Mercury Retrograde 20 August – 12 September
Posted on 21 August 2010 | 17 responses
Three times a year the planet of communications, travel and bright ideas stops in its track through the heavens and goes backwards for three weeks, signalling a period when phones fail, software crashes, important documents end up in the bin, someone steals your parking place, and you discover you have left the house without your keys.
Of course, Mercury never does retreat, any more than planet Earth. It’s an illusion generated by the comparative speeds of planetary orbits, exactly like sitting in a train being overtaken and feeling you are going backwards.
Nonetheless, astrology, in its perverse way, insists that perceptions of celestial events count, and retrograde planets (they all seem to go backwards periodically apart from Sun and Moon) are useful indicators of time frames.
Hence the next three weeks is reckoned problematic for new initiatives, start-ups, opening your art gallery or the like. Life must go on, of course, but don’t expect definitive answers for the next three weeks and if you are unveiling your new collection of etchings, double check your invitations have actually been sent. Likewise, double tag your luggage and ensure your passport is up to date.
An election held under retrograde Mercury – like the UK’s recent general election, the current Australian election or the ‘hanging chad’ election of George W. Bush in 2000 – is unlikely to yield a definitive result. Haggling usually results – maybe Australia won’t know its new government for weeks.
Under Mercury retrograde the clock crawls and tasks often ask to be done twice. On the other hand – and there is always another hand in astrology – the next three weeks is ideal for any activity to which you can attach a ‘re’ prefix: re-organise, re-evaluate, re-vise, re-position, re-pair, re-new, re-invigorate. You get the picture.
As B.B. King so eloquently put it: ‘Reconsider Baby’!
On another note, in the ancient world Mercury was reckoned to be a trickster, swindler and thief as well as the imparter of wisdom – hence Mercury retrograde is also good for dis-information, putting people off the scent and other impish tricks. Obviously you won’t be part of any such antics…be wary no-one is conducting them at your expense.
Mercury resumes forward motion on 12 September at 11.08 PM GMT.
September forecasts up next week.