Mercury Retrograde

Mercury Retrograde happens three times a year for three weeks each time. Mercury Retrograde is a time to process, digest, organize your life and heed your lessons learned. This is a good time to figure things out, see things from a more internal perspective, work on your core belief system and decide how to proceed so you can work and communicate more effectively.

This is the time to clean out the closets, organize your files, and throw out the old and give away to charities. But it’s not really a time to move, buy a home, start a job, to buy anything electrical, sign legal documents or get married. Whatever you start in a Mercury Retrograde period WILL not be permanent in your life.

Make your decisions wisely at this time.

Retrograde periods, although often problematic for us earthlings, are not particularly uncommon. Each planet retrogrades, except the Sun and Moon.

A retrograde period is best seen as a cycle, beginning when the planet begins to slow to a halt before traveling backward through the zodiac and ending when the planet returns to the point where it first paused. However, during the cycle, the planet’s energy is most powerful (and more likely to generate critical events of universal importance) when the planet makes a station, appearing motionless in the sky.

These stationary periods occur near the beginning of the cycle (when the planet first halts as it prepares to move backward) and midway through the cycle when the retrograde planet slows to a stop before moving forward again. The “direct station” (when the planet halts before moving forward again) is the most powerful and can be used for maximum benefit.

What does Mercury affect?

In general, Mercury rules thinking and perception, processing and disseminating information and all means of communication, commerce, and transportation. By extension, Mercury rules people who work in these areas, especially people who work with their minds or their wits: writers and orators, commentators and critics, gossips and spin doctors, tricksters and thieves. Alcoholics tend to get more DUI’s in this time and do more stupid things and they want to fight.

Mercury retrograde gives rise to personal misunderstandings; flawed, disrupted, or delayed communications, negotiations, and trade; glitches and breakdowns with phones, computers, cars, buses, and trains. And all of these problems usually arise because some crucial piece of information, or component, has gone astray, or awry.

It is therefore not wise to make important decisions while Mercury is retrograde since it is very likely that these decisions will be clouded by misinformation, poor communication, and careless thinking. Mercury is all about mental clarity and the power of the mind, so when Mercury is retrograde, these intellectual characteristics tend to be less acute than usual, as the critical faculties are dimmed.

The key issue here is one of focus. Mercury’s retro phase tends to bring unforeseen changes and blockages, but the aggravation and frustration that many of us experience during these periods are often due to our own inability to roll with the punches. Is this due to our ego-fixation? Mercury sets out to restructure our thinking processes and for many of us, this is painful and frustrating.

Mercury retrograde, like any cosmic aspect, affects people differently, depending on where it hits their personal charts. Some people actually prosper under a retro Mercury, especially if Mercury is retrograde but otherwise well-aspected in their birth charts.

Firm decisions that have been previously made when Mercury is traveling normally through the zodiac may be implemented or finalized while Mercury is retrograde without too much worry, for experience shows that this can be done without undue problems arising.

Mercury has ruler-ship of communication and transportation. This covers just about everything in one way or another. When Mercury is retrograde all things having to do with communication and transportation are prone to snafu and breakdown. You will notice during Mercury retros that the incidence of traffic light malfunctions, telephone service interruptions, lost and mishandled messages, city blackouts, a general misunderstanding of information, missed connections and other problems in travel, and every other imaginable kind of trouble in these areas rises dramatically.

Try to avoid signing legal documents and opening new businesses during these periods. If it absolutely can’t be avoided then go ahead. But be aware that there will almost certainly have to be renegotiation and new beginnings at a later date and be prepared to deal with that.

Avoid surgery when Mercury or Mars is retrograde. Mercury retrograde can mean misunderstandings, mistakes, and confusion. Since Mars in the planet of surgeons, when it goes retrograde surgeons tend not to be at their steadiest or most reliable; they may not be able to concentrate well. Furthermore, Mars retrograde can mean a heavy loss of blood. The moon is also a factor when selecting surgery times.

Quite often during a Mercury Retrograde, there will be some rather large earthquakes when a full or new Moon occur, many elderly people will choose to pass away during these times, too. Every time there is a full or new Moon in a Mercury Retrograde there WILL be a large Earthquake or Tsunami somewhere.