Write It–Using Mercury for a Writer’s Advantage

The planet Mercury is either a writer’s best friend or worst enemy. What I mean by that is this small personal planet rules communication and technology. When Mercury goes retrograde three or four times a year for around three weeks, technology breaks down, computers slow down and freeze and people don’t make sense. Emails get lost and communication seems garbled at best. It’s as if the planet plays tricks on us. And Mercury is known as a trickster anyway.

As a practicing astrologer (and writer), I have learned how to use Mercury retrograde to my advantage. When any planet goes backward or is in retrograde motion, we naturally turn inward. We seek clarification for happenings of the previous three months. We return to edit or proofread work we wrote during those past three months. We can rewrite speeches, polish presentations, or go on a book tour for a book we published in the past, such as a new edition of a previously touted title.  However, don’t expect travel plans to go smoothly since Mercury rules travel too.

Mercury retrograde asks us to revisit, edit, rewrite and rethink previous work. It’s not a good time to start on a new project. We can use this time to clean up blogs, websites, manuscripts and other written work. We can also use this time for research for new projects, especially if we are doing historic research or reflecting on our past for a memoir or autobiography. Read old journals, letters and sort through old photographs.

Journalism suffers under the Mercury retrograde unless we are revisiting an old story. We don’t have our heads on straight. Mercury rules the brain too and the thinking process. However, we might discover clues or make corrections to work we did in the past or had errors in our thinking about various topics that are cleared up during the Mercury retrograde. We might even go back and fix spelling and grammar errors in our work that we didn’t see previously. However, editors and writers born under the Sign Virgo catch those errors even when Mercury is transiting direct.

If you are a Gemini Sun or Virgo Sun working as a writer or editor, the Mercury Retrograde literally gives you tension and headaches. Gemini and Virgo co-rule Mercury. Your thoughts seem cloudy at best (Pisces) or exaggerated (Sagittarius). And during the summer of 2016 when Saturn in Sagittarius was in a square with Neptune in Pisces and Mercury was retrograde, anything we wrote during that time required major rewrites and rethinking, not to mention restructuring. Anything we wrote during that time if we could write at all now seems muddled in confusion or a Neptune fog.

If you are a Virgo or Gemini Sun or (Sagittarius or Pisces), sign up for a personal astrology reading or coaching session. I will teach you how to work with the cycles of Mercury. When you tame this planet and work with its cycles, your writing and editing skills will improve tremendously. You will know when to pitch to agents and editors, when to rewrite, and when to hold back and rest.

And don’t write a blog post on Word Press when Mercury is RX unless you want to run into glitches, lol…

Mercury is RX in 2017:

December 2016 to January 5, 2017

April 9 to May 3

August 13 to September 4

December 1 – 21, 2017

Sign up for an astrology reading at Whole Astrology