Mercury in Retrograde, in case you don’t know, is a phenomenon that has fairly universal and noticeable negative effects on communication, travel, software, and shipping. You’ve likely heard people blame their mistakes on Mercury in retrograde. It’s a handy excuse for some. I never took it all that seriously until a time where I’d brought on staff, not just me anymore in the business, and then absolutely surreal mishaps began. Just by the consistent problems we were having, I wondered if Mercury was in retrograde because the issues checked every box. I googled, and sure enough, we were.
The planets, you might know, are named for Greek and Roman gods except for Earth. Mercury was the messenger to the gods, the dude with the wings on his feet and helmet. This explains the havoc around communication, travel and tech. You need one piece of software to “talk” to the other to get things done, software is made up of code, which is language, etc.
Further, the reason I may have especially noticed it is there is a business element as well in the name “Mercury.” It might have come from the Latin merx, a noun meaning “merchandise.” In its verb form, the word mercari meant “to trade.”
As the chief messenger of the gods, Mercury controlled the movement of all things—goods, ideas, words, and people. Whether the planet (or just the demonic realm) took on these attributes because of our creative power in naming things, or whether it was always there and humans simply named it based on their experiences, is not something I know. Either way, it becomes reinforced by the name and our willingness to accept that this is what happens when Mercury goes retrograde.
Let’s look at how we frame the constellations that are named for mythological figures. Those of us who know the Mazzaroth see the gospel rather than the Greek. The Bible mentions many of these and doesn’t seem to voice them negatively. We know that the stars existed prior to the Greek civilization. Plato said that the Greeks adopted or translated the “barbarian names” and founded stories on the meaning in their own language. In some cases, I reverse engineer some of the Greek or Roman myths that actually sound like Bible stories.
But let’s deal with this. I’m not down with accepting 3 weeks 4 times as year as a time where I ride out the havoc. First, the simple refusal to participate has worked pretty well. A problem is that even though you might not be participating, other people and companies you are trying to connect with or do business with probably are. Patience may be needed, but we’ve bumped up the prayer as well that they can participate on their own time and on their own turf, but bringing that into our interactions is a no-no.
Another tried-and-true technique is coming in the opposite spirit. We have a direct line to God, we don’t need an intermediary, so use it. Step up the prayer, travel to heaven in the spirit, absolutely displace Mercury and make him irrelevant.
Believe it or not, there’s actually quite a bit in the Bible as to what to do here. So Paul first gets mistaken for Mercury in Acts 14. Later Paul goes to Alexandria via a ship that happens to have Castor and Pollux carved on it. Castor and Pollux were the twin gods associated with Gemini, which is ruled by Mercury. (If you’re interested in this kind of stuff I wrote a book on it.) Anyway, Paul had prophesied that the previous ship they were on would be shipwrecked. It was. Then he got bit by a snake and everybody thought he was a goner. He wasn’t. So they were again sure he was a god. Mercury was the messenger of the gods, and here’s Paul, quite literally THE messenger from God.
The ones that didn’t believe were the local Jews. But the pagan and superstitious Romans? Heheheh, through some divinely orchestrated events and confused identity Paul certainly got their attention. Paul did pretty good at Mars Hill too. (Mars. Another planet. Another god. Another story.)
Again, displace Mercury. Be the messenger for those who don’t go direct for whatever their reasoning. Here’s a prayer template you can use if MIR is eating your lunch.