Is Your Writing Life in Mercury Retrograde?

I often joke with my hubby when something goes wrong, saying “It must be Mercury Retrograde”. But, there’s something to this period of three and a half weeks, which happens three times a year, that asks us to literally slow down or crap is gonna hit the fan sooner than later. When Mercury is in retrograde motion, the planet appears to travel backwards (goes retrograde), and asks us busy humans to pause and do some heavy-duty reviewing. Fat chance, right? Wrong.

Mercury possesses a trickster energy, and in retrograde motion this sly fella can be the unseen force that trips us up. For example, we can experience any of the following: being on ‘slow mo’, bad reception, slip-ups, disorganization, stops and starts, lost and found, U-turns, revisions and changes, connections with the past, trick or treat, mixed messages, messages not getting across, things getting lost, or lost in translation, travel being delayed, plans collapsing, communications breaking down, equipment and technology failing. Yeah. I’ve blamed Mercury retrograde on a few of those things.

If you feel as if your writing life has been stuck in Mercury retrograde for a long time, you’re not alone. This go-slow or best-laid plans changing up is irritating and frustrating to say the least. But if you look at the BIG picture, you’ll come to understand that the process of Mercury retrograde is divinely inspired to get a message to you. The interruption is geared in such a way as to disrupt your daily life so you can hear that message. Call it a wake-up call or Divine intervention if you like, it happened to throw you off kilter so that you can receive it. Whatever ‘it’ happens to be for you. Even your computer crashing will give you some space and time to look into what’s really going on. And sometimes you find that the truth does hurt, but it always sets you free.

If you’ve been stuck in your writing life—especially when it comes to marketing your books—adjust the narrative and start to take baby steps. Become the observer, instead of the one in the driver’s seat. Ask, what has worked in the past, and what hasn’t? Mercury retrograde is actually a catalyst for awareness. Out of the unknown void, the space, comes new insight. Knowing you must move away from an old activity or pattern of behavior is your ‘AHA’ point of understanding why you’ve been so stuck. Then, if you examine where you’re going and what’s happened, you get to the gold: a moment of truth, realization, and recognition. You finally receive the missing piece of the jigsaw to help you move forward.

So many positives can come out of Mercury retrograde (in your personal and writing life) if you view it as a natural cycle of punctuation, a necessary break in the proceedings in order to retrieve vital information. We must all learn to be patient in these times, and use it for planning, reviewing, fixing, pivoting, thinking, and strategizing about what we want to do when we can step forward again. Then, once Mercury is back on track and moving forward again, you will be too. Do you pay attention to when Mercury retrograde shows up in your life? If so, did you receive its message or ignore it? Would love to read your comment. Cheers, and as always, thank you for reading my blog!