Aloha all!!

Mercury will be going retrograde November 6th (election day in the US) at 4 degree of Sagittarius It will end its retrograde motion at 18 degree of Scorpio on November 26th.

I am going to hold consciousness for everything going as smoothly as possible, who wants to join me? 🙂

When Mercury goes retrograde is also has what’s called the “shadow of Mercury” which is the time when the forward motion slows down bit by bit and you can start to feel the effects of the retrograde as it prepares to move “apparently” backward.

A little “background :)” about retrograde. I am going to “re-visit” (how retrograde of me!) from something I posted a couple years ago.

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All the planets show apparent retrograde motion at one time or another. I say apparent because they really don’t physically go backwards, it’s about how it looks to us.

They orbit the Sun as we do, and so when we observe them in the skies and chart their patterns during a year or two, we will see that they look like they are going forward for a time and then backwards for a time. Retrograde is when they move backwards from the point of view of the Earth(where we view them); therefore they go backwards through the astrological signs since we use the earth as the focal point of astrology. These movements are significant and have effects that can be felt and observed in our lives.

You might ask why in the world this would have any effect at all, since it is all an illusion. Good question! However there are as many answers to that question as there are people to answer it

My take on it is that “this” (meaning all of this loveliness we call the physical plane) is all actually an illusion in one manner or another (that screen you are viewing is really a whole lot of points of light given instructions by a bunch of zeros and ones; and that chair you are sitting in is actually a bunch of atoms and molecules made up of primarily empty space; at the outer edge of which are electron clouds whose position can only truly be called a “probability”) so I figure it’s all good and we can find usable truth in a lot of places.

I personally find a lot in astrology, it’s a great language to talk about our collective consciousness and our larger energetic nature; it gives some good signposts to watch pointing to tendencies and movement of energy so I am very happy working with it.

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Mercury retrograde gets a lot of attention, more so than a lot of the other retrogrades because we are such a communications based society and so when Mercury (which is associated with communication among other things) goes into retrograde we can really feel it; plus it goes retrograde several times a year since it moves so fast in general (the winged messenger really does know how to fly by).

So what kinds of things would you want to be aware of during a period of retrograde for Mercury?

One of the hallmarks of a Mercury retrograde is extreme weather; and having just experienced an evening here in Hawaii recently when I was waiting for a possible tsunami (which thankfully was way smaller than expected) and tonight watched images from the intense storm hitting the east coast even as I write this; I am reminded of Mercury. Not to mention the delays for all the people planning to travel during all of this. Mercury is not actually technically retrograde yet; although we are definitely in the shadow of such. I am curious how the election unfolds (still knowing all kinds of goodness and ease for all involved). The last time Mercury had its retrograde hand on the election was the year there was all that controversy, 2000 I believe it was…

One thing to remember however is that planets go retrograde in different signs, and each transit has all new play partners in the sky to bounce energy off of, so it’s always going to be a different experience.

There are however some things that I have found can assist with a Mercury retrograde transit.

It’s a good idea to triple check forms, be even clearer than normal about communication, and allow more time for travel.

Mercury in retrograde is all about review, revisit, revise, renew, recreate (catching the “re” theme there?). It’s a great time to edit and see things you missed before. Retrograde periods can allow us an opportunity to catch up with ourselves (since going forward at our normal clip is usually not really possible); to find out what we have missed internally in our mad dash for the finish line (whatever that means for us today). How do we feel? What needs to be heard, to be said, to be redone? Sometimes things that don’t normally work well, all of a sudden do, so take advantage of that wherever possible.

It can be an exciting time and/or a challenging time, and it effects everyone differently. If you have Mercury retrograde in your own birth chart then it is usually a much easier experience. I look at retrogrades less fatalistically than I used to, and now I look for what I can do rather than what I can’t;this is an excellent time for meditation for example! I also try to be somewhat practical as well, and make sure things are backed up (blog, books, computers, ?) before it goes stationary retrograde.

Chaos can be incredibly creative, so perhaps embracing the nonlinear experience of a Mercury retrograde, will allow us to visit places that we would have normally missed, and see things of value that were overlooked before.

Join me in remembering through all the changes, to just keep breathing!

Blessings and Aloha!

Erika