Main image courtesy of NBC News.
Have you ever felt like things just kept getting lost in translation in your life? Whether it’s with your career, your personal life, or just trying to get by each day, sometimes it feels like everything is just out of whack. While this might be a bad patch you’re going through, it could also be one of the few times out of the year that Mercury is in retrograde. But what is Mercury retrograde and what is its significance in your life? We’ll be discussing that and more in this article including:
In order to understand why a lot of folks (especially in the astrological community) consider Mercury retrograde to be important, we should first understand exactly what it is. We know every planet in our solar system orbits around the sun in the same direction, but at different speeds. This is due to the size of the orbits, as planets close to the sun like Mercury have a much shorter orbit than those further out, such as Saturn. When a planet appears to go retrograde, it seems from our perspective on Earth to start traveling backwards. We see a planet in “apparent retrograde motion” when the Earth overtakes a slower moving planet, or when a planet that moves faster than us (like Mercury) overtakes our planet.
Think about the analogy of runners on a track passing each other up as the runner moving faster laps the other runners. As the faster runner overtakes the slower runner, it appears that the slower runner is moving backwards, if only for a short period of time.
Mercury is the closest planet to the sun, which means it has the shortest orbit, clocking it at just 88 days to go around the sun compared to Earth’s 365. It is also in between the sun and our perspective, and typically moves from east to west. When the planet laps us and starts to turn around the sun, it appears that it’s slowly starting to move backwards from our perspective on Earth as it makes the far side turn around the sun. Thanks to its shorter orbit time, Mercury can go retrograde a few times a year for a period of around three weeks.
Since it happens multiple times each year, this is probably why “Mercury in retrograde” seems to be a familiar event, but all the planets go into retrograde for portions of the year from our perspective on Earth. Venus goes retrograde around every 18 months, Mars every two years, and the outer planets about once every year for months at a time.
Is there any affect on us Earthlings? No, there is no scientific proof that Mercury going into retrograde has any effect on us residing on the Earth. Remember, the planet is not actually going backwards, which is why those in the scientific community refer to this phenomenon as “apparent retrograde motion.” We’re simply getting lapped by the orbit of the innermost planet that has the shorter year, and from our perspective, it only looks like it’s going backwards.
No, there isn’t any “proof” that Mercury in retrograde can be bad, but there are some that believe that it can be disruptive. Depending on your school of thought and how well-versed you are in astrology, you’ve probably heard of warnings about Mercury in retrograde. While no astrological phenomenon is inherently bad, there can be less than auspicious events that could make an impact on your energy levels.
In the astrology community, there are a lot of people who believe that having a planet go into retrograde means that you should pause and take note of what your energy feels like, and what’s going on in your life. If you’re familiar with reversals in tarot, retrogrades are a similar kind of feeling. Reversals don’t necessarily mean the opposite of the upright card, instead they suggest that something is blocked, being interfered with, or your judgment is clouded regarding a certain issue. If you have something big coming up (like in your career or personal life) and Mercury is about to go into retrograde, it might be a good idea to potentially hold off on any big moves.
Mercury is the planet that rules communication, duality, and information, which is why there can potentially be a lot of misunderstandings and other interference when it goes retrograde. This can pop up as miscommunication between friends, partners, business partners, and other loved ones. It can also result in interference or disruption of your tech devices, which is why when someone’s computer stops working or they lose a saved document, they might wonder if Mercury is in retrograde.
Some astrologers suggest when Mercury is retrograde you should avoid:
However, there’s another take on the Mercury retrograde event that doesn’t involve adhering to admittedly arbitrary sounding suggestions, such as not buying a house when Mercury is in retrograde. If you’ve found your dream house and worked long and hard to make an offer and it’s accepted, why would you not purchase it? Regardless of what Mercury is doing. You don’t want to avoid major life decisions because of potential negative effects that could happen anyway. It sounds kind of silly when it’s put like that. Life happens regardless of what the planet Mercury is doing, and while there may be a shift in the energy, as long as you’re aware of it, you’ll be fine.
Instead, a lot of folks who do feel that there is an energy shift, but don’t want to let a planet run their lives, use this time to review, rework, or rearrange things. This could be as simple as reviewing your computer system to make sure it’s backed up, editing an old draft of a file and ensuring it’s saved, or rearranging your workspace. Focus on positive aspects, and don’t fear what could potentially happen (or not).
Whether you think that the suggestions surrounding Mercury retrograde should be heeded at all costs, or you prefer to take a more receptive response that involves reviewing or rearranging things, things certainly can feel a little off during this time. You may think that this is something we’ve construed in our culture and thinking this way causes it to manifest, or there really are some odd things that can happen when Mercury goes retrograde, whichever the case it certainly is a strange sight to see one of our neighbor planets appear to orbit backwards!
