It’s that time of the year again when Mercury goes retrograde, and gets blamed for just about every misfortune under the sun. For a brief period of about 3 weeks, the movement of Mercury across the sky will appear to go backwards when viewed from earth, and is viewed by many in the astrological community as an unfavourable time to undertake many activities, though I would suggest checking your personal natal chart to ascertain its influence, rather than drawing a generic conclusion that may not be at all applicable.
A sculpture of the Roman god Mercury by seventeenth century Flemish artist Artus Quellinus source:newworldencyclopedia.org
Mercury presides over writing, commerce, healing, occult wisdom, travellers and thieves. All matter of communication comes under Mercury, who is known as the “Messenger of the Gods”. Mercury is currently travelling through Cancer, the sign of the home and home security, and turned retrograde yesterday: right on cue, today here in Australia we’ve had our news plastered with reports of a cyber attack on all levels of government, education, health, etc.
Mercury’s retrograde motion gets bad press in relation to any communication matters, and especially communication dealing with commerce/business, including signing of important documents such as real estate contracts, business loans, job contracts, and so on: if you must undertake any of the above, it is prudent to check the small print, disclaimers, and maybe get a second opinion. It is also advisable to double check before sending emails: in the past I have found all manner of weird and erratic errors related to internet communication, such as sending emails to the wrong people, or accidentally sending a group email instead of replying to one individual. Similarly, the planet’s dominion over communication, such as written and the internet, calls for backing up your files and making sure your computer security is up to date.
View from the Messenger probe’s flyby of Mercury (2008, NASA)
But the Re-trograde timeframe is also an opportune time to do any activities with the “Re-” prefix, such as:
Revisit
Rewrite
Recall
Remember
Recycle
Reverse
Revisit
Restore
Retreat
Recognise
Redesign
Reimagine
Rethink
Revive
Return
Revenge
Rebel
Reflect
Personally, Mercury’s last retrograde got me started on updating my long neglected blog again and creating new and relevant content, so that is one example of a positive manifestation (I have my natal Mercury tightly conjunct my Midheaven, the part of the chart denoting career and public achievement: language, reading and writing have always been strong interests of mine).
With all of this in mind, I created a Mercury Retrograde Tarot Spread and I hope you enjoy working with it.
Warm blessings,
Monica
Comments