Across the wide spectrum of qualities that are shared by successful CEOs, entrepreneurs, and employees, there is one defining behavior that is common to all of them:
On a consistent and regular schedule, they pause to reflect, and review where they have been, what they have done, and what they have learned.
they reflect back on conversations and messages, on strategies and results, and on the details that made the difference.
The most successful people know that when they slow down and create space for this review, and when they integrate what they have learned, they can eventually move forward with greater speed.
Every great wisdom tradition builds in regular periods for this type of reflection.
In astrology, this is one of the functions of a Mercury retrograde.
Mercury Retrograde Is Nothing to Fear
Modern culture has often presented Mercury retrogrades as periods of chaos and confusion. A time when technology stops working and everything is running off schedule. Because of this, many people have approached Mercury retrograde with apprehensiveness and anxiety. There’s a belief you need to put life on hold for Mercury’s backwards movement in the sky.
This isn’t a very helpful or empowering way to think about it.
Mercury retrograde happens approximately three times a year, for approximately three weeks at a time. That’s a total of nine weeks each year. It’s even more when you add in the shadow periods — the weeks before and after Mercury stations retrograde, when it is in the part of the sky that it will eventually revisit.
It’s simply not practical or realistic to put your life on hold or hide away for a full quarter (or more) of every year.
What Actually Happens During Mercury Retrograde
If you’ve ever been on a train and passing a stopped train, you may have noticed that the train that isn’t moving appears to be moving backwards as you pass it.
You can even create this effect on a walk or run, by noticing how objects that aren’t moving — cars, telephone poles, mailboxes — can appear to be moving backward when you look at them in the right way.
This is what’s happening during Mercury retrograde.
Mercury is a fast moving planet, taking only 88 Earth days to complete its revolution around the sun.
At various moments in its cycle, it slows down. From our perspective on Earth, during these periods of slowdown Mercury appears to be moving backward.
How to Use Mercury Retrograde
Mercury retrograde periods offer a contrast from our fast pace of life.
When even the fastest planet slows its movement, it invites us to do the same.
Rather than thinking of Mercury retrograde as a period of chaos and confusion, I prefer to think of it as a time to review, reflect, and retrieve what I may have forgotten in the daily hustle.
The sign in which Mercury is traveling during its retrograde offers guidance on the areas of life to focus our review.
Where that sign falls in your personal chart offers more specific guidance on the areas of your life that are asking for reflection. (For this, you’ll need to know your birth chart and what “house” or area of life falls in that sign).
Mercury Retrograde in Taurus
Today Mercury stations retrograde in Taurus. It will be retrograde through mid-May.
Taurus is a fixed earth sign that marks the middle of the spring season. Issues related to Taurus include financial matters, money, currency of all kinds, agriculture, and anything related to the planet.
Taurus is a sign of the senses: it likes earthly pleasures and material comforts, and anything that stokes the sensory system.
As an earth sign, Taurus is about creating what is tangible and real: material things we can hold and handle.
It’s also the sign of sustainability. Taurus might be slow and plodding; it might even be stubborn and unyielding at times. But it’s grounded in a desire for sustainability.
Taurus is a productive sign, but it’s practical productivity. In Taurus, we learn that doing or creating something once isn’t as helpful as what we can create sustainably.
These themes provide the guide for this Mercury retrograde in Taurus.
Reflection Inquiries for Mercury Retrograde in Taurus
- How are you earning income? Is this sustainable?
- What are you actually producing each day?
- What are the tangible results of your efforts?
- What systems and structures do you need to help you create sustainably over the long term?
- How are you using your material resources, and is this sustainable?
- What parts of your life or mindset are too fixed or stubborn?
- What processes are stuck in the mud, and how can you get them moving again?
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