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Mercury Retrograde Fever! What does it Mean?

When we say a planet is retrograde, it means that because of the speed of the orbiting planet in relation to Earth’s speed and orbit, the planet appears to be moving backwards through the zodiac. It doesn’t actually move backwards, but it appears to do so. All planets except for Earth and its moon go retrograde. The effect of a planet in retrograde differs slightly based on the planet and sign involved, but in general, a planet in retrograde expresses itself in a more internal rather than external fashion. During a retrograde period, we internalize the themes and issues related to the planet/sign and deal with them primarily on that level. Retrogradation is also a time of integration when we’re detaching from a previous cycle and readying ourselves for the new.

Mercury goes retrograde the most - three to four times per year for about three weeks each time. (The others vary - see bottom of article.) Mercury is the messenger of the sky and relates to communication, intelligence, information, transportation, connection and thought processes.

Mercury Retrograde is characterized by these sorts of things happening:

Communication problems, delays, glitches, mistakes, misinformation. (Written and verbal)
Telephone lines, Internet, TV, radio, faxes, electronics/computers going haywire - delayed connections, e-mails that don’t go through, messages sent to the wrong people or ones that seem to disappear into thin air, slow or no Internet connections, programs that refuse to work, cable TV and telephone problems…basically anything that involves getting a message or information between two parties will be subject to this.
Transportation problems, especially public transportation - late, missing, getting on the wrong bus or train, lights going haywire, confusion about where to go.
People just having a hard time understanding each other. Being forced to slow down and make an effort to be understood. Having to repeat yourself.
A feeling of déjà vu - Didn’t I just say that? Didn’t we already deal with this? Things come back up for review and revision during Mercury Retrograde. Old conversations, ideas, information coming up for completion. We rediscover crucial information that perhaps we didn’t realize was important before and receive missing information before moving forward with plans. A time to cross our Ts and dot our Is.
A lot of mental processing related to what is going on in your life.
Delays, delays, delays - remember, this is a time of rewiring…not necessarily of forward progress. It is a time of preparing, making sure the connections are sound, the information is available, everything is ship shape. A feeling of slowness, having to wait on things that you wouldn’t normally have to.
Mental confusion. A feeling that things are out of your control.
Traditionally, not a good time to sign contracts, make deals or make big purchases.

Mercury Retrograde happens at the point when Mercury is ahead of the Sun in the zodiac by 15 to 20 degrees. This means that our minds, ideas and communication (Mercury) are ahead of our conscious current moment (Sun) and eventually, Mercury has to slow down and go back so the Sun can catch up. Basically, we can’t get too far ahead of ourselves or become too mentally excited by our grand ideas or we’ll crash and burn! We all know a real life example of how this happens. You get really excited about something you decide to do - say getting married. So you’ve made up your mind to get married. You tell all your friends and family and start getting ideas about what you want your wedding to be like. Ideas about the cake, flowers, venue, guest list, food, vows, dress…you name it. You talk about it ad nauseum. After a while, it’s all you’re thinking about. You’ve basically projected yourself into the future. But wait a moment! You still have to live day-to-day and work for the next three months to pay for it. You have to rent, buy, plan, organize and have about a million interactions related to the day…not to mention prepare yourself mentally and emotionally. You need time to wrap your brain around the reality of being hitched (along with everything that goes with it) before it actually happens. You have to slow yourself down before you burn yourself out.

That’s what Mercury Retrograde (and all retrogrades) is for. During this period, Mercury slows down and then goes back over mental territory we’ve just been through for a sort of rewiring process. At this time, external communications slow, snag and snafu. Our attempts at further progress are thwarted, and we can get downright frustrated. All this, of course, so that we are forced to communicate with ourselves about what is going on in our lives - so that we pay attention and don’t skip over anything important to our well-being.

The process goes like this: SHADOW - STATION - RETROGRADE - STATION - DIRECT - SHADOW - NEW TERRITORY.

For about two weeks before the retrograde begins, Mercury travels through what is called its shadow. This means that Mercury goes through the degrees of the zodiac (for the first time) that he will revisit during the retrograde period. During the shadow time, it’s useful to make note of the things coming up - information, conversations, ideas, things you’re trying to do, etc. These things will be revisited in the coming weeks. Near the end of the two week shadow, Mercury starts to slow down to get ready for the retrograde. The period of time surrounding a planet turning retrograde is called the station. At the point of its station, Mercury will basically be motionless in the sky. This is generally a time when nothing much seems to be moving. Communication is a little heavy and difficult, and it often seems like, Why bother? At this time, communication that does go on will generally be potent - heavy with meaning, if you will.

After any planet turns to go retrograde (back through the degrees of the zodiac from which it just came), it takes a little while for it to regain speed. So while Mercury regains its speed, communication and interaction will, again, be a little frustrating and slow. After a few days, Mercury is again traveling along at its regular pace, but it’s now going backwards, through territory it has already gone over, on its way to meet the Sun.

About halfway through the retrograde, Mercury and the Sun meet. At this point, our ideas/brains and our conscious moment are together. We’re no longer ahead of ourselves. Mercury spills the beans about all the ideas and information it has, and the Sun has a chance to integrate this into our reality. At this point, we have detached from the previous Mercurial cycle. Mercury has told the Sun everything, and now it’s time (in typical Mercury fashion) to move onto the next thing.

As the Sun moves forward, and Mercury continues to move backwards, Mercury gets ready for a new cycle up ahead. This period is for bolstering our energies, formulating our plans and mentally preparing ourselves for the new. We’re not fully in the new; we’re still going back over old territory. But we’ve finished what we needed to finish from the old cycle. We’ve disengaged, and we can see the new up ahead. As Mercury completes the retrograde period, it gets prepared to launch into the new cycle.

At the end of the three-week retrograde, Mercury again slows and stations - this time to go direct (move forward) and fully enter the new cycle of information, ideas, communication and interaction. Once Mercury goes direct, it still has about two weeks to pass through its shadow before it gets into completely new territory (completely fresh degrees of the zodiac). But at least it’s now moving forward! Whew!

Mercury’s actual retrograde motion lasts for about three weeks, but the whole retrograde process takes seven (give or take a few days).

WEEK ONE - Mercury is going full speed ahead through new territory, but it is in its shadow - the territory it will re-cover during the retrograde.
WEEK TWO - Still moving through its shadow, Mercury slows down and stops - making its station.
WEEK THREE - Mercury now starts moving backwards over the degrees of the zodiac it just covered and slowly regains its speed.
WEEK FOUR - Mercury is back up to regular speed, covering old ground and rewiring, reviewing, reconnecting, reworking.
WEEK FIVE - Mercury slows in backward motion and again stations (becomes practically motionless in the sky).
WEEK SIX - Mercury goes direct at the beginning of this week and slowly starts making it way up to full speed, moving in the third and final pass over the same degrees of the zodiac.
WEEK SEVEN - Mercury is back up to its full speed and completes its retrograde journey, entering new territory and fresh degrees of the zodiac by the end of this week.

All in all, as with all astrological transits, Mercury Retrograde is a period when it’s best to let Cosmic Timing do its thing. You can’t control a lot of what goes on during this time, and you can’t force things to happen that seem to have a mind of their own. The best thing to do is accept the slower pace…even learn to enjoy it if you can…because Mercury doesn’t stay in one place for long!

Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto all go retrograde once a year for (approximately) the following numbers of days:

Jupiter: 120 days
Saturn: 140 days
Uranus: 150 days
Neptune: 160 days
Pluto: 160 days

Venus goes retrograde once every 18 months for 42 days, and Mars goes retro once every two years for 80 days.

(Thanks to astrologer Zane Stein - www.zanestein.com - for the statistics.)