Jupiter Retrograde 2026 and 2027: Dates, Degrees and the Shadow Period

When is Jupiter retrograde in 2026 and 2027?

The confusion around this search is real, and it has a simple cause: 2026 contains the end of one Jupiter retrograde and the start of the next. If you arrived here in the spring you probably want the Cancer cycle; if you arrived in the winter you want Leo. Both are below.

All times are computed from the JPL DE421 ephemeris and given in US Eastern and Pacific time.

Jupiter retrograde: the two cycles that touch 2026 and 2027

Moment	Eastern	Pacific	Degree
Stations retrograde	Nov 11, 2025, 11:41 AM	Nov 11, 2025, 8:41 AM	25°09′ Cancer
Opposition	Jan 10, 2026, 3:42 AM	Jan 10, 2026, 12:42 AM	20°06′ Cancer
Stations direct	Mar 10, 2026, 10:30 PM	Mar 10, 2026, 7:30 PM	15°05′ Cancer
Post-shadow ends	Jun 6, 2026, 11:39 AM	Jun 6, 2026, 8:39 AM	25°09′ Cancer
Jupiter enters Leo	Jun 30, 2026, 1:52 AM	Jun 29, 2026, 10:52 PM	0°00′ Leo
Pre-shadow begins	Sep 17, 2026, 12:29 AM	Sep 16, 2026, 9:29 PM	17°00′ Leo
Stations retrograde	Dec 12, 2026, 7:57 PM	Dec 12, 2026, 4:57 PM	27°01′ Leo
Opposition	Feb 10, 2027, 7:28 PM	Feb 10, 2027, 4:28 PM	22°02′ Leo
Stations direct	Apr 12, 2027, 10:11 PM	Apr 12, 2027, 7:11 PM	17°00′ Leo
Post-shadow ends	Jul 11, 2027, 12:50 AM	Jul 10, 2027, 9:50 PM	27°01′ Leo
Jupiter enters Virgo	Jul 26, 2027, 12:49 AM	Jul 25, 2027, 9:49 PM	0°00′ Virgo

We ran these against a published ephemeris table as a cross-check. The degrees match to the arcminute — 25°09′ Cancer, 15°05′ Cancer, 27°01′ Leo, 17°00′ Leo — and the date differences you will see between sources are time zones, not disagreements. A source giving "December 13" is quoting UTC; the event is the evening of December 12 in the United States.

Jupiter is already in its shadow

This is the part most date lists leave out, and for a reader arriving in autumn 2026 it is the only part that is immediately actionable. Jupiter crossed 17°00′ Leo on September 17, 2026 — the degree it will eventually back up to. Everything it has covered since then, it will cover twice more: once backwards, once forwards again.

Practically: the ground Jupiter has been moving over since mid-September is the ground the whole cycle is about. If you want a marker for what this retrograde is going to be concerned with, look at what began, opened up or over-extended in your life in the second half of September 2026. That is the shadow's job — it shows you the material before the review starts.

What the shadow period actually is

Nothing mystical, and the definition is purely geometric. Jupiter will reverse from 27°01′ Leo back to 17°00′ Leo. The pre-shadow is the run-up during which Jupiter first crosses that ten-degree span going forwards. The post-shadow is the return leg after it turns direct, until it regains the degree where it first stopped.

So the full arc is much longer than the retrograde itself:

Whether the shadow periods mean anything is a question for astrology, not astronomy — they are a modern refinement of the technique and not every tradition uses them. What is not in question is the geometry: those ten degrees really do get travelled three times.

What "retrograde" actually means

Jupiter does not slow down, stop or reverse. It runs its orbit at a steady 8 miles a second and has never done anything else. What reverses is our view of it.

Earth takes one year to go round the Sun; Jupiter takes just under twelve. Once every 399 days or so, Earth catches Jupiter up and passes it on the inside track. During the overtake, Jupiter appears to slide backwards against the fixed stars, exactly as a slower car appears to roll backwards when you pass it on a motorway. Then the overtake completes and it resumes.

This is why the retrograde is centred on opposition — the moment Earth is exactly between Jupiter and the Sun, which is also the moment Jupiter is closest, biggest and brightest. Retrograde is not a malfunction. It is the geometry of being overtaken, and it is the same geometry that makes this the best two months of the year to actually look at the planet.

Jupiter retrograde vs Mercury retrograde: not the same event

Most people's idea of retrograde comes from Mercury, and it transfers badly. The outer planets retrograde far more often and for far longer, and nobody notices because there is no folklore attached to them.

How often each planet is retrograde, and for how long

Planet	How often	Typical length	Share of the time
Mercury	About 3× a year	3 weeks	~18%
Venus	Every 19 months	6 weeks	~7%
Mars	Every 26 months	2–2½ months	~9%
Jupiter	Every 13 months	About 4 months	~30%
Saturn	Every 12½ months	About 4½ months	~36%
Uranus, Neptune, Pluto	Roughly annually	5 months and up	~40–43%

Read the last column again. Jupiter spends close to a third of its existence retrograde, and the ice giants spend more than two fifths. A condition that holds four months in every thirteen is not an emergency; it is a phase of a normal cycle. Anyone selling you Jupiter retrograde as a crisis is selling you a third of the calendar.

The other structural difference: Mercury retrograde is fast, frequent and personal. Jupiter's is slow enough that you will not feel a start and an end, only a season. If you want the contrast in full, we have the same treatment for Mercury retrograde 2027 and Mars retrograde 2027.

If you would rather keep the whole planetary week rather than one day of it, the incense sticks range carries the full seven, and our guide to planetary incense by day of the week sets out which day belongs to which.

Jupiter retrograde in Leo: the degrees worked three times

Jupiter entered Leo on June 30, 2026 and leaves for Virgo on July 26, 2027 — a thirteen-month stay, of which this retrograde is the middle third. The retrograde itself is confined to a narrow band: 17°00′ to 27°01′ Leo, the third decan and a sliver of the second.

If you have planets or angles in that band in your own chart, this cycle passes over them three times rather than once. If you do not, Jupiter is still in Leo for a year and still aspecting whatever it aspects; the retrograde simply is not landing on anything of yours directly. That is the whole of the technical claim, and it is worth stating plainly because a lot of retrograde writing implies the transit applies to everyone equally. It does not.

The traditional reading of Jupiter retrograde is inward rather than outward: the growth is still there but stops being visible from the outside. Expansion becomes consolidation, the new venture becomes the review of the venture, generosity turns from spending to auditing what was spent. Whether you find that useful is your call — it is interpretation, not measurement.

Jupiter at opposition: the one night to actually look up

Mid-retrograde, on February 10, 2027 at 7:28 PM Eastern (4:28 PM Pacific), Earth passes directly between Jupiter and the Sun. Jupiter is then at its closest for the year — 4.36 astronomical units, about 406 million miles — and spans 45.2 arcseconds of sky.

An honest note on that figure: this is a modest opposition. Jupiter's oppositions range from roughly 3.95 to 4.48 AU depending on where the planet sits in its own slightly elliptical orbit, and 4.36 puts this one toward the far end. At a favourable opposition Jupiter reaches about 50 arcseconds; here you get 45. The difference is real but small, and it does not stop this being the best viewing of the year.

What you can see, and with what:

• Naked eye: Jupiter is up all night, rising at sunset and setting at sunrise, and it will be the brightest thing in the sky apart from the Moon and Venus. It does not twinkle — planets rarely do.
• Binoculars, steadied: the four Galilean moons as pinpricks in a line. Galileo saw them with worse optics than yours in 1610, and it is the observation that broke the Earth-centred model.
• A small telescope: the two dark equatorial cloud belts. The Great Red Spot needs a modest instrument and the right rotation window — Jupiter turns in just under ten hours, so the spot is only facing you for part of the night.

Worth doing at least once during a retrograde you are reading about. The abstraction becomes a great deal less abstract when the thing is a disc rather than a word.

Is Jupiter retrograde bad?

No — and the arithmetic is the argument. Jupiter is retrograde roughly 30% of the time, which is about four months in every thirteen. If Jupiter retrograde were inherently bad, a third of recorded history would have to be bad, and the concept would be useless.

What traditional astrology actually says is narrower and more interesting: a retrograde planet is understood to act inwardly rather than outwardly. Jupiter's usual business — expansion, opportunity, the benefit of the doubt — is read as turning reflective. Chances are reviewed rather than seized. Generosity is counted rather than extended. The luck, if you want that word, arrives as a second look at something rather than as a new door.

That is a frame, not a forecast. It cannot tell you what will happen and we are not going to pretend otherwise.

What Jupiter retrograde means in a birth chart

A different question from the transit, and people conflate the two constantly. Transiting Jupiter retrograde is a period everyone shares. Natal Jupiter retrograde means you were born during one — and since Jupiter is retrograde about 30% of the time, so were roughly three people in ten. It is common, not rare, and any reading that treats it as a mark of distinction is innumerate.

The standard interpretation is that natal Jupiter retrograde turns the planet's significations inward: growth sought through one's own conclusions rather than through institutions, a faith or philosophy arrived at rather than inherited, generosity that is private. Vedic astrology takes a different line again, generally treating a retrograde planet as strengthened rather than turned inward — a divergence worth knowing about if you are reading across both systems, because they do not mean the same thing by the word.

For what Jupiter is doing in your chart at all, before the retrograde question comes up, start with your Jupiter sign and Jupiter return.

How does this interact with the Jupiter return?

Jupiter takes just under twelve years to circle the zodiac, so it returns to its natal place at roughly ages 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72 and 84. Because the retrograde loop is ten degrees wide and the return is a single degree, a Jupiter return that falls inside a retrograde arc happens three times — direct, retrograde, direct again — spread across the best part of a year.

If your natal Jupiter sits between 17° and 27° Leo and you are turning 12, 24, 36, 48, 60, 72 or 84 around 2026–27, that is what is happening to you. Three passes, not one, and the middle one runs backwards.

How long is Jupiter retrograde, and how often?

Computed across four consecutive cycles, the pattern is very stable:

• Interval between retrogrades: 395–398 days. Call it thirteen months.
• Length of each retrograde: 118–123 days. Call it four months.
• Arc covered backwards: almost exactly 10° every time — 10.06°, 10.07°, 10.03°, 9.97° for the cycles beginning 2024, 2025, 2026 and 2028.
• Full shadow-to-shadow span: roughly 297 days, about ten months.

Because thirteen months is longer than a year, the retrograde walks slowly through the calendar: October in 2024, November in 2025, December in 2026, January in 2028. And because Jupiter covers one sign a year, each retrograde happens in a new sign — Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo.

Which part of the cycle should you plan around?

Three questions. The point is to pick one date out of the five in the table and actually put it in a calendar, rather than carrying a vague sense that something is happening.

Practically: how to work with this

The shortest useful version is two dates and a piece of paper:

• December 12, 2026. Write down what you have expanded, committed to or over-committed to since mid-September. Seal it.
• February 10, 2027. Go outside after dark and look at it. Binoculars if you have them.
• April 12, 2027. Open the envelope. Read what you wrote four months ago against where those things actually stand.

That is a complete practice and costs nothing. If you want a weekly rhythm through the middle rather than three fixed points, Thursday is the day the tradition points to, and choosing a time by moon, day and hour covers how that timing system works.

Voices from practice

Not testimonials — the sources we actually checked this against, because a date article lives or dies on whether its numbers hold up.

• The ephemeris itself. Every time and degree here was computed from the JPL DE421 planetary ephemeris. That is the same underlying data professional astronomy uses for planetary positions.
• A published astrological ephemeris as a second opinion. The station degrees agree to the arcminute across all four cycles we checked — 25°09′ Cancer, 15°05′ Cancer, 27°01′ Leo, 17°00′ Leo. Where dates appear to differ between sources, the cause is time zone, not calculation.
• Galileo's 1610 observation of the four moons, which is still the observation a pair of binoculars reproduces at opposition. It is the point at which retrograde motion stopped needing epicycles to explain it.
• Two live traditions that disagree. Western astrology reads a retrograde planet as turned inward; Vedic astrology generally reads it as strengthened. Both are practised by people who know their material. We are reporting the disagreement rather than resolving it.

What we don't promise

Plainly, because retrograde writing is where this gets worst:

• Jupiter retrograde does not cause anything. Not in your finances, your health, your travel or your luck. There is no measured mechanism and we are not implying one.
• Nothing here is a forecast. The dates and degrees are astronomy and they are checkable. The meanings are interpretation, and we have kept the two visibly separate.
• The shadow periods are a modern technique. Geometrically real, interpretively optional, and not used by every tradition.
• Natal Jupiter retrograde is not special. About three people in ten have it. Any reading that treats it as a rare mark is bad at arithmetic.
• This opposition is a middling one. 4.36 AU and 45.2 arcseconds, toward the far end of Jupiter's range. We would rather say so than call every opposition spectacular.
• We are not telling you to pause your life for four months. Jupiter is retrograde nearly a third of the time. A rule you cannot follow for a third of your life is not a rule.

Frequently asked

When does Jupiter go retrograde in 2026?

Jupiter stations retrograde on December 12, 2026 at 7:57 PM Eastern, 4:57 PM Pacific, at 27°01′ Leo. Sources quoting December 13 are giving the UTC date; it is the evening of the 12th in the United States. Earlier in 2026, Jupiter ended its previous retrograde by stationing direct on March 10 at 15°05′ Cancer.

When does Jupiter go direct in 2027?

Jupiter stations direct on April 12, 2027 at 10:11 PM Eastern, 7:11 PM Pacific, at 17°00′ Leo. The post-retrograde shadow then runs until July 11, 2027, when Jupiter regains 27°01′ Leo, the degree where it first turned.

How long is Jupiter retrograde?

About four months. The 2026–27 retrograde runs 121 days, from December 12 to April 12. Across four consecutive cycles the range is 118 to 123 days, and Jupiter backs up almost exactly ten degrees every time.

How often does Jupiter go retrograde?

Roughly every 13 months — 395 to 398 days between one retrograde station and the next. Because that is longer than a calendar year, the retrograde drifts later through the year: October 2024, November 2025, December 2026, January 2028. Jupiter is retrograde about 30 percent of the time.

Is Jupiter retrograde bad?

No. Jupiter is retrograde about four months in every thirteen, so roughly a third of all time is Jupiter retrograde — it cannot be an emergency. Traditional astrology reads a retrograde planet as acting inwardly rather than outwardly: review rather than expansion. That is a frame for reflection, not a prediction, and it causes nothing.

What sign is Jupiter retrograde in?

Leo. Jupiter entered Leo on June 30, 2026 and leaves for Virgo on July 26, 2027. The retrograde is confined to 17°00′ to 27°01′ Leo, so it passes three times over anything you have in that ten-degree band and once over the rest of the sign.

What is the Jupiter retrograde shadow period?

The span Jupiter crosses three times. The pre-shadow began on September 17, 2026, when Jupiter first reached 17°00′ Leo — the degree it will eventually back up to. The post-shadow ends on July 11, 2027, when it regains 27°01′ Leo. Shadow to shadow is 297 days, of which 121 are the retrograde itself. The geometry is real; whether the shadows carry meaning is an interpretive choice, and not every tradition uses them.

Does Jupiter actually move backwards?

No. Jupiter runs its orbit at a constant speed and never reverses. Earth, on a faster inner orbit, overtakes it once every 399 days, and during the overtake Jupiter appears to slide backwards against the fixed stars — the same effect as a slower car appearing to roll backwards as you pass it. That is why retrograde is centred on opposition, when Earth is directly between Jupiter and the Sun.

Sources & further reading

• JPL Development Ephemeris DE421, via Skyfield — all stations, shadow crossings, sign ingresses, opposition times, distances and apparent diameters computed here, 2024–2028.
• Published astrological ephemeris tables, consulted 2026 as an independent check — station degrees agree to the arcminute across four cycles.
• Galileo Galilei, Sidereus Nuncius, 1610 — the discovery of the four largest moons, still visible in binoculars at opposition.
• Jupiter's equatorial diameter taken as 142,984 km; the astronomical unit as 149,597,870.7 km, per the IAU definition.
• Vedic astrology's differing treatment of retrograde planets — see our introduction to Jyotish.