The sky on Tuesday, February 9, 2027

Sun in	Aquarius
Moon in	Pisces
Moon phase	Waxing Crescent
Illumination	8%
Stations	Mercury stations retrograde
Exact aspects	Mercury sextile Venus
Mercury retrograde	No

Mercury stations retrograde today, pausing before its long apparent backtrack. Mercury and Venus stand about sixty degrees apart today, a sextile, traditionally read as an easy, cooperative angle. The Moon is in Pisces, a young crescent growing in the evening sky.

What does Mercury mean in astrology?

Mercury is the planet of thinking, speaking and exchange, and it never strays more than about twenty eight degrees from the Sun.

That closeness is why you only ever see it low in the sky near sunrise or sunset, and why it is never more than one sign away from the Sun in a chart. It spends a few weeks in a sign, and rather longer when it turns retrograde.

Astrologically it covers language, learning, trade, travel and anything that moves between two parties, including messages and money. It rules both Gemini and Virgo, the talking half and the sorting half of the same skill.

Mercury turns retrograde about three times a year. That is a matter of orbital geometry rather than a curse, and it is described on its own page here.