Mercury retrograde ends on November 13, when the planet stations direct at 5 degrees Scorpio and closes out the last retrograde of 2026. Parade astrologer MaKayla McRae laid out the date and what follows in a piece published November 7.
Her short version of the past few weeks: “a mess of crossed wires, resurfacing exes, and technical difficulties.” Three weeks of that is a lot for any couple.
Mercury Retrograde Ends on November 13
McRae dates this cycle to October 24, when Mercury began its apparent backward drift in Scorpio. It stayed in that sign for the whole transit.
Nothing physically reverses.
She compares it to passing a slower car on the highway and watching it seem to slide backward. Astrologers still read the period as a time to slow down and revisit unfinished business instead of starting something new. Mercury rules communication, technology, travel and contracts. So the traditional warnings land on texts, calls, signatures and plans.
On the 13th, in McRae’s words, the planet puts the car back in drive. Messages land more clearly. Decisions that felt foggy start to come into focus.
Venus Stations Direct a Few Hours Later
Venus has been retrograde since early October. McRae writes that it stations direct on November 13 too, a few hours after Mercury.
Two planets turning on the same day makes the date unusual.
She frames it as a chance to close out cycles that have held people back for years. Mercury governs how people think and talk. Venus governs love, values and money. With both moving forward, McRae writes, relationships and finances that felt stuck or confusing finally have room to move.
She calls it a two-for-one reset.
What Scorpio Brought Up
Scorpio is a fixed water sign. McRae ties it to secrets, intimacy, shared money, power and the emotions people would rather keep buried. Her read is that this mercury retrograde centred on conversations that had been avoided, with partners and with oneself. Put those themes together and the list writes itself. Joint accounts nobody wanted to look at. The ex who sent a message after two years of silence. The argument that kept getting postponed because the timing never felt right.
Retrograde lore gets blamed for a lot of bad texts. The Scorpio version is different in one way that matters.
Its trouble is NOT miscommunication so much as things finally getting said.
A couple that spent late October fighting about money was probably fighting about something that existed long before October 24. Mercury going direct does not make that conversation disappear. It just ends the excuse to keep delaying it.
Love, Money and the Lingering Shadow
McRae’s advice for the reset is specific. Anything tied to love, self-worth, or where energy gets spent is the place to focus once both planets are moving forward again.
Venus covers money as much as romance, which makes shared finances one of the clearest targets of the turn.
Resurfaced exes fall into the same category. Under a Scorpio mercury retrograde, an old flame reappearing reads as a test of what still has a hold. After the 13th, the astrological logic says the answer gets easier to see.
McRae adds one caution. The retrograde officially ends on November 13, but the shadow period lingers after Mercury turns. Her advice is to celebrate the shift without assuming every loose end ties itself up on the day.
Mercury stations direct at 5 degrees Scorpio. Venus follows within hours. The date is fixed, and the year’s final mercury retrograde is done.
What couples do with the conversations it dragged up is the part no chart can schedule.
Sources: Parade
