When Mercury goes retrograde you don’t want to tax your brain with anything too in-depth or heavy. Why? Because Mercury rules the intellect and our thought process and when Mercury starts its backward cha-cha, your intellectual capacity may lessen. You may find that you are not as quick-witted as usual and also that your memory is a bit challenged.
However, that doesn’t mean that you should stop using your brain at all. Good usage of brain cells during Mercury retrograde is to go back over old ground, tie up any loose ends and think of ways of reorganising things to make them operate more smoothly. Really, almost any activity beginning with the prefix ‘re-‘ is ideal. And let’s not forget that there is special divine grace to be had for this phase too. The angel of Mercury is Archangel Raphael. Call on him if you feel your mind growing dim and use lemon, peppermint or lime essential oil to gently spark those little grey cells back to life.
Also, as Mercury will be retrograde in Libra for the full three weeks (very rare that it is in the same sign the whole time!), you can also call on Archangel Anael, ruler of Venus and Libra/Taurus for help with staying heart-centered in all your communication. Because communication will suffer during a Mercury retrograde and with the Libra/7th House sector being challenged by this, close relationships will be affected the most.
My top crystal tip, if you can only get one is green aventurine (it’s cheap as chips!). It resonates with both Raphael and Anael and will help you keep things in harmony throughout the retrograde phase. Green aventurine is at once both soothing and uplifting. It helps us stay optimistic and generous toward others.
Other crystals that might be helpful are fluorite (mental clarity), yellow calcite (focus and acceptance) and citrine (optimism).
POSITIONAL MEANINGS – MERCURY RETROGRADE TAROT SPREAD
- Restore – This is something that has fallen by the wayside due to outside circumstances (or your own laziness) that you will now be able to restore and complete. If you get an Earth card (Pentacles), what you need to restore concerns your physical body or financial matters. For Cups (Water), you will have a chance to restore an emotional connection with someone. If a Swords (Air) card, a matter of pen or pixels and if Wands (Fire) something to do with your career/life purpose.
- Rethink – OK, so you fucked up. It may not be something major but you could have chosen a different way of working this out. Now’s your chance to figure out what that better solution looks like. If Earth or Water, a more passive/reflective stance is needed and if Air or Fire, you need to take a more active role in straightening things out.
- Reinvent – This is the fun bit! Libra is all about appearances and it would be a shame to not use this Mercury Rx period to reinvent your style. Totally let your imagination run wild here and use the card you pull as the jumping-off point. Work off colour clues and elemental correspondences. Consider the numerological significance and what people are doing in the card. Ask yourself ‘How would this card dress if it were a person?’ even if you get one of the Aces or another card with no people in it. How would it move? What hobbies might it take up?
I hope you enjoy this Mercury retrograde phase!
Looking for a more in-depth Tarot spread for Mercury Retrograde? Check out this spread!
