Mercury Retrograde
July 17 - August 10th, 2025
Yes, it’s that time of year again. Three times a year the planet that governs the ways in which we communicate with each other, and with ourselves (our constant self-talk) and also delivers messages from our guiding spirits, starts to move backwards in the sky from our point of view. If you’re a Gemini or a Virgo, I hardly have to tell you that it’s happening as you’ve probably already sensed the slowing down of Mercury’s speed in the past few days.
How the brain and the body interact is also Mercury’s responsibility, and when retro, we may feel more clumsy, which is why people are more susceptible to accidents during this time. We’re just not likely to be paying attention as well as we could to where we are in time and space. This means we’ve gotten away from what Mercury Retro is good at reminding us of: sensing and being with the movements of our bodies.
In a world where we worship logic, science and deductive reasoning, Mercury is rubbing his hands together with a sneaky grin on his face, wondering just how this is going to play out-—again. For those who are more intuitive, more introverted, it’s perhaps a bit less of a problem, this is a great time to get creative and complete projects already started, and not be especially interested in joining with anything new. For the rest of the world, people are going to be faced with relying upon perhaps not-so-often used intuitive and somatic sensings. This is a time to really let yourself do some good playful activities with something fun, creative, imaginative.
For the next month or so (since Mercury direct has a bit of a shadow time to catch up to where it left off from
when it went retro) we all need to take it easy, to SLOW things down and breathe more deeply, quiet our worries and fears (though they are decidedly considerable as we all know) and quietly take measures to back up our computers, balance our accounts, weed the garden, mow the lawn, and generally take care of ourselves with doing soul work. Which is cleaning, polishing, making bread, any activity that takes time and connects us with the physical, natural world. That will be where we feel the most grounded and centered. Watch the sunset, the trees, feel the wind, let your brain relax its constant noting and labeling, and instead breathe and meditate. Mercury loves it when you do, and may even be more inclined now to whisper some words of wisdom in your ear when you’re really quiet inside.