A few times every year Mercury is retrograde and cars break down, couples break up, and general havoc ensues. You may have heard the phrase, “it’s because Mercury is in retrograde,” from your friends following any inconvenience in the past couple of weeks. Personally, every time Mercury is retrograde my car decides to have some sort of malfunction. Sure, it could be because I drive a ten-year old Subaru, but a few times a year I get the privilege of blaming Mercury.
But what actually is a Mercury Retrograde? What does it mean to scientists vs. astrologists, and what could it mean for you?
What does it mean?
This planetary anomaly is often referred to as Mercury being “in retrograde.” This phrasing, however, is incorrect, the more grammatically correct phrase is that Mercury is retrograde. Astronomists refer to Mercury being retrograde a few times a year because the planet seems to move backwards. In actuality, Mercury never actually moves backward and the apparent retrograde motion is just an optical illusion. It’s kind of like when you are in a car going fast and the car next to you slows down, it looks like that car is going backwards. This exact illusion is what makes Mercury appear as if it is rotating backwards.
Why does it happen?
If you remember your sixth grade science classes, Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun and has a much shorter orbit than Earth does. Therefore, every once in a while Mercury laps Earth in its orbit and this gives the illusion from Earth that Mercury is moving backwards. Scientifically, this is all that happens when Mercury is retrograde. However, this retrograde motion has disastrous implications on Earth for a subset of the population who follow astrology.
The astrology behind it
The governing phrase of astrology is, “as above, so too below.” Followers of astrology therefore believe that the events in our solar system contribute to the events that take place here on Earth. The planet Mercury is believed to rule all kinds of communication, contracts, and code. Therefore, when Mercury is retrograde, communication (talking, listening, writing, etc.), contracts (leases, wills, etc.), and computer code (shipping, travel, etc.) all tend to suffer. According to astrologists, you should expect miscommunication, agreements/contracts to fall through, and travel disruptions. Furthermore, certain signs are more susceptible to this chaos than others. Scorpio, Taurus, Leo, and Aquarius’ will be most affected by the retrograde we are currently experiencing (according to my TikTok for you page).
Is it real?
Unfortunately, there is no real science behind the correlation between the optical illusion of Mercury’s retrograde and chaos down here on Earth. But there are tons of things that a lot of people believe which are not backed by science, so why not add this to the list? I’m not the biggest follower of astrology, but it can’t be a coincidence that as I was writing this article my sublessee backed out of her contract. Whether or not you believe in astrology, there is no harm in scapegoating your inconveniences on Mercury a couple times a year. Astrology is a very contested belief system, and many people have very strong opinions about the validity of the pseudoscience.
The truth is, life is full of misunderstandings, miscommunications, and just general bad luck. Whether or not you believe in astrology, inconveniences happen to everyone, frequently. Are these events caused by the planets? That’s up to you. In my eyes, there is no harm in blaming it on some uncontrollable optical illusion because these disruptions are often uncontrollable anyways. If my research into Mercury retrograde has taught me anything, it’s to give yourself a break, don’t sweat the small stuff, because most of the time it’s out of our hands anyways.
Mercury will be retrograde three times in 2023, buckle up.
April 21st – May 14th
August 23rd – September 14th
December 13th – January 1st