Mercury Retrograde Cycle – June/July 2019

As the readers of my Blog may know, I regard the Mercury retrograde period that occurs every four months to be much more than just the 3-week period when Mercury itself is retrograde. Yes, that period is significant, but not always in the way people think. It is better, in my opinion, to think of this period as part of an 8-fold cycle of meaning and purpose that can reveal new thoughts and ideas for us to consider, rather than merely be a time of inconvenience and problems with cars and computers breaking down. In fact, the general public has grabbed onto the Mercury retrograde period so much that even people who don’t believe in astrology can be heard blaming something that doesn’t work out for them on Mercury retrograde. Fortunately, Mercury retrograde is not that bad and can be quite constructive, especially if we attempt to use it consciously and deliberately.

For those who desire to know the specifics of this entire cycle, please read Jim Schultz’s “AstroWatch” starting with June 20^th to see the specific dates and longitudes for this particular Mercury retrograde cycle. To summarize, the cycle runs from June 20, 2019 until August 14^th before leaving the territory that Mercury passes through three times. You can read more about it Here:

On June 20^th, we entered the ‘Shadow’ period, which is where Mercury will retrograde back to before turning direct on July 31^st. This is typically a more important period than we are usually aware of since we tend to focus solely on the retrograde period itself. The meaning of the ‘shadow’ period is that one is likely to feel an urge, or even pressure, to complete projects or to finalize matters that one has been working on for the last 6-8 weeks. This pressure can create its own problems for us. I have noticed that a person can respond to this pressure with a false sense of urgency that causes them to do or say something in an ill-timed, reactive way that creates new and needless issues. The reason why this sense of urgency is false is that the Mercury retrograde will itself bring a person to where they need to be. In other words, one may not be ready to say or do anything strong yet. A process of some type is still in play and it’s best to respect that process and let things develop further before acting. Speaking too soon or too abruptly is just not worth the price one will have to pay, especially when since waiting is for the right time is a better strategy.

The second purpose of the ‘shadow’ period is to prioritize those things one must do to prepare for the coming Mercury retrograde period itself. This includes backing up one’s computer or making sure that it is, doing preventive maintenance on cars, appliances, etc. I do not believe that Mercury retrograde ‘causes’ things to go wrong. What I think is happening is that we get very busy in our daily lives and put off doing the necessary activities that are part of life’s ‘everyday affairs.’ Thus, there is a kind of build-up of incomplete cycles that must be attended to or something will occur in the retrograde itself and we’ll have to stop and take care of it.

More importantly though, the Mercury retrograde period does have a constructive importance and purpose. One cycle is ending and a new one is beginning. The nature of this cycle is a mental one. In Greek mythology Mercury was associated with Hermes, the Messenger. They believed something the modern human mind rejects, which is that our thoughts are not always merely our own. Astrologers agree with this ancient view and when we pay close attention to the Mercury retrograde cycle, we may get evidence of this. In particular, on July 21, 2019, the Sun and Mercury will conjunct at 28° Cancer in what is called the ‘Inferior conjunction.’ This marks a time when a new ‘seed idea’ can be introduced into our psyche. The idea may still be hidden from our consciousness or we might be aware of it as gentle stirrings, hints, or imaginings. But, as the retrograde period continues, the newly forming ideas may emerge into our conscious mind, especially if we remain alert to it. These new ideas will have a chance to grow in the next few months and may turn out to be quite important to our progress. I often think it is unfortunate that this very important aspect of the Mercury retrograde cycle is so overlooked and that our focus is only on the ‘bad’ or inconvenient things that can happen at this time.

Hopefully, if we are open to experimenting with the information I’m expressing here, there might be some wonderful revelations in store for us.