A January escape to Sheen Falls Lodge: The perfect, luxury getaway
A January escape to Sheen Falls Lodge: The perfect, luxury getaway

Dominique McMullan

Living room inspiration to save from Irish homes
Living room inspiration to save from Irish homes

Megan Burns

January’s best new beauty launches
January’s best new beauty launches

Holly O'Neill

Floral designer Sylvia Abraham on creativity, flowers and the importance of passion
Floral designer Sylvia Abraham on creativity, flowers and the importance of passion

Sarah Finnan

The pieces to splurge on this payday
The pieces to splurge on this payday

Sarah Finnan

Three years after Ashling Murphy’s tragic death, Ireland’s fight against femicide and the silencing of women continues
Three years after Ashling Murphy’s tragic death, Ireland’s fight against femicide and the silencing of...

Roe McDermott

Save the Date! Announcing the IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year Awards 2025
Save the Date! Announcing the IMAGE PwC Businesswoman of the Year Awards 2025

IMAGE

Hungry? This super-easy vegan bruschetta is the bomb
Hungry? This super-easy vegan bruschetta is the bomb

Meg Walker

The top reasons for divorce in modern Ireland
The top reasons for divorce in modern Ireland

Michelle Browne

Plant-based food entrepreneur Aisling Cullen shares her life in food
Plant-based food entrepreneur Aisling Cullen shares her life in food

Sarah Gill

Image / Agenda / Breaking Stories

Batten down the hatches: Mercury is in retrograde again


By Sarah Gill
24th Aug 2023

Unsplash

Batten down the hatches: Mercury is in retrograde again

Don’t blame it on the sunshine, don’t blame it on the moonlight, don’t blame it on the good times — blame it on Mercury retrograde.

Have you been uncharacteristically snappy lately? Scattered, disorganised, and just all-round exhausted? Well, that is obviously not your fault and should categorically be chalked down to this eternally-unwelcome astrological event.

Coinciding with the start of Virgo season, until September 15, Mercury is now back in retrograde.

Mercury going into retrograde and, in turn, throwing the lives of many into chaos and intense inner turmoil has become something of a meme in recent years, but what does it actually mean?

Each of the planets within our solar system orbit the fun at different speeds and distances. Where it takes Earth 365 days to complete our spin around the sun, Mercury does it in 88, and on an almost quarterly rotation, it goes through a three-week retrograde cycle where it appears to switch direction and move backwards.

Put simply, retrograde basically means that the planet looks like it’s moving in reverse. Of course, it’s not actually doing that, it’s something of an optical illusion from our vantage point. This, however, doesn’t make the havoc it wreaks any less apparent.

Mercury is the ruler of communication, which can take the shape of human interaction, virtual contact, or monetary transactions. So, when it’s in retrograde, all of these elements require much more time and effort to do to a satisfactory degree. It’s for this reason that astrologists advise us to be much more hesitant when making big decisions like accepting a job offer or engaging in arguments because miscommunication and hastiness reign supreme during this time.

Essentially, Mercury being in retrograde can be quite the stressful time. It can feel a lot like the universe is planting rogue banana skins for you to slip on at every turn, but as with every celestial phenomenon, there are lessons to be learned.

Instead of holding up your hands and accepting defeat for the next three weeks, treat this time as a personal challenge. Allow yourself to reframe your own frames of reference, think outside the box, and try to look at things from multiple perspectives. If you feel pushed out of equilibrium, give yourself the chance to find your footing and rebalance yourself before reacting. It can be a stifling time, but as they say: this too shall pass.

The second of three instances where Mercury will go into retrograde throughout the year, we’ll be thrown back into disarray once again this year, from 13 December to 1 January 2024.

Godspeed!