The short hand understanding of Mercury Retrograde is that it causes mechanical failures and communication misfires. Emails get lost, text messages come in the wrong order, we say what we mean and the person hearing us hears something completely different, we’re meant to speak when we don’t, we’re meant to listen so we start talking, and anything specific like dates, times and places are all subject to the same force that takes just one sock from random loads of laundry. The types of mechanical failures that occur can be spectacular but more often than not they remind me of a line from Lilo and Stitch “His destructive programming is taking effect. He will be irresistibly drawn to large cities, where he will back up sewers, reverse street signs, and steal everyone’s left shoe. ”
However, while deciding what style of tinfoil hat to wear in order to make the right fashion statement in spiritual protective apparel, there are other aspects of this moment in time we can lean into. Mercury Retrograde is a time for looking back. I like to think of it as that moment in your travels where you look back at where you’ve been so you can get some perspective. What that perspective is really depends on the viewer. If the person has been running away from things, then they’ll see those things keeping pace like tin cans tied to the bumper of a car. If the person has been steadfastly ignore things because they will “Think about that tomorrow” then they will find that all of those tomorrow items are in an every growing pile in the backseat of the car in various states of need and disrepair. If the person has been putting things away for a quiet moment when they can be savored, relished, and honored, then they will be like gifts waiting to be opened or like a picnic that has been carefully packed for the journey.
Mercury Retrograde is when we have the opportunity to look back. During the winter which is in itself the time of mythology, of storytelling, of warm reflection and connection, this time is a chance to reconnect with what is most important to us, rewrite the old stories which have held us back, and recommit to why we’re on the journey in the first place. It is a moment to remember that we are a piece of divinity and that our first responsibility is to care for that divinity in its unique expression. We can choose to relax into this process and luxuriate in it or fight against the current trying to make headway against the odds. Our experience of the journey and what we get out of it is completely up to us. Shaking your fist at Mercury while you’re experiencing mechanical or communication breakdowns is completely optional.
