Did you happen to look outside your window this past Sunday night? If you did, you probably saw that big, beautiful, bright moon staring right back at you. If you’re wondering why it was bigger than usual, it’s because of a special phase in the moon’s cycle that brings it closer to the Earth. But that’s not all that happened in the skies that night; Mercury is now in retrograde.
What Is A Supermoon
While it might look like the moon is about to crash right into us, it’s really very innocent. A supermoon occurs when the full moon syncs with the moon’s closest approach to Earth in its orbit, known as its perigee. Supermoons make the moon appear a little brighter and closer than normal[1].
The term “supermoon” has only been recently in the past 40 years, but it received a whole lot of attention in late 2016 when three supermoons occurred in a row. The supermoon of November 2016 was also the closest supermoon in 69 years, but a closer supermoon will be coming in the 2030s [1]
What is Mercury Retrograde
Mercury retrograde refers to the backward movement of the planet. While it is impossible for a planet to move backward, it does appear to be moving in reverse. Normally, the planets move from west to east through the stars, which is known as prograde motion. But periodically, the motion changes and the planet moves from east to west, called retrograde motion [2].
The retrograde phase only lasts a short while before it returns back to prograde motion. Based on a heliocentric or Sun-centered model of the solar system, retrograde motion is easy to explain. Retrograde occurs roughly when a faster-moving planet catches up to and passes a slower moving planet [2].
What Astrologists Say About Mercury Retrograde
But what does mercury moving in retrograde mean for us spiritually? In astrology, the planet Mercury is in charge of our intelligence, mind, memory, and all forms of communication from talking and texting to writing. It also affects our self-expression and communication style. In a more public sense, it rules commerce, computers, telephones, transportation and air travel [3].
According to astrology, the way that Mercury functions in a person’s birth chart explain a great deal about how they generate ideas and share them. It indicates how someone makes sense of the world we live in and how we see it. During these three weeks when Mercury is retrograde, your mental faculties are not really running on all cylinders [3].
When this event happens (about 3-4 times a year), all forms of communication go out of whack. Normal communication becomes unreliable, filled with misinformation where important data is missing or misunderstood [3]. The passage of information from one person to the other seems to be unintentionally cloudy or confused in some way, like a game of cosmic ‘Broken Telephone’. After all, Mercury does rule the mind, mental clarity, talking, self-expression and overall communication. During the retrograde period, a person’s intellectual, communication, and mental processes are less acute and they are prone to making mistakes [3].
The best advice for those trying to get through Mercury Retrograde in one piece: leave all your big decisions for after this period. Mercury retrograde lasts for 3 weeks, with this period ending on December 23rd. Wait until all your mental faculties are back at 100% before making any possibly life-changing decisions.
