Mercury retrograde is already wreaking some confusion regarding the date and time that it actually begins.  I have been reading on some sites that Mercury turned direct on August 2nd, but according to my Solar Fire software Mercury actually turns retrograde tonight, August 3rd, at 11:50 pm EDT/3 am August 4th GMT.  Mercury was stationary prior to that, meaning that its motion had slowed down to a virtual crawl  in preparation for its change of direction.

If any of my readers are not familiar with Mercury retrograde, and for those who are but need a refresher course, for the next three weeks we can expect communication to be a bit wonky, technology devices may not as operate as we expect them to, and confusion may reign in our world at times.

Mercury retrograde periods serve an important function, which is to force us to look backwards and see where aspects of our lives need to be reworked.  It’s a well-known adage that anything with the prefix “re-” is useful during Mercury Rx periods.  Renovate your house.  Re-do your website.  Revise your resume.  Repair a damaged relationship.  These are periods of time in which we get a do-over if we need one, but it also means that our lives will not always proceed per our plans (do they ever really??).

For me it means that while I’m out of town this week I’ll be reposting older articles.  I had thought I could be cranking out fresh material, but that is turning out to be more difficult than I had hoped!  I hope you enjoy them.  I’m checking the comments and posting on my Facebook page when I can, so I haven’t abandoned you, dear readers.