Jeffrey: Mercury, the planet of communication, apparently stops moving forward in the sky and moves backwards starting Wednesday, March 30. This is called a retrograde. Retrogrades are usually about 22 days in length. In popular culture, many people understand that the retrograde could be about cars breaking down and your email not getting received. It’s obviously a lot more complex than that.
Mercury will station at 24 degrees Aries and then it will start to move “direct” again on April 23 at 12 degrees Aries. Some of the common advice that astrologers often give is to use Mercury retrograde as an opportunity to look over your past. It gives you a window to review how you’ve been approaching things. When Mercury moves direct again, you can approach matters with a little more clarity.
If you have business projects and contracts to sign and things like that, astrologers typically will tell you to either hold off or to read everything twice because miscommunications and weird technical glitches can happen.
Michelle: The really great thing about this Mercury retrograde is that it’s happening in the sign of Aries, the first sign of the zodiac. Even if you are not an Aries, you have some Aries energy. We all have Aries in ourselves. Think of yourself as one-twelfth Aries. So the Aries part of you is this really dynamic go-getter that wants to begin new things and loves the thrill of the chase. That’s your Aries portion. For some people, their Aries nature is much stronger than others. But for all of us, the fact that Mercury retrograde is happening in Aries, it gives us all a self-review. So a really beneficial way to use this Mercury retrograde period is to ask yourself, “Who am I really?” “Who do I say that I am?” Because sometimes who we say we are isn’t necessarily who we feel ourselves to be.
From a business point of view, especially all you self-employed people, ask yourself, “What’s my personal brand? What’s my personal philosophy?” Because we have Jupiter in Aries now as well, and Jupiter is connected to philosophy. Another question is, “Do I act in accordance with what I speak or with how I think?” So it’s a really nice way to kick-start a self-review and to find out, “How do I come across? How do I want to come across and is there a gap there?” So Mercury retrograde offers us the chance to go back, take a fresh look at something that we’ve probably been taking for granted and see if we need to tweak it to make it work better for us when Mercury goes direct again.
Jeffrey: And if you are familiar with the houses in your chart, you can look at where Aries is and that area of your life can also give you some information about how this particular transit will affect you.
