{"id":1236,"date":"2014-06-25T01:18:18","date_gmt":"2014-06-25T01:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/?p=1236"},"modified":"2014-06-25T01:18:18","modified_gmt":"2014-06-25T01:18:18","slug":"mercury-retrograde-a-smaller-slice-of-pi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/2014\/06\/mercury-retrograde-a-smaller-slice-of-pi.html","title":{"rendered":"Mercury Retrograde: A Smaller Slice Of Pi"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center\"><iframe title=\"Pi (Kate Bush &amp; Darren Aronofsky)\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/rhjrfTwT32E?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><a title=\"What Is Mercury Retrograde, And How Can I Profit From It?\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/2013\/10\/what-is-mercury-retrograde-and-how-can-i-profit-from-it.html\" target=\"_blank\"><em>(Mercury Retrograde is in effect until July 1st&#8230; CLICK HERE to learn more about dealing with it)<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong>Mercury continues its backwards march through Gemini<\/strong>, bringing with it cluttered thinking and a tendency to grasp at the wrong solution to difficult issues. Don\u2019t feel too bad if the process has made you make unwise decisions, though: times like these can mess with the best of minds. Like, for example, <strong>that time the Indiana State Legislature tried to re-write how The Universe works.<\/strong> Politicians love simple, straightforward facts. Unfortunately, life is too often filled with messy details that don\u2019t fit into a soundbite or a poster. Politicians sometimes respond to this by rounding the uneven corners off of The Truth. And, in one rather famous case, they decided to tell the Universe how to do its job.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You\u2019ll probably recall the concept of \u201cpi\u201d from High School:<\/strong> it\u2019s the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. In other words, if a circle is 1 meter across, it is \u03c0 meters around. \u03c0 itself is what\u2019s called an \u201cirrational number\u201d like \u221a2, for example. Most kids sitting in a classroom get a little nervous at the concept of a \u201cnumber\u201d that is, in fact, a long string of numbers (3.1415926535897932\u2026 and on and on for billions of decimal places with no end).<\/p>\n<p><strong>So, on January 18th, 1897\u2026 with Mercury retrograde in \u201cdon\u2019t tell me what to do\u201d Aquarius<\/strong>\u2026 and with Saturn (the traditional ruler of Aquarius\u2026 \u201claying down the law\u201d) conjunct Uranus (the modern ruler of Aquarius\u2026 \u201cthe weirder the better!\u201d)\u2026 <strong>the Indiana State Legislature began debate on a bill which defined pi as 3.2.<\/strong> That\u2019s all: <em>just plain old 3.2.<\/em> Finally, a government makes things simpler and easier to use! Too bad that the bill contradicted the Known Universe actually works. Other than that small problem&#8230; great idea guys!<\/p>\n<p>The original mind behind the bill was a Dr. Edwin J. Goodman, an amateur mathematical enthusiast and physician who had claimed to have discovered the true value of pi\u2026 right down to patenting the idea, so that anyone attempting to use the \u201cmore accurate\u201d version of the mathematical constant would owe the good Doctor a user\u2019s fee.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The bill passed the House unanimously<\/strong>, and moved on to the State Senate. Fortunately for Indiana engineers (and the people who rely on their vehicles and elevators) the Bill died in the Senate\u2026 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.agecon.purdue.edu\/crd\/Localgov\/Second%20Level%20pages\/Indiana_Pi_Story.htm\" target=\"_blank\">once an actual Professor of Mathematics explained to the Senators how utterly ridiculous the concept was<\/a>. So, once Mercury was no longer retrograde\u2026 the bill died.<\/p>\n<p>So you see: don\u2019t feel too badly about any bad decisions you\u2019ve made lately, any drunk dialing to exes you may regret, or any recent bad decisions. You may have misinterpreted what The Universe wanted you to do\u2026 <strong>but at least you didn&#8217;t tell The Universe how to do its job\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><a title=\"Twelve Signs Of Love: Your Free E-Book!\" href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/2014\/06\/twelve-signs-of-love-your-free-e-book.html\" target=\"_blank\">Want a free e-book? Sure you do! Click HERE!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><strong><a href=\"mailto:astrologyshow@gmail.com\" target=\"_blank\">Questions about your birth chart, or astrology in general? Want to know more about my big discount on readings for new clients? Write me!<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/groups\/ohmystarsastrology\/\" target=\"_blank\">CLICK HERE to join the Oh My Stars Facebook Fan Page, and get exclusive content, an additional discount on a reading, more material on blog entries, AND ANOTHER free e-book!<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>(Mercury Retrograde is in effect until July 1st&#8230; CLICK HERE to learn more about dealing with it) Mercury continues its backwards march through Gemini, bringing with it cluttered thinking and a tendency to grasp at the wrong solution to difficult issues. Don\u2019t feel too bad if the process has made you make unwise decisions, though:&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":560,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[128],"tags":[2,143],"class_list":["post-1236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-astrology","tag-astrology","tag-mercury"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mercury Retrograde: A Smaller Slice Of Pi - Oh My Stars<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/2014\/06\/mercury-retrograde-a-smaller-slice-of-pi.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mercury Retrograde: A Smaller Slice Of Pi - Oh My Stars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"(Mercury Retrograde is in effect until July 1st&#8230; CLICK HERE to learn more about dealing with it) Mercury continues its backwards march through Gemini, bringing with it cluttered thinking and a tendency to grasp at the wrong solution to difficult issues. Don\u2019t feel too bad if the process has made you make unwise decisions, though:&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/2014\/06\/mercury-retrograde-a-smaller-slice-of-pi.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Oh My Stars\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-25T01:18:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Matthew Currie\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mercury Retrograde: A Smaller Slice Of Pi - Oh My Stars","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/2014\/06\/mercury-retrograde-a-smaller-slice-of-pi.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mercury Retrograde: A Smaller Slice Of Pi - Oh My Stars","og_description":"(Mercury Retrograde is in effect until July 1st&#8230; CLICK HERE to learn more about dealing with it) Mercury continues its backwards march through Gemini, bringing with it cluttered thinking and a tendency to grasp at the wrong solution to difficult issues. Don\u2019t feel too bad if the process has made you make unwise decisions, though:&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/2014\/06\/mercury-retrograde-a-smaller-slice-of-pi.html","og_site_name":"Oh My Stars","article_published_time":"2014-06-25T01:18:18+00:00","author":"Matthew Currie","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/2014\/06\/mercury-retrograde-a-smaller-slice-of-pi.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/2014\/06\/mercury-retrograde-a-smaller-slice-of-pi.html","name":"Mercury Retrograde: A Smaller Slice Of Pi - Oh My Stars","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-25T01:18:18+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-25T01:18:18+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/#\/schema\/person\/cebe19ae04b194abe0b936ca1ddda6be"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/2014\/06\/mercury-retrograde-a-smaller-slice-of-pi.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/2014\/06\/mercury-retrograde-a-smaller-slice-of-pi.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/2014\/06\/mercury-retrograde-a-smaller-slice-of-pi.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mercury Retrograde: A Smaller Slice Of Pi"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/","name":"Oh My Stars","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Matthew Currie","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/ohmystars\/#\/schema\/person\/cebe19ae04b194abe0b936ca1ddda6be","name":"Matthew Currie","description":"Matthew Currie is an astrologer, counselor and writer with over 20 years of experience and numerous appearances on television, radio and podcasts. 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