What is a Mercury Cazimi and how does it help you follow your intuition?

January 21, 2026 (edited August 15, 2026)

Today there is a Mercury Cazimi. The planet Mercury is as close as it gets to the Sun, from our perspective. Mercury and the Sun aren’t literally touching, or poor little Mercury would burn up. Also, that would mean our Solar System has some real issues.

The energy I pick up from every cazimi, a word that means “in the heart” in Arabic and is when any planet conjuncts the Sun within a few degrees, is that the planet is infused with its own life force energy. 

Ancient people believed the planets were embodiments of the gods and goddesses, not just representations, but gods could shapeshift into any form. 

The planet Mercury is named for the Roman god Mercury, who was similar to and derived from the Greek god Hermes. 

Mercury is often depicted with wings on his helmet, and he also has wings on his sandals. He is best known for being the god of communication, technology, and trickery. In fact, he has a very long list of things within his Divine care. His staff, which has two snakes, gets confused with the staff of Asclepius, the god of medicine, which only has one snake, so sometimes people tack on medicine to that list.

I bet Mercury could be a really good god of medicine if he tried. A real Jack of All Trades.

Mercury, the planet, has three or four retrogrades per year, when it appears to stop its progression in the “normal” direction around the Sun and go backwards in the sky. (Again, big problems if this really happened in the actual orbit of the planet. It’s all about the perspective from Earth.)

The media has done a great job of making us scared of Mercury Retrogrades, but I’ve grown to love and make use of all planet movements, including retrogrades.

Mercury moves so fast that sometimes he needs to backtrack a bit to fill in gaps. 

Kind of like everyone who lives in our modern world.

It’s normal for people today to go, go, go nonstop all the time, checking our phones or turning on something to consume every time we stop moving for more than a minute.

It’s not surprising that we would miss our intuition’s cues when we never stop to take a breath or listen to our own hearts, or when we deny the cycles taking place within and all around us.

Then one day we look around and wonder where our life has disappeared to, and where all those wrinkles and grey hairs came from. People of all ages wake up at some point and panic that they’ve missed the purpose of life completely, but the planets show us that it’s never too late to retrace our steps and infuse our life with fresh energy.

Like the planets, we all have our own timing and our own rhythm.

Some planets move quickly and some move slowly, and that’s okay.

Venus needs a retrograde every 18 months, like clockwork. Mars gets away with more time in between retrogrades. Mercury needs a retrograde every couple of months, and most planets need to retrograde for around half of the year every year.

There’s nothing wrong with backtracking. We all have to do it sometimes.

Write that down and make it your mantra today: “There’s nothing wrong with backtracking.”

When Mercury goes into retrograde (or Gatorade, which is funnier), you’ll often feel a disconnection from your ability to communicate, use technology, or get to where you need to go. It’s nature’s call to slow all the way down and be a little more intentional. Ignore this call and you may feel yourself paying for it by being constantly annoyed for 12-16 weeks per year, or having worse symptoms.

When Mercury has a cazimi, on the other hand, it’s a wonderful time to receive awareness of truths that have been hidden, even if you were only hiding them from yourself.

That’s the beauty of retrogrades, and of life in general. We get to retrace our steps again and again until we figure out the solution. Then we get to move onto a new challenge. (Don’t get me wrong: it’s true that we are usually handling several challenges at once.)

As you mindfully follow your intuition step-by-step, it won’t be long until you’ve noticed how you have set yourself free from many vicious circles, with the help of your higher self and your spiritual team.

We can all use retrogrades to reflect and backtrack as necessary. 

Then when a cazimi comes along, use it to shine a light on YOU and where your intuition is leading YOU specifically.

Let the sun’s rays infuse you with your own precious energy, and use that energy to make a difference in your life and in the world.

Whatever you do, be like the planets and “keep dancing, baby.” 🎵