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Mecury retrograde

This week you will undoubtedly hear that the planet Mercury is moving retrograde and that you should be careful with all things communications related, but what’s the story behind this cosmic blame game?

From the Earth, it appears that all the planets move around the Sun in the same direction. Retrograde motion is the illusion created when it seems like the planets are moving in the opposite direction.

This motion confounded ancient astronomers for centuries, but the mythology of it was used to explain the mischief of the gods.

Mercury is the planet closest to the Sun, which means it’s also the fastest. This gave Mercury the role of messenger to the gods.

But this same reputation for being close and fast meant that Mercury was also tricky, so just when you think you’ve figured something out, he disappears in a backward loop only to reappear later, on the other side of the Sun!

Because the ancients believed this motion of the planets was the speaking of their gods, they paid close attention to the sky.  To discern the message in Mercury’s motion, it wasn’t enough to know when the planet was moving backward; you had to also know when it was meeting with the Sun.

The current cycle of Mercury started several weeks ago in April, when Mercury was on the other side of the Sun from Earth. This week, Mercury starts moving backward, and will be in front of the Sun on May 30. Then the whole cycle completes in July, when Mercury is on the other side of the Sun again.

As messenger of the gods, Mercury is the divine force that allows us to weave our thoughts together, just as he weaves in motion around the Sun.  The more complex our thoughts, the trickier things can get, which means Mercury can make more mischief!

Mercury isn’t visible to us at this time, but it’s good to take note that even though the messenger of the gods is taking his backward trek this week, any confusion we experience is not the fault of our stars, instead, it’s just a trick in our thinking, and that’s the domain of Mercury!

This image shows Mercury's apparent motion around the Sun, and the path it follows when making its retrograde loop. Mercury was at the point of "superior conjunction" with the Sun on April 10, 2015 in the region of Pisces. It will be at the "inferior conjunction" point on May 30, in the region of Taurus, followed by the final "superior conjunction" of the cycle onJuly 24, 2015 in the region of Cancer stars. The retrograde motion, or "retrograde arc" begins Tuesday, May 19th, and completes Thursday, June 11th, 2015.