Buckle Up, Mercury Retrograde is upon us.
We see the words “Mercury is in Retrograde” all across the internet, but have we taken time to really understand what it means? When we think of Mercury Retrograde the first idea that comes to mind is “Bad Times”. I would like to challenge that notion. In this article, we will explore what Mercury Retrograde is, how it affects your mental health, and how to use this and all retrogrades for your benefit!
What is Mercury Retrograde?
Each planet has themes and aspects that it is associated with. It is my hope eventually to go through each planet but let’s start with Mercury.
Mercury is named after the Greco-Roman deity of the same name, or you may more commonly know Him as Hermes. Hermes was the messenger to the Gods. We can assume then that the qualities of Mercury govern communication, travel, and yes, even technology. Mercury works to help us transmit messages by controlling how we communicate and how we process that communication.
Three or four times per year Mercury will appear to go backward in the sky. This is called a retrograde. Mercury gets a bad rap when it goes retrograde for its tendencies to shake up communication and understanding of that communication. This causes many highly sensitive peoples to experience miscommunication, hiccups at work, frustrations with their partners, and delays. It is an uncomfortable time. We also have the added integration of what sign Mercury is in when it goes retrograde. The first Mercury Retrograde of the year falls on Friday, January 14th, 2022 in the sign of Aquarius. Aquarius governs innovation, technology, and surprising events. Aquarius is known for its strong sense of independence. However, that is for the astrologist to discuss further. Our interest lies in how does this matter for my mental health. First, we must tackle some misconceptions about Mercury Retrograde.
Misconceptions about Mercury Retrograde
The biggest misconception about Mercury Retrograde is that the planet itself is the cause of all your woes. If only that tiny blue planet would spin the right way! Then your partner and you wouldn’t be fighting this week, or your boss wouldn’t be so nitpicky about your work, and your mother! Let’s not get started about people’s mothers during Mercury Retrograde.
As you can guess, Mercury is not the reason all these problems are happening. It is the reason that issues that are underlying already are getting more highlighted. Mercury invites us to confront the issues we may be avoiding. Such as the example with your partner. Do you and your partner have needs you haven’t communicated to one another? Has an aspect that isn’t the best match for your compatibility and love languages that you swept under the rug beginning to peep its head?
Mercury Retrograde invites us to go into the shadow side of our communication. It is a period of self-reflection on how we communicate, and how we receive that communication. It is a period of revisiting the things we have been avoiding.
How does it affect my Mental Health?
Mercury Retrograde calls us to revisit the things we have been avoiding. This involves past relationships, patterns, unresolved emotional conflicts, and traumas. What gives it an even worse rap, is that we do not want to relive and revisit these past dynamics. So, we work against what the energetic pull is trying to get us to do. This can lead to more stress and more anxiety as we work with resistance against what is being highlighted in our lives in this current moment.
This conflict can bring many internal pains. When we don’t have a resolution to the inner narrative of thoughts, emotions, memories, and people of the past that are more likely to resurface during this planetary shift as an opportunity to integrate them. Mercury Retrograde is an invitation to purge what is no longer functioning for us, and understand why. This is a time to shift and rewrite patterns within yourself that are causing stagnation and distress in your life and an invitation for personal growth.
This brings people to a mindset of how can I survive Mercury Retrograde vs. how do I thrive in it.
Mercury is asking you to relinquish control for a short little while and work with the energetic flow of confronting the things that you don’t want to. Mercury is your grandfather surprisingly visiting the house and rolling up the rug to find all the dust you’ve neglected to vacuum. It’s the energy of clearing things out and slowing down.
When you survive Mercury Retrograde, you are being overly cautious. Checking your work twice and sitting in your frustration until it is all over. Shifting blame on the planets instead of taking personal responsibility yourself. What would happen if you try to move with this energy of Mercury Retrograde vs. against? The results may surprise you. So how do we thrive in this retrograde? Shadow Work.
What is Shadow Work? What does it have to do with my Mental Health?
The Shadow was a term popularized by Carl Jung. It is described as the part within you that holds the thoughts, feelings, needs, and desires that our main consciousness finds unacceptable. Doing shadow work in exploring this side of yourself can reveal this entire inner world of not only our vulnerabilities but real aspects of ourselves that we may be repressing.
Many individuals call this the “dark side of the self”. That doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad. The shadow side serves an important function of holding the parts of us that may not have the environment or circ*mstances safe enough to be expressed. Through dialogue with your shadow, you can form a deeper connection to yourself and the parts that have been repressed. This can help us become a more integrated version of ourselves that is more aligned with all aspects, the ones we deem acceptable and unacceptable.
When you repress your Shadow, it often refuses to remain repressed for long. It can express itself through behaviors that we may not always love about ourselves.
Symptoms of a repressed Shadow can include:
•Self-soothing with drug and alcohol
•Talking negatively about yourself
•Experiencing chronic stress and unhappiness
•Compromising your sense of self for others in hopes they won’t abandon you
•Experiencing neurodiverse issues such as depression and anxiety disorders
•Compromising your sense of self for others in hopes they won’t abandon you
•Unable to start passion projects out of fear and self-rejection
The process of integrating these aspects of yourself is called “Parts Work”. This is a technique I utilize in my therapy work with clients as most people talk about themselves in parts to begin with. I am sure that you’ve experienced the conflict of “this part of me wants to do this, but the other part of me says I can’t”. This internal conflict can occur when parts are out of odds with one another. Shadow work is just one aspect of the larger therapeutic work towards a fully integrated sense of self.
Some benefits of Shadow Work include:
•Feeling more whole or integrated as a human being
•Improved communication and relationships with others
•Healing internalized generational trauma
•Learning healthy ways to meet your needs
•Learning your wants and desires and allowing space to act upon them
•Maintain healthy boundaries and appropriately assert your needs in relationships
•Make actions towards your goals
Shadow Work is a deeply therapeutic process and works best with the help of a therapist to help process the feelings, thoughts, and experiences that come up. As well as giving perspectives that you may not have the objectivity to provide for yourself. However, I have provided below some shadow work journaling exercises that may be helpful in your thriving during this Mercury Retrograde!
Mercury Retrograde Shadow Work Journal Exercises
•What are the major themes that have been coming up in my life recently?
•What emotion do I try to avoid? What are you afraid will happen if you feel it?
•What is the biggest promise you made to yourself that you have broken? How does it make you feel?
•If you truly loved yourself what would your life look like? It is very different from how you live now? Why?
•Do you hold grudges against someone? If so, why are you not letting it go yet?
•What do you need to forgive yourself for?
•What am I most afraid of, why and how can I overcome these fears/
•What are things that easily trigger me and why do they trigger me?
•Who do I want to become?
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