How to Handle a Mercury Retrograde Period
Written & published: June 2007
Mercury retrograde has reached almost mythical status amongst those interested in and curious about astrology. Thanks to a lot of marketing by publishers and astrologers alike, these retrograde periods are widely known about, often discussed, and unfortunately frequently feared.
This website is not dedicated to fear-based living. The approach to planetary cycles and movements is founded on the idea that all planetary motion is natural flow, and therefore it is possible for humans to align themselves with that natural flow and experience an unfolding of innate potential.
Different approaches
Approaches to Mercury retrograde range widely, but are usually fairly negative in one way or another. Advice often takes the form of 'batten down the hatches, here it comes!' and 'put everything on hold, don't sign anything! Back up your computer data!'
The author of this website has never agreed with these approaches. To treat Mercury retrograde - or indeed any planetary cycle or movement - as something that could do you harm or be to your detriment is to participate in your own prophecy, and invite it to fulfil itself.
The apparently rational voice inside our heads says that it is important to be prepared for a range of potentials, and that is true, however it is equally important to ferret out of ourselves all those parts of us that sabotage our own experience, such as beliefs, anxieties, and expectations about Mercury retrograde periods.
Opening awareness
So, batten down the hatches... or open up your awareness?
With Mercury turning retrograde in a couple of days' time on 15th June, let's take this moment to open our minds to what we could use 'it' for, rather than how 'it' might use us. Turning to another perspective outside astrology, I decided to consult the I Ching. or Book of Changes, with the question:
"How can one best handle a Mercury retrograde period?"
The answer was hexagram 33 with moving lines 3, 4, 5 and 6. The relating hexagram is hexagram 2.
Hexagram 33: Distancing
This hexagram speaks about distancing oneself, not with ill-will but simply with recognition that it is the appropriate time to do such a thing. In Bradford Hatcher's commentary on this hexagram, it says:
"...we progress by moving backwards. This will go somewhat more quickly if first we can turn around."
This is elaborated upon thus:
"This needs no repulsive force, we need not be taken aback, we need not first be unhappy in the place we wish to leave, nor do we need aloofness. We need to do nothing more than change our minds and start off in some new direction, one recently renamed forward.... It is you, not things, not going your way."
Key words for this hexagram include to step back, to retreat, to detach, strategic pull-back, abstention, to withdraw, to get distance from, sabbatical, reframing, transcending, taking a larger point of view, neutralising, letting go.
In the Tuan Zhuan, which is the Great Commentary on the Book of Changes, it says of this hexagram:
"Distance succeeds; distancing's proper timing is very important here!"
The moving lines show different ways to approach the Mercury retrograde periods, from the least satisfying to the most satisfying. They paint a picture of how not to, and how to, get the best out of these times.
3rd line: Entangled retreat, there will be anxiety and distress - This line points to a way of handling these periods that brings frustration and problems. It speaks of a failure to plan ahead, a tendency to run around like a headless chicken, losing perspective in the details without listening to the guidance of the Self.
4th line: Elective retreat - This line shows a person choosing to retreat, and thereby already being better placed than the subject in the 3rd line.
5th line: Commendable retreat - This line depicts a still more constructive level of handling Mercury retro. Hatcher's commentary brilliantly puts it:
"One expects to back up, turn around or go sideways when the limits of freedom are reached. One should not expect perfect foresight when wandering in unexplored realms.... If you need to travel lightly, wits are the finest provisions, not baggage and entanglements. One departs with a rightness of purpose and a long road ahead, head high, eyes forward, onward to all those new vistas, with letters of recommendation, nothing severed or otherwise injured, no losses and gains need balancing. This is retreating forward."
6th line: Resourceful retreat, nothing cannot be turned to advantage - This line represents the peak, the pinnacle, of handling Mercury retrograde constructively. Hatcher's commentary again:
"If this was a path which has just doubled back on itself, then nothing is over yet and your part is still in play. The timid retreat going backwards, recounting successes and failures, as if they had made no decision. The point is not freedom from, but to. And detachment is from aversion and craving, not from living a life. Opportunities also lie in retreat."
Hexagram 33 has the following relating hexagram:
Hexagram 2: Accepting
This hexagram speaks of the power of the feminine, yin approach - surrender, allowing, accepting, receiving, being led:
"The Earth's capacity is acceptance. The noble young one, with tolerance of character, upholds the outer world."
Hexagram 2 speaks about the power to hold a space open so that it can give birth to something. Being receptive is essential to get the best out of Mercury retrograde, the I Ching says, because gifts cannot come unless there is a willingness to take them in. In other words, putting up resistance to Mercury retro is not being accepting or receptive and therefore is not a useful approach.
"To follow is to learn mastery."
So with Mercury retrograde we should not try to impose our will or force things to happen, nor should we use our will to try to defend or protect ourselves or our interests. On the other hand, we should not be passive to the point of uselessness; there is a difference between allowing and flowing, and passive resignation.
Summary
To summarise, then, the I Ching is confirming the need to introspect and to rethink - standard advice from astrologers for Mercury's retrograde periods - but it is not confirming any 'doom or gloom' approaches, nor indeed is there necessarily a need to physically withdraw from the world, it is more of a mental process of stepping back to review and take stock. In fact, there is a very clear statement that it is indeed possible to make the most of these phases of Mercury's cycle.
The hexagrams together point the way: step back, change your perspective, and open yourself to responding with the power of the divine feminine, then you will prosper.
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