But Seriously, What is Mercury Retrograde?
Blame it on the retrograde! Now that astrology has gone mainstream on social media, you’ve likely seen a lot of content around this astrological phenomenon.
While you understand that it can be a cheeky excuse for laptop glitches or missing flights, you might still be asking, “What is Mercury retrograde?”
What is Mercury retrograde?
The term retrograde comes from a Latin word which literally means “backward step.” Retrogrades occur when a planet appears to go backward in its orbit when viewing from Earth. This is actually an optical illusion that occurs because of the Earth’s daily rotation. In actuality, every planet in our Solar System travels in the same direction around the Sun, never pausing or turning back in the opposite direction.
As explained by Farmers Almanac, the outer planets—Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune—all take longer to orbit the Sun than the Earth does, and because of this, when the Earth laps a planet, it appears to travel backward, as compared to the stars. For the inner planets, Mercury and Venus, the mechanism that causes them to turn retrograde is the same, but in reverse. Mercury and Venus appear to go retrograde when they lap us.
Cool, cool. But why fear the retrograde?
Good question. Planets are in retrograde all the time. In fact, it’s rare for there to be a stretch of time when all of the planets are direct (the astrological opposite of retrograde is direct). However, Mercury retrograde is the most talked about because of two reasons:
First, it happens the most frequently. The planet completes its orbit around the Sun in 88 short days, meaning Mercury goes retrograde 3-4 times a year, for several weeks at a time. Second, Astrologers believe that our Solar System affects our lives on Earth, and that each planet rules a different aspect of life (health, creativity, finances, and so forth). Mercury is said to govern day-to-day communication and transportation, and in our instant-gratification society where speedy communication (emails, texts, and strong WiFi) is everything, Mercury has an important job.
It’s believed that when Mercury is in retrograde, its power to positively influence these aspects of life is suppressed, leading to chaos. Believers in the frustrating consequences of Mercury retrograde blame it for everything from delayed flights, laptop glitches, PowerPoint presentation malfunctions, to signing bad contracts.
Reclaim your power
During the next Mercury retrograde, think of it as a way to slow down, review, recheck, and revisit. For most people, life goes on as usual during Mercury retrograde. Shit happens. Things break. Contracts stall. Relationships end. We get frustrated, we act out of character, and more breakdowns in communications follow. That’s life! Breath through it—this too shall pass!
