For the past couple weeks, the planet Mercury has been in retrograde and I’m betting that many of you have blamed this for everything that’s gone wrong.

While it’s true that Mercury rules travel, trade, and all forms of communication, just because he’s seen to be pedalling backwards through the sky does not mean that everything in these areas breaks down.

What it does mean is that things don’t fast forward as we might like and perhaps, for good reason, because we all need some time to pause and reflect.

But as far as Mercury maliciously making your train late or screwing up your email that’s probably going too far because in reality, Mercury never changed direction at all. As viewed from the Earth, Mercury’s journey around the Sun is complex. Thus during certain periods (usually a couple of weeks) Mercury  appears to be traveling from east to west, contrary to its standard west-to-east orbit through the fixed stars. That this happens only as the result of our viewpoint (from earth) ought to tell us something right there. That and that fact that every planet except the Sun and Moon has retrograde movement at some time or another.

Think about this differently.

Consider that maybe that missed train gave you crucial time to reconsider doing something and as the result, you changed your mind. Maybe that screwed up email saved your job or your relationship or whatever because whatever it contained was set to give you big trouble.

This is not to say that you ought to ignore Mercury’s retrograde movements.

Tradition has it that during a Mercury retrograde, you ought not to start new projects but instead finish up the old ones. Tradition also has it that Mercury retrograde is a good time to dig deeper into something because tradition also has it that with Mercury in retrograde, secrets start leaking out.

By the way, this opportunity is now finished because Mercury turned direct at 4:25 AM Universal Time (UT) today, 19 August, 2018. Your next chance is in mid November – and, oh yes – the period during which Mercury stations (i.e. seems to stand still) before turning direct or retrograde is a very focused time – so you’ll want to stay particularly alert!

Mercury