A Message From Mercury Retrograde

The planetary god of communication, appearing to move backward in the sky, is telling us to slow down and lighten up.

BY: Pythia Peay

Excerpted from "Mercury Retrograde" by Pythia Peay. Reprinted with permission of Tarcher, a division of Penguin Putnam.

Three to four times a year, the planet Mercury appears to go backward in the sky, from the vantage point of Earth. This optical illusion occurs when Mercury, on the "inside track" around the sun, catches up to Earth in its own orbit. Mercury appears to be moving backwards for about three weeks, before "pulling ahead" of Earth in this cosmic race through the solar system. The remaining Mercury Retrograde periods for 2007 are June 15 to July 9 and October 12 to November 1.

In the ancient world, the gods and goddesses embodied a particular essence or represented an important area of life. Each of these deities then became associated with a planet. Thus astrology, based on the movements of the planets, is a kind of theater of living mythology in action. Mars, for example, exemplifies courage and represents any kind of risk taking or martial venture. Saturn represents the principles of discipline, structure, and limitation. Mercury, on the other hand, was frequently depicted as the winged "messenger god" who shuttled between heaven and earth, delivering messages from the gods to the humans. For this reason, astrologers saw the planet Mercury as symbolic of the transmission of knowledge and ideas.

Because we live in an information age, it could be said that, of all the planets, Mercury and its symbols, cycles, and myths has increased significance for the times we live in. Many astrologers have noted growing influence of the planet Mercury over modern-day life, depicting it as the "ruling god" of our culture. In his July 2000 article for stariq.com, "Spicing Up Your Mercury Retrograde," astrologer Eric Francis calls Mercury the "cosmic modem." Indeed, the present-day world, writes astrologer Elisas Lonsdale in his book Inside Planets, "is enraptured with Mercury. This planetary energy shows up everywhere-humor, movement, variety, and restless currents give Mercury access. This is the god of a consumer culture, the way of life of those who are drawn to the surface to find gratification."

If Mercury is the ruling god of our consumer-driven, communications society, however, it is sometimes a god run amok-a distorted, frenetic Mercury that is symptomatic of how our natural rhythms have been thrown dramatically off-kilter and out of balance. While there are benefits to the increased openness and exchange the world enjoys as a result of global communications, few could doubt that the atmosphere we live in has become so mentally overstimulated by "information overload" that many of us cannot sleep well at night. Anxiety disorders abound, deep relaxation is a rare experience, and lack of time is considered a leading source of stress.

One of the purposes of astrology is to mark the natural variations in the rhythms of time. In this sense, the retrograde periods of Mercury offer a built-in opportunity for a treat or a sabbatical from the usual nonstop way of living, and to develop the more thoughtful, contemplative side embodied in the myths of Mercury. One reason for the current fascination with Mercury retrograde, in fact, may be the potential healing message this cycle could bring to our time-bound, media driven society. If we paid attention to its message, Mercury retrograde might satisfy an important lack in the modern soul-the need for more slow, unstructured, thinking time.

There is great foresight, for instance, in the cautionary advice many astrologers issue around the retrograde cycles. To deliberate over our actions or step back from our affairs helps return us to a saner, more measured pace of life. For while it may seem outwardly as if things are going wrong and life is falling apart, these retrograde cycles appear differently when viewed from an interior perspective. If we slow down with Mercury's regressive motion, retracing our steps as it retraces its path along the zodiac, for instance, we might discover treasures that we had overlooked in our previous haste-such as stillness, patience, quietude, insight, and reflection.

 

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