In today's Cosmic Self-Care, I'm breaking down why blaming Mercury retrograde for everything is actually disempowering and how to flip that script into a mindfulness practice instead. When tech issues or miscommunications happen during Mercury retrograde, I'm showing you how to get curious rather than defeated - asking questions like "Am I doing too much right now?" or "What might this be trying to tell me?" This mindset shift transforms frustrating transits into opportunities for reflection and growth, which is what astrology should actually do for us.
TIMESTAMPS
00:27 Understanding Mercury Retrograde
01:23 Mindfulness During Mercury Retrograde
03:48 Pop Culture Example: Mercury Retrograde
05:13 Reflecting on Mercury Retrograde
06:45 Conclusion and Next Steps
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TRANSCRIPT
Understanding Mercury Retrograde
We're talking today about Mercury retrograde as a mindfulness practice. I'm obsessed with this idea because it really grinds my gears when people blame astrology for things happening, and the reason it bothers me is not because. It's unfounded because look, mercury retrograde does bring frustrating circumstances a lot of the time, not all the time.
But the reason I really don't like when people blame the planets for things happening is because it presumes that you have no choice and how events unfold in your life, which is totally wrong. And I've said it a million times and I'll say it a million more. Astrology doesn't negate free will.
Mercury retrograde doesn't take away your agency, your ability to choose for yourself. So I think most of all this idea that, blame Mercury retrograde, it's just really disempowering. And the way to flip that script is to look at any transit as an opportunity for a mindfulness practice. So today we are going to do that with Mercury retrograde.
Mindfulness During Mercury Retrograde
So let's start with a scenario. Let's say you start a new podcast and you have a bunch of technical issues, like things are uploading strangely, you're sending one episode that was meant for Thursday out on Friday. There's just all kinds of Mercury retrograde esque things happening to you
if you are not approaching mercury retrograde with a mindful mentality. You're probably gonna get pissed off you. You're probably gonna blame Mercury retrograde, and you're then, maybe not consciously, but on some level, going to feel doomed. You're going to feel like, glitches and problems and frustrations are inevitable, and then it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because you're going to be going into it with that feeling and you're just setting yourself up for, at the very least, to feel really frustrated and to have a really bad experience doing it.
All because you have told yourself. I can't avoid these frustrations. They're bound to happen and it's just something I can't avoid because it's Mercury retrograde and there's a very defeated kind of feeling behind that, which guys, that is the opposite of what we want our astrology practice to do.
We want astrology to empower us and to help us feel more connected to our agency and our spirit. And. What we really want to get out of life and not like we have no choice in the matter. So if we have that same scenario, but we have a mindful approach, that same moment becomes an opportunity for reflection.
You might ask yourself a question like, am I doing too much right now? Like maybe all of these snafus are here to tell me that I'm trying to do a lot and maybe I need to slow down. How can I slow down? You could also open up the question, is this process working for me? Can I be kind to myself in the face of mistakes?
A mindful approach to the transits is a really simple shift. It goes from taking what's happening and making meaning out of it. To a more curious mindset, a questioning mindset. So instead of putting meaning onto what's happening immediately we get curious about it and we ask questions about what's happening.
Okay.
Pop Culture Example: Mercury Retrograde
I think too about a situation that happened recently in pop culture. I am not a pop culture gal. Like I don't really know a lot about what's going on, but I have seen. The memes and the videos of the CEO guy who was at some baseball game with his mistress and they were put on the kiss cam with the Coldplay song.
Fuck Around and Find Out Right During Mercury retrograde especially, but. Let's say that guy is really into astrology. He is an astronomer. So I don't know, maybe he could blame Mercury retrograde for that, right? Like he could say fuck, I shouldn't have done that during a Mercury retrograde.
I can't believe like Mercury retrograde did this to me. Or he could take that event happening as a cosmic nudge that he should be more honest in his life. Was I being too bold? And too arrogant going to a fucking public event. I got a lot of fuck words today. Sorry guys. Sorry, not sorry. We like to cuss around here. I would say it was definitely arrogant for him to go to a .Public event with his mistress and expect nothing to happen.
And yeah, you could get mad at Mercury retrograde, or you could use it as a moment to. Look at what you're doing right? And so for us as people who are hopefully not doing things like that now is a good time.
Reflecting on Mercury Retrograde
We're about in the middle of the Mercury retrograde cycle for this current cycle that we're going through to ask what is Mercury retrograde nudging you to reflect on or potentially revise in your life?
I would say to consider the house topics that are activated for you. I posted something a couple weeks ago on my Instagram that has. Different themes for each of the house topics depending on where Leo is for you. So if you wanna find Mercury Rx overview that post on my Instagram can help you with that.
You can also check out the astrology cheat sheet that will help you pull your chart. And then you can see for yourself where Leo is in your chart. It's also got keywords for the house topics, so that will help you just get a sense for what. Areas of life are up for review.
You could also keep this really loose and simple and just think since
you could also just keep it really loose and simple and think since July 17th, which is when Mercury Station retrograde, you could even go back like a week or two, say two weeks before that when the shadow period began. What has been bumpy, what's been a little glitchy. Where have things been slower than maybe I'd like, or where have I just hit some bumps and what might that be trying to tell me, what is the universe communicating through these events about what needs to be revised, what needs to be thought through a little bit more and what actually may not be a thing that I wanna follow through with, given what I know now.
That Mercury has been retrograde.
Conclusion and Next Steps
So I hope that is helpful. I would love to hear what comes up for you, what you realize in this mindful, reflective practice. And really more than anything, this is a mindset shift. It's not something you have to like really try hard to do. It's definitely a practice.
It may take some work to shift your mindset, but it's just a matter of being open and curious about. The events and lessons that are coming down the pipe from the transits instead of blaming and ascribing meaning and leaving it at that. So yeah, would love to hear your thoughts and reflections.
Feel free to leave them in the comments. I publish this on YouTube, on all podcast platforms and on Substack where you can get the full transcript. You can leave comments on substack or YouTube.
We will be back tomorrow to talk about how your birth chart can help you make decisions. I'm excited to share that with you, but in the meantime, have a fantastic Tuesday and I'll talk to you guys soon. Bye.
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