I’ve been doing a lot (and getting triggered a lot in the process of doing stuff outside, not cool) and as of right now, I’m helping out a weapons shop so I get to sell cool stuff like these batarangs – that I’ll post as soon as I get out of from the Shogun MMA fight I’m helping out at. I’m posting from the WordPress app on my now, not-as-good-anymore tablet.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Woot, here it is!
image

However, I have noticed that in my busy day to day, people occasionally freak out about the Mercury Retrograde. And it is always the Mercury Retrograde. Always. Without proper reference or knowledge, a coming Mercury Retrograde sounds like a coming Armageddon for your date book: nothing will go right, everyone will be late, computers will act odd, your technology would freak out like Static Shock was having a temper tantrum. Ye gods.

And it is only Mercury. Never any other planet.

For starters, let’s talk about how and why a planet goes “Retrograde”, also identified under the shorthand “Rx”.  When a planet looks like it is going backwards in the sky (from earth’s perspective), it is considered going retrograde. The reality  is, the planet in question is just moving further away from the earth while in its natural orbit and therefore looks like it is going backwards in the sky.

Now, different planets have different energies and retrogrades affect that energy. It can either make the energy for the planet go reverse or awry. In the average astrology chart (natal chart), there are 9 planets to consider, all in concert with each other and all doing their own thing. Just because Mercury is in Rx, it doesn’t promise chaos and mayhem for three and a half weeks. Goodness, this is not even in consideration of whatever zodiac Mercury is in. Or what Mercury the person affected was born in. Or if there was any other planet in retrograde and what zodiac they were in. Or what aspects were interacting with the Mercury in Retrograde.

Thing is, while Mercury, the planet of communication, can definitely put a wrinkle in your interactions with its retrograde but it’s not a promising thunder, especially if it is already in a sign, aspect and/or house that weakens the effect of the retrograde. It can be the straw that breaks the camel’s back, for certain, but by itself, it can not cause much damage. Phones don’t all of a sudden blinker off, computers don’t have insane amounts of misfiring of data. Is it something to ignore? Not entirely but if you don’t keep track of it (similar to myself), it won’t possibly cost you unless you have already shaky communication equipment. You know, the kind of equipment that will fizzle if you so much as think awkwardly about the device or computer. If so, then just simply be prepared. Have a decent external back up, access to cloud storage, things of that nature.

Besides, Mercury gets the most attention for a Retrograde but notice other planets don’t get a reference. Possibly because some planet retrogrades last months so it’s not easy to squawk and squeak about throughout new age communities. I mean, imagine if they were making simple image posts about Jupiter retrogrades. Those take up half a year and given how Jup retrogrades work, you only get roughly a three month break of a Jupiter Direct before it goes back to Retrograde. As the planet of money and expansion and luck, what is there to say? Be wary of money management for the majority of the year and expect bad luck and all forms of expanding your lot to shrink in size? That’s rather ridiculous. And what about whichever zodiac Jup provides in? How would that play a role?

Instead, it would be wiser to know that while the universe can play a role in human affairs, it is not the main and only driving force. Many emails get sent a day during Mercury Rx’s, the stock market doesn’t crash every time Jupiter goes Rx, people can still build careers during Saturn Rx. They are influencers, not creators.  Nothing is wrong with acknowledging the astro weather but try not to assume it is the end all, be all, do all, is all of how life will be until the particular planet in question returns to direct. The universe is far more complicated than that.

Coming up on The Arts!:

– Intellicare Review