Mercury: the six sky phases

Gary P. Caton's new map of Mercury's cycle, the retrograde marching backwards through the elements, a body clock that turns with the sky — and what the research says about a rhythm of outward work and inward rest.

15 October 2026 15 min read ▶ 71-min video 55 sources · 28 peer-reviewed

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Mercury's geometric pattern: 22 golden loops around the Earth on a night-blue sky

In brief

Every 116 days or so Mercury goes from morning star to evening star and back, and about three times a year it turns retrograde — three in one element at a time, stepping backwards from fire to water to air to earth over roughly seven years. In his new book, astrologer Gary P. Caton divides the cycle into six sky phases, each with a mythic face. We computed every date in this 71-minute interview to check it, and found the research behind its advice: rest in rhythm, protect your attention, and anchor in purpose.

≈ 116 days one Mercury cycle, morning star to morning star 115.88 days on average; 106–129 days between 2016 and 2030.

6 sky phases in each cycle — seen at dawn, seen at dusk, or hidden Paired in Caton's new book with six faces: Trickster to Psychopomp.

3 a year retrogrades, 4–6 in each element, moving fire → water → air → earth About seven years for the full round.

≤ 28° the farthest Mercury ever gets from the Sun — why it's so hard to see Between about 18° and 28°, depending on its eccentric orbit.

Learn from the source

Gary P. Caton

Astrologer and author of Hermetica Triptycha, the books on Mercury and Venus behind the planet entries.

His books follow the planets' real cycles in the sky — the phases our Mercury and Venus summaries measure.

rubedo.press/gary-p-caton ↗

Gary P. Caton's map of Mercury's 116-day cycle

Six sky phases, six faces

Mercury runs a cycle with the Sun that lasts about 116 days (115.88 on average; between 2016 and 2030 anywhere from 106 to 129 days, because Mercury's orbit is so eccentric). In that time it rises as a morning star, slips into the Sun's glare behind it, returns as an evening star, then passes between us and the Sun — the retrograde — and is reborn in the east. Astronomers call it the synodic cycle; Babylonian astronomers were logging its first and last sightings more than 2,300 years ago.

Donut chart of six phases — Guardian, Philosopher, Sage, Psychopomp, Trickster, Messenger — with their 2026 dates — Mercury's six sky phases. One Mercury cycle around the 2026 Scorpio retrograde, sized by days, with the face Caton's publisher gives each phase.

For members

Read the whole summary

8 sections, 9 diagrams, the video with its chapters, 21 claims checked against the research, 55 sources with the names of the people who did the work and links to it — and downloads in PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

🔒 Backwards through the elements
🔒 Retrograde runs with the daily sky
🔒 The trickster you can't find
🔒 Riding the Mercury cycle
🔒 The Scorpio retrograde: a conscious descent
🔒 The direct station: a green light
🔒 The geometry of Mercury

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More in this project

Mercury →The mind, the nerves and the messenger

This is the first summary in the project — more are on the way.