MERCURY RETROGRADE

What and what not to do.
Knowing what to do-and not to do-is one of the more important astrological skills you can develop. Mercury retrograde is a very powerful key for this and well worth understanding. Knowing its effects and the timing of its yearly cycles can save you time and money as well as a vast amount of personal frustration. Also, knowing the basics of its retrograde effect on your spiritual life can offer a highly favorable opportunity to further your own personal spiritual growth.

But, what exactly is retrograde? The planets travel around the Sun in large elliptical orbits. Because we are not observing from the center of the solar system, from our perspective, the planets seen during a retrograde appear to be moving backward. But, in actuality, they are still moving forward. It's sort of like when you're passing another car on the freeway. From your perspective, the car you pass is moving backward. But, in reality, you are both moving forward. It's just that you are moving forward faster than the other car. When this occurs with planets, they are said to be in retrograde motion.

When a planet appears to slow down, then stops (make a station or becomes stationary) and begins its apparent backward movement, the energy that it normally governs lessens. Thus, anything that is driven by its energy field is affected. From this concept of an energy shortage due to a reverse planetary motion, the Mercury retrograde phenomenon is born.
Mercury governs logic. Anything that is influenced or driven by logic comes entirely under the influence of Mercury's energy. This includes such things as written and verbal communication between people, daily schedules, contracts (including marriage), the mechanics of motion (such as walking) and all mechanical items such as automobiles, appliances, and computers. Mercury influences anything that has a logical or mechanical component.

When it goes retrograde and its power output is reduced to a mere trickle, everything that comes under Mercury's rulership becomes disrupted. This retrograde situation occurs about three-and-a-half times a year. And each time Mercury goes retrograde, it will maintain its reverse direction causing an almost complete power shutdown for about three weeks. Then the planet finally "goes direct" and its energy output is again switched into the high position.

Mercury retrograde creates a tri-annual mine field containing all of these commonly accepted unpleasant features from which the bad rap of Mercury retrograde is born and perpetuated: wide-spread bad vibes, rampant pessimism, defeatism, paralysis of action, generalized negative thinking, deflections, distractions, overlooking the obvious while focusing on the irrelevant, overreaching, overreacting, the collapse of logical plans, and putting the cart before the horse.

The following events all seem to be present in abundance during retrograde: plans falls apart, scheduled appointments are not met, people become argumentative, cancellations occur, letters are late, people say rude things to each other, and people who try to say non-rude things become misunderstood. Contracts signed during Mercury retrograde will not produce the expected outcome.

Mercury retrograde in and of itself does not and never will create a problem: expectations do-expectations that the world will move forward normally. Whether you like it or not, things are not "normal" during retrogrades.

There are however many important, meaningful, and productive things you can do. In fact, these things are best performed during a retrograde. Like hypothermia where the limited amount of heat available is forced into the vital organs of the body, during a Mercury energy outage, your energy body (aura) has learned to force all the remaining Mercurial energy into the vital parts of your aura. As a result, it becomes the ideal time for daydreaming and introspection. This is the key to the extremely beneficial nature of the cycle. One side note about this introspection (inward focus) is that it can happen at inopportune times, for example while driving a car. Extra care needs to be taken while driving so that daydreaming does not cause an accident due to inattention on the outside world.

During a retrograde you can cogitate, review, and mull over things for a full three weeks. But don't take any actions or make decisions until Mercury goes direct! This is the perfect time for reorganizing data and toying with possible new applications. Create a list of new options but make no final decisions.

It can prove to be a very quiet and restful period. After all, you won't be starting anything new or making any decision for a while. It's a period when unusual points of view in all areas of life will come forward to you and prove meaningful. This makes it an ideal time for researching anything. Also, like a void-of-course Moon, you won't have to look too far to find loose ends. Things that had been left undone at other times will pop up. The retrograde is an excellent "catch up" period.

In summary, it's a good time to finish up old business, reflect on things in a new way, do research and gather data from which new perspectives can be developed. Once Mercury goes direct, you will have gained fresh insights that will enable you to make decisions and take steps for improvement. There is no other astrological period that is more favorable or suitable for this.