Last night at 11:45 pm EST Mercury returned to its Direct station. For anyone who has been feeling the often unsettling effects of the Mercury Retrograde, things should start to smooth out a bit.

It's been so long since I've been tuning into Mercury's effects on my personal life that I sometimes overlook the fact that others may have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention Mercury's Retrograde and breathe a sigh of relief when it's gone Direct again.

When Mercury went Retrograde on February 13, Sojourner commented in this post about the "rise of posts about astrology, specifically those referencing Mercury in retrograde." She asked the question, "What are they talking about"

A few knowledgeable commenters chimed in. There was this more scientific apporach:

Is your question simply, "What does "Mercury retrograde" mean?"

Answer: The planets appear to move east-to-west through the sky most of the time (relative to the background stars). Sometimes, however, they slow down, stop, move west-to-east for a while, slow and stop again, and then continue their forward motion. This is called going "retrograde" (from Latin, "retro" backward, "gradi" to step). All planets go retrograde at least once a year. The apparant backwards motion is caused by the motion of the Earth in its orbit as it catches up and passes the other planets (to simplify things a little).

Astrologically, the effect of retrograde is to reverse or inhibit the usual influence of the planet. Thus, when Mercury goes retrograde, communications go haywire. In theory, when Venus goes retrograde, relationships and motherly influences are inhibited or reversed; when Mars goes retrograde, energy and power either fizzle out or are misdirected; etc.

And this nice summary of how Mercury affects us:

Mercury is the planetary muse and mentor of our mental and communicative lives. As [another commenter] explains...it reverses it course, which Mercury does three or four times a year.

While these times of retrograde can be stressful, we can reduce such stress by seeing these retrograde periods as a symbolic "sleep cycle." This is a good time to take pause, and use this period to go back over familiar territory, reflecting on different situations and thinking about possible miscommunications, dropped projects that we need to pick up again, and so forth. It's a good time for revisiting the past and looking at how lessons of old can be applied to issues of the present; a time to pay attention to underlying issues. On the other hand, leave matters that focus on future commitments for later, when Mercury comes out of retrograde.

Mercury will go retrograde three times this year, and we are currently in the midst of the first one, which began on February 13th and will continue until March 7th. It began in the Air sign of Aquarius...signaling our mental energies being at a real peak, and then those energies will seem to go into a real flux starting this Sunday when the Sun goes into Pisces, a water sign. Don't be too surprised or concerned if starting next week and continuing for two weeks your mind feels like its playing tricks on you - moments of deja vu competing with times when it seems you can't remember shit.

This particular retrograde is attitude adjustment time, so use common sense to find common ground, and share your visions. This is a good time for exploring how your attitudes might be influencing your perception of things and how you deal with certain issues. It might be worthwhile to look at finding the commonalities, instead of focusing on the differences.

Mercury retrogrades are a good time to reflect, regroup, and rejuvenate. Once it goes straight again, you can then knuckle down and get to work on the issues that you identified during such "RE" periods. After March 7th we will have three months or so until June 15th, when Mercury will go into retrograde for the second of three times this year.

I agree, Mercury Retrograde often can be a time to reflect and revisit. A friend of mine got a piece of business she thought she had lost during a Mercury Retrograde. The backwards motion sometimes can bring things back to you. In fact, after feeling rather negative effects when Mercury began it's Retrograde cycle last month, a few things returned to me as well. You just never can tell.

Part of what makes Mercury Retrograde feel differently for different people is where Mercury is in your astrological chart and whether or not Mercury was Retrograde at the time of your birth. People for whom that is the case usually experience Mercury Retrograde as a time of very good energy because it's kind of like returning home.??Mercury is in my 8th house, which is the house of passion, death, rebirth and soul. That is why a Mercury Retrograde has the ability to affect me so profoundly. When things are good, they're great, but when they're not, well, you get the picture. My Mercury is also in the house of Aries, which can present some communication problems on its own - Aries communicators are often misunderstood.

A great source of information about Mercury Retrograde is Cafe Astrology. There are numerous books on the subject but the one that had been recommended to me as a good one to read if you are just learning astrology is Isabel Hickey's Astrology: A Cosmic Science.

Sojourner also asked the question, "what's up with this astrology stuff?"

Well, I've grown more interested in astrology as I've started getting into more advanced spell craft. Working with the energy of the planets and how they are moving through the signs can bring powerful energy to spell work. I see astrology as a way to explore these energies and how they affect us. Following a nature-based spiritual path, it feels, well, natural, to turn to astrology for information. I also believe that more advanced astrology can lend a great deal of insight into our personalities and help us to work through issues that we face.

People have been interested in astrology for thousands of years. Here is an interesting overview of the history of astrology and Wikipedia's entry on the subject covers the different types of astrology as well as the general history (note that the Wikipedia article is of disputed neutrality - I still found it interesting).

A post for another time!

Posted by Angela-Eloise at 8:05 AM