Relephant bonus read, also by Mr. Schwimmer: 13 Ways to Avoid Getting “Mercury Retrograded.”

Get ready for the cosmic “trickster,” known as Mercury retrograde. This planetary event will occur from June 7 to July 1st.

It’s a time to be careful about the way you operate your life in order to avoid a variety of problems that tend to occur during these three weeks. During the retrograde period the world seems to go haywire with miscommunications of all types.

Here’s the astrological explanation why: Astrology is based on a simple understanding that all the planets in the sky exert their own unique influence on each of us, and the world we live in. If you are a skeptic, just pay attention to your life experiences over the next three weeks.

Let’s discuss how the planet Mercury will have an influence on you. Mercury rules your intelligence, mind, memory and all types of communication ranging from talking and texting to writing. It also rules your self-expression and communication style. In a more public sense, it rules commerce, computers, telephones, transportation and air travel.

How Mercury functions in your birth chart explains a great deal about how you formulate ideas and how you share them. It indicates how you make sense of the everyday world you live in. Your faculties are not functioning well during these three weeks called Mercury retrograde.

When Mercury goes retrograde, communications of all types go “haywire!” Under this planetary influence, you’ll experience misunderstandings and communication failures like you’ve never seen. Here is just a sampling of some of the things that may go wrong in your life at this time: For example, no matter how well you and your spouse normally communicate, you will find yourself misspeaking, saying the wrong thing and having disagreements you don’t normally have.

At work, even though you are sure that you’ve explained yourself clearly to the other person, they do the opposite of what you said—and they are sure they followed your instructions. Your fail-proof computer crashes, or software programs suddenly develop “glitches.” You experience equipment and mechanical breakdowns of all types. You’ll hearken back to the time you heard your car’s engine make that funny noise, causing you to say: “I should have my mechanic check that out.” Well, during Mercury retrograde, that is when your car will suddenly not work and you’ll wish you had paid a visit to the mechanic.

The monthly check that is automatically generated by your bank and sent out doesn’t arrive, and neither does that merchandise you ordered online. Since Mercury rules transportation, equipment is unreliable; so it’s not an ideal time to buy a car because it may be a “lemon.” In fact, it’s a bad time to buy anything because you may eventually find out that it was “too big or too small,” or it just didn’t fit right and you’ll need to return it. You can expect an unusual amount of last-minute flight cancellations, meeting postponements and long transportation delays.

It is a horrible time for negotiating contracts or making decisions and if you “close the sale” during Mercury retrograde, suddenly, a few days later the client may call back to tell you that he’s changed his mind.

Whatever you do—it is not a good idea to accept a job during Mercury retrograde. I had one client disregard that advice. She accepted a new job and by the time she started the month after, when Mercury went direct, the company had changed her job so much that it no longer resembled the one that she had accepted. Her reporting relationship had also totally shifted from the great guy she was going to work for to the loudmouth, chauvinistic boss from hell! During Mercury retrograde, things are not what they seem to be.

Here is a checklist of things not to do during Mercury retrograde.

 The Eight Don’ts

 1. Don’t Argue with Lovers, Friends or Co-Workers—Especially the Boss. 

2. Don’t Start a New Project.

3. Don’t Make a Commitment or Sign an Agreement.

4. Don’t Purchase Computers or Install Software.

5. Don’t Make an Offer on a New Home or Sign the Documents to Buy One.

6. Don’t Buy a Car.

7. Don’t Accept or Start a Job.

8. Avoid Unnecessary Travel.

 What Is the Problem?

These sorts of problems arise during Mercury retrograde because all of sudden, normal communication becomes unreliable, filled with misinformation where important data is missing or misunderstood. The passage of information from one person to the other seems to be unintentionally cloudy, confused or unclear in some way.

After all, Mercury does rule the mind, mental clarity, talking, self-expression and overall communication. During the retrograde period, a person’s intellectual, communication and mental processes are less acute. They become careless, mistake-prone and forgetful.

This explains why your actions and decisions during the retrograde often fail or seem “sabotaged.” Or you may find that they will have to be re-done, re-structured or adjusted in some way when the retrograde period ends and Mercury goes direct.

The Best Advice:  Wait until Mercury goes direct to make important decisions. When that happens clearer communication will return and necessary information will be more positively conveyed. Once again, important data can again be relied on and you’ll see matters with 20/20 vision.

Also, by waiting until Mercury is direct, you will possess important information that you did not know while Mercury was retrograde. This new knowledge will help ensure you are making a correct decision. If you heed this cautionary advice, you’ll have less frustration, fewer mistakes and disappointing failures during these three weeks. Best of all, you’ll be in a better position to make your efforts successful starting July 1, 2014 when Mercury goes direct.

If you want to know if you were born with Mercury Retrograde and where your personal transits are—to see if they are affecting you—go to the Free Transit Calculator and enter your birth date. Then, read about how each transit is affecting your life in other elephant Journal articles by Larry Schwimmer.

Also by Larry:

Mercury Retrograde: 8 Great Things That Can Happen Now!

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Fun / true:

“Mercury in Retrograde is not a good excuse for you to be an asshole to me.”

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Editor: Travis May

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