Yes, I love Mercury Retrograde!

How I use everybody’s least favorite transit in my Spell Work

Most of us are familiar with Mercury retrograde by now, right?

A period of time in which the planet of communication and technology seems to move backward from our perspective here on Earth creating the energetic conditions for general mayhem.

A time voted most likely to make your ex text you and your past mistakes haunt you and the computer shut down when you hadn’t clicked save.

I know I’m not the only one excited by this kind of chaos. 😈

I myself have come to absolutely love the experience of Mercury retrogrades. Each of them has its own chart with planetary aspects that change the flavor. (You can read more about the current chart here.) I find it to be a fascinating time bursting with magical opportunity.

I didn’t always feel that way, but last year I decided to engage with retrogrades more actively instead of letting them just happen to me. You can do it, too!

Try coming to the altar to heal before the wounds start reaching out to you.

I don’t halt all production when the planets get weird. Considering the astrology lately, if I did that I would never do any spell work. Instead, I find the difficult transits or aspects and work with the energy to see what it can reveal for me.

Here are some reasons I find it useful to do some types of spells in the energy of Mercury retrograde:

• It is famous! When things have a lot of human attention on them, they are more solidified as “true” in our collective experience of reality. This increases the likelihood of your spell’s outcome manifesting in the material world. All that public attention is part of what makes it potent.
• Our world is dependent on Mercury! The reason this transit fucks with us so much is because technology and messages (ruled by Mercury) are the basis of how we connect. We can utilize the “break down” of that connective tissue to do things we cannot do when things are running “smoothly”.
• It is unpredictable! The nature of this energy asks us to expect the unexpected. This opens a portal or liminal space that we can take advantage of. Randomization is a fertile place to insert your individual will. When outcomes are not set in stone, they are easily influenced.

I find the Mercury retrograde to be a healing time. A place to examine the ways we think, speak, and organize our communications. Communication is how we express our unique souls. It is the basis for manifesting our reality and connecting to others. Even when it is difficult, it is important and insightful.

Making peace with the fact that not everything will go perfectly all the time is a part of magical practice. Understanding how to love and harness imperfection is a witchcraft level-up!

In this article here, I outline the steps of a forgiveness spell. While you can do this any time of the year, I chose to do this spell during the Mercury retrograde. The energy of the planet’s movement allowed me to easily and effectively visit my past and heal traumas that were caused by miscommunications and dark thought patterns.

These transits (however annoying) are a part of the cosmic weather. A dangerous thunderstorm can carry with it beauty, cleansing, and restoration and difficult planetary energy can do the same thing.

Some ideas I intentionally visit when I do spell work during a Mercury retrograde:

• Thoughts that limit me or block my growth
• The inner critic or ways I shame myself
• Conversations I wish had gone differently
• People I wish I could talk to again
• Things my inner child wishes she could have said
• Patterns of thinking that act as self-harm
• Ways I desire to be communicated with and thought about

Looking at these ideas during a time that invites us into our past can reveal things that normally hide in the shadows.

The above list can inspire spell work or act as journaling prompts. These intimate concepts can help you understand the energies that come up around a Mercury retrograde and make space for you to grieve, heal, and balance.

If you would like to design your own spell to channel the energy of the retrograde, here is a list of Mercurial correspondences.

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