Mercury Retrograde January 2021: stations retrograde on 3o Jan 2021 (depending on where you live) and stations direct on 20 February 2021. For more exact timings based on time zones, please go to http://www.astrologyhoroscopereadings.com/2021-mercury-retrograde-calendar.html

If you are reading this, chances are it is because you know about Mercury Retrograde; and most probably most of what you have heard isn’t good. Mercury Retrograde has gotten such a bad rap that the most common (albeit, vague) feeling it conjures up is one of fear and trepidation. Every time I mention to my friends that Mercury Retrograde is coming up, the usual reaction is lots of groaning & moaning and “What, again?!”

Well I think it’s really high time we flipped the script on Mercury Retrograde. The more we paint it in our heads to have a very negative, destructive connotation, then the more likely it will be that our experience with it will not be a pleasant one. Mercury retrograde can actually be a very positive, healing & transforming period, provided we understand it and are willing to regard it as an opportunity to change and grow. Interested? Well then, here we go!

Retrograde Motion aka “You got a fast car…”

Some astrology basics to get out of the way; what is retrograde anyway? In astrological terms it is the seeming backward movement of a planet when viewed from the vantage point of an astrological chart: reverse movement through an astrological sign of the zodiac. Importantly, it happens when a planet that is moving faster, goes past a planet that is moving slower (in this case the latter planet is Mercury), giving the illusion that the slowpoke planet is moving backwards. The famous example of this is if you were speedily driving a fast Porsche and you were passing a VW Beetle that was doing its slow run; to you it would look like the VW is moving backwards. Remember though this is only an illusion because the Beetle is moving forwards, only at a much slower pace than you in the Porsche. Since we are used to forward motion in cars, it can be disconcerting and unsettling to see a car that is moving forward, APPEAR to be moving backwards. Mercury retrograde is similar; our body, minds and souls feel a bit “weirded” out when confronted by something that seems to be out of whack.

Mercury goes retrograde 3-4 times a year, for up to 3 weeks at a time. This is often enough to make an impact on our lives. The negative themes around Mercury Retrograde abound therefore I will not go into these, but rather focus on the positive aspects that are also created with this astrological occurrence.

Enter Mercury the Communicator

To understand more clearly how Mercury going backwards affects us, let’s see what parts of our lives this planet affects. Mercury is also called the planet of communication. Every planet has areas of life that they can influence. In Mercury’s case, the main ones would be: communication in all forms, our ability to organise, our capacity to intuit, perceive and adapt, and our wellness and health.

Making Mercury Retrograde a Positive Period: The Game Plan

When Mercury retrograde comes around, it can become a tad overwhelming. It can help to keep the following tips in mind and to action them when possible.

Put on your positive thinking cap

If there is only one thing you can remember from all the advise to come, this is perhaps the most important one: focus on the positive during Mercury retrograde. The temptation to obsess on details to the point of becoming negative is strong. Work consciously to promote a “glass half full” point of view. Like anything in life, practise makes perfect. The more you train your mind to view life with positivity, the easier and more natural this will become.

Be mindful before you communicate in thought, words, writing and action.

Mindfulness is all the rage now, you hear about it all the time, but what does it mean? Perhaps a more accessible way to describe it is to pause, take a breath before you act, speak, think or decide. This gives you a space of time to consider and be thoughtful before you proceed. It’s like those videos you see of a mother asking her tantrum prone child to stop, breathe and count to 10. But of course it goes much deeper than that. However for our layman’s purpose here, and for ease and success of effort in the beginning, try to go slower and pause before you DO…taking an inhale and exhale helps a lot. Or many breaths if necessary. Then think: is what I am going to do, say, think, decide etc, compassionate, CLEAR, constructive, positive and affirming of myself and others? If the answer is yes, than proceed! Just this small effort can make a world of difference in our interactions during Mercury Retrograde.

Be flexible

Who doesn’t like a life where things are sure, under control and everything goes as planned? The thing is, Mercury retrograde motion can sometimes affect areas of life where being in control and accurate is so important: travel plans, timing, business projects, personal relationships, communication and communication devices. The seemingly backward motion can often make these areas of life go awry. Rather than “fight the force”, Mercury retrograde is a good time to learn to embrace change by being FLEXIBLE. If you can shift your paradigm to be accepting of changes, revisions and any unexpected occurrences, then you are way ahead of the curve in being able to work with any surprises this period may send your way. Expect them and embrace them and work with them. Which leads me to the next important point:

Plan ahead

So I’ve just told you to be flexible and not get your knickers in a knot if you have to change that appointment for the nth time. Ok, ok. But in conjunction with this advise, I would also encourage you to plan ahead. With Mercury retrograde, foresight is half the battle. If you can spend good time reviewing details and going in depth into plans and schedules, then any sudden changes can be dealt with in a manner that is less fraught with stress and confusion. Sometimes a good plan goes a long way to avoiding a breakdown of circumstances. So if you are able to pre plan and perhaps try to safeguard against any “spanners in the works”, life during Mercury retrograde may go smoother.

The Devil is in the Details

Take extra care and pay attention to details especially with any documents that you need to put your agreement to. If you can delay signing documents till after Mercury retrograde, great, if not, review and triple check and if possible, get second opinions. And if you do sign them, do not be surprised if you may need to revise them or revisit them when Mercury goes direct. Things sometimes are not written in stone if agreed during a Mercury retrograde period. And for those obsessive-compulsive OCD people out there; remember not to go overboard and obsess over details with gay abandon. Just as we are advised to pay attention to details, if you find yourself becoming obsessed with them, remember to step back and let go a little. Which brings me to my next little nugget of retrograde gold…

When falling into the trap of obsession, remind yourself to look at the BIG PICTURE

Again balance is the key; if you find yourself beginning to line up M & M’s by colour on your office desk, it is time to pull back and look at the big picture. Sometimes shifting your paradigm does a world of good during retrograde. If you have a tendency obsess, during retrograde you may also have a tendency to increase your “martyr complex”. Be on guard; don’t forget that martyrs sometimes end up burned at the stake with no rewards or prizes. So when OCD sets in, let it go. Remember to see the forest for the trees…speaking of shifting paradigms…

Change it up

If you feel like you are stuck in a retrograde rut, as it were, or paralysed into inaction due to all the pressures, or uncertainty, or even fog of retrograde, then maybe it is time to make a literal change. Go out, work from a different location, or even very simply, go for a walk, a run, or a bite to eat. Retrograde can put us on a slow moving treadmill that feels like it is going nowhere. See if a change of scene and location can jolt you out of the ennui that you feel.

Be Creative, be intuitive

Intuition is heightened during Mercury retrograde periods, as well as our ability to be creative and think with not only the left analytical side of our brain, but with our right sided creative brain as well.  If and when Mercury Retrograde throws you some left curves, rather than have a freak out, put on your creative thinking cap and find a way to resolve the issue by looking at it from another point of view. Or perhaps using a more intuitive side of your psyche as opposed to your analytical brain. Mercury retrograde energy can be a great influence on developing these abilities in us. Like with all things, to get through this period, we need to balance intuition with intellect. Meditation, yoga and mindfulness practice can go a long way in enhancing your intuition. Balancing these two qualities can help you achieve your goals during this challenging period. It is important to remember too that cultivating your intuitive abilities and listening to it, will assist you in staying positive during retrogrades.

Don’t miss the opportunity to enhance and grow these qualities. In this way, Mercury retrograde can be an excellent opportunity to learn new things.

 “The Medium is the Message”

Mercury retrograde is a time when communication in all forms becomes more important, and the clarity of your communication becomes paramount. It is tempting to retreat into a world of silence in order not to make errors, however, remember that the people around you are also experiencing the same challenges: if you do not make an effort to communicate, with extra clarity and care, then it can negatively affect your professional and personal interactions. Remember if you feel stuck, lost or paralysed, communicate with others--your friends, family and colleagues. Do not be afraid to ask for assistance. Mercury has a healing energy as well when it comes to your inner and outer powers of communication and thought. Do not forget to make use of this healing energy to verbalise things which are important to you or that you need help on.

Patience is a virtue

During this period of unpredictability & flux, it is important to remember to be patient with yourself and with others. If you feel frustrated in your own daily life like Sisyphus forever doomed to push boulder up the hill, only to have it roll down again, just imagine that the people around you are going through the same challenge. A dose of empathy and patience will go a long way to taking the torture out of the next three weeks. Which brings me to another subtopic in this vein, equally important:

Let go of the need for Perfection

Mercury retrograde is the worst time to expect perfection in all forms and pursuits. Try not to expect perfection of yourself and others as this may set you up for disappointment. Learn to relax, let go and perhaps look at life from a different set of parameters. When the flow returns to normal when Mercury goes direct, you can again pick up your ruler and begin to measure down to the last millimetre, figuratively and literally…

Re-trograde sometimes can also mean Re-connect

Use this time to reconnect with people, activities, goals that you might have been working on, or connecting with in the past and perhaps did not have a positive result from. This is a good time to revisit these events and instances, because with the seeming reverse movement, there is a good chance that the outcomes may be positive rather than negative. Mercury retrograde is like a flow backwards and this flow can bring back to you some opportunities you may have lost before. Be mindful of these and use this characteristic to your advantage.

Sublime Synchronicity

Yes, of course, like you, I looked it up on Wikipedia and this is what it says:

Synchronicity (German: Synchronizität) is a concept, first introduced by analytical psychologist Carl Jung, which holds that events are "meaningful coincidences" if they occur with no causal relationship yet seem to be meaningfully related.

One of the most wonderful things about retrograde planets is that it apparently increases the possibility of synchronicity occurring. I have experienced this in simple ways like thinking or dreaming of someone and that person calling me up out of the blue during Mercury retrograde. As above, so below. When the planets are seemingly moving in a backwards motion, it can manifest below on earth and in our lives as seeming coincidences that are loaded with some sort of significance, yet we are unable to concretely connect or find a factual reason for these happenings. At the end of the day, there is much in life that is a mystery, and sometimes retrograde is a time to open your fisted hands, and let go of the need to control. Because sometimes the Universe can give you some wonderful surprises.

Health is wealth; compassion is the greatest form of self-care

One of the areas of life that Mercury affects is our health. With the slowing down process that retrograde inevitably prescribes for us, this is an opportune time to focus on taking care of ourselves. Perhaps those health goals you had been pursuing prior, comes back during retrograde and you can focus on these with renewed attention. More so because retrograde can leave you feeling stressed and frazzled, here is an excellent chance to do that physical activity that you had planned on but never got around to doing: going for a run, exercise, daily gym visit. As a yoga teacher, I would be remiss if I did not encourage activities with a spiritual, mindful component to it, perhaps trying yoga, meditation & breathing/pranayama exercises. Mercury also rules the Lungs, so these aforementioned breath focused energetic modalities can be extremely beneficial in getting through the challenges of retrograde.

When all else fails in a topsy-turvy world:

Love and compassion are necessities, not luxuries. Without them, humanity cannot survive. — The 14th Dalai Lama

Ven. Tony, my first Buddhist philosophy teacher taught me that: Compassion is the wish for others to be free from suffering and the causes of suffering. I believe that retrograde periods are the perfect time to practice compassion for ourselves and for others. Let go of the need to be perfect. Be forgiving of imperfections and mistakes in ourselves and others. And in doing so, recognise that we are often the creator of our own unhappiness and suffering. Retrograde periods can be a beautiful training ground to learn how to practise compassion for ourselves and others, consistently in our lives.

In a nutshell…

If you had to print out a bullet point list to tape to your mirror (actually good idea go ahead and do this!) here it is:

-       Be positive

-       Slow down and take a deep breath before doing anything

-       Be mindful in thought, word, action & deed

-       Plan ahead

-       Pay attention to details but do not obsess

-       Be flexible and open to change

-       Be creative

-       Cultivate your intuition

-       Be clear in how & what you communicate

-       Be patient with yourself and others

-        Do not expect perfection

-       Take the opportunity to reconnect

-       Pay attention to the magic of synchronicity

-       Take care of your health

-       Practise compassion for yourself and others

In our next instalment, we will go into more juicy details about how Mercury retrograde might affect you based on your specific Zodiac sign and how to work with it. 

P.S. It goes without saying, since Mercury rules Communication, please don't forget to back up all your devices: phones, laptops, computers and anything communication related, that you value. Not a good time to update software. Wait till Mercury goes direct!

“Come back to square one, just the minimum bare bones. Relaxing with the present moment, relaxing with hopelessness, relaxing with death, not resisting the fact that things end, that things pass, that things have no lasting substance, that everything is changing all the time—that is the basic message”. – Pema Chodron