But, admittedly, I know far less than I ought.
Sure, I can pick out the Big Dipper on a clear night.
I can point out the Pleiades without much to-do.
I can even track down Orion and Taurus, engaged eternally in their game of tag across the sky.
But I'm pretty rotten at astrology.
That might be pretty par for the course. I'm an Aries, you see, which means I'm stubborn and can have a little difficulty following through with my undertakings. Astrology is far less scientifically based than Astronomy, so its nuances can be frustrating for me to follow (especially when they change according to where you get your information).
But sometimes it's important information to have.
For instance, every morning I pull out the comics from the office paper and flip through the stars before I check my funnies. I check my day-rating (today = two stars) and skim through my synopsis (today = don't commit until you think it through), breeze through the same for my sister and for Boyfriend of Amazingness, and then get on to Fred Basset. It's not like I set my day by what the paper tells me, but it's nice to know someone out there thinks I'm going to have a stellar (or crappy) day before it sneaks up on me on its own.
So, it makes sense that it caught my eye when I saw a post on my favorite social networking site this morning that mentioned Mercury going retrograde this Wednesday. As a previous student of astronomy (different from astrology, since it says right inside the word that it's tastier...), I understand that a retrograde motion is when a planet moving through the Zodiac appears to travel in reverse. However, I don't remember what that means for the next month's worth of activities. After all, there's an important month coming up**1 and I want to be prepared.
So when I saw the post that there were astrological goings-on in motion, I pulled up Google and got to my research.
I was a little perturbed to find that Mercury in retrograde has all sorts of negative impacts on "communication, clear thinking, truth and travel."**2 After all, what is vacation but an adventure in that assortment of phenomena? Without communication, a trip cannot be planned. Without clear thinking and honest assessments of situations, a trip cannot be executed. And without travel, a trip is not a trip at all but a random assortment of people and belongings sitting in a vehicle in the driveway.
Fortunately, I stumbled across a wonderful website that offered not only a straightforward explanation of Mercury retrograde but also a list of helpful tips to get through the following month. An important note was that it's good to be prepared a couple of days on either side of retrograde in case of ripple effects, so I thought I'd pass along some helpful tips:
A quick & dirty guide to
surviving Mercury retrograde!
Be sure not to take things too personally.
Back up your data!
Don’t purchase any big ticket items.
Take things with a grain of salt.
Read the small print on any contracts. Ask lots of questions.
Finish things you started a while ago.
Get together with old friends, reminisce & laugh!
Double-check any information you’re given, especially as relates to travel arrangements!
Allow Mercury to nudge you in unusual directions. If you seem to find yourself “back to the future”, don’t just try to wriggle out of it — look at what the universe is trying to show you.
Use the things you’ve discovered in the past to create a dazzling new vision so that you’re ready to blast ahead when Mercury goes direct!**2
What will you do with all this interesting new energy that will be surging through soon?
**1 July is full of vacation. Of the available 23 working days during the month of July, I will be in the office for only 10 of them. Granted, one day is a national holiday during which no one will be working. Nonetheless... I'm going to be a leaf on the wind.
**2 All of this awesome understanding of the phenomenon comes from "How To Survive Mercury Retrograde" by Gala Darling. http://galadarling.com/article/how-to-survive-mercury-retrograde
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