Jupiter retrograde 2026

Jupiter is retrograde 88 days this year — 24.1% of it. Every station time below is computed, not copied, and the shadow periods are derived from their own definition rather than estimated.

Right now · 30 July 2026

No — direct

♃ Leo 6.18°

Moving forward 0.2216° per day. Next retrograde begins 13 December 2026.

What the other pages do not tell you

The part that is measurable

31% of all time Jupiter is retrograde — an average of 113.1 days a year across 2016–2036. Not a rare event: it is the normal state roughly one day in 3.
168 days including the shadow periods either side — against 88 days of retrograde proper. That is 46% of 2026 inside the affected window, which is the figure that actually matters and the one nobody prints.
83–124 days, the spread between the lightest and heaviest year in that window. The total is not fixed, because the synodic period of 398.88 days does not divide evenly into a calendar year.

2026 in detail

Station times are UTC, found by bisection on the sign of daily motion. Degrees are the ecliptic longitude within the sign.

Period 1 of 2 · 109 days · retreats 9.89°

22 November → 11 March 2026

Stations retrograde 22 Nov 2025, 00:00 UTC · Cancer 24.61°
Stations direct 11 Mar 2026, 02:18 UTC · Cancer 14.72°
Post-retrograde shadow closes 5 Jun 2026 · 87 days after

Falls in Cancer, which traditionally colours it toward protection, memory and deep attachment

Period 2 of 2 · 59 days · retreats 4.85°

13 December → 9 February 2027

Stations retrograde 13 Dec 2026, 01:21 UTC · Leo 26.68°
Stations direct 9 Feb 2027, 23:59 UTC · Leo 21.83°
Pre-retrograde shadow opens 16 Oct 2026 · 58 days early

Falls in Leo, which traditionally colours it toward warmth, presence and the need to be seen doing it

Which signs it happens in

59 retrograde periods counted between 2000 and 2050, grouped by the sign the station falls in. Worth noting because the folklore says these cluster in certain signs — over fifty years they do not, and here is the count.

9 Gemini · 15.3% 9 Cancer · 15.3% 6 Taurus · 10.2% 5 Leo · 8.5% 5 Virgo · 8.5% 4 Aries · 6.8% 4 Libra · 6.8% 4 Scorpio · 6.8% 4 Sagittarius · 6.8% 3 Capricorn · 5.1% 3 Aquarius · 5.1% 3 Pisces · 5.1%

Other years

2023 118 days retrograde 2024 84 days retrograde 2025 85 days retrograde 2026 88 days retrograde 2027 102 days retrograde 2028 123 days retrograde 2029 123 days retrograde 2030 124 days retrograde 2031 123 days retrograde 2032 121 days retrograde
Was it retrograde when you were born? Enter a birth date and get all five planets, with the degree and the period it fell inside. All retrograde planets Mercury through Saturn, how long each one reverses and why the outer planets take months. How this is calculated The orbital elements, the geocentric longitude, and the accuracy we claim for the station times.

What is actually happening

Jupiter never moves backwards. What reverses is its apparent path against the fixed stars, and it reverses because we are watching from a moving platform. As Earth and Jupiter pass each other, the line of sight between them swings the other way for a while — the same effect as a car on the motorway that seems to slide backwards when you overtake it.

The interval between one retrograde and the next is the synodic period: 398.88 days for Jupiter. That number is why the count per year is not constant. 398.88 does not divide evenly into 365.25, so the periods drift through the calendar and occasionally three fit inside one year where usually there would be fewer, or the reverse.

Reading it, traditionally

Jupiter is associated with expansion, belief, luck and where you were overreaching. The traditional advice during its retrograde is to revisit rather than initiate — which, stated plainly, is advice that would be reasonable at any time.

The honest context is the number at the top of this page: if Jupiter is retrograde 31% of the time, then any rule of the form “do not do X during it” rules out 31% of your life. Include the shadow periods and the figure roughly doubles. We publish the arithmetic precisely so you can decide how much weight that deserves.

The shadow periods, defined

Astrologers talk about the “shadow” or “storm” either side of a retrograde, but the dates are usually given by eye. They do not need to be. The planet enters its pre-retrograde shadow the moment it first reaches the degree the retrograde will end on, and leaves the post-retrograde shadow when it returns to the degree the retrograde began on. Both are crossings of a known longitude, so both can be found exactly — which is what the table above does.