Mercury Retrogrades.

A journey through thought, myth, and memory. (Astrology as a method for self-development.)

First, the apologetics, this is not an article on astrology as a science or an art of divination but rather as a system of symbols that can inspire our own self-exploration through astrology’s constantly moving parts.

As such we don’t need to decide whether or not we believe in astrology. Rather the question becomes, “are symbol systems that stretch the mind into seeing new relations useful?”

In this article, we’ll explore what a retrograde, specifically what Mercury’s retrograde means symbolically and then use this most recent one (July 7th-Aug 1st) to explore what that could mean for our own self-reflection.

What is a retrograde?

“The static’s nice. I could do without the screeching.”
“Are you kidding? That’s the music of the spheres, commissar. It’s beautiful. Like old jazz.”
― Peter Watts, Blindsight

Scientifically speaking a retrograde is an optical allusion that occurs when the orbits of two planets occur in such a way that the other planet looks like it’s going backward.

This is because one planet has passed the other planet in its orbit and so its appearance in the night sky appears…