Mercury in Retrograde:
The Bad, the Good, the Better

A retrograde will affect all the areas that the planet influences. When Mercury is in retrograde, its ordinary energy starts moving in the opposite direction, which affects your everyday life in all the areas that Mercury affects.

Suddenly all forward motion becomes uncertain. Obstacles keep cropping up and slowing you down. Well-made plans turn out to be flawed. Miscommunication is rampant. Everything from your car to your cellphone to your computer decides to go on the fritz.

The current of life is pushing you backward, and you keep losing your paddles!

To the ego, which only cares about its next accomplishment or desire, this is extremely aggravating. Suddenly we're being asked to stop for a while, consider where we've been, and clear up loose threads from the past.

What gall!

But really what it's doing is offering you a chance to clean up whatever you're still dragging forward from your past.

The Bad News about Mercury in Retrograde

Let's not kid ourselves. Mercury in retrograde has a bad reputation for a reason: it's extremely difficult to work with. So let's deal with the bad aspects, first. Once we know how to deal with them, we can take advantage of the good bits.

Mercury Retrograde can cause turbulent feelings, ending the easy-going predictability we all know and love.

When it's retrograde, all that Mercury is associated with tends to malfunction:

• technology of all kinds gets glitchy or goes on strike completely
• relationships get messed up through misunderstandings
• judgements can be skewed
• business deals suddenly fall through
• contracts and legal deals find ways to be imprecise and faulty
• plans go awry
• traveling can be chancy (not to mention quenching the fun factor if you’re constantly fighting with your travel buddies!)

During Mercury Rx, remember to back up your computer and phone regularly... always a good idea, but for these weeks, it's a necessity! Not a good time to buy new technology either.

It's also a bad time to start big projects, sign contracts, or make life-changing decisions. Plan to not make long-range plans for a while.

It may even inhibit your ability to think clearly! (So ask yourself if you really need that puppy, or if it just looks cute right now.)

The Good News

However, in spite of all of that, Mercury in retrograde has its good points, just like any other astrological happening. It can be a great opportunity for inner spiritual development, and reflection. It can be a gift from the Divine, if you choose to accept it.

It just takes a little change of perception.

While yes, Mercury Retrograde can cause chaos, it can also give us a chance to relax a little.

The energy, in fact, is rather similar to the way we women feel when our period arrives! While we may not be looking forward to it, it’s still a powerful time when we are focused inward rather than outward.

It brings us clarity about where we're going, and why, and if we actually want to get there in the first place!

Then we have a chance to re-aim, before it's too late. How good is that!

The Better News

Mercury in retrograde offers you many opportunities that will, in the long run, improve your life in many ways...

• your happiness
• your work success
• a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment
• your relationships
• your ability to communicate
• reduced stress and improved well-being

In fact, it's more than an offer. It's like a Divine decree that you must address these issues, resolve and improve them.

Nobody likes being told what to do, even by the Divine! And especially when it's for our own good.

That's why we can thank goodness for Merc Rx, when we don't have any other viable choice, and must do what we'd otherwise put off forever.

Mercury Retrograde forces us to...

1. Reflect
2. Refine
3. Relate
4. Release
5. And Relax

We can resist it, complain about it, and refuse to play. But why bother making it so hard on ourselves, when there's so much to gain by going along willingly?

Continue with The 5 Main Opportunities
in Mercury Retrograde ...

With Brightest Blessings,

erin Dragonsong

Return from This Article to Silver Chalice E-Zine , June 2015

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