retrograde excuse
/ˈrɛtrəɡreɪd ɪkˈskjuːs/
CommonBlaming Mercury retrograde or another planetary retrograde for a personal mistake, bad decision, or general chaos.
Ranges from a fully ironic joke to a deeply held belief depending on the speaker. Context determines how seriously to take it.
Real-world examples4 examples
| # | Example | What it means | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | he ghosted me for two weeks and blamed mercury retrograde. retrograde excuse of the century. | The person used a planetary event to dodge accountability for disappearing. | x, 2024 |
| 02 | sent the email to the wrong person and immediately blamed mercury. retrograde excuse activated. | The speaker is using retrograde as a humorous, self-aware deflection for their own mistake. | tiktok, 2023 |
| 03 | my therapist said retrograde excuse is not a coping mechanism. my therapist is wrong. | The speaker is defending their use of astrology to process things despite pushback. | reddit, 2024 |
| 04 | every time mercury goes retrograde she gets a retrograde excuse ready in advance. respect the preparation. | Pointing out that someone has pre-planned their astrological deflection before anything even goes wrong. | tiktok, 2024 |
Use it when
- Someone blames a personal mistake or bad luck on Mercury retrograde.
- Someone uses an ongoing retrograde to explain why everything is going wrong at once.
- You want to call out someone avoiding responsibility by invoking astrology.
Do not use it when
- Someone is seriously discussing astrological timing in a context where that's appropriate.
Retrograde excuse vs mercury retrograde
retrograde excuse
Retrograde excuse is the act of using an astrological period to avoid responsibility.
VS
mercury-retrograde
Mercury retrograde is the actual astrological event that people reference.
Origin and context
Mercury retrograde as an astrological concept has existed for centuries, but using it as an internet excuse became a widespread meme pattern around 2018 to 2020, growing particularly on Twitter and TikTok.
- First seen
- late-2010s
- Confidence
- medium
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Use this stable URL to reference the entry.
https://slang.fyi/retrograde-excuseUpdated: 2026-08-28License: CC BY 4.0