Mercury Retrograde - Overview

Mercury retrograde has become enemy number one on the most wanted planet list. It’s blamed for everything that goes wrong during this time. But that's not fair. Mercury strikes when things are already on the edge of breaking down. It just gives them a little nudge. You know that printer that’s been acting up lately? You’ve gotten it to work by hitting it with your shoe. Well, during Mercury retrograde, you could knock it down with a two-by-four and it still wouldn’t print a single page. On a side note: Someone please tell me why software makers are always pushing upgrades during Mercury retrograde. There are always issues. I’ll take things that don’t make sense for eight hundred dollars.

In Roman mythology, Mercury (called Hermes in Greek mythology) was symbolized as both the messenger and the trickster of the gods. Mercury is always depicted as having wings on his feet. That’s because as a planet, Mercury travels fast. It only takes him 88 days to zip around the Sun. That’s way faster than our 365 days on Earth to do the same thing. Mercury can deliver messages to the other gods in record time. It’s on his résumé and LinkedIn profile.

The trickster part of his personality comes from the time he stole Apollo’s sacred cows and then sacrificed two of them to the gods! Oh, that time. Mercury is also connected to thieves. He messes with my house keys a lot. Many a time I thought someone stole them, but found them later behind the sofa. Usually after Mercury starts to speed up again. It’s going to be a “no” from me, Mercury.