Whew — at last the Mercury retrograde is over, and as of the 15th of this month we will be officially out of its lingering shadow. For most of March, the planet Mercury was retrograde in Pisces. People with heavy water-sign (Pisces, Cancer and/or Scorpio) influences in their charts seemed to be the most strongly affected this time. For my sister (sun in Scorpio) and myself (sun in Cancer), March was truly miserable. How about you? Did some areas of your life take a nosedive last month, and are you still working to recover? If so, read on.
What are the implications of a Mercury retrograde, first of all, and how does the sign of Pisces influence it? And why should you care, now that it has passed?
A retrograde period is a period in which a planet appears to move backward relative to the earth. Of course, no planet actually moves backward during its retrograde periods. It only appears to, relative to the earth, due to the way its orbit is juxtaposed to the orbit of earth. Mercury has retrograde periods four times per year, lasting for about three weeks each time. Traditionally, Mercury influences the realm of communication and ideas. In these high-tech times, that includes everything from our human interactions to the functioning of our telecommunications devices.
During a Mercury retrograde, communications, contracts, computers, etc. tend to be a focus of glitches, mistakes, delays and difficulties. A Mercury retrograde period is generally considered a bad time for entering into new agreements or contracts, starting or ending a relationship, discussing things that you’ve been biting your tongue about, speaking too frankly about potentially sensitive issues, and otherwise making new or confrontational moves in communications or relationships.
For me, it has generally been a time in which various breakdowns in communication have hampered my effectiveness in important areas of my life. Past retrogrades have featured computer meltdowns, server crashes and web hosting woes, but (although that has been enough to cut me off from my Keen clients in the past) that would not have been enough to ruin my communication at my current job. Since I am a communicator in every aspect of my life — doing customer service at my “day job” and consulting at night, as well as spending most of my recreational time interacting in text-based interfaces — it took a lot to shut me down on all these fronts at once.
This time it got physical: I came down with a nasty case of bronchitis, followed by complications that kept me ill for weeks. For over a week I had virtually no speaking voice, and for several weeks felt too miserable to even think of doing anything beyond the bare minimum in the way of communication. I trudged through ineffectual days at work and went to bed when I got home, too unwell to even interact with my family or friends — let alone my Keen clients.
Although I tried all the remedies that had always worked in the past, nothing worked this time until I tried a much more radical solution (at the end of the retrograde). The cost in time, money and effectiveness was enormous. And now that I am recovering physically, I am still working to get communications back on track, in several areas of my life, after all those weeks of downtime.
Now, every sign has its evolved and unevolved traits. Let’s take a quick look at Pisces, since it housed the retrograde this time. The evolved traits of Pisces can include compassion, intuition, devotion and many artistic and visionary qualities. The unevolved Pisces traits, which can be activated in all of us from time to time (particularly if Pisces plays a significant role in your natal chart) include wishful thinking, depression when things don’t go according to preferences, self-pity, learned helplessness, and a tendency to pout and malinger when conditions become unpleasant.
In other words, it was a perfect setup for old programming that says being sick can get one out of unpleasant duties — such as a job that one does not like. The job in this case had become increasingly demanding, the schedule less and less congenial, and the overall atmosphere more and more oppressive. To put it candidly, I wanted out but felt that I needed to stay. And just as the retrograde began, some new policies (which basically doubled the job stress) were put into effect by the corporate number-crunchers.
How about you? Was March a nightmare in one or more areas, or did you sail through with only minor glitches? Your answer will depend on a number of factors. For many of us, the effects are still lingering. The lost productivity, diminished communication, misunderstandings, bad decisions, poorly-timed revelations, etc. may still be causing problems. What can we do about it now?
First of all, look back and OWN your part of the difficulties. In my case, I had to admit that the job is not at all a good fit for me. Some part of me wanted out so badly that it was even willing to make me sick to get the message across. I had to get very clear and conscious about what was going on, and start actively seeking better alternatives — even while I was still so ill that any effort at all seemed a strain.
Also, try to see where you may have been misreading or misjudging others, reacting to your own fears rather than to what they may have actually been thinking or intending. This particular Mercury retrograde was accompanied by Pluto (also in retrograde) in Sagittarius squaring Saturn, which meant that people tended to take even casual remarks much too seriously, accentuating misunderstandings. Make a genuine effort to see your own role, and the role of your own projections, in any difficulties which were stirred up during the past few weeks.
Take this time to look back over your patterns, particularly your patterns of interaction with others, and see if you can imagine more resourceful ways of responding. If a certain area of your life has been recurringly painful and challenging, ask yourself how your behavior may have been helping to keep that problem in place. Be open to new insights and solutions. If you are truly open — if you would rather have a healing in this area than keep it as evidence that life is lousy — then you WILL receive the insights and help you need.
You can move forward now, leaving the miseries of the past behind. It may require a conscious effort to forgive (life, your job, God, yourself, certain people who may have wronged you, etc.) and let go, but the way forward is now open. Some apologies may be in order, and some amends may need to be made. Make yours first, forgive the other parties whether they acknowledge their part or not, and move on. As the popular song says, things can only get better.
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If you would like to share your own Mercury retrograde story, feel free to do so via the Comment function.
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Note: if you are interested in finding out more about your natal chart, and the ways in which current planetary aspects may apply to your situation, you may contact me via Keen by phone or Keen Mail. Once I have calculated your natal chart, I will be able to use it as an additional resource to help you in all future readings.
