Mercury Cazimi, November 4, 2026: Mercury Meets the Sun at 12° Scorpio in the Middle of Its Retrograde
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Halfway through its retrograde, Mercury passes between Earth and the Sun. In 2026 that happens on November 4 at about 10:27 UTC, with both at 12.0° Scorpio. Astrologers call the hours when a planet sits right at the Sun's heart cazimi.
Mercury cazimi, November 2026
| Time (UTC) | |
|---|---|
| Within 17′ of the Sun (cazimi) begins | November 4, about 07:30 |
| Exact conjunction, 12.0° Scorpio | November 4, about 10:27 |
| Cazimi ends | November 4, about 13:22 |
| Within 8.5° of the Sun ("combust" in the tradition) | October 31 – November 8 |
The 17-arcminute and 8.5-degree limits are conventions from medieval astrology. They are not astronomical boundaries, so different authors draw them slightly differently.
| Place | Exact conjunction (local time) |
|---|---|
| Los Angeles | November 4, 02:27 |
| New York | November 4, 05:27 |
| London | November 4, 10:27 |
| Seoul, Tokyo | November 4, 19:27 |
| Sydney | November 4, 21:27 |
US clocks will have gone back on November 1, so New York is five hours behind UTC by then.
Every Mercury–Sun conjunction of 2026
Mercury meets the Sun six times this year. Three happen while it is retrograde and passing between Earth and the Sun (inferior). The other three happen while it is moving forward on the far side of the Sun (superior).
| Date and time (UTC) | Position | Type |
|---|---|---|
| January 22, 04:39 | Aquarius 2.2° | superior |
| March 7, 06:38 | Pisces 16.7° | inferior (retrograde) |
| May 14, 21:29 | Taurus 24.1° | superior |
| July 12, 19:50 | Cancer 20.5° | inferior (retrograde) |
| August 28, 01:49 | Virgo 4.8° | superior |
| November 4, 10:27 | Scorpio 12.0° | inferior (retrograde) |
The November conjunction falls almost exactly midway through the retrograde, which runs from October 24 (Mercury stationary at 20.6° Scorpio) to November 13 (stationary at 4.7° Scorpio).
Venus did the same thing ten days earlier
Venus, also retrograde, passed in front of the Sun on October 23 at about 21:58 UTC, at 0.5° Scorpio, only hours after the Sun had entered Scorpio. Its cazimi window ran from about 17:43 UTC on October 23 to 02:10 UTC on October 24. A day later Venus slipped back into Libra.
What the numbers do and don't tell you
When Mercury lines up with the Sun is astronomy, and you cannot see it: the planet is lost in the Sun's glare for several days either side. Astrology reads cazimi as a moment when a planet is "empowered" by the Sun. That is an interpretation, and this calculation cannot prove or disprove it.
How we calculated: planetary positions from the public-domain formulas in our chart engine (Meeus, Astronomical Algorithms, and NASA/JPL low-precision orbital elements). A planet is counted as retrograde when its apparent longitude, seen from Earth, decreases over a day; stations were searched hour by hour. The conjunction is the moment Mercury's and the Sun's ecliptic longitudes are equal, found to the minute. Our Sun and Mercury are accurate to a few hundredths of a degree; because Mercury moves fast relative to the Sun here, treat the times as accurate to within about 15 minutes.