Flavor of Mercury retrograde June 29 – July 23rd 2026

Shadow in – June 12^th. 
Shadow out – August 6^th.

Drowning, as we are, in a sea of information—minus wisdom—what’s missing? Maybe our feelings, our empathy, the ability which all humans have to mirror each other, to know how it feels to be someone in a different skin, and to recognize our kinship with all that lives.

Mercury is always about the mind, that untrustworthy trickster who makes us think that there really is a pot of gold somewhere, waiting for us. But the Trickster has bigger fish to fry when it’s retrograde. Turned inward, toward the soul, Mercury opens us to the possibility that this inner landscape is the territory that belongs to me alone. Here is my felt sense, the great big sea of imagination that gives rise to my best ideas. And so it has always been, since the beginning of humans.

How can we know our subconscious thoughts? Through dreams and synchronicities, reactions in the gut, and instinctive reflexes. We have become a species that likes to categorize and pathologize our behaviours. Mercury retrograde in Cancer reminds us that the way we inhabit and express ourselves makes some kind of sense in relation to our lived experience.

Want to know what your subconscious thoughts are? They are written in your body, in your weaknesses as well as your strengths—messages in a bottle, or a body. Plain as day, or the nose on your face. What if you didn’t judge them as flaws but understood them as messages from within?

What if you imagine, while Mercury is retrograde, how it was for your grandparents and their grandparents? If you con-sider (with stars) that your mother was once an infant at the mercy of her parents, or your father was a toddler reaching for his future? Cancer takes us back—not always to the good old days. Sometimes looking back tells a story of difficulty or wounding, mistreatment and neglect. But always there was something that nourished your soul, your cells. What was it?

You don’t need to extract it and use it toward some end. You need to receive it—to allow yourself to know that you wouldn’t be here, reading this, looking for sea glass amongst the stones, if there hadn’t been some kind of connection.

Jupiter has been in Cancer since the summer of 2025 and will move away on June 30th. If this Mercury recapitulates, it is reminding us of all the needs of all living beings in a world that appears to be in self-destruct mode. How do you hold this? What have you learned about yourself or the peoples of the world?

Wars create horrifying deprivation, which goes against the grain of all that Cancer and Jupiter are meant to bring. Mercury asks us to hold that awareness without blame (although that’s challenging), without fear for our own security (also challenging), so much as to consider what might allow a species to self-destruct—to lose connection with itself.

The essence of any Mercury retrograde is felt most strongly when it conjuncts the Sun (July 12). That is when the winged messenger, Mercury, offers messages for us to use or ponder as we turn to the second half of the retrograde journey. What form of meditation will you use to still yourself and listen for such a message?

Warmly

Julie Simmons

P.S. If this Mercury retrograde is stirring the waters a little more deeply than usual, you don’t have to navigate it alone. Join us for the next Aligned for Mercury Retrograde repatterning session, where we’ll work with these currents consciously and kindly—so you can receive the messages, not just react to the turbulence. Reserve your spot here: Aligned for Mercury Retrograde Repatterning Session.