Mercury Retrograde

My daughter recently traveled to another city to meet up with her brothers for a vacation. Sure enough, Mercury went retrograde about half way through the week and her non-stop flight home was cancelled and she ended up having to spend the night in a hotel put up by the airline. She managed to catch the next available flight home, but she had to transfer planes and sit through a 10 hour layover in Houston. This is very typical of Mercury retrograde.

Notable historical events affected by Mercury retrograde include:

• The sinking of the Titanic [April 1912]
• The sabotage of the Hindenburg [1937]
• The sinking of the Spanish Armada in 1588 [an unexpected gale blew up]
• Columbus set sail to India and by accident wound up in America [1492]
• Atlanta Art Association chartered jet crashed in Paris, killing 130 [1962].
• Astronaut Gordon Cooper experienced radar malfunction, which caused delay and was forced to do manual entry on the final mission of Project Mercury Space Program [1963]
• European Space Communication satellite exploded upon takeoff [1977] Pakistani airline crash in Saudi Arabia killed 156; New Zealand airliner crashed in Antarctica killing 257 [both 1979]
• Delta airline jumbo jet crash at D/FW airport killed 137 [1985] AT&T phone operations disrupted for 9 hours [1990]
• Hubble Space Telescope went into orbit seven years after launch date, with immediate communications problems [1990]
• JAL Flight 123 - The crash of Japan Airlines Flight 123 in 1985 is the single-aircraft disaster with the highest number of fatalities. In this crash, 520 died on board a Boeing 747,
• March 3, 1974, Turkish Airlines Flight 981, a McDonnell Douglas DC-10, crashed in a forest northeast of Paris, France. The London-bound plane crashed shortly after taking off from Orly airport. All 346 people on board died.
• On September 1, 1983, a Soviet interceptor Sukhoi Su-15 shot down Korean Air Lines Flight 007 after it flew into Soviet airspace, killing all 269 passengers and crew [Mercury stationary, going retrograde]
• January 4, 1990, Sukkur rail disaster: A Multan, Karachi Bahauddin Express collided head-on with standing 67 cars of freight train at Sangi station, Sukkur, Sindh, Pakistan. In an incident caused by railroad workers error of switched onto track line. Pakistani official estimated killing 307 people, and another 500 more injured.

The list is endless and the above are only a very few notable examples. Of course, this does not mean that every flight, boat or train trip, etc., is doomed, as many disasters have occurred when Mercury was NOT retrograde and of course, many trips reached their destinations safely when Mercury WAS retrograde. My point here regarding Mercury retrograde is, if something can go wrong, the odds are that it very well might go wrong. Travel plans tend to get fowled up much more when Mercury is retrograde. Cars also break down more when Mercury is retrograde. Electronics and all communications also experience glitches when Mercury is retrograde.

Electronics, technology, all forms of travel, all forms of communications, contracts, leases 'DON'T SIGN, DON'T BUY ANY OF THESE WHEN MERCURY IS RETROGRADE!' computers, stereos, TV sets... not a good time to treat the arms, the hands, the lungs, the nervous system, the nose, the brain... telephones tend to mess up, the media experiences glitches...

Electronics, cars, boats, motorcycles; any transportation medium purchased when Mercury is retrograde or is about to go retrograde can experience malfunctions and other problems, much more than when Mercury is direct. This also includes signing important papers, leases, documents, and such. You may overlook an important phrase or stipulation, or something may need changing. Test taking and exams may not proceed as smoothly. Buses often go on strike, there have been major riots that have occurred when Mercury was retrograde, meeting people can also go wrong, as giving precise and accurate directions and communications are off, snail mail is more likely to get misdirected and/or delayed.

One thing Mercury retrograde is favorable for is doing editing and revising. This is a time to go over anything written, your website, or anything that was begun when Mercury was direct and do editing, correcting and such. Research can also be favorable when Mercury is retrograde.

Travel, planning, communications, technology, education, business transactions; all areas ruled by Mercury have a much stronger tendency to be affected with glitches and delays. Plans are often altered by unexpected circumstances, such as Columbus winding up in America rather than India [very typical of retrograde Mercury], your house cusps that contain Gemini and Virgo, and the house with Mercury in it; the affairs of these can also go awry.

See also

• Mercury
• Planets: Their Signs, Houses and Aspects
• Azazel's Astrology for Satanists Index