Notes on Planetary Retrogrades
everyone is always so shook, but they can be opportunities, too...
the most notorious retrograde, Mercury, happens 3-4 times each year, and because Mercury rules over commerce, communication, processes, etc, mishaps around this time tend to get blamed on our lil blue neighbor.
the thing about retrogrades is that a planet never actually goes backward - could you imagine? an entire planet stopping its rotation or orbit and going backwards for 2-3wks and then just resuming business as usual? - it actually is spinning so quickly that in our perception it seems to be moving backwards. Because of our proximity to Mercury, and how short its trips around the sun are, this happens more often than with other planets, but if you’ve been following the astrofolks all over social media, you may have heard about how we spent most of 2022 and 2023 with many planets and asteroids dipping in and out of their own retrograde cycles. (You may have felt it, too.)
The main point is that, at least for me, information and context can help make a whole lot of difference in how I choose to view something, and how to act (or not). When I learned about retrograde motion in the sky, it was a gamechanger, because the reminders to ‘slow down and be patient’ were finally grounded in something.
I’ve never had much trouble with Mercury Rx (that’s shorthand for retrograde), possibly bc my mischievous Aquarius Mercury is always ready for trouble, but the other retrogrades, particularly Jupiter, Saturn, Venus, and Pluto last summer, all did a number on me, rocking my 4th house (Cancer), 8th house (Scorpio), and 10th house (Capricorn). Here’s where the understanding about the actual motion of a retrograde helped…
If all these big ass planets are moving *so fast* it appears to us that they’re moving backwards, then maybe I shouldn’t be trying to keep up with them.
Maybe I should let them spin and stim and vibe, and I can just
watch the waves they make in the areas of my life where they push and pull.
What’s it like to not force an impossible pace? What might I notice instead?
How does my stillness create space for balance…or change?
Is there anything I can offer up to them to fling away into space?
Is there anything I can ask them to bring me on their next journey back?
Who do I want to be the next time we meet?
Shifting my perspective on retrograde - or rather, deciding how I feel about them at all, has helped me to find another way to use my mind intentionally to see patterns, break and create habits, and make room for change.
There are so many different ways to be if we give ourselves the opportunity to try.
Stay brave,
- s