Last week’s article was brought to you by Mercury Retrograde.
That is, I had postponed the live date for it before heading off to New York City on family business, intending to edit, polish, or postpone it again, ere I returned.
But no. That was not going to happen.
Flight delays. Missed appointments. Lost items. All the typical hallmarks of Mercury dancing merrily widdershins whilst we mere mortals can’t remember the word we want to say.
And thus, the pre-scheduled but possibly not final version of last week’s article was auto-posted as pre-scheduled.
My intention then, was to connect to my blog, unpublish the article, and reset it for a time when I had returned home and could contemplate it’s perfection at my leisure.
But drunken Mercury wasn’t done with me yet.
Seems that my new webhost uses a security program that blocks mobile access to WordPress’s backroom, even from the browser.
So being several thousand miles from my laptop, I had to content myself with the fact that the article was live and there was not a thing I could do about it.
Fortunately, the article as it stands is acceptable, and I have decided not to travel back in time and create a retroactive continuity (though Mercury might approve of that just now.).
Scoff ye skeptics. Once upon a time I walked amongst thee. Now, I’m not entirely sure.
If one adheres to any faith in astrology, Mercury Retrograde comes with the territory.
Whilst other planets share this optical phenomenon, the frequency and regularity with which the innermost world makes it’s backward track is viewed with particular dread.
Retrograde motion is an illusion. It’s observance in ancient times, before telescopes and the discovery of the extra-Saturnine planets, was considered an ill omen. But it’s basically the result of a pre-Newtonian understanding of orbital mechanics.
Ancient astrologers considered all the visible planets to be traveling around the earth. In the works of Claudius Ptolemy, the planets and the sun and moon were all pinned to a series of transparent spheres or shells, that moved around our own globe. His Almagest gave calculations for their movements, and was a standard1Although Aristarchus of Samos had published works at Alexandria where the planets rotated around the sun, the popular acceptance of Ptolemy meant that an earth-centered universe prevailed until the Renaissance. The geocentric order was favored by the Holy Mother Church as it allowed convenient location of Heaven and the angelic orders. until Newton’s Principia Mathematica corrected planetary order.
The Sun, of course, never goes retrograde. Nor does the Moon, ironically the only body that does orbit the earth. For this reason, and because they were biggest and brightest, they each get to rule their own signs; the zodiac signs of Leo and Cancer respectively.
Leo, beginning with the Summer Solstice, and the hottest of the fire signs, is the natural home of the Sun. Ptolemy in his Tetrabiblos (the astrological companion to the astronomical Almagest) says that the Moon is associated with moisture, so as the next brightest light, she is assigned as ruler of Cancer, the water sign immediately preceding the Solstice.
And thence all the remaining visible planets are awarded rulership over the zodiac in pairs, since there were only five of them, and there were ten signs left. So little Mercury gets both Gemini and Virgo; Venus rules Taurus and Libra; Mars: Aries and Scorpio; the expansive quality of Jupiter attend Pisces and Sagittarius; and finally cold and dark Saturn is lord over Aquarius and Capricorn.
Modern astrologers ascribe the “new” outer planets and some asteroids as rulers of signs and houses, but I find Ptolemy’s system to work fairly well, at least to gauge the basics.
And it warns us about Mercury. Mercury as ruler of Gemini presents duality and ambiguity. Perfect situation for a planet that can’t seem to make up it’s mind which way it’s going.
About that. Well, Mercury (and any other retrograde planet) isn’t actually moving backward. That would defy the laws of physics. . . Newton’s, not Ptolemy’s.
What’s happening is that all us planets are whizzing round that jolly old sun, at a pretty constant clip. But because of the different sizes of our orbits, every now and then it looks like some of the planets are moving backward, relative to our viewpoint here on little ol’ Earth2which means that Ptolemy’s universe might be more in line with Einstein than Newton’s, from a certain point of view.
And for naughty little Mercury, this happens about three times a year; more often than any of the other planets. So obviously the ancients took notice, and so do we. This wiggly motion astrologically indicates communication breakdowns that even Led Zeppelin could not have imagined, along with related interruptions in travel, technology, and other best laid plans.
So why do astrologer’s consider retrograde motion to be “bad”? Well, it may be helpful to compare it to the reversed meaning of a Tarot card. In Tarot a card that is drawn upside down is considered reversed, and it’s symbolism may be interpreted as an opposite or reduced version of the standard upright meaning.
The same general rule applies when Mercury goes wandering. As the Messenger of the Gods, Mercury influences those things that have to do with sending and receiving messages, and in the 21st century, that covers a whole lot.
We have trouble finding the right words, or say things we shouldn’t. We forget to use BCC or forward that private internal memo to the whole office. We drunk text. We can’t access the Wi-Fi. We have no bars on our phones. We forgot we were on speaker. And Chaos ensues.
The red overlay was added in Photoshop, but this graphic was generated by a nifty piece of software called Planetdance. If you’re a Windows User it’s free to download from the link. It has many of the features of professional astrology software. Like any freeware, it’s not always plug and play.
I am by no means a professional astrologer, but I am a professional computer guy, so it works for me. Calculations that would have taken me hours or days in my youth with paper ephemeris, tables of houses, and a slide rule (google that) are now just a few mouse clicks. It does a number of things that I don’t even begin to understand, but I’m learning.
Mercury only runs backward for about three weeks. But astrologers also reckon the “shadow period” which begins at the point in it’s forward orbit adjacent to its backward travel limit; and ends when it’s return to forward motion passes the point where it turned backward. So while the actual retrograde motion is from May 10 to June 3, the shadow period goes from late April until just past the middle of June.
Does Mercury’s little dance actually cause all the problems we associate with it? Or do we just see it as a convenient reason we butt-dialed the ex? As I said, I used to be skeptical, but 2022 is tempting me to reconsider.
Besides, that’s the only explanation I can find for my airline believing that Denver, Colorado is located on the flight path between New York City and Houston, Texas. I have had to travel more than halfway across the country, just to travel back home.
Twice.
Mercury is laughing his ass off.
Thank you for reading this article. I hope it has entertained, and possibly educated. I’ll be back again soon.
I gratefully acknowledge the assistance of Ms. Renee Watt in pointing me in the right direction (pun intended) on some key astrological questions. She is a published astrologer and podcaster, and a delightful person to share Sun and Moon with.