Retrograde: July 18 to August 11, 2025
Shadow Period: June 30 to August 25

Mercury is retrograde in Leo from July 18 to August 11, moving between 15° and 4° of this fixed fire sign. But the work begins earlier. On June 30, Mercury enters the pre-retrograde shadow, initiating a review process that won’t fully resolve until August 25.

The shadow period runs from June 30 to August 25. The shadow begins when Mercury first passes the degrees it will later revisit, and ends when it clears those same degrees again. The shadow is where the reflection deepens, the patterns repeat, and the realignment begins.

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The core theme of this retrograde is the story you tell about yourself, and why you need others to believe it. This Mercury retrograde wraps itself around the Leo New Moon on July 24, a lunation that opposes Pluto and asks us to rebirth a more honest version of ourselves. This is about letting go of the version of yourself that was built to impress, and making space for the one that’s built to live.

If you're noticing communication issues, creative confusion, or people from the past resurfacing, you're likely already feeling this transit. The most grounded response during Mercury Rx is to surrender. Sometimes the only move is to make peace with not knowing. No amount of overthinking will force clarity to arrive before it's ready.

Leo is a sign of bold expression, performance, pride, and presence. When Mercury retrogrades here, it can challenge your voice, your confidence, and the way you tell your story. The ground here is theatrical, personal, and prideful. The sign of Leo governs recognition, narrative identity, and the rituals of attention. This is a time to checking in with how authentic your message really is.

When Mercury moves through Leo, it highlights how we seek recognition. It tunes us into the stories we tell about ourselves. It reminds us that while pride can protect us, it can also isolate us. During this retrograde, we’re asked to look more honestly at how our communication, creativity, and public persona reflect who we really are.

Some themes that may arise:

• Feeling unsure about how you're being perceived
• Conversations that feel more loaded than usual, especially when pride is involved
• The resurfacing of old collaborators, friends, or lovers
• Creative projects that return for a second look
• Branding, storytelling, and identity questions that require a deeper edit
• Learning where ego is blocking growth, or where self-worth needs repair

Leo wants to be heard. Mercury retrograde wants the truth. Together, they challenge us to strip the performance from our message and speak from our heart. This is a time to be honest with why we want to be seen, and what we’re hoping to receive in return.

Leo is ruled by the Sun, the force that shines without apology. But when Mercury moves retrograde through this sign, the light warps. You might feel exposed, misread, or invisible, like the spotlight’s on, but no one really sees you. Who you truly are when no one else is watching.

Key Dates

• June 30: Mercury enters the pre-retrograde shadow at 4° Leo. Watch what themes begin to emerge.
• July 18: Mercury turns retrograde at 15° Leo. This is the midpoint of the story, where pressure increases and edits begin.
• August 11: Mercury turns direct at 4° Leo. The fog starts to lift and you begin to apply what you've learned.
• August 25: Mercury leaves the post-retrograde shadow at 15° Leo. By this point, the story is complete and clarity returns.

Treat this retrograde as a creative audit. If you need to speak, choose your words carefully. If you need to be seen, let it be with intention. Performances, branding, and bold declarations made from ego, or without reflection, are more likely to misfire.

Use this time to revisit what you’ve already created. Refine your message. A time to strengthen the structure of your story before sharing it with the world.

The last time Mercury moved retrograde through this part of Leo was in the summer of 2012. From July 14 to August 8, Mercury traveled from 12° to 1° Leo. That moment marked the beginning of a shift in how we perform, share, and show ourselves to the world. Instagram had just launched. Social media was in its infancy. We were learning how to package our lives for visibility. Many of us learned that attention could be a stand-in for affirmation, but not a sustainable source of it.

Here in 2025, the pressure to be visible is still with us, but now it feels heavier, more draining, and far less satisfying. We've grown since 2012. We've learned what it costs to be constantly performing, and what happens when being seen takes priority over being real.

This Mercury retrograde offers a chance to step back and rewrite that script. To reconnect with the parts of yourself that got edited out in the name of likability or reach. You don’t have to vanish. But you do have to mean what you say. Let this retrograde mark the moment your online persona and story gets honest.

Horoscopes for Mercury Rx in Leo

Aries & Aries Rising

Mercury retrograde moves through your fifth house, asking you to revisit your relationship with creativity, joy, and self-expression. You’re allowed to make things that don’t impress anyone but you. You’re allowed to love without wondering if it makes you look weak. With Leo in the mix, the pride factor runs high. You might’ve pushed down certain desires because they didn’t fit the image you’ve been trying to keep up. You may also reflect on a past relationship that still influences how you show up for love now. This is your chance to reclaim your voice, your art, your pleasure. Let yourself want what you want. Loudly.

Taurus & Taurus Rising

This retrograde brings your focus to home, roots, and the stories you tell about where you come from. Mercury is moving through your fourth house, which holds your emotional foundation. Conversations with family may feel more charged. Old family dynamics may resurface, along with the patterns they taught you to repeat in love. If you're still trying to earn peace through control, or love through silence, it’s time to ask, who taught you that? With Leo in the mix, pride and protection go hand in hand. Being the strong one all the time is exhausting, especially when no one sees how much you’re holding. You may revisit a relationship that mirrored your earliest attachments, maybe the one you never got closure from. Your home may need reorganization. So might your sense of safety. Home isn’t just where you live. It’s how you live with yourself.

Gemini & Gemini Rising

As Mercury retrogrades through your third house, you are being asked to reflect on how you communicate. Your words matter. So does the tone beneath them. You may revisit an old conversation or relationship where something important was left unsaid. Or worse, where something important was said and dismissed. This retrograde is less about talking and more about listening. You do not need to prove your intelligence. You do not need to fill every silence. If the words do not come easily, that is okay. Take your time. Let clarity be more important than charisma.

Cancer & Cancer Rising

This retrograde moves through your second house, which speaks to your values, resources, and sense of worth. You might be looking at your bank account or your paycheck and thinking, something’s not adding up. Maybe it’s time to renegotiate your rates/salary or role. You’re starting to see how much of your self-worth has been tied to how much you hustle. That mindset served you once. It might not anymore. A past relationship may come to mind. The one that made you feel like you had to constantly do more to remain in the relationship. Where your worth was measured by what you could offer, not who you are. This is a chance to stop that cycle, if it still exists. No relationship, no job, no amount of success is worth abandoning yourself for.

Leo & Leo Rising

Mercury is retrograding through your sign, and that makes this personal. It may bring a sense of confusion about how others perceive you. You might start questioning how people really see you. Maybe you feel misunderstood or like no one’s getting the full picture. An old relationship could creep back into your mind. Not because you want them back, but because you realize you’re still carrying the version of yourself you created just to make it work. It's not about them anymore. It’s about the version of yourself you created when you were together. This is a chance to rewrite your story.

Virgo & Virgo Rising

This retrograde hits your twelfth house, which means it’s time to fall back and get quiet. If you're feeling drained or pulled inward, don’t fight it. That’s your system telling you to unplug from the noise and sit with yourself. Your gut’s trying to talk. Old memories, regrets, or fears might creep in, to get your attention. You don’t have to fix everything right now. You don’t even have to make sense of it yet. Sit with it. Journal. Meditate. Listen. The upcoming Leo New Moon arrives right in the middle of this retrograde and offers you a vision. Let the endings and beginnings happen without trying to control how they unfold. Your creativity, your intuition, and your connection to something bigger than yourself will guide you. You just need to stay open.

Libra & Libra Rising

This Mercury retrograde activates your eleventh house of community, vision, and collective belonging. It may bring old friends back into your life or call you to review your long-term goals. This is a good time to ask whether your social circles reflect your current values. The Leo New Moon lands here too, reminding you that your future isn’t built alone. It’s shaped in the company you keep. Friendships may shift now. The ability to change friendship groups is a luxury. Not everyone gets to walk away from community, even when it stops feeling aligned. If you do have that choice, use it wisely. Are you surrounding yourself with people who see you for who you are or for what you offer? This retrograde invites you to reclaim your future. Start with the people who’ve shown up for your healing, not just your accomplishments.

Scorpio & Scorpio Rising

Mercury’s retrograde travels through your tenth house of public life, visibility, and purpose. You are being asked to reconsider how you show up in the world and what success means to you now. Old job roles, former colleagues, or stalled projects may return for review. You may feel uncertain about your path. You may even feel like you’re starting over. If you’ve been faking it just to keep up appearances, it’s time to drop the act. That version of you? It served its purpose, but it’s not the whole story. Your public voice is shifting. You’re allowed to change. You actually might find you need too.

Sagittarius & Sagittarius Rising

This retrograde hits your ninth house, so get ready to question what you thought you knew. Your beliefs, your goals, your vision of the world and your place in it; this is all changing. That can create some serious mental conflict. You might find yourself torn between what you’ve always believed and what actually feels true now. The old version of your worldview might not fit anymore, but letting go of it can feel like losing a part of yourself. It’s uncomfortable. You don’t have to have it all figured out to be moving in the right direction. You might find yourself going back to something you once studied or reconnecting with a spiritual practice you left behind. If the way you’ve been seeing the world feels tight or outdated, let it fall apart a little. That’s how growth works. It’s not always a straight line. Sometimes you gotta go back to the origin story.

Capricorn & Capricorn Rising

Mercury is retrograde in your eighth house, it’s time to get real about your money, your secrets, and your close ties. You might be dealing with old financial messes, divorce, past hookups, or emotional deals you never really closed. This is a time to reflect on what you share and what you keep private. Power struggles may emerge in your close relationships. Who’s actually in control here, and why? And because this retrograde is in Leo, pride, ego, and performance are part of the equation too. You may notice how often you’ve pretended to be fine just to avoid looking messy. You may see where you’ve clung to control so you wouldn’t have to admit you were hurt. Leo wants to be seen, but in the eighth house, it’s about being seen by the people who matter. If you have given too much or withheld too long, this retrograde offers a moment to fix things. Reclaim your boundaries. Reclaim your agency. Your vulnerability is not a weakness.

Aquarius & Aquarius Rising

This retrograde activates your seventh house of committed partnerships. Conversations with lovers, exes, business partners, or close collaborators may need to be revisited. Old arguments might resurface. Unspoken tension might finally get aired out. With Mercury retrograde in Leo, pride, ego, and attention start playing a bigger role in your relationship stories. Are you trying to win the argument, or be understood? Leo wants loyalty and admiration, but in the seventh house, that energy can get twisted into power games. Stop pretending everything’s fine if it’s not. If you're showing up loud and proud on the outside but feeling neglected or resentful on the inside, it's time to check the gap between the performance and the truth. This is a time to revise the stories you tell about love and partnership. You are not meant to settle. You are not meant to shrink. Mutual respect begins with honest communication. Let your voice be honest and kind.

Pisces & Pisces Rising

Mercury is retrograde in your sixth house of work, health, and daily habits. This is your check-in moment. Are your habits really working for you, or are you just performing wellness while running yourself into the ground? Leo energy wants to look good, feel good, and shine. But in the sixth house, that glow has to be built on rest, balance, and boundaries. Are you taking care of yourself, or just making it look like you are? Small habits add up. So do small sacrifices. You might be out here saying everything’s fine, posting about clean eating or productivity hacks, but skipping meals, losing sleep, or staying in environments that silently drain you. That disconnect catches up. This retrograde exposes the gap between what you say is healthy and what’s actually is. Your time and energy are sacred. Treat them like it. You may also find yourself revisiting habits you picked up in a past relationship or work environment. Leo reminds you that real confidence isn’t in how good it looks, it’s in how good it feels behind the scenes. Your energy is not endless.