Living successfully through Mercury retrograde periods

Mercury turns retrograde June 7, and you may have already noticed that communication is getting wonky and glitches are everywhere.  Yesterday a client’s phone service was temporarily terminated in the middle of our consultation which is an everyday type of occurrence when Mercury is retrograde.  (If you missed my posts on retrogrades you can catch up here and learn more about the positive aspects of retrograde planetary cycles.)

Conventional wisdom instructs us not to make any big decisions or sign contracts when Mercury is retrograde.  Yet Mercury retrogrades for three weeks four times a year and life doesn’t stop during these times.  I often get questions from readers who have to buy a car and Mercury is retrograde – do they have to wait?  Or they have to sign a contract for a new job or they will lose the job.  Or there is a court ruling and they need to sign off on it or be held in contempt.   Clearly under circumstances such as these commitments must be made.

The mythological Mercury was the messenger of the gods.  He carried information and moved freely between the domain of the gods and the world of the living.  Astrological Mercury is associated with communication and the workings of the mind, as well as the mechanical implements through which we communicate.  When Mercury appears to move backwards as it does during the retrograde periods we are forced to slow down and review our past actions, or re-do a current action over and over.  During a recent Mercury retrograde I was writing the monthly Planetary Illuminations report and my browser kept crashing, necessitating me to write and rewrite the article multiple times.  Every time I rewrote it I discovered new layers of information, so while it was extremely frustrating I believe it did make for a better article!

In the comments Nancy wrote that she completed an entire book during a retrograde Mercury period.  Often problematic situations are repaired when Mercury is retrograde, such as the time NASA repaired the flawed Hubble launch during a Mercury retrograde period (the launch itself also occurred during a retrograde).   As we always say, anything that begins with an “re-” is favored during Mercury retrograde.  Re-connect with old friends.  Re-vise your will.  Re-visit your financial plan.  Re-model or re-novate your house.   These are also times to go back and finish something from the past.  Complete a novel.

These are challenging times to plan a trip or a vacation, but sometimes it can’t be avoided.  If you must schedule travel during Mercury retrograde periods do everything you can to be sure that you are paying attention to ALL of the details.  Often Mercury retrograde problems are due to simple user error, such as scheduling your trip on the wrong date.  Be sure you obtain written confirmation of all travel plans and print them out to carry with you because electronic copies may not be available if your device fails!

Decisions under Mercury retrograde can be very effective if they are resolution of past problems such as a decision to divorce or to quit a job.  Starting a new job under Mercury retrograde isn’t ideal, but it isn’t fatal. If you do begin a new job during this cycle see if it’s possible to do your training during the retrograde period and then actually begin your new duties after Mercury turns direct.  If the new job involves correcting errors from previous employees that is even better.

In my other life as a realtor we are always signing contracts during Mercury retrograde periods.  It’s absolutely true that these contracts nearly always have problems that require us to go back and revise them or renegotiate terms.  Often we discover title problems at the last minute, or the inspection fails to reveal a defect that turns up later.  We can try to minimize these problems by being especially careful, but I have found it avoids a great deal of frustration when we are aware of the natural flow of Mercury cycles.  Generally the contracts that we sign under Mercury retrograde DO close successfully, they just take more effort to navigate.

Please always remember, living in fear of challenging planetary cycles has a far more negative effect than the cycle itself!

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