Happy Holiday.

Officially, Mercury is retrograde from Sept. 6 to Sept. 26, as duly noted here.

I have to listen to other definitions, and the more painful definition is that Mercury goes backwards. Which is patently false. The planet can’t, or probably won’t, spin around and dramatically change course in my lifetime. While it could happen, I doubt it. I suspect that the planets will follow their prescribed orbs and orbits, and continue to circle the sun at the standard rate, for the next few hundred and thousands of years.

Mercury isn’t going backwards.

Planetary dynamics, think about it. However, Mercury spins around the sun every 88 days or so. Takes us, here on Planet Earth, about a year to go around the sun. Three-four times a year? Mercury laps us. However, to understand the apparent dynamics, and why this is called “retrograde” in my (our) astrological terms?

Picture this, center lane of the three-lane interstate. You’re driving. Motoring along at the usual 65 MPH. Moving with the flow of traffic. Some guy, going maybe 70 or 72 MPH, he’s cruising up the fast lane, on your left. Glance in your rearview. Look at the side mirror. Hit the radio to change that song because it’s stupid and has an annoying vocal in it, who writes this stuff, who is the singer? Remind me not to buy that album. Watch as that guy comes up slow on your left side. Jut as he’s rolling past, glance out your window.

Me, in a pick-up, I’d look down, but the position and elevation doesn’t much matter. Look. Watch as that car slowly passes on the left. Feels like, looks like, you’re moving backwards. You’re going the speed limit, 65, and that guy slowly passing on your left, he’s probably not going much more than 70, still, for a fleeting moment, it feels like I’m slowly reversing down the freeway. Hardly the case, though.

That’s a visual interpretation, a quick way to look at what happens.

Mercury isn’t going backwards.

Mercury is going retrograde. Means that Mercury is appearing to move in a manner not consistent with its observed behavior and “normal” planetary motion. Again, apply some logic, though and the motion is both predictable and logical. Simple physics. Not even complicated stuff, just look at a couple of tennis balls or a tennis ball, a golf ball and a basketball. All revolving at a different pace.

Mercury isn’t going backwards.

However, forewarned is forearmed. Mercury in apparent retrograde motion, the best technical definition, this affects communication. Thought, talk, electrical stuff. Printed words. All of that is impacted.

True story: I had a truck and the radiator would only leak when Mercury was retrograde. Huh. Ask on the wrong day and I’ll tell you I don’t even believe in this stuff. Empirical evidence is hard to refute.

There are a couple of traditional astrological themes that are attached to Mercury being retrograde, like, “Don’t sign a contract, don’t buy a car, don’t buy a computer, don’t sell a house,” and so on. Kind of limiting. Reminds me a turtle. That’s not happening, the wheels of commerce don’t stop. Maybe slow down, or, as one friend suggested, the wheels have fallen off, but that’s not the way I deal with it.

Mercury Retrograde is a good time to do “RE” activities. Revisit, review, renew, rework.

A cousin of mine, a Gemini, he pushed LaoTsu’s Tao Te Ching. Good text to review now. RE-view.

The Tao (free PDF) is here.

Laeti edimus qui nos subigant!
Two Meat Tuesday (the book)
astrofish.net
(cure for the common horoscope)
Pink Cake A commonplace book.
Bexar County Line

Apple’s Big Cats:
Get your Mac OS Snow Leopard here!