Mercury’s Retrograde June 26 – July 20 – A Higher View – Path for Development

Mercury, planet of Thought and Communication is retrograding (again). We seem to know much about it already – computers fall, it’s hard to communicate and publicity doesn’t go that well…

But actually there are more elevated levels to this phenomenon, and it is actually a time for development. So – let’s dive for a while into the depths of Mercury going backwards…

Who is Mercury?

In Roman mythology Mercury was the god’s messenger. A god himself – young and fast, wearing a silver helmet and winged sandals. His mission was to pass messages between the different gods, and as that he was able to go in and out of places that were forbidden to other gods,  the underworld, for example.

He was quick and clever, sleek and bright.

Planet Mercury is the closest to the Sun. It has the fastest path around it. Because of its closeness to the Sun, here from Earth we don’t always see it. The planet appears only for a short while after sunset or before sunrise and for many weeks it is not seen at all. Its behavior as a planet matches the god’s character: fast, evasive, going to the underworld and coming back from the other side… He was even known in some places as the god of the thieves!

What is retrogression?

First of all we should know that every planet has a period of time that from earth it seems as though it goes backwards. Mercury’s retro is the most “famous” one because it happens often – it happens about once every 3 months and lasts for about 3 weeks.

Retrogression is an illusion – a time that from earth it appears as if a planet is moving in the skies against its regular direction: Backwards.

The planets always go in one direction in their course around the Sun, but from time to time, because of our perspective from earth,  it would seem as if the planet is going backwards.

Specifically for Mercury (and actually Venus as well) these are actually the times that it does its journey on  the other side of the Sun – further away from us – but for us, while not been able to see 3 dimensionally in the skies – it looks as if going “the wrong way”.

Astrologically speaking Mercury’s path in the “wrong way” messes up everything that the planet/god is responsible for – communication, thought, transportation and so on.

In the past Mercury’s retrogression confused the work of merchants and sailors. Today it causes computers to fall and interferes with  the wired web.

Retrogression and Development

I have heard about astrologers that recommend not to sign contracts and not to begin new things while Mercury is retrograding, but the truth is that Mercury’s retro is less bad than we think.

If one does the right work of development through a few retrogression periods, they will stop feeling its effect,  and their communication and thought processes will continue to be intact even during retrogressions.

Every astrological influence holds a path for development.

Mercury’s effect is actually the easiest to overcome and develop beyond. Mainly because it is so small and fast… you can do your work with Mercury during 2 or 3 periods of retrogression – which means only a few weeks’ work. If , for instance, you  try to work with Pluto’s effect you will find out it takes almost a whole life time…

So – the idea is to do the work during some periods of retrogression, and then – as taking a vaccination – you will find out that Mercury does not have a hold on you anymore.

The way to “overcome” Mercury’s retro is with a lot of patience.

Usually thoughts and communication are fast. Our thoughts should be fast, swift, immediate and (hopefully) precise, and usually we take it for granted that this is the case.

During Mercury’s retrogression we have to accept that this route– of thought and communication – is now slow and jammed. We have to take into account that what we say can come out vague. That our 1+1 might give an answer of 3…

During the retrogression we have to take the time to really listen to the other person, to better explain ourselves. We have to take the right precautions in order to not be affected by transportation and communication bugs (have back-ups!). When things happen don’t get upset; take time; be patient; do the required arrangements; take into account things take more time than may seem at first.

If we take everything into account, if we don’t expect things to go smoothly and do not get upset about things going wrong – we are on the right path.

We will find out that organization and patience can help us deal with the problem Mercury has up its sleeve for us…

During Mercury’s retro we can also discover other routes apart from thinking and speaking that can be handy – routes like intuition, instinct and feelings. While Mercury is going “backwards” we might discover that these other skills are actually now stronger and work better for us.

This is a slow journey of awareness, patience and dealing with problems as they pop up. Don’t expect things to work smoothly, and do not be affected by the disturbances.

After a few periods of retrogression Mercury’s tricks will only make us smile an understanding smile and we will not be affected anymore by its mischievousness.