6 Retrograde Planets Nov 2025

Aquila Idha
7 days ago
3 min read

Updated: 6 days ago

man, cosmos, butterflies, astrology symbols

In this mini-post I wanted to highlight a 12 day window in November when we will experience 6 retrograde archetypes as we approach the end of the secular year.

Everything about western astrology is subjective; its about our exact location in space and time and our unique perspective of the mirror of the universe and how that reflects the inner movements and changes we take both individually and collectively. Retrograde planets, dwarf planets, asteroids and centaurs don’t literally move backwards, but they appear to move backwards from our perspective on Earth due to the varying orbital speeds of the planets; an optical illusion caused when the Earth either overtakes a slower outer planet or is overtaken by a faster inner planet.

A short clip showing the apparent direct and retrograde motion of Mercury as viewed from Earth

In astrology, retrograde motion is significant as it alters the way the archetypes influence us, typically focusing evolutionary impulses inward; crises, tensions, puzzles, challenges and subsequent changes dominate our inner world.

An arising of new perspectives allow us to release old stories and life images

From Nov 9th to Nov 21st 2025 there will be 6 planets retrograde: Neptune, Saturn, Uranus, Chiron, Jupiter and Mercury, representing a short window of time when energy pulls us inward to review, relive, revisit and resolve elements of our lives that have come before. The nature of 6 archetypes all retrograde reflects an amplified internal sorting and releasing process as we prepare for the significant changes coming in 2026.

We can think of this as a natural cyclical process that now draws us to bring to resolution certain parts of our personal unfolding life story; a tying up of loose ends so to speak, bringing us to closure in certain areas or at least bringing us closer to closure. This is a peak moment of inner house-keeping that touches on multiple aspects of the inner self; our spirituality, dreams and illusions; our karma, limitations and existing lessons; our beliefs and intuitions; our ideas and information maps; our wounds and protective behaviours; and revelations, insights and openness to the unknown.

This is a complex and subtle inner movement that when worked with consciously will help us make ready for what promises to be a very dynamic and active 2026.

In numerological terms this year 2025 is part of a culminating collective cycle (a 9 year), and we have seen the outer planets lingering in the late degrees of signs for most of the year; another indication that energy cycles have been completing and we are soon approaching new energy taking us into new growth territory.

2026 initiates new energy cycles (a 1 year) punctuated by a Neptune/Saturn conjunction at exactly 0˚ Aries in February; an astrological event that hasn’t happened for at least 12,000 years.

The best way to cooperate with retrograde energy is to surrender to the inner process being asked of us. This is typically resisted in a culture that values productivity and extroversion, and its the resistance that causes the troublesome mishaps and obstructions often associated with retrograde motion especially in relation to Mercury.

Just remember that these 2 weeks in particular will move quite a lot of energy inward causing us to slow down in the outer world as we ideally take time to self-reflect, meditate, recapitulate and go over past events, ideas, beliefs, feelings and wound patterns in order to evolve our perspective on our lives in some way; our sense of who we are and where we are going.

As we prepare for the kick start of new evolutionary cycles next year, which may bring new desire impulses into our conscious awareness - moving us in new unexpected directions, we can think of it a bit like preparing for a trip; we can’t take everything including the kitchen sink with us just because we feel more secure that way; we will have to leave some of the old baggage behind; new journeys require new identities and fresh perspectives, and in the weeks leading up to the new year we can expect to let old perspectives go as new insights alter how we see things, opening up new future timeline opportunities to follow.