Mercury Turning Direct and a Few Retrograde Stories

Posted on September 27, 2009
Posted by Jim Sher

Mercury will return to its regular direct motion on Tuesday morning, September 29 at 6:14am PDST. It will have moved backwards from 4 deg. Libra to 21 deg. of Virgo. Right now it is already barely moving so this stationary position may be affecting us in that our minds too are slowing down and possibly repeating or going over some of what we have been thinking about. The main effect though is that we intuitively know that the ‘thinking’ process, which is emphasized during this retrograde period, is about to end so that we’ll be able to resume our usual way of dealing with life.

I’ve had the chance to hear quite a few stories about the retrograde period. Some are posted on this site. In addition I’d like to share one specific example, primarily as an example of the value of a Mercury retrograde period. Yes,  there are the usual stories of Mercury retrograde causing delays with the mail and other deliveries, computers crashing and cars breaking down. They do seem to happen at a higher rate at this time. But as I’ve often said, there is an important advantage to this time as well.

This story is from someone who had been having a seemingly insolvable physical problem for over two years. Several diagnoses were made but none of the treatments worked. It appeared that there wasn’t going to be a solution, resulting in the necessity of having to live with a great deal of pain. It was in the middle of the retrograde period that a visit to the Doctor changed everything. Suddenly the Doctor ‘changed his mind’ and came up with a different diagnosis. He wasn’t sure if he was right but he gave a medication that would prove once and for all whether or not this ‘new idea’ was the correct one. If the meds worked, then he had found it. Well, the medication did work and within a few days the condition that had chronically bothered the patient, was eliminated. This is but one example of the way in which Mercury retrograde can work in our favor. A completely new idea comes in and is discovered to be the right one. The truth is that our minds can easily become stuck in the rut of the same thinking. We go over and over the same thought-forms and somehow hope that this time a different result will occur. This is why ‘they’ came up with adage that insanity is doing the same thing over and over hoping for a different result. Mercury retrograde allows us and can even force us to consider some issue in a completely different manner that suddenly will open us up to new possibilities. This is why this period is so important and helpful.

At the same time, progress may not occur in the usual way. We can feel quite blocked if we try to ‘force things’ at this time. We do best when we take what we get and remain alert to any openings, because we can’t act on what we don’t see. I think one of the most difficult things about this time period is when we think we’re done, have had enough and the cycle is still not over. We become impatient and frustrated. This, in fact, may be where many of you are right now. But what I’ve noticed quite frequently is that if we think something is over before it actually is, we lose an opportunity. Here’s why. It is often at the end of a cycle that the most important realizations come to the fore. They occur when we least expect it. It is because we’re not done at all. We just ‘think’ we are. So, what causes us to feel done?

When we are feeling done it means that our usual approach to solving a problem has been completed. We think we’ve exhausted all the possibilities. We’ve thought and thought and what’s come up has come up so we’re done. But something important has not yet occurred. It is only when we have exhausted all of our usual thoughts and patterns that something truly new can come in. What we really need is something completely new. Since many of us may resist the new thought which can be ‘too far out of the box’ for us to consider, we simply won’t allow anything new to emerge. It is when we’ve exhausted all of the usual ways of approaching an issue that we are finally ready to receive a completely new approach.

So, in this last day before Mercury goes direct, I want to suggest that you not let boredom or tiredness prevent you from being open to a completely new idea or way of thinking. If you can refrain from the ‘belief’ that you’re done, maybe something amazing can occur. And when Mercury does change its direction early Tuesday morning, be ready for a shift in your energy. It’s fun to notice the new feeling.

Always love your comments to my post, so feel free to write your own story.


Astrology Mercury Cycle Mercury Retrograde
Jim Sher

Jim brings over 35 years of experience as a therapist and transformational counselor to his practice of astrology, metaphysics, meditation and philosophy. He operates as a teacher and counselor and specializes in the use of discourse as a part of his teaching approach.

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15 responses to “Mercury Turning Direct and a Few Retrograde Stories”

  1. babajii_99@yahoo.com' Robert says:

    I had a rather dramatic and a bit traumatic weekend, and early this week…been going through a lot of mystic ‘God’ searching, and ‘truth-seeking’ activism…
    I has been sinking to thinking, that one must go ‘to war’, with the people who are inflexible and enemies of love and light…
    And, I had regressed to thinking, you can ‘win’ against these forces, but sinking to their level…
    The insight came, Tuesday Morning, when I found myself, in a kind of self-created cave, where I could ‘Hear my own Essence’…
    And have re-discovered, the only way to defeat, the forces of chaos, is to not buy into any of what they say, do, or anything about their disturbing verbage, on the TV or radio…
    The real way to defeat this chaos, is to sink deeply into the ‘Peace the surpasses understanding’…
    The transcendent order, which underlies, life, and thereby, reclaim the peace and love that lives there, eternally, and diffuse the ‘Maya’ of the illusion of fear, faithlessness and hatred…

    R.G. Madison, WI

  2. Jim Sher says:

    To Greg,

    This is exactly how the end of a retrograde period is best handled. When we use the ‘build-up’ of reviewing and letting go of what is no longer useful, there is now room for somthing new. Its emergence is due to the letting go that has been occurring during the entire retrograde period.

    Great example of what retrograde periods are really for.

  3. Thanks for this posting Jim. What you described — the sudden new idea springing forth (out of nowhere it seems) is EXACTLY what has happened to me the last few days.

    I usually feel the shift of the energies of a retrograde a few days in advance. So I was feeling quite light and open by this last weekend. And wham! — this new, incredibly exciting, something I’ve never considered before idea which blends all my favorite experiences into one idea — swam right to the surface and held my attention.

    2 days later, a client canceled her project with me (can anyone say clearing the space for the new idea?) and everything is a blank slate again.

    Very fun (with the right perspective!)

  4. jem@awakeatwork.com' Julianne Maurseth says:

    In support of your message in the newsletter:

    A spiritual wall I’d been hitting for the last two years began lifting just this past weekend, from my willingness to try a few slightly different shifts in my perspective. Then just this morning at some few minutes after Mercury went direct, I was reading a great book I’d found this weekend, and came upon a passage that generated a seismic shift and necessary crack in that wall.

    The planets as mirrors are amazing.

  5. snowboarder8888@gmail.com' Michelle says:

    Dear Jim,

    Thanks for the extra clarity. Thanks also to the readers who shared.
    I like what you brought up about completion and the minds tendency to decide it’s complete, without the full experience. Ah the good ol rush of the mind. Your wisdom is a breath of fresh air!

    Thank you,
    Michelle

  6. jgracelewis@gmail.com' Jgracelewis says:

    Thank you Jim. I was unusually stuck and depressed today. Did some internal work…Happy that Mercury is going direct tomorrow! I love this blog and will pass it on.

  7. Jim Sher says:

    To Lilith,

    Excellent example of the value of living out the whole cycle.

    Thanks for writing.
    Jim

  8. dlongshadow@gmail.com' Lilith says:

    Just yesterday and today, two relationships I was having difficulty with resolved beautifully. I did something different — took the risk of being wholly authentic without apology. I got the exact results I’d been wanting, without effort, and so did the other person. No force required. I hadn’t understood what 5 pairs of planets in my 7th had meant these past few weeks, but here we are, at the end of a cycle and boom! Thanks for the great newsletters.

  9. Jim Sher says:

    To Cheryl,
    Yes, what a way to learn astrology. I was a therapist when I began studying astrology. Nothing made any sense to me until I took the study up. I learned from books to some degree, of course, but mostly by sheer observation.

    Thank you for sharing such a personal experience. I know that some of the readers will also relate to what you have described.

  10. clzittle@gmail.com' Cheryl says:

    Hi Everyone,
    Being a Gemini I am used to the not thinking correctly when this ruler of mine goes retrograde.
    This particular one has been the most interesting that I have remembered for a long time.
    When Mercury went into its Shadow my boyfriend who is a Virgo sun, rising and gemini moon, who was half way moved into my house, broke up with me totally unexpectedly.
    I was thinking that after the retrograde period he would change his mind. I doubt this is going to happen.
    But, this retrograde has enabled me through the pain of it to see where I need to change my thoughts of how I can take better care of me.
    My thought processes have completely changed about me taking care of me.
    Only through a retrograde period that allows how I used to think become flexible can I change my thinking.
    Jim you did a great job on explaining this.
    I have also felt like aren’t we done with this yet????
    But the seemily bad in this case has awoken a part of me that is wonderful and I don’t think it could have happened any other way.

    I also learned what Mars going through a 7th house can mean along with Jupiter hitting someone’s natal saturn in conjection with the Uranus/Saturn – wow – what a way to learn astrology!

    Love it Jim!

  11. jhamilton@visionariesLab.com' J.Hamilton says:

    Jim,
    I have learned so much about Mercury retrograde during this period. In this particular article, even more so. For example, I’ve been doing 18 hour days since January attempting to get everything I’m envisioning on paper. It’s been a huge project. About two months ago I considered it complete — which is quite nice and I started moving into marketing. A few weeks ago I made a very abrupt change and shifted completely on what I am putting my time and attention on. I’ve made a huge and radical shift in my energies in my expected outcomes and I believe it’s a product of exactly what you are describing.
    This recent impetus of activity is in a new direction and once it’s settled down and established, kind of like a new beachhead, I can go back to my big project and continue. I never in a million years would expect to have made such a sudden shift in a new (and important) direction, and maybe didn’t even really recognize it until reading your post this morning.
    So as I was saying, I’m learning from your posts and appreciate, not only your insights but your ability to express yourself in a manner that sinks in out here in digital land.
    Wishing you well,
    Namasté
    J.Hamilton
    http://www.COREresonance.com

  12. dkbalsz@hotmail.com' Donna says:

    Thinking..what I like best is life…I never feel quite connected to all the processes going on in the universe or overwhelmed by them all..so I hope this is relevent! I have been what I call chasing Spirit for years..there always seemed so many directions, I often feel like I am in a vortex. I do receive clairaudient messages and was given a scripture..Matt 14:28-31..this was in late fall of 2008..having been a past religious junkie I knew the scripture immediately…”You with little faith, why did you give way to doubt.” Dismissed it because I now cautiously approach anything that smells of religion… at that time the Bible still had that “scent.” During this retro period, this had come back into my life…and I see it with a different meaning and place in my advancement down my personal path. I am aware of how is fits into my life from several aspects.. I think I know how it will effect me… and where it applies… but I am waiting for this period to pass and allow things to mature within… I feel excitement, direction and solidity…but I am waiting for the next step or direction to be taken to reveal itself fully.

  13. Jim Sher says:

    To Sallie,

    Mercury goes direct September 29th at 6:14am PDST.

  14. salliestratton@sbcglobal.net' Sallie says:

    Isn’t it supposed to go direct the 29th – not the 22nd?

  15. katfrandil@yahoo.com' Kathryn Dilworth says:

    OK – I’m counting on it being fun – because I was definitely already bored with the process and thought I’d finally done my mercury retrograde thing! 😉 So I’m taking a deep breath and getting back in the game……. because my usual thoughts and patterns are definitely exhausted!!! Very very good info!

    Kathryn

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