Mercury "Retr-oh-grade"

Expect more intractable political posturing as well as serious deficits in listening skills with those with whom you hold nearest and dearest. Mercury (ruling our ability to clearly project and perceive information) is in Taurus, the sign of the baked potato. It’ll be retrograding in that sign from April 26th till May 20th. Till then telepathy is strongly recommended. Otherwise the chance that you’ll ever get your point across is slim to nothing.

Mercury retrograde has been popularized by the mass media (which I’ll never refer to as being even remotely liberal) as an influence that induces catatonia and encourages sloth. That interpretation is at the very least a gross over statement and at most, is often abused as a cosmic rationalization for bad behavior.

Mercury, traveling so closely to the Sun goes retrograde more often than any other planet. It does so for three, three week intervals during each year. That’s roughly 20 % of the time.

Though the term "retrograde motion" does suggest that a planet pulls a celestial U turn, if that were true it would create an unfathomable astrophysical calamity. If you imagine that you are driving on the highway (aka freeway, autobahn, M road, etc) and you pass a car going in the same direction and it appears to go backwards, that phenomenon demonstrates the mechanics of retrograde motion. The Earth simply passes by another planet. Astrologically this seems to internalize planets which typically manifest themselves externally (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto) and externalizes the planets which typically manifest themselves internally (Mercury, Venus, and Mars).

Mercury retrograde is great for editing, and organizing paperwork. Just don’t over schedule your self especially if travelling. The whole purpose of it is to deepen one’s thought processes. It can inspire one to change their minds, though this is rare when it's retrograding in a fixed sign such as Taurus.

Anyway it’s not as though most have been even remotely capable of critical thinking since Saturn entered Gemini temporarily in the summer of 2000. This heralded the onslaught of convoluted reality TV and the total absence of objective non-corporate sponsored media that became seemingly permanent in April of 2001. Saturn has been in Gemini since then. It also apparently compelled our current regime to employ the doctrine of concocting facts and repeating them ad nauseum. The most recent fallout from this transit has been the wholesale whitewashing of the war.

Fortuitously, Saturn will finally leave Gemini and enter Cancer on June 4th. Maybe then and then only will the voices of dissent in the former land of the lively discussion be considered as thought provoking as opposed to being vitriolically unpatriotic.

There is another word for cultures that are intolerant of criticism for their leader but it thankfully escapes me right now.