Retrograde Thriving

Our comms planet has turned retrograde again, for the second time this year and many are plunged unnecessarily into the hysterical pop astro panic that plagues this much maligned and misunderstood transit. As part of his regular orbit, Mercury is retrograde for almost 20% of the year, every year. Several times annually the tiny planet with the mighty influence appears to travel backwards in the sky, a function of its short orbit and our perspective here on earth.Mercury rules the mind, holding dominion over communication, technology, travel and transport too. In the zodiac, Mercury rules Gemini which means this retrograde begins - and eventually ends - in his home state, rendering it supercharged. The wily trickster will disrupt our best laid plans. Playing games with time and space, muddling thinking and expression, transporting us between worlds real and imagined, lost and found.Retrograde motion is a function of perspective and designed to shift it. Changes in apparent direction and appearances spin our heads, poking holes in our regular programming. Wires cross and language slips secrets under the door. Expectations upend and the noise calls them out. The past rolls in uninvited bearing lost things to be found. The trickster wielding gifts and an infuriating grin.As 2020 revolutionised our world, Mercury retrograded through the water signs and we were sunk into our strongest emotions. All the better to outwit denial, dance with our shadows and finally dredge the treasure buried deep within. In 2021 Mercury retrograded through the air signs, distinct adventures in consciousness designed to expand awareness and understanding. This year our retrogrades all begin in the early degrees of air signs and retreat to ground our revisioning in earth signs, to aid in the rewiring between head and body.Our perceptions are always a function of the senses. How we earth ourselves in time and space and in our bodies is crucial to this revolutionising of our humanity. Every Merc rx is an edit that marries prior learning to fresh perspective. By altering reality, adding and subtracting information our minds are forced to adapt, which changes them in the process. This oh so regular step ball change is welcome integration for those who learn to dance with its masterful magics and not panic at the redirection. It's been a tough few years for recovering control freaks and even graver for those who only follow scripts, plans and pre-loved pathways. As we make our way towards a braver new world, we are constantly encouraged to carve our own adventure through the revolution.Merc’s rx through Aquarius last Feb reset our mental technologies to an operating system compatible with this next age of humanity. It did so by dragging us back over Pluto's hot coals in Capricornia and the crumbling towers of the old world. No longer can we have a foot in each camp. Arriving mid eclipse season, Merc’s retreograde through Gemini will again split perception into its twin skin and reinvigorate critical thinking. Our consciousness is irrevocably altered by what we feed it. This superpowered mid year retrograde will draw our focus to the how and why of our terribly modern communications. Expect much of our disillusionment with the online world and its capitalist overloards to force us into finding new ways to reach those looking for us, uncovering fresh methods of transmitting the message and the meaning of our lives.But first, we might have that constant online noise that we have become so addicted to wildly disrupted. The first week of Merc's regular retrograde is a notorious scramble. Renowned for getting wires crossed and rife with misunderstanding, the seeds of reform are planted in its heady disruption to regular programming. Tech can fail or flounder. Tangents, distractions and detours pop up all over the place. Ex everything can appear like a zombie apocalypse. Misdirected messaging or slips of the tongue conjure unwitting revelation. Secrets leak out from beneath the most firmly bolted doors. The world gasps, gripes and is invariably tipped before we are even one down, two to go.Chaos, restriction and revolution ongoing has spotlit how we stay in relationship to our rebirthing worlds - and it is largely through tech. This is Mercury's domain. Our connectivity is determinist. The algorithm knows us better than other humans. Our echo chambers have become locked black boxes that sate the beast by telling it only what it likes. Ripe for reconsideration as we hurtle into the future, the world no longer works the way it once did. The tech revolution was way out in front of humanity and its hasty construction did not pay any mind to repercussions or consequences. It's time to pay the piper, or the psychopomp as the case may be.Merc's retrograde scramble may well demonstrate co-dependence and coercive control, perhaps even the abusive relationship we have found ourselves in with tech. Its artificial intelligence and screaming opinion dressed up as fact only reflects the emperor's new clothes our world is yet wearing, waiting for Truth to call its bluff. Right relationship is built on fair exchange and tender protection of what is most precious. Recalibration resets the moving parts. Get thyself on the right side of screens and dreams, or be lost to them.Mercury retrogrades have a distinctly muddling choreography. The first week tends to be marked by the inexplicable, as our best laid plans go belly up. What initially looks like failure, disaster or despair is just the trick to get you moving, thinking creatively outside the box and on the fly. In the second week new information arrives out of the blue that again shifts the playing field. Fresh understanding starts to shimmer and radical decisions ask for consideration. By the third and final week, you have been well and truly moved by this transit.Merc’s regular pause and rewind is only unwelcome in a world that demands constant unrelenting production and views rigid control as due diligence. Manna for creatives, evolutionaries and those radicalised by pandemonium into building a braver new world, Merc’s retrograde offers rethinking, reworking and revising as integrative medicine, if you will take it.This particular Mercury retrograde will conjure a peculiar nostalgia for the old world, just as we move beyond its reach. But it will also arrive bearing magic if you are willing to let your mind be changed. Integration remains its holy grail, so give things time to settle no matter how the table gets tipped. Anchor yourself within and look to the dreamscape and your wily intuition for hidden morsels of insight and clarity. It is possible to thrive during Mercury retrograde and the peculiar magic of this transit can be utilised if you open your mind to its possibility and potential.Flow with ItDon’t panic. Consider anything and everything that happens over the next three weeks to be a redirection of some kind. Cease trying to work it all out and look instead for what are you missing. Let your focus be honed and your gut response show you what really matters.Everything is not as it seemsFirst glance will not be the same as the second or third. Peer deeper. Breathe deeply. Look harder. Under pressure people show you who they really are. Keep meticulous notes. Understand that not everything that crosses your mind is an intelligence. Practice discernment and cultivate grace. Learn how to soften sharp learning into wisdom.Play It SafeIf it is valuable to you, ensure its preservation and protection. Back it up, lock it down, wrap it well. Read all the fine print and triple check details with an eye for the unusual. Collect caution from the wind. Proceed gently and with care.Don’t Sign on the Dotted LineSimply because you will invariably get less – and more – than you bargained for. Wait until you can see the full hand – yours and theirs. If necessity or FOMO monsters caution or prudence, check the details as though your life depends on it. Keep a fresh set of eyes in your back pocket.The Ex FilesReconnecting with your past relationships in a meaningful way need not include raising it from the dead, even when it zombie walks into your DMs. Hindsight has 20/20 vision from a safer distance. Remember why it ended and don’t allow nostalgia to wrap red flags around you like blindfolds. Putting the past to bed is always a metaphor under retrograding skies.The Great reWorkExcellent for works in progress, old ideas or stalled creative impulses, this transit is perfect for editing and revision. Elevate the redo to a high art and cultivate regenerative makeover. Necessity isn’t just the mother of reinvention. Launch anything new once we are out of Merc’s shadow zone and well clear of eclipse season.The Learning CurveTry new states of mind on for size during Mercury retrograde and feel into your own dead ends. Find the tipping point in your own cognitive dissonance. None of us know it all. Learning is flexible and fluid, not fixed. Stay open to tangents, new possibilities and understanding. Let them find a home in you.Cultivate the ChaosChaos is what change in motion looks like. Practice responding not reacting to whatever inexplicable tangent arrives unannounced. Forget fixing your mind on a point or setting a destination. Adjust your expectations. Fear is a powerful pollutant that murders the magic. Don’t let it keep you off the rollercoaster. Trust the music beneath the mayhem.Mercury shows us, once and again, that all reality is virtual. Perception determines understanding. Your perspective remains your most powerful choice. Change your mind and your life will effortlessly follows suit.Mercury is retrograde in Gemini from May 10 until June 3. Let yourself be moved. © Bohomofo, May 2022