Mercury Retrograde: Looking Inwards
In my previous post looking at Mercury retrograde, I began to look at what Mercury means and how that meaning shifts when it turns retrograde. Now I want to look more deeply at Mercury retrograde energy and ways we can understand it and make the best use of it.
I mentioned in that first post that Mercury symbolises the conscious mind, which we can use to rationalise our feelings and repress our deeper self or to understand that deeper self better. This process of maturing in the way we use our Mercury is a key part of the retrograde process. As a society, we are often encouraged to resist this process of psychological maturing and individuation, perhaps because we are better consumers when we externalise all our needs and desires. Maybe all our complaints about Mercury retro meaning our car has broken down are a symptom of this resistance. Better to trivialise than to do the hard work of inner growth. When Mercury turns retrograde, we are called to look within. To think about why we are doing whatever we are doing, to consider how we feel about it, in short, to question everything. External manifestations like cars breaking down or technology going awry are a message to slow down, to review our plans, to take a different approach.
In alchemy, Mercury is seen as the agent of change and I think this is key to understanding Mercury more deeply. Mercury is the energy which synthesises, helps all the other energies present to break down and transform. In astrology, one of the roles of Mercury is to travel between the conscious and unconscious minds, recalling Mercury's mythological role as guide and psychopomp. He was the only one of the Olympian gods able to travel up to Mount Olympos and also down to the underworld, where he sometimes served as a guide for lost souls. This process of travelling between different levels of consciousness and being is a key part of the retrograde cycle when we often find ideas or even people from our past coming back into our lives in some form. These synchronicities are an invitation to integrate and synthesise our own life experience,
In my first post, I also touched on Mercury as an agent of patriarchal culture, with much of his mythology coming down to us from the Greeks and Romans who were in the process of highlighting the rational and logical at the same time as repressing more irrational or chaotic ways of understanding the world. Mercury is derived from Hermes of Arcadia, a pastoral god who operated at least as much from his instincts as from his powers of reasoning. Mercury retrograde links us back to our more irrational and instinctive ways of understanding the world, depending always on the sign and house placement of our natal Mercury. We think of communication as relying on words, spoken or written, but there are many other ways to communicate. Mercury retrograde is a brilliant time to experiment with non-verbal communication and with anything which awakens our intuition. Dreamwork, active imagination or pathworking, making art and psychodrama all bring insights and knowledge which are beyond our rational minds. They can help us to make more personal, symbolic and imagination connections with both people and ideas.
In astrology, Mercury is generally considered to be an extrovert energy, showing how we make connections with the world around us. The duality of Mercury direct / retrograde might also be seen as reflecting the duality of extrovert / introvert energies. When Mercury is direct we experience the more familiar extrovert side of the symbolism and when Mercury turns retrograde, we turn our energies inward, processing what we already know rather than seeking new knowledge. Mercury retrograde is a time for being rather than doing, for opening ourselves to receive what the world has to offer rather than proactively taking or seeking it. We slow down, open up, respond. This cycle is necessary and exists in many forms around us. The ebb and flow of the moon's energies show us the same shifts from light to dark, expansion to contraction.
Another way to frame these shifts takes as a starting point the idea that Mercury is not male but is an androgynous figure. Mercury direct then becomes the "male" version of the energy - proactive, focused, directed and in control. Mercury retrograde becomes the "female" version - responsive, receptive, instinctive and intuitive. As I've discussed before, I'm uncomfortable with dividing dualities by gender because it's so culturally loaded, but astrology, as we practice it in the west, is the product of a patriarchal culture. Anything which redresses the balance away from a system where most of the planetary energies are seen as male and women can only be mothers (the Moon) or lovers (Venus) is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.
I mentioned in that first post that Mercury symbolises the conscious mind, which we can use to rationalise our feelings and repress our deeper self or to understand that deeper self better. This process of maturing in the way we use our Mercury is a key part of the retrograde process. As a society, we are often encouraged to resist this process of psychological maturing and individuation, perhaps because we are better consumers when we externalise all our needs and desires. Maybe all our complaints about Mercury retro meaning our car has broken down are a symptom of this resistance. Better to trivialise than to do the hard work of inner growth. When Mercury turns retrograde, we are called to look within. To think about why we are doing whatever we are doing, to consider how we feel about it, in short, to question everything. External manifestations like cars breaking down or technology going awry are a message to slow down, to review our plans, to take a different approach.
In my first post, I also touched on Mercury as an agent of patriarchal culture, with much of his mythology coming down to us from the Greeks and Romans who were in the process of highlighting the rational and logical at the same time as repressing more irrational or chaotic ways of understanding the world. Mercury is derived from Hermes of Arcadia, a pastoral god who operated at least as much from his instincts as from his powers of reasoning. Mercury retrograde links us back to our more irrational and instinctive ways of understanding the world, depending always on the sign and house placement of our natal Mercury. We think of communication as relying on words, spoken or written, but there are many other ways to communicate. Mercury retrograde is a brilliant time to experiment with non-verbal communication and with anything which awakens our intuition. Dreamwork, active imagination or pathworking, making art and psychodrama all bring insights and knowledge which are beyond our rational minds. They can help us to make more personal, symbolic and imagination connections with both people and ideas.
Another way to frame these shifts takes as a starting point the idea that Mercury is not male but is an androgynous figure. Mercury direct then becomes the "male" version of the energy - proactive, focused, directed and in control. Mercury retrograde becomes the "female" version - responsive, receptive, instinctive and intuitive. As I've discussed before, I'm uncomfortable with dividing dualities by gender because it's so culturally loaded, but astrology, as we practice it in the west, is the product of a patriarchal culture. Anything which redresses the balance away from a system where most of the planetary energies are seen as male and women can only be mothers (the Moon) or lovers (Venus) is a good thing, as far as I'm concerned.