk to you soon. Bye.