MERCURY RETROGRADE PART 1 OF 6

My friend “god love her” she is like clockwork when it comes to Mercury retrograde. This time though it was so bad she called. The minute she started screaming I knew what was wrong. I reminded her that Mercury was going into retrograde in a few days… and this time! Poof she started to adjust… she is still going crazy… but now she knows why and that alone helps her feel just a little better. Some of us are more susceptible to the effects of Mercury retrograde than others. Gemini or Virgo or those with their Ascendant or Moon signs in Virgo or Gemini, But think about it this way! The planets and Luminaries in our solar system through their movement across the sky act like the hour minute and second-hand of a clock… Their purpose is not to dictate what happens to us or to take away our choices. Like a clock their function is to indicate to us WHEN specific choices should be made, and by the wonderful laws of synchronicity allow us appropriate opportunities to act! However all this mean little to the poor fellow stuck for 10 hours in an airport because his flight is delayed, or the numerous folks whose cars won’t start or computer suddenly dies and countless number of annoyances that it appears are there to serve only one purpose! Make your life a humongous ‘pain in the rear!’

The significance of Mercury in our collective psyche functions around our thought processes. It rules communication, in all its forms, (including the gadgets), how we think about our environment our friends our family and even ourselves. The significance of this is astounding if you consider, that how we think influence how we feel and how we feel to a large extent governs our behaviour. But what does Mercury retrograde mean to us individually on a personal level? Well one thing that is sure, it will test your patience, but more significantly it is the time for reasoned mental reflection.

MERCURY RETROGRADE PART 2 OF 6

So the car broke down… maybe you should have paid attention to that little voice in your head a few weeks ago or even a few days ago! that said… “Check out that weird sound coming from the engine”. But even in an instant as this, the bigger question is, ‘is this your typical behaviour?’ do you always put things off, is this pattern intrinsic from your past? How did it start? What was left unfinished? When old high school friends start suddenly popping up out of nowhere, accompanied by bad eating or drinking habits that you thought you had finally gotten a handle on. Could this be indicating insecurities about your body, about how you perceive yourself or how the perception of yourself is influenced by the people in those years of your life when perception was everything? And finally, how is that affecting how you behave or think about yourself today?

MERCURY RETROGRADE PART 3 OF 6

Yeah! But what about the 10 hour flight delay? Surely you had nothing to do with that! Very true! However the occurrences in our environment affect us personally and intimately. How we react to our environment is a reflection of where we are coming from and where we are going. Mercury retrograde allows us the opportunity to do just that, that is REFLECT on where we are coming from and where we are going. But Mercury retrograde affects different people in different ways. And some people are tremendously more susceptible to Mercury retrograde than others. People with a strong Mercury influence in their charts, or with Gemini or Virgo sun, moon or rising signs as stated previously do seem to have the most frustrations around this period.  For this group (and for all of us) Mercury retrograde signifies a period of necessary mental reflection of the kind that requires patience and a slowing down of the mental processes in order to observe the bigger picture. Caught in the middle of the information age, with gadgets that continuously spit pockets of facts at us in a continuous stream and at a tremendous rate, solely for the purpose of acquiring knowledge, requires that we go faster and faster in order to take it all in, (a Mercury trait I might add)… but someone once wrote… “Speed is a gold medal, speed is fame and fortune, speed is honour, speed is success… SPEED… IS A THIEF!” and what is stolen? The big picture! What it all means, when we take a moment to put it all together, and putting it all together require pause and reflection, an opportunity given when Mercury retrograde.

MERCURY RETROGRADE PART 4 OF 6

          So let us return to that 10 hour flight delay. One of my clients, with a fire sun sign (Leo,   Aries or Sagittarius) a Gemini rising and Virgo moon having just previously ended a very long-term relationship, contacted me about a trip she was taking from Toronto to New York around the time of a Mercury Retrograde. My advice was to take a good book, a comfortable pillow (she had neck problems) and be prepared to exercise incredible patience. I also suggested she take make a journal and pay close attention to the people around her. On her return she described her 10 hours flight delay… twice! “But!” she added… “It was the most incredible traveling experience I ever had” she related feeling like the only calm object and an airport of confusion frustration and anger… “like being in the eye of a hurricane” she said it was like she was looking at herself a few weeks ago going through her breakup and she got a sense of where she was and where she was meant to be going. This is the function of Mercury retrograde.

MERCURY RETROGRADE PART 5 OF 6

Conclusion: Mercury retrograde requires that you take a stock of your past and learn from your mistakes and as mentioned before, the laws of synchronicity will allow events to take place in your environment that will give you clues about what to take stock of… if you are paying attention. Remember, ‘as within so without’ our environment is a clue to the changes taking place within us. So the next time Mercury goes on its backward movement for a few weeks and things begin to go a mock ask yourself what the universe is trying to tell you when you accidentally drop the phone in the toilet AGAIN! You run out of gas just when you’re an hour late for that interview, or feel as if no one on this house or this world or this marriage gets you… Consider that Mercury retrograde is a time for reflection. It requires that you look at where you are and how you got there. If you have to ask, “How did I get here?” or “Why does this always seem to be happening to me?” it could mean that it is time for you to retrace your steps in order to find, acknowledge and correct detrimental  patterns that would correct a cycle that you might not even have realized you are trapped in. Or it could simply mean… SLOW DOWN!!!

MERCURY RETROGRADE PART 6 OF 6

Application: Mercury goes retrograde again September 17th. until October 10th.  

Pay attention to miscommunication that might occur with friends and social groups. For Virgo and Gemini as usual and for Libra with strong Mercury influences in their chart, might want to pay very close attention to how they communicate because around this period there may be a feeling of urgency in the air, do not allow this to cause you to lose sight of your real goals. For all of us, reflecting on how we balance our lives in all aspects and how we can improve our partnerships, not just on a person level but on all levels may bring some pleasant surprises. Looking back in order to move forward may be something we all should remember for the next three weeks. Pluto and Uranus are still at a  standoff, and we have witnessed in the past few years the dictatorial and old destructive power of Pluto stand firm against the equally destructive and revolutionary insistence for change of Uranus. This Mercury retrograde might bring a few weeks of hearkened reflection and balance or deafening confusion and desperation. Which one occurs depends on our ability to slow down and make choices geared at benevolence.