When Mercury Goes Retrograde...

Three to four times a year, good old Mercury appears to slow down and then start backtracking. This is the phenomena called Mercury Retrograde or Mercury in Retrograde. (Sound anything like your Gemini friend right before they lose an argument?)  From our vantage point on earth, the retrograde planet only appears to slow and move backwards, as no planet ever actually goes backwards around the sun.  It has more to due with the speed of earth around the sun compared to other observable planets.

Anyhow, 3 to 4 times a year, Mercury begins his three week long retreat, each time in a different sign and house (see below for the sign per retrograde).  During this time period, it's as if Mercury, Messenger of the Gods and the ruler of transportation, communication, electronics, expression, coordination, takes a nap.  Can you see the confusion coming?  In Astrology, when a planet appears to be moving backwards, or is in retrograde, it is considered weakened, off it's game and not at it's best.  For us earthlings, this can create some joyful times.  When Mercury is napping, you can cue the misread emails, lost checks, broken phones, cancelled flights, delayed trains, etc.

Let me reiterate, Mercury will appear to go the direction opposite of it’s normal path.  Is it really going backwards?  Nope.  But it sure looks like it.  This dichotomy is the perfect visual of how the three weeks of Mercury Retrograde will look in your life.  Life will not be what it appears to be.  You might encounter miscommunication about details that might lead you to places that you did not expect.  Get ready to accidentally hit send too soon, mail packages to the wrong addresses, have flight delays, subway route changes and lose cell phone coverage at the most inopportune time.  On a happy note, now that you know how Mercury comes for us, we will remember to triple check all emails, not lose your sh*t at seemingly shady texts and speak as calmly as possible as often as possible.  

So how do you prepare for this spectacular, quarterly trip?  I highly suggest you spend the weeks, days and hours leading up to the start date, getting s**t done. You’ll be spending so much time trying to decipher, untangle and clean up messes for those next three weeks, I wouldn’t anticipate getting too much new done.  

And how do you survive Mercury Retrograde?  This is where is gets spiritual.  Don’t hate on this sleepy planet.  Yes, I just made him out to be a giant jerkface, but it was more for comical relief.  Yes, there could be many frustrations, however, just as Mercury appears to be going backwards, he actually isn’t.  It is the same for life.  We might appear to take a couple steps backwards during the next few weeks, but in reality we are being giving a divine opportunity to re-evaluate and re-position ourselves for a brighter future.  Please take any backtracking frustrations you have and remind yourself, you are not being setback, no matter how it appears.  You have been gifted with the ability to update the past so that when that sucker goes direct you can go back to slaying, even harder.  

In 2019, Mercury will retrograde:

1. March 5 to March 28 (Pisces)

2. July 7 to August 1 (Leo)

3. October 31 to November 20 (Scorpio)

Be sure to keep us updated on how Mercury is treating you! If you want to know how Mercury personally affects you, and what areas of your life he will be screwing with most, check out our Crazy for Mercury Reading now.