Mercury Retrograde. Some people, when they hear that term, are immediately suspect, wary, and prone to morose depression. Mercury Retrograde means trouble!

Mechanical failures are rampant. The iPad won’t connect to the wifi. The car won’t start. A computer failure occurs. Bothersome memories flare up. Things left undone surface in gnarly and annoying ways.

On the other hand, I see Mercury Retrograde as a time of opportunity, offering very succinct and direct guidance on just what needs to be done right now! It is a time to complete unfinished business so that we can move on into new life. If we don’t do it we will never fully be able to move on.

That which we don’t complete remains attached forever; it WILL come back to haunt us. Why put ourselves into such a compromising position?

Retrogrades also offer us the opportunity to confront and discover our karmic challenges. Our karmic challenges, like unfinished business, return often throughout life, asking us to deal with them once and for all. To face, solve and resolve our issues is the only way we will be able to freely move on into new life, both in present reality and when we die and enter the bardos.

Will this be the life that we move on up the astral ladder? Or will we reincarnate into another life, playing out the same issues once again? It’s a choice we make during each lifetime, evolving a little more, completing a few more karmic issues each time. By the time we’ve lived several thousand lives, however, wouldn’t it be nice to go on to something entirely new?

So, with another week of this current Mercury Retrograde still to go, I suggest taking a good look at what has been happening in your life to challenge you. Perhaps the failure of mechanical devices means you should not be using them; perhaps your addiction to your iPhone or Facebook is being challenged.

Perhaps your recapitulation is pushing you to go deeper as it brings up memories. Perhaps your body is telling you to take better care of it as it pains you or shows you some weakness. Perhaps your insistence on doing things your way and them not working out means you should relax and flow better with life. Perhaps old legal issues finding you many months or years later are letting you know they will not go away; that it’s time to finally deal with them.

To face what comes with maturity, to quickly respond, clears the air, clears the mind, clears the body to be ready for what comes next. Retrograde is a great time to learn the importance of taking care of daily business so that it does not follow you beyond its “sell by” date.

If we learn to deal with what comes, when it comes, we have learned one of the great lessons in life: We are only free of something when we take the time to attend to and fully complete what life challenges us with. If something is done right the first time, we will not have to do it again. And that is a karmic lesson too.

So, retrogrades offer us the opportunity to face something about ourselves and clear not only our issues but also to erase some of our karma, which is really the business, the work, of this life. Rather than continuing to sweep things under the bed, it’s time to take out the vacuum cleaner!

And just so you have something to look forward to, this Mercury Retrograde, which is all about our personal issues, is being followed by a Venus Retrograde in late July, which will be all about our relationship issues.

And so, fresh opportunities for getting those relationships in good form are about to hit! Good Luck with that! But first finish the old business that is popping up now, so that you are free to fully experience what Venus has in mind for you!

Setting things right,
Jan