Below is the transcript for this video. As this is created from the spoken version, it reads differently to a normal written post. For best comprehension, listen along with the audio if possible.
Hello, everyone, this is Leah Whitehorse, and in this recording, I’m going to be talking about Mercury Retrograde in Leo for July 2025. So as I usually do, let’s get some dates out of the way, first. I will put them in the box below, so that you also have them for reference there.
MERCURY RETROGRADE DATES
30-Jun-25 Mercury enters shadow zone
18-Jul-25 Mercury stations retrograde
18-Jul-25 Mercury sextile Venus
20-Jul-25 Mercury trine Ceres
27-Jul-25 Mercury square Vesta
01-Aug-25 Sun conjunct Mercury
11-Aug-25 Mercury stations direct
25-Aug-25 Mercury exits shadow zone
So Mercury went into the shadow zone on the 30th of June, 2025 and will station retrograde on the 18th of July, at 15 degrees and 34 minutes of the sign Leo, the midpoint of the retrograde will come on the 1st of August, when the Sun and Mercury meet at nine degrees of Leo. Mercury will station direct at four degrees and 14 minutes of Leo on the 11th of August. And then Mercury will leave the shadow zone on the 25th of August. So, from the 30th of June to the 25th of August, that covers the entire retrograde and shadow periods.
So Mercury is now in Leo, as I’m recording this on the eighth of July, 2025 we are nearing the retrograde period. And with Mercury in Leo, the prime function here is, I want to use my voice to be heard. Leo is ruled by the sun, so it’s brilliantly lit up. Think of Leo – as a sign it’s connected with the stage. The spotlight is on you. It’s also symbolized by the lion, which has an enormous roar, so we hear it. And this is what Mercury the communicator wants when it’s in Leo. I want to talk about my ideas. I want to express my creativity. And yes, I want people to hear me! But with a retrograde though, all of this energy is going inwards. And I said, I think in my monthly forecast, that this retrograde we might be going within (which is what we do for every retrograde) to explore the script we are using (if we continue with the analogy of Leo being associated with the stage and theatres and actors).
So, is this my voice? Is this my true voice? Are these ideas really mine? Are they the truth of me? Do they express what’s going on in my heart? Am I giving my heart expression.? The heart is also associated with Leo.
As Mercury steps backwards through Leo, we might have a moment wherever Leo is in our own personal chart, where we suddenly aren’t sure whether we’re supposed to be speaking up, or maybe we don’t know what to say here. Maybe we have a wobble of confidence. We get some stage fright! There is an old article I’ve updated it for this Mercury retrograde. So you can get an idea of which area of life this retrograde will be affecting. It’s for your rising sign, although you can read for your sun sign, if you don’t know your rising sign. So there’s going to be some information there. But if we just go with the idea that there is stage fright, this sudden moment of being unsure of ourselves, and it’s a necessary review just to make sure that we are communicating the story that we truly want to tell, the story that is ours to tell.
So, Mercury stations on the 18th of July, 15Le34. By the way, 15 degrees of Leo is the Lammas or Lughnasadh degree. In the Northern Hemisphere, 15 degrees of Leo is the exact midpoint between the summer solstice and the autumn equinox. This is one of the eight major festivals of the pagan year, the eightfold year. Lammas is the old Saxon name, which is ‘loaf mass’. Lughnasadh, is the Celtic name, connected with the god Lugh the bringer of Light (I mis-spoke here – he is a Sun God amongst other attributes). Lughnasadh is the first of the harvest festivals. So we’ve got some of this symbolism coming into play with this connection. Maybe we’re looking at what we’ve grown, what we’ve achieved so far in this house, in this area of life. Have we been getting the results that we require or need? Has the way we’ve been expressing ourselves or using our creativity been getting us the results that we hoped for? Maybe that’s what’s coming up as Mercury stations retrograde on this degree.
The Sabian symbol of this station retrograde is ‘The Storm Ended, All Nature Rejoices In Brilliant Sunshine.’ I have to say, my immediate first thought with this Sabian symbol was fixation on the brilliant sunshine because Mercury is stationing in the sign of Leo ruled by the sun. It feels like it’s amplifying the fact that something is now really in the spotlight for us. It suggests to me that as Mercury goes retrograde, something is being illuminated. Perhaps there has been some kind of conflict or struggle in the area of life affected by this Mercury retrograde and now we see this is a problem, something I need to look at, something I need to review.
Now the asteroids, Alice, Eureka, Homerus and Panacea are also here, sitting with Mercury as Mercury stations retrograde. So, these are little voices that are all joining in with Mercury, adding their stories, adding their songs. And by the way, if you are interested in asteroids, I am currently writing a book Asteroids: New Voices in the Celestial Choir, which I am hoping will be out by the time I have my second Saturn Return, which is going to be on the 4th of April in 2027 so I’ve got just over a year or so to get the book finished! But I’m very excited to be working on this. Anyway – Alice corresponds to Alice in Wonderland, the famous character from literature, and where Alice is, we do have a tendency to fall down the rabbit hole. So this is what’s happening with Mercury retrograde. Suddenly things get really strange. Alice can also represent changes of consciousness and seeing things that we didn’t see before, and suddenly we are tumbling down the rabbit hole.
Eureka is a word that suggests success. I’ve got it! This has worked! There is some kind of discovery that comes along with this ‘curiouser and curiouser’ influence. Homerus tells us that there is a very big story in all of this, and maybe this is an extra validation that we need to ensure that the story we are telling is our own story, rather than saying what we think other people might want to hear. Homer is considered one of the greatest, if not the greatest storytellers of all time, because he wrote the Iliad and the Odyssey. So, the story that we are telling, things we’re discovering, we’re going down the rabbit hole, and everything is a little strange!
And then Panacea being here suggests that we are trying to find something, some thought, some thread of understanding, that is going to make everything better. That’s what Panacea is about. Panacea is a cure all. So we’re trying to cure everything. We’re trying to relieve ourselves from the stresses, the strains of life, the difficulties that we’re struggling with. And maybe this retrograde is going to help us find a perspective that is going to be healing across the board.
So, after stationing retrograde, on the same day Mercury quickly makes a sextile to Venus. This is just going to be one connection between the two of them, but there’s a sweet little kiss going on here, because Venus, the goddess of love, is in Gemini at the moment. So we’re combining this idea of a personal review with keeping the heart open and curious. That word again so Alice curiouser and curiouser, and then Venus in curious Gemini. That’s twice now we have been told to be curious, which means being open, being interested in this process, instead of worrying oh, Mercury is retrograde, so I can’t do this, and I can’t do that, and I can’t sign this, and I can’t agree to that. We get a bit stressed with Mercury Retrograde, but I always say, if things go wrong during this period, then it’s because Mercury has something important to show us or to gift us, so we have a prompt to open up, to connect heart and mind through being curious and interested and playful (that’s a Leo word) with life.
Mercury will then form a trine to Ceres on the 20th of July. Ceres is in Aries at the moment. This will actually be the second of three trines because of the retrograde period. The first one to Ceres was on the 12th of July, and the last one will be on the 25th of August. Mercury, trine to Ceres asks us to look at what are you feeding your mind? Ceres is all to do with food and mothering and nurturing. It suggests that we need to look at the information, the voice, what is it you’re feeding your mind at the moment? Is this healthy? Is this good for you? Is it inspiring? Because these are fire signs. It’s all about reigniting a sense of playfulness and confidence and a feeling that, yes, I can use my voice, I can speak up, I can create in this world. So Mercury trine to Ceres is just asking you to check in with what am I feeding my mind? What kind of information, books, teachings, voices are coming in? How do they feel to me?
Mercury will then square Vesta on the 27th of July, again, the second of three squares between Mercury and Vesta. The first one was on the second of July, the last one will be on the 30th of July. Mercury square Vesta, tells us that there is some kind of distraction going on, because Vesta is very focused. Vesta is intensely (Scorpio) focused. But sometimes we can get a bit blinkered with Vesta as well so the square between the two of them suggests that maybe we need to have a bit more contrast here. I’m thinking of Scorpio often being a sign associated with darkness and nighttime. And then Leo, like I said before, it’s ruled by the sun, so it’s definitely connected with light and daytime. So there’s something about contrast. Actually, as I’m looking at this, I’m suddenly seeing somebody trying to take a photo of something, and they’re moving around the subject. As they move around the subject of their photograph, the shadow changes. Sometimes, if you’ve got the sun behind you and you’re trying to take a photo of something in front of you, then your shadow is going to be cast right across that object that you’re trying to photograph. I feel that this square between Mercury and Vesta is telling us very specifically that when you change your viewpoint, that is going to change how you see things. It’s going to remove the shadow or get the shadow out of the way. The shadow can have positive attributes to it as well as negative. But I think in this case, because it’s a square, we are thinking about the shadowy parts of the self that can cause us to misinterpret the situation or misinterpret other people’s intentions.
I think this issue about how we see things is going to be a particularly important part of this retrograde period, not least because although there’s no perfected opposition between Mercury and Pluto, on the 30th of July, Mercury will have moved back far enough in Leo to now be forming quite a close opposition to Pluto. There’s only going to be like two degrees between them (by the time Mercury stations direct). It’s not a perfect opposition, but it’s strong enough to definitely be in effect. So Pluto up there in Aquarius – we have this feeling of being under pressure, being fearful about what others think of us. What do people think of my creative ideas? Or feeling too scared (stage fright) to speak up. For some people, it might be a feeling that other people are overshadowing their light. So, we’ve got a lot of Pluto overtone coming into this story as well.
On the first of August, we will have the Sun conjoining Mercury. This is the midpoint of the retrograde period. Again, we have a reference to light with the Sabian symbol ‘Early Morning Dew Sparkles As Sunlight Floods The Field. So there’s a lot of references to the idea of light being with the light, lightening up, lightening our thoughts, our thinking, or kind of raising our frequency, raising our vibration, in some way. I’ve just spotted the asteroid Lucifer is here as well. So yes, I know we have a lot of connotations with Lucifer, but originally, he was just a light bringer. He’s associated with the light. We have to remember he was an angel before he got told off and thrown into hell.
So Lucifer the light bringer is here, and then we have all the sunlight flooding the fields with the Sabian symbol. Lucifer is also connected with pride, and that catches my attention too, because the sign Leo is also connected with pride – a pride of lions! The trouble with being ruled by the Sun is that sometimes the ego can take over, and we can be too proud to say what we think or to ask for help. Or we can identify too much with our thoughts, so much that we don’t allow other people’s opinions to come in. So there’s some underlying issues of pride coming in with Lucifer being here.
And there’s also Dejanira as well. Dejanira is an asteroid associated with victim consciousness. So, there might be a tendency to fall into a victim mindset, especially if we are identifying too closely with our ego. If somebody disagrees with us (thinking about the opposition to Pluto), maybe there is a tendency to fall into victim consciousness with Dejanira. Nobody likes me, this kind of thing. So we have to watch that tendency with Dejanira being there.
We also have Ishtar here as well, associated with traveling into the underworld. So that’s Pluto’s realms! Traveling into the underworld, being stripped bare, so that we actually come as ourselves, come as you are – that’s the nature of Ishtar. Ishtar is about revealing the truth of the self. So if you put all this together, then the midpoint of this retrograde is likely to illuminate where we have been hanging on to a certain way of seeing things, and it’s going to strip that perspective away from us. Ishtar had to take off all her clothes and jewellery as she went down into the underworld. The stripping away of these things that we don’t need eventually reveals who we really are. It reveals our true voice, not the one that Lucifer has tricked us into using. Now we’re going to find our true voice, the one that maybe we were too scared to use.
Mercury will then station direct on the 11th of August, and the Sabian symbol for this degree will be Rock Formations Tower Over A Deep Canyon. So this Sabian symbol can feel like we are between a rock and a hard place. But we’re at the end of this retrograde period, so maybe all that needs to happen now is a leap of faith that will take you across that deep canyon. We have to make that leap.
I’m very interested in the fact that asteroid Dionysus is here as well, because at the station retrograde, we had Alice, which can speak of altered states of consciousness. And Dionysus is also about altered states of consciousness. He is the god of wine and ecstasy, so absolutely you can have some wine whilst Mercury is retrograde. We are blessed from the stars in this case!
So Dionysus, being here, tells us that with a change of consciousness, with a willingness to enjoy life, to let loose a little, that’s part of playful Leo, I used that word before ‘playfulness’. Leo is associated with entertainment. That’s why I was talking about theatre earlier on. It can also be dating and all the things that we do to enjoy life, all the things that we do that light us up and remind us of who we are – remember it’s ruled by the sun (identity).
So, Dionysus is saying, if we can get into that mindset (Mercury) where we are willing to enjoy life, then the other asteroid, Rhiannon says, we then reclaim our sovereignty, because that’s what Rhiannon is about. She’s a character from Welsh mythology associated with horses, but she’s also associated with just the idea of sovereignty, connection to the land.
So, it seems, then that this Mercury Retrograde is taking us on this inner journey to rediscover our own light, to remember that we had an original mission when we came back to Earth when we decided to reincarnate, we had a purpose, a plan, an idea of who we are and a voice. And sometimes through the course of life, things happen, difficult experiences, difficult people, toxic situations (I’m drawing on the opposition to Pluto here). Things happen in life that can manipulate or change or undermine our original mission or ideas or voice. And so it feels like the purpose of this retrograde is to put our original thoughts, our original ideas, our original voice, back in the spotlight.
This brings me to the end of this reading for Mercury Retrograde in Leo. I hope you found it helpful. If you did, please do click like and subscribe (to my YouTube). If you would like to hear more from me, I do have a Substack, Patreon my website. I’ll put all the links below. I will see you again soon, and in the meantime, I wish you many blessings on your path.
RESOURCES
Mercury Retrograde Through the Houses
Understanding the Mercury Retrograde Cycle
Leah Whitehorse Astrology | Substack
Leah Whitehorse Astrology | creating The Cosmic Tides and other astrological works | Patreon
