Mercury in Retrograde

Mercury in retrograde is real, folks. 

I have always found horoscopes to be eerily accurate. I don’t mean the ones in the back of a magazine, but rather the in depth personality descriptions that tend to go with each sign. I’m a pisces, and the description of personality traits that go along with pisces are dead accurate. Whenever I have looked up another person’s sign and whether or not we are compatible, whatever personality issues I have already noticed are written right there in the description. I don’t understand it, but I do accept it. 

Recently, I have learned about the phenomenon that is mercury in retrograde. Here’s a great example of what the heck “mercury in retrograde” actually means:

Because Mercury is the planet situated closest to the Sun, its orbit is much shorter than Earth’s. About three or four times a year, Mercury speeds past Earth, and that is when we experience a Mercury retrograde period. If you were in a car and another car passed you, you could tell it was going faster than you. But if it slowed down and you then passed it, it would appear that that car was actually going backward. Then when the other car speeds up and passes you again, it kicks up all of the dust in the road. As Mercury speeds by, it is like a train flying past, creating a powerful, turbulent gust of “wind” in its wake. The turbulence and disruption Mercury creates when it retrogrades can affect what we feel on Earth in our everyday lives. (You can learn more here: https://www.astrologyzone.com/everything-you-need-to-know-about-mercury-retrograde/)

Every time I start to notice communication issues, it tends to be one of the mercury in retrograde periods. Like with my zodiac sign characteristics, I do not understand how this happens every single stinking time, but it does: mercury goes in retrograde, and communication with others plummets. 

Lately, I have had a heck of a time dealing with mail delivery. I tried Blue Apron’s home meal delivery service and they messed up my delivery date three times. Communication with them to resolve this was maddening and ineffective. Then, Hello, Fresh sent a box that was delivered an hour after it was “guaranteed” to arrive. Follow up communication with them has been problematic.

I had a package from Amazon that simply never showed up. 

I had a box that I needed to mail to a family member. I am usually all over getting things into the mail, but this box I kept bringing back and forth to work or staring at while it sat on my counter at home, not getting mailed. What was wrong with me? Why couldn’t I just get the box into the mail?

Mercury in retrograde.

Then, I ordered a new travel backpack. I was so excited to get this thing. It was shipped from England. DHL sent a notice saying my signature was required for delivery. Seriously?! There’s no one home during the day to sign for it and it was too late to change the address to my work address, plus packages are hit or miss when mailed to me at work because my workplace is huge. It’s best not to have mail delivered there, because it’s likely I’ll never see it.

So I went online to add permissions to leave the box, and I printed out a signature release to leave in the lobby of my building. I eagerly checked for status updates online. The box was out for delivery. Yay!

Then, the status changed to something vague about it being “with the courier.” I called. They said the currier was “overburdened” so my package was rescheduled for the next day. What the heck is that?! That's a thing that can happen? You go out with it on the truck, you don’t come back with it on the truck. Right? 

Mercury in retrograde. Sigh.

Luckily, mercury in retrograde is over for the time being ... until it happens again in December. My upcoming international trip was luckily, thankfully planned to coincidentally happen in between mercury in retrograde times. There is a good chance I will look to the heavens when planning future trips, too.