Mercury in Retrograde

Mercury is currently in retrograde. It's bad. It's mean. It mucks everything up. So how do we survive it? 

We don't. It's a planet people. A planet doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing and what it has always been doing since the dawn of it's creation. Get a grip.

Stop seeing it as the cause of every bad thing that happens! I mean it, crappy things happen to us ALL the time, not just during planetary blips. 

You might think from reading the above that I don't buy in to the the whole Mercury in Retrograde thing. You'd be wrong. Mostly. I just think that the idea of this particular astrological wotsit has become completely skewed. It's become laughable. 

Until a few years ago, most people wouldn't even know what you meant by the term. Now there are articles telling people to avoid doing certain things because Mercury is in bloody Retrograde. I even read one this morning telling people to be aware of their body language in case they came across negatively to other people. There are many things that concern me in a day. How my body language appears to other people is not one of them. 

And it doesn't end there! Don't sign contracts, back up your computer (shouldn't you be doing this anyway?) don't travel, be careful how you speak to people, blah, blah, blah. When did it get like this??

When I was younger, a friend of my Dad's was heavily in to astrology. Although I don't believe in it to the extent she did, much of what she said stayed with me as being good life lessons in general. 

I remember her telling me about Mercury in Retrograde and not once did it sound like a bad thing. 

What actually happens (apparently) is that this period will force you to look at areas of your life that aren't working so well. Things you normally turn your back on and try to ignore. At these times Mercury will just spin you around again to face whatever you have been avoiding. That's why it may feel that things are not going quite right. It's a sneaky trick. Consider it as some tough love from the Universe and not a case of it working against you.

It's supposed to be a time to take a step back and take stock. Or at least that's how it was explained to me. Others may disagree, such is their right. Nevertheless this is how I prefer to view these times of the year. If at all. Sometimes they don't even register on my radar. But this is my point, lately it seems that you can't escape them. Everyone will be talking about it and blaming the fact that there's a 'y' in the day on Mercury being in sodding retrograde.

This happens three of four times a year. If we spend each and every single time hiding under a blanket saying "I can't go out, Mercury's in retrograde and the sky might fall down", well we'll be spending an awful lot of our lives hiding from a huge, planet shaped boogie man. 

Instead, why not see it as a time to take stock, re-examine anything in your life that isn't working and just get your house in order. Metaphorically speaking of course, the hoovering can wait. 

Look at Mercury in Retrograde as a mother figure. One that's had enough and is trying the tough love approach. 

She's tough, but she means well.