Mercury Retrograde began today

at 4:41 a.m. and will continue until March 17th. In 2013, all the Mercury retrograde periods will be in water signs. According to Alpha Life Trends, this means that:

Issues relating to the emotional aspects of feelings, beliefs and inner essence becomes the key aspects for this time. Mercury brings forward important information that relates to our beliefs, passion and the power of our feelings moving our life and expressions forward.

Mercury Retrograde 

 

Wonder of Wonders: Jupiter and its four “Galilean” Moons

Jupiter and four of its moons. A Wikipedia Commons photo

If you want to feel the wonder of Creation, just take a look up at the nighttime sky when its full of stars. Even in a city today, you can see Jupiter right overhead. It’s presently in Gemini. When I was little, my father would set up his telescope in our driveway and get Jupiter in view. I marveled then and I marvel now to see the moons around Jupiter. If you look through a telescope for a couple of nights, you’ll see that the moons are moving. That is amazing!!! These four, easily visible moons, are called the Galilean moons, since Galileo could also see them. That’s amazing too!!!

The moon is in Sagittarius, aligned with the Galactic Center

A view of the night sky near Sagittarius, enhanced to show better contrast and detail in the dust lanes. The principal stars in Sagittarius are indicated in red. From Wikipedia Commons

Today, the moon is in Sagittarius. That means it’s aligned with the Galactic Center. If you want to look at the Galactic Center, just look at the moon and you’ll be looking in the right direction. To see the moon, you’ll have to wake up early, because the moon isn’t visible until early in the morning around 5:00 a.m.

What is Mercury Retrograde?

The Roman God Mercury painted by Hendrick Goltzius (1558-1617). This image is in the public domain and was retrieved from Wikipedia Commons.

Mercury is the planet closest to the sun in the Solar System. In astrology, Mercury is called the messenger of the gods and rules communications, travel, trickery, and healing. The mythological god Mercury is usually depicted with wings on his heels or head. The planet Mercury appears to go backwards when it goes around the sun. That’s Mercury Retrograde.

The retrograde periods last about three weeks and occur about three times a year.

The next Mercury Retrograde period will be in Scorpio from November 6th to 26th. Look out!

After all the trouble I had with my computer this last Mercury Retrograde period in Leo, I’m thinking that maybe in November I’ll play it safe and stick to cleaning my house and writing Christmas cards.

More Mercury Retrograde problems–from diverted mail to cancelled flights to computer viruses to threats of being “downsized”

Here are some communication/travel/technology problems I heard about from friends that occurred during the last Mercury Retrograde:

• A friend’s son was about to close on the purchase of his first house but a check he had been promised did not arrive in the mail as promised. It turned out that the envelope containing the check had been addressed incorrectly and had be delivered to someone else’s address.
• While flying back from a work travel, a friend’s flight became delayed and then cancelled at her connecting flight with the result that she had to stay overnight and arrived home a day late.
• Someone’s modem broke
• The guy who fixed my hard drive and helped me upload the operating system, utilities, drivers, updates, and software to repair my “injured” computer told me that 75 percent of the tech support calls he had been received in the last couple of weeks (during Mercury Retrograde) had been because of computer viruses, a much higher percentage than usual. He confided that at his home, one end of an electric cord he had bought only three months before blew up and turned black.
• Someone I know was shocked to receive a notice that his place of employment was trying to downsize him.

Did you have similar problelms between July 14th and August 7th?

Two computers failured during Mercury Retrograde

Yesterday I said that I would tell you about the problems I had during the last Mercury Retrograde period. Well, this is what happened.

Not one, but two of my computers broke. One of the them, it was the hard drive. That meant that I had to not only get a new hard drive, but also load the operating system, drivers, utilities, updates, and all my software!!!

It took over a week to get everything straightened out–coincidentally, just as soon as Mercury came out of Mercury Retrograde.

The other broken computer? I haven’t taken it on yet, but am spending my time catching up on a week’s lost work with the one that’s fixed.

Mercury Retrograde in Leo is about to begin!

Amazingly, this appears to be a Mercury Retrograde I’m going to love. Usually Merc Retro periods can be amazingly frustrating as far as communication goes, which includes means of communications such as computers, software, and cell phones.

OK, already my desktop computer has gone south. Also, I spent one extremely frustrating day in which I never did figure out why one line among many lines in a PhotoShop image would not show up when I placed the photo into my End of the World 2012 Movie. In the end, I figured out how to show what I wanted to show in another way. Finally, (old wives’ tale: bad luck comes in threes), the third thing: my cell phone modem that connects me to the internet not only would not connect, but it turned out that the cell phone tower needed to be repaired which kept me www-less for a day.

So, I must admit, I have had some Mercury Retrograde-type problems already and Mercury was only in pre-retrograde. The closest planet to the sun has almost stopped moving today and is supposed to begin retrograde motion in a couple of days.

July 15th to August 8th, 2012 Mercury in Leo (retrograde) remind us what we truly love. This respite cycles you back to your own unique story. It’s time to journal, and reflect on your ambitions, how you shine, and what you long to create.

Some serendipity happens that puts you in the spotlight. You reconfirm your talent for leading and encouraging others. You help someone see their own uniqueness. Children, or another kind of pride and joy — like your artistic creation — becomes a preoccupation. This could be time to revive a creative idea, give yourself a pep talk, and make plans to bring it to fruition.

Mercury Retrograde 2012

Recent August Mercury Retrograde Experiences

Well, Mercury Retrograde is over now. How did you manage during that time?

By chance, I was away on a travel for almost the whole month of August. It seemed as if my travel, which is usually adversely affected by Mercury Retrograde, began as soon as the little planet began its backward trek. I return home almost as soon as the retrograde period was over. I am happy to report that there were no delays, re-routings, missed flights, or other travel problems.

Were there any Merc. Retro problems? I must admit that I feel grateful that I bothered to look up the predictions of this recent retrograde time. Since Mercury would be going backward from Virgo to Leo, the astrologers suggested problems with the communications, especially so since Mercury rules Virgo. They emphasized taking care to articulate carefully during confusing interactions with others. These incidents of misunderstanding did turn up. I remember a number of times when I especially remembered this suggestion and took the time to clarify my meaning and also to make sure I understood the other person’s meaning. It helped to know what to expect ahead of time. Of course, this is a good suggestion for communicating effectively at any time.

Photo of the Small Planet Mercury about to go Retrograde

The Planet Mercury from a Wikipedia article on Mercury

According to an information-filled Wikipedia article, Mercury is similar in appearance to the Earth’s moon. It has both craters, smooth plains, and no atmosphere. Unlike the moon, it has an iron core, which gives it a magnetic field. However, Mercury’s magnetic field is only one percent the strength of the Earth’s.

Mercury is about to go retrograde on August 2nd. This small planet has a great affect on communications, travel, and relationships between people and can cause havoc during its retrograde periods, which lasts about three weeks.

Mercury Retrograde will begin in Virgo on August 2nd

In making plans for next month, I see that Mercury will begin to go retrograde on August 2nd. Mercury will be in the 2nd degree of Virgo at that time and will be moving backward or retrograde into Leo from our perspective here on Earth. Of course, the planet Mercury is not really going backward. It is just that Mercury, a small planet very close to the sun, is going around the sun. From our vantage point here on Earth, Mercury appears to go backward as it circles the sun in an orbit of about 90 Earth days.