Mercury entered retrograde motion in the sign of Scorpio today at 3:28a PDT, which of course has many people in a panic over the fact that the dreaded Mercury Retrograde is now in effect. Though I’ve had my own major MR experience with contract involving a large purchase, I’ve found the general melodrama about Mercury Retrogrades to be greatly overrated and misunderstood.
This is because when any planetary body goes into retrograde motion, it is an opportunity for you (and each of us) to take an introspective inventory of that area or aspect of your life. Here’s a list of the astrological bodies that can move in retrograde motion, and what they mean:
- Mercury (currently): personal communications, technological efficiency,
- Venus: partnerships, aesthetic beauty, relational values (fairness, equality, balance)
- Mars: initiative through action, assertiveness or aggression, conflict
- Jupiter: growth, expansion, beneficial opportunities
- Saturn: responsibility, discipline, focus, authority, goals and ambitions
- Uranus (currently): community/group participation, mass communications, technological innovation, revolution/rebellion
- Neptune (currently): visions, dreams, intuitive and psychic abilities
- Pluto: transformation, clearing, the cycle of life (birth, death, possibly rebirth), power
- Chiron (currently): health, wellness, healing, practical functionality
- Ceres: personal values and principles (financial, material, physical), moral foundations
- Juno: commitment, loyalty
Whenever one of these bodies is in retrograde motion, it is asking each of us to pay attention to these areas of our lives, individually and collectively. In the individual sense, retrogrades ask us to become more aware of how we feel about who we are being in these areas of our lives. In the collective sense, retrogrades ask us to become more aware of how we feel about how the greater whole affects us individually in these areas of our lives.
With all of that said, let’s get back to Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio.
Since Mercury is about personal communications, Mercury Retrograde often shows up as the inability to make phone calls or to send e-mails when you want to (or to receive them when you expect them); unclear and/or misunderstood communications; delays, postponements and reschedules of various kinds, etc. You may get so frustrated because things just aren’t getting out to who they’re supposed to be when they’re supposed to be.
Guess what? When things don’t go the way they’re supposed to go, they are happening EXACTLY how they’re supposed to be happening.
Yes, I actually typed that.
Consider that the delay or postponement is actually The Universe’s way of telling you that there’s something you’re missing or ignoring about the matter you’re trying so hard to push forward – that you need to slow down and look before you leap. Maybe your computer crashing is a sign that you’re rushing the project. Maybe that e-mail wasn’t supposed to get to that person because that person wasn’t supposed to be in that meeting. Just because YOU want it to be a certain way doesn’t mean that it’s the way things are supposed to go.
Everything happens exactly how it is supposed to happen during Mercury Retrograde because this is how The Universe gives you the messages that you’re often moving too fast to pay attention to. During these times, you are being given opportunities to awaken to your True path and potential, and in the cases of any retrograde planetary influence, things that don’t go the way you want them to or when you want them are often messages that the timing isn’t right or that there may be a better way or better people to be involved. These delays can often prove to be blessings…if you’re willing to let go of your attachment to how you think or believe things must happen.
This may be challenging for you if you are especially attached to a belief or vision/plan of how it should be. This is where Scorpio’s influence on Mercury Retrograde plays a prominent role – it won’t let you continue to believe in something that isn’t true or is no longer serving you. The more you try to hold onto outdated beliefs or ideas, the more you lose your ability to defend them. You may destroy them through hypocrisy to the point where they no longer hold any substance or credibility…or you may allow them to destroy you (or rather, who you think you are) through your efforts to defend and sustain them.
This especially powerful Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio is calling upon you to transform your mindset and/or your way of communicating. As result, this is one that may transform you and your life.
Your life will change because you can’t continue your life the same way you always have if your beliefs and plans change. You may not have the same friends and relationships, or the same recreational activities, or the same ways of going about things if your beliefs and plans change. There will be casualties in this Mercury Retrograde period, which lasts through November 10th. The question is – are the people in your life the casualties, or are you a casualty of others? Will you be the one to change, or will they, or will you both/all?
The answer is both. You will let go of some people, and some people will let go of you. And it’s okay. It’s time. Let them go, and let yourself be let go. Recognize that if it’s not going the way you want it to, maybe it’s not meant to go that way. Allow yourself to be open to how it goes, wherever it goes. Trust that you’re being led to exactly what you need and want, even if it may not seem like it in the moment.
Mercury Retrograde only brings you down when you won’t let it lift you up. Look for the messages in the delays, postponements, cancellations and otherwise screwed-up plans. Look for the blessings of things NOT working out the way you want them to.
You may find you are getting exactly what you really wanted after all.
Thanks for reading and sharing Signs and Numbers. Until next post…
~ Light, Love, and Blessings,
Grace
