Blast from the Past: Mercury Retrograde

From 6th to 28th February, Mercury is in its reverse phase, kicking off
in tropical Pisces (a sign which prefers telepathy to plain speech anyway). London Underground is on strike, the sporting managerial merry-go round is in full swing, and Bill Roache has been found not guilty. Never a dull moment. 

Mercury retro is the period in Mercury’s orbit where it goes slower than the Earth’s. Mercury is left behind and appears to go backwards, like a slow train being overtaken by a faster one. This happens three times a year, for roughly three weeks at a time. Mercury is the planet of the mind. So during these spells, your thinking goes backwards and you move on to another track. You second-guess, re-evaluate and un-think. Second thoughts seem better, as Mercury is overtaken by events, but this condition is only temporary. Once Mercury moves ahead as usual, ideas cooked up in the retrograde period seem out of sync.

Mercury retrograde is a phenomenon, like cusps, compatible elements and rising signs, that has almost reached the level of common knowledge. People on the periphery of astrology understand that it’s a time when communication gets screwed up and buyer’s remorse kicks in. Well… not quite perhaps and it’s totally wrong to generalise, but like the biggest clichés, this perception contains a pinch of the truth. Mercury retro brings unforeseen circumstances you can count on. Predictably unpredictable, reliably unreliable. It’s rather like a very sharp bend in the road: the signs tell you it’s coming, but you still can’t see what’s around the corner.

Keep track of the number of times you have to take things back to the shop when Mercury performs its gyrations. The assistant has bagged the wrong shirt, your new sofa doesn’t fit through the door, your digital gizmo isn’t compatible. You spend more time arguing with the after-sales staff than enjoying your new goodies. Watch the news for a time of political U-turns, reversals of fortune, and the hand of fate. A ringing endorsement before Mercury’s backward path is not enough to spare those in public office from the sack, as their bosses rationalise and rethink. The cabinet is ruthlessly reshuffled, the post office goes on strike and the train drivers come out in sympathy. So why go against the flow? Knowing Mercury’s backwards phases is useful stuff.

The best part of Mercury is the opportunity to try again, to have a second bite at the cherry. Something didn’t work out first time around. You didn’t get the job or you didn’t get the girl. Part of the jigsaw was missing, something you didn’t know then that you do now. The element of fate is never far away and it’s tempting to believe something is meant for you when opportunity knocks again. It can be a period of enforced learning, where solutions appear to long-standing technical problems. The computer screwed up and you lost a bunch of data, but you sure as hell know your software programme now after taking your project back to the drawing board. You understand the ins and outs of the postal system intimately after hours spent tracking down your missing parcel. Or that damn refund you spent ages haggling for materializes under the following Mercury retro period, three months later.

It’s great for editing, refining and clearing out. Deleting old emails, catching up on correspondence, cleaning out your closet. If you really want to hedge your bets, put all stuff ready for the chop in a special bin or file and wait until Mercury Direct to make the final call. Your talents and special skills resurface too. Extracurricular interests left on the back-burner take up more time after-hours, as you realise they are not overnight wonders and won’t quickly go away. You remember the novel you started, the re-decoration you planned, the songs you demo-ed. Dreams to study Yoga, dance, acting, astrology, bubble up again in your mind, only this time you do something about it. Like a detour from your regular journey, you find the scenic route, the Plan B, and your fallback position.

People who have disappeared from your world, old friends and connections who dropped off the radar, come back into your world. Either they contact you directly, out of the blue, or your paths cross on neutral territory. Your ex’ calls to say hi, and would you like to get together (or asks for a raise in the child support)? The house that Mercury retrogrades in, tells you the backdrop to the business. The actual person who reappears unexpectedly is often not as important as the message they have for you. In true Mercurial fashion, your personal blast from the past acts as a cosmic mouthpiece and brings you crucial intelligence.

There are no hard-and-fast rules about how far in the past the reminder comes from. It is not always from the last Mercury retro period, or even from a Mercury retro period at all. It could be from last month or twenty years ago. It could even be from a previous lifetime… Yup, textbook deja-vu experiences come up a lot during these phases, a sign of your mind returning to a place in your psychic history. Recurring dreams, too. So next time you find yourself back at school, naked, and facing that exam you haven’t studied for, check the ephemeris for Mercury’s backward phase when you wake up.

Mercury retrograde natally isn’t an affliction as such, if you don’t mind seeing everything backasswards. Most people look out of the window to admire the view: your attention is drawn to the curtain rail. Put a horoscope in front of you and the first thing you notice is the house system. There is a streak of perversity here, someone who loves making things complicated, or over-solves every problem. You learn the hard stuff first and go back and master the basics last.