First of all, don’t freak out. Everything you’ve heard about Mercury Retrograde or “Mercury Rx” isn’t as scary as popular astrology has made it out to be. DON’T FEAR THE RETROGRADES! They can actually be really powerful turning points if you understand them and use them to your benefit. Keep reading to understand how to use retrogrades to your personal benefit, what they are, and what to expect during Rx times.
Understanding Mercury
Mercury is our planet associated with mindset, communication, day-to-day expression, short/daily travel (and machines associated: cars, trains, planes), thought patterns, mental energy, attention, social friendships & relationship with siblings, neighbors, or people within your daily social environment.
What’s Retrograde mean?
All of the planets (sun & moon aren’t planets) have the ability to “go retrograde” which is a phenomenon where it’s not actually moving backward, but it appears to be within the sky. The lack of forward movement has an impact on humans and our daily lives, as all celestial events do, because we are all one but whatever. There will also be a “shadow period” before and after each retrograde for approx 1-2 weeks where most people will be feeling the effects of the upcoming retrograde or the after-effects of the past retrograde.
What is Mercury Retrograde?
When Mercury, ya know, the planet of communication and all of those other traits aforementioned, goes “Retrograde” or appears to be moving backward, it’s a time to REEVALUATE the themes that Mercury offers.
When Mercury is in retrograde, literally take time to STOP and THINK. Reconsider. Are your current processes working for you? Are you communicating your needs? Is your daily life set up how you want it to be? Have you been making smart decisions with logic and reason or has it become a mesh of “treat-yo-self” and a lack of direction? Have you been paying attention to that check-engine light that you need a plan for?
Mercury being retrograde asks you to refocus and reorganize your life to avoid roadblocks and pitfalls in the future. It’s only a “bad” and “scary” time if you don’t take the time to do this regularly. For example, if you’re constantly on go mode and haven’t taken time in the past year to sit and reevaluate, Mercury Rx might find a way to disrupt your daily flow so harshly that it forces you to pay attention. If you’re aligned and focused, however, it won’t impact you as greatly. The goal is to live an aligned life so that the retrogrades don’t really impact you and can help you.
Things to Consider While Mercury is Retrograde
Mental & Intuitive Reflection
Because Mercury has to do with the mind, it’s important to think about your thoughts, lol, sounds ridiculous when you write it/read it but it’s true. Are your current thought processes serving you? What about those recurring thoughts? Our thoughts largely create our reality, taking account of what’s actually going on in that brain of yours is important. How’s your self talk? Are you encouraging yourself through your thoughts or are you being hard on yourself? Either way, it will manifest within your reality. Gaining control over your thoughts can lead to a lot of mental clarity and understanding.
Mercury also can indicate a lot about our intuitive gifts and abilities. While Mercury is Rx, pay attention to your spiritual hygiene and “channel”. Is the information coming incorrect, are you sure you’re listening to the right influences (also see spirits/guides)? Mercury can be a little trickster (think Gemini) with information so be extra careful that you’re not just hearing what you want to hear.
Finding Your Voice
Are you being heard? Are you being effective with your communication? How are you expressing yourself? Mercury is associated with the third house, so when we think about expression of our voice, with mercury, we want to think about things like: Social Media, Blogging, Written text communication, Podcasting. Also it feels like my moral obligation to have you consider your phone usage during this time. How are you using it? Have you been using it too much? Has your communication become a stream of tweets with no actual direction or purpose? Have you replaced in person communication with through the phone communication? Entertainment value is cool and fun and we will always need it as humans but if there are parts of you that want to be taken more seriously and present good information to the world, Mercury Rx might be a good time to stop and think about it. Look to see where Mercury is within your natal chart to understand more about the area of life you truly wish to be heard” in.
Mental Energy
What are you PAYING attention to? What’s getting your mental energy? Are you caught up in news cycles and celebrity gossip or do you want to take back the power of your own mind and have it work for you? We have a lot of energy available to us and Mercury Rx is asking you to harness the power of your own mind, your own thoughts, your own flow and get into alignment with what is working for you while removing the things that are blocking you. Follow your curiosity, follow what you’re naturally drawn to, and study ways to integrate those things into your life for deeper soul understanding and development.
Best Advice - Don’t FEAR the retrograde, USE the retrograde to get into alignment with where you want and need to be. Pay attention to what’s NOT working during Mercury Rx — anything that was small before will be amplified during this time to gain your ATTENTION so you can’t just ignore it or minimize it how you normally might. Pay attention…
Author:
Lilly Polivoda —
Astrologer & Owner of Astrology Vibez
Leo Sun
Capricorn Moon
Virgo Rising & Venus
Leo Mercury & Mars
(more about Lilly here)