Mercury Retrograde Is Over. Now What?
A review.
I wanted to write about mercury retrograde last week (ya know, while it was still happening) but Mercury has a way of trolling your plans. Actually my procrastination has a way of trolling my plans but it’s so convenient to blame Mercury when retro rolls through. Now that Mercury’s direct I’m just looking in the mirror like, it was me the whole time huh?
Ok so over the past few weeks Mercury retrograde has been fucking shit up, rolling shit back and pressing pause while also bringing revelations, removing what doesn’t work and trying get you on track with what does work. Mercury has been specifically doing this in a very Taurean way i.e. with an orientation towards blunt practicality, nudging us to do things more in line with our body and felt senses, while also slowing down what seems to extend us past our natural capacity.
I wanna say again anything that goes wrong during Mercury retrograde isn’t some sort of sky malice but actually it’s a tap on the shoulder begging the question, “have you considered there might be another way?”
Oh before I continue you might be asking, “what’s mercury retrograde again?” I wrote a quick thing here.
Retro Recap
We can look back at the last few weeks since April 21st and take a note of anything that stalled out, was particularly frustrating, or took longer than it needed to. These things might be what we could consider doing a different way. Or maybe we might be able to look back and see how the initial way we were trying to do things in mid April wasn’t quite a fit and the way things turned out by early May was actually more appropriate. Or maybe we see how something that was giving us trouble around April 21st was able to work itself out this past weekend as Mercury went direct May 14th around 10:15pm cst.
(And Mercury will actually be retracing it’s steps through the entire pathway it originally moonwalked thru until May 31st so there is still time for plans that were pushed to the side the past few weeks to find their groove these last days of May)
If you have a bit of knowledge about your chart you can take this a step further and look at what houses or planets in your chart are in Taurus? This might have been the area where you felt Mercury retrograde more acutely. And if you really wanna go at it check out the degrees of the Mercury retrograde path and see what planets or house you have in that range (5º to 15º Taurus). You’ll be able to hone in on the parts of life this was about for you and maybe it’ll jog your memory of what things in this area needed addressing the past few weeks (And maybe nothing sticks out to you all that well from these past few weeks. No biggie. Maybe this Mercury retrograde wasn’t as impactful of a learning cycle for you).
After doing this review you can go forward with this knowledge and assessment empowered to take on these matters with increased efficiency, practicality and Taurus precision.
Oh also what we learned during these last Mercury retrograde weeks might be related to Jupiter’s transit through Taurus. More on that later.
How Mercury Fucked Me Up
And put me back together
For me I’ve got Taurus in the 3rd house of routines, communication, writing, sharing your voice, siblings and neighborhoods. Mercury retrograde through my third house somehow managed to bring all of those different house significators to my attention these past few weeks but I’ll stick with talking about routines. I’ve really struggled with routines and time management my entire adult life and it’s come to a head this past few weeks as I’ve been unemployed since March living off savings, magic and shea butter kissed skin (also magic) but I’m kinda at the end of that rope now and need to kick my day job search in to high gear but my procrastination and phone addiction kept getting the best of me.
At the beginning of Mercury retro I got fed up with myself and started recording every 15 minutes of my day in this hyper aggressive excel spreadsheet from hell (or Virgo heaven?). Somehow I stuck with this practice for 3 weeks and after reviewing it I realized that my tendency to goof off and stare at my phone is highly highly predictable. It happens at certain times of the day everyday after specific activities—Typically right after I finish eating while sipping my tea and staring off into space I pick up my phone and open email, IG or twitter and then before I know it 5 hours are gone and I haven’t done anything I actually want to do but can tell you everything about AI trends and which celebrities got their lip fillers removed.
Armed with this new awareness (of how I use my time not internet goss) I’ve seen my screen-time reduced 10 hours each week. This new awareness has not magically translated to me getting a job but it has helped me get a lot more organized with my daily routine and made it a lil harder for me to goof off on my phone when I know I need to either be job hunting or writing something useful for you here in this space.
I know I'm a Capricorn moon with control issues so I'm not recommending this time management approach to anybody. But I like to think of this is an example of what Mercury can do when it transits a house. Knock you off your feet with new awareness with the intention of informing you you’ve got flat feet and need some insoles. At first you’re like, “Hey, Jackass, you kicked me!” And then you’re like, “Oh I walk better now. Thanks…I guess.” Idk if that metaphor works so about how this, Mercury retrograde gives you new awareness thru often frustrating situations so you can use that awareness to work through your issues in more effective alignment. The process is not always fun but you’re better off with the fresh lesson. Awareness has this power.
So again what part of your chart contains Taurus? i.e. which house does Taurus fall in your chart? This is where Mercury spruced things up or moved things around for you a bit. And if you’re a journal junkie like me you can look back at the days of the mercury retrograde cycle and get really granular about what happened when. I list the dates below. When Mercury retrogrades through earth signs like it’s doing in 2023 you have a chance to get practical about your shit. Maybe that happened for you in some way this past 3 weeks? Or maybe the lessons were more abstract?
Mercury Retrograde in Taurus Cycle Dates
April 7, Mercury Retrograde pre-shadow period aka the prequel (5º50’ ♉️).
At this time things were gearing up but hadn’t quite started yet. It’s called the pre-shadow period because this is the area Mercury would eventually move all the way back to in its retrograde path.
Did you notice anything gearing up for you around April 7? In hindsight this feel like the calm before the storm?
My Aries TMI: I had just got back from a trip to NYC and was still very much in vacation mode enjoying agenda-less days around the house.
April 21: 1st day of mercury retrograde. Class in session (15º37’ ♉️)
We can look back to this date and see what were we working on or trying to get off the ground that wasn’t quite it but felt like it at the time.
What were you thinking about or working on around April 21st?
Aries TMI: This was a time of peak frustration about how I was spending my days unemployed after the post vacation haze had worn off. Pushed to the limit I dug up this old time management system I found years ago and decided to try it out.
May 1st: Mercury Cazimi. When the clouds part (11º19’ ♉️)
Halfway point of retrograde cycle when Mercury and the Sun come together. Often a time when epiphanies about the retrograde lessons we’re learning come thru.
Any sudden insights or lessons that precipitated for you on May 1st?
Aries TMI: Before this point I kinda felt like my situation with time management was hopeless. But after taking note of how I used my time for 3 weeks with this spreadsheet system I was beginning to recognize my patterns and see the incessant monitoring system as actually somewhat productive and not a navel gazing waste of time.
May 14th: Mercury goes direct. Press play (5º51’ ♉️)
Mercury begins moving in forward motion, and slowly but surely things start flow a little more in terms of communication, messaging, organization etc. This is also the beginning of a catch up time where Mercury wants to race back to the initial position where it was before it started retrograding
Did anything become clearer for you around May 14th? What ideas or projects or emails seemed like they were ready to move forward?
Aries TMI: Now having 3 weeks of data to look at around how I spend my time I made a schedule for myself that actually worked with my natural rhythms and night owl tendencies instead of trying to fold myself into a morning person pretzel.
May 31: Mercury exits its shadow period aka the epilogue (15º37’ ♉️)
When Mercury retraces it steps back to the original degree it was before it began retrograding back in April.
Maybe by May 31st you’ll notice things really moving into high gear in terms of planets you have in Taurus or in the house containing Taurus in your chart?
Aries TMI: I hope by May 31st I will have completely transcended time while living in a rent free cumulus cloud. Will keep you updated!
If you noticed any Mercury retrograde lessons that stood out to you hit my email and lemme know. I’m a scientist at heart and love to observe the trends. Thanks for reading! Hope this was helpful.
P.S. from Jupiter
Ok ya Jupiter in Taurus! So the behemoth of our solar system just stepped into Taurus May 16th 💃🏽 and it’ll be there til next May 2024! Whatever sign Jupiter’s in it expands. Jupiter transits asks us to take a major leap or grow into those bigger shoes we’ve dreaming of filling. And since it’s in Taurus this year that big expansion just happens to coincide with the place in our chart Mercury just spent 3 weeks tuning up. So there’s an opportunity here to grow in a way that takes those retrograde lessons into account! It’s like Mercury’s retrograde through Taurus showed us the weeds and now Jupiter in Taurus is here to put some fertilizer down. Pretty cool timing wise. I’mma write more on Jupiter in Taurus later. Actually let me know if you’re interested in that and I’ll write it. Peace ✌🏾
