The Pick 3 Game and Mercury Retrograde

And Start Using His Motion to Watch the Pick 3 Game More Clearly

Mercury retrograde gets blamed for everything —
missed messages, broken tech, late checks, wrong turns.

But Mercury was never meant to be blamed.

In astrology, Mercury is The Messenger — ruler of numbers, words, movement, repetition, and timing. Long before modern lottery machines existed, ancient astrologers assigned letters and numbers to Mercury because of how he moves: fast, looping, backtracking, revisiting the same ground.

So eventually, I had to ask myself a simple question:

If Mercury rules numbers… why haven’t I ever looked at him against the Pick 3 game?

That question turned into a study.

I’ve been an astrologer since my mid-20s, and I’ve spent decades timing events using planetary cycles. I’ve also been around the Pick 3 game since my mother used to send me to the store to buy her tickets.

And for more than ten years, I’ve recorded Ohio Pick 3 Midday and Evening draws — every single one.

Pick 3 numbers aren’t “well behaved.”
They bounce, hide, repeat, vanish, and suddenly return — like mischievous children playing hide-and-seek.

• Everything in this post refers to:

  • Ohio Pick 3

  • Midday & Evening games

  • 2013 through 2025

  • All 220 unique Pick 3 combinations

  I examined:

  • Every Mercury retrograde

  • With pre-shadow and post-shadow

  • And then again using true retrograde only

  This matters, because removing the shadow periods makes the results stricter, not looser.

Instead of asking:

“Which numbers hit the most?”

I asked:

“When a number hits at all, how often does it hit during Mercury retrograde?”

That’s it.

If a number appears 30 times total, and 12 of those times happen during retrograde, that number has a 40% retrograde share — even though retrogrades only make up about 17% of the calendar.

That tells us something is concentrating.

Not guaranteed.
Not magical.
Just noticeable.

When I sorted by retrograde percentage instead of raw frequency, something surprising happened:

Doubles floated to the top.

Not because doubles appear more overall — they don’t —
but because structured combinations react more strongly to conditions.

During Mercury retrograde:

• Repetition increases

• Loops dominate

• Symmetry shows up more often

Doubles and tightly structured singles respond to that environment.

This is why looking at percentages matters more than totals when studying timing.

Next, I tested Mercury’s factual measurements:

• Speed (29.7 → 029 / 279)

• Distance from the Sun (46–70 → 046 / 070)

• Distance from Earth (36 → 036)

• Axial tilt (0.027 → 027)

• Synodic cycle (116)

• Solar day (176 / 586)

• Orbital period (88 → 088 / 789 / 778 / 779)

I expected some to stand out.

Only a few truly did.

And that’s important.

If everything looked Mercury-related, the study wouldn’t be honest. Instead, a small group of numbers consistently showed up across multiple retrogrades and multiple years.

One of them, in particular, deserves special attention:

046 — Mercury’s distance from the Sun

This number:

• Appears repeatedly across retrogrades

• Holds up even when shadow periods are removed

• Shows both repetition and longevity

If I were building a short Mercury retrograde watch list, 046 would be on it.

After all that looking at Mercurys' factual numeric relative to his distance, size, etc... it's his measurements as his transits the retrograde period that always gets me to sit up and pay attention.

Here are some examples of past his retrograde measurements and how they seemed to like to show up in Ohio's Pick 3 Lottery that express Mercury's loop back and forth through degrees. The measurements as combos are highlighted in Red. If they showed twice or more they are noted as such.

This is the practical takeaway:

Mercury retrograde is about repetition — so repeating Pick 3 combos matter more during these periods.

If a number shows up twice during a retrograde:

• Start watching it for a third appearance

• Across both Midday and Evening

You’re not forcing the game.

You’re responding to it.

This is the practical takeaway:

Let’s say this clearly:

• Pick 3 is still Pick 3

• Anything can happen

• No planet guarantees a win

What Mercury retrograde does is narrow your attention.

It tells you where to watch, not what must happen.

The next Mercury retrograde begins with pre-shadow in February 11th thru April 9th, moving through Pisces.

Mercury will traverse these degrees:

338   339   340   341   342   343   345   346   347   348 349   350   351   352

Based on past behavior, these measurements — along with known Mercury-related numbers and repeaters — deserve attention.

I’ll be updating this post as new results come in.

Mercury retrograde isn’t chaos. It’s a loop.

And when numbers start looping too,
that’s when I pay attention.

Because in Pick 3…

Anything can happen — but timing tells us where to look.