Mercury Retrograde Thrive Guide

Oh Mercury retrograde, here you are again already. Our comms planet has turned retrograde, for the third time this year, this time in his home state of Virgo. So many will plunge themselves unnecessarily into the hysterical pop astro panic that plagues this much maligned and misunderstood transit. As part of his regular orbit Mercury is retrograde for almost 20% of the year, every year, which makes blaming Merc for your woes an all too convenient trope. Several times annually the tiny planet with the mighty influence appears to travel backwards in the sky, a function of its short orbit and our perspective here on earth.

Mercury rules the mind, holding dominion over communication, technology, travel and transport too. In the zodiac, Mercury rules Gemini and Virgo which means this retrograde begins - and eventually ends - in his home state, rendering it supercharged. The wily trickster will disrupt our best laid plans. Playing games with time and space, muddling thinking and expression, transporting us between worlds real and imagined, lost and found.

Retrograde motion is a function of perspective and designed to shift it. Changes in apparent direction and appearances spin our heads, poking holes in our regular programming. Wires cross and language slips secrets under the door. Expectations upend and the noise calls them out. The past rolls in uninvited bearing lost things to be found. The trickster wielding gifts and an infuriating grin.

As 2020 revolutionised our world, Mercury retrograded through the water signs and we were sunk into our strongest emotions. All the better to outwit denial, dance with our shadows and finally dredge the treasure buried deep within. In 2021 Mercury retrograded through the air signs, distinct adventures in consciousness designed to expand awareness and understanding. In 2022 our retrogrades all began in the early degrees of air signs and retreated to ground our revisioning in earth signs. This year Merc's retrogrades are wholly contained in earth signs, setting the tone of a deep and constant rewiring between mind and body.

Our perceptions are a function of our senses. How we earth ourselves in time and space and in our bodies is crucial to this revolutionising of our humanity. Every Merc rx is an edit that marries prior learning to fresh perspective. By altering reality, adding and subtracting information our minds are forced to adapt, which changes them in the process. This oh so regular step ball change is welcome integration for those who learn to dance with its masterful magics and not panic at the redirection. It's been a tough few years for recovering control freaks and even graver for those who only follow scripts, plans and pre-loved pathways. As we make our way towards a braver new world, we are constantly encouraged to carve our own adventure through the revolution.

This year kicked off with Mercury retrograde in Capricorn, stitching measured consequence and responsibility into split seams. His second retrograde in Taurus combined with a wild eclipsing allowed our senses to reclaim pride of place in our mental architecture. This Virgo retrograde completes the trinity, though we will have one more to carry us over the threshold of the next year.

Retrogrades offer us a pause button as well as an opportunity for reflection and review. By the time Mercury goes retrograde and Urania joins him next week, we will have seven planets in reverse gear. Each offers us a unique opportunity for revision according to what area of our life is ruled by the planet and the zodiac house it is occupying. Not all retrogrades will have a strong or deleterious effect. To unravel any bespoke influence on your life, look to your own chart and see which houses these retrograde planets may be inhabiting or if there are any direct hits on your own astrology.

When Mercury is retrograding through Virgo we are asked to pay attention to our health and routines. If how you allocate your time and look after yourself could do with an upgrade or even a reframe, this is the transit to make those changes. To try out new ways and to give change a chance to stick. Persistence pays off, practice makes perfect and discipline delivers. Consistency is a self love language. Pleasure is more than an absence of pain; it too is a state of grace that can only be felt not thought.

Chaos, restriction and ongoing revolution over the last few years has spotlit how we stay in relationship to our rebirthing worlds - and it is largely through tech. This is Mercury's domain. Our connectivity is determinist. Tragically the algorithm knows us better than other humans. Our echo chambers have become locked black boxes that sate the beast by telling it only what it likes. Ripe for reconsideration as we hurtle into the future, the world no longer works the way it once did. The tech revolution was way out in front of humanity and its hasty construction did not pay any mind to repercussions or consequences. It's time to pay the piper, or the psychopomp as the case may be.

Merc's retrograde scramble always demonstrates our tech co-dependence and its coercive control, perhaps even the abusive relationship we have found ourselves in with our little black boxes. Its artificial intelligence and screaming opinion dressed up as fact only reflects the emperor's new clothes our world is yet wearing out, waiting for Truth to call its bluff. Right relationship is built on fair exchange and tender protection of what is most precious. Recalibration resets the moving parts. Get thyself on the right side of screens and dreams, or be lost to them.

Mercury retrogrades have a distinctly muddling choreography. The first week tends to be marked by the inexplicable, as our best laid plans go belly up. What initially looks like failure, disaster or despair is just the trick to get you moving, thinking creatively outside the box and on the fly. In the second week new information arrives out of the blue that again shifts the playing field. Fresh understanding starts to shimmer and radical decisions ask for consideration. By the third and final week, you have been well and truly moved by this transit.

The story in play this Mercury retrograde is his dance with Jupiter in fellow earth sign Taurus, our cosmic enlarger and seeker of knowledge. Look back to early August around the 8th / 9th for the first part of this three act play. On September 3rd / 4th they will meet again and it is possible that a fortunate turn of events will shift the direction you thought you were heading in. The final piece of the puzzle lands once Merc turns direct and they meet again on September 9. Eyes peeled then to parse the pattern. Don't jump the gun and misdirect yourself prematurely.

The higlight of any good Mercing is his cazimi with the Sun. A beautiful Arabic word that means in the heart of a planet's cazimi is like an eclipse, rebirthing the energies at play while still deep in the transit. This takes place on Sept 5th / 6th, following hot on the heels of the Jupiterian story in progress. If you are moving through the labour of birthing your own projects, this is a wonderful day to wrap them in fresh intention. Still too early to launch but perfect for taking stock and appreciating progress.

Merc’s regular pause and rewind is only unwelcome in a world that demands constant unrelenting production and views rigid control as due diligence. Manna for creatives, evolutionaries and those radicalised by pandemonium into building a braver new world, Merc’s retrograde offers rethinking, reworking and revising as integrative medicine, if you will take it. If you have projects languishing on the shelf and ripe for a fresh edit, make the most of this transit by examining them with fresh eyes. Look for bolts of inspiration and left field additions that seem to arrive out of nowhere. Those born with a Merc rx stamp on their birth charts are always creative tangentialists, who frequently sniff the future before it arrives.

This particular Mercury retrograde will also arrive bearing magic if you are willing to let your mind be changed. Integration remains its holy grail, so give things time to settle no matter how the table gets tipped. Anchor yourself within and look to your canny intuition for hidden morsels of insight and clarity. It is possible to thrive during Mercury retrograde and the peculiar magic of this transit can be utilised if you open your mind to its possibility and potential.

Flow with It

Don’t panic. Consider anything and everything that happens over the next three weeks to be a redirection of some kind. Believe that things are rearranging themselves in your favour, even if it does not seem so at first glance. Cease trying to work it all out and look instead for what you may be missing. Let your focus be honed and your gut response show you what really matters.

Everything is not as it seems

First glance will not be the same as the second or third. Peer closer. Breathe deeply. Look harder. Under pressure people show you who they really are. Keep meticulous notes. Understand that not everything that crosses your mind is an intelligence and no feeling is final. Practice discernment and cultivate grace. Learn how to soften sharp learning into wisdom.

Play It Safe

If it is valuable to you, ensure its preservation and protection. Back it up, lock it down, wrap it well. Read all the fine print and triple check details with an eye for the unusual. Collect caution from the wind. Proceed gently and with care.

Don’t Sign on the Dotted Line

Simply because you will invariably get less – and more – than you bargained for. Wait until you can see the full hand – yours and theirs. If necessity or FOMO monsters caution or prudence, check the details as though your life depends on it. Keep a fresh set of eyes in your back pocket.

Use Your Discernment

The greatest ally you have is your own intuition and guidance. As chaos comes at you and what was settled gets upended, trust in your own knowing. Remember that things are in flux and what looks like disaster today will likely shift again tomorrow. Go with the deeper feeling in your gut about what is actually afoot. Respond rather than react from there.

The Ex Files

Reconnecting with your past relationships in a meaningful way need not include raising them from the dead, even if they zombie walk into your DMs. This likelihood is also magnified by a factor of Venus' retrograde, making it even more likely over the next few weeks. Hindsight has 20/20 vision from a far safer distance. Remember why it ended and don’t allow nostalgia to wrap red flags around you like blindfolds. Putting the past to bed is always a metaphor under retrograding skies.

The Great reWork

Excellent for works in progress, old ideas or stalled creative impulses, this transit is perfect for editing and revision. Elevate the redo to a high art and cultivate regenerative makeover. Necessity isn’t just the mother of reinvention. Launch anything new once we are out of Merc’s shadow zone by the end of September and prior to late October's eclipse season.

The Learning Curve

Try new states of mind on for size during Mercury retrograde and feel into your own dead ends. Find the tipping point in your own cognitive dissonance. None of us know it all. Learning is flexible and fluid, not fixed. Stay open to tangents, new possibilities and understanding. Let them find a home in you.

Cultivate the Chaos

Chaos is what change in motion looks like. Practice responding not reacting to whatever inexplicable tangent arrives unannounced. Forget fixing your mind on a point or setting a destination. Adjust your expectations. Fear is a powerful pollutant that murders the magic. Don’t let it keep you off the rollercoaster. Trust the music beneath the mayhem.

Mercury shows us, time and again, that all reality is virtual and communication is a vital life skill. Perception determines understanding and keeps chanting its own peculiar tale. Even so do not suppose to know where you are in the story while the transit is still in play. Your perspective remains your most powerful choice. Leave any lost things where you dropped them. Forego answers for adventures in consciousness. Pursue your life's questions from the ground up. Change your mind and your life will effortlessly follow suit.

Mercury is retrograde in Virgo from August 24 until September 16. Let yourself be moved.

© Bohomofo, August 2023