I’m being brave today. Yes, I am determined to write this post about  Mercury Retrograde and NOT hit delete after I painfully pour myself into each word, trying to properly convey my real point. There have been way too many times that I have written paragraphs about the energetic season that Mercury Retrograde brings, only to hit delete.

“What’s my problem?”

I have asked myself this question countless times. Maybe the issue is my timing. I try to write a post about Mercury Retrograde every time we are in the midst of it. Maybe writing this article at a time that Mercury Retrograde is ENDING and a new moon BEGINNING, something clearer and braver seems available inside me to actually write and publish it. So here it goes…

When we enter into Mercury Retrograde, time, connection and communication have tendencies to get easily twisted up. What does that look like? Sometimes it shows up as senseless arguments, misunderstandings, mistakes, anxiousness, restlessness, technology misbehaving, a lot of revising, reviewing and course correction. It is a window of time when, energetically, the planet of mercury orbits in relation to earth - so there is an appearance of energy slowing down around us. Mercury in Retrograde is designed so that we can make the necessary shifts to be clearer in our directions and our decisions.

The reason I have so desperately wanted to share about Mercury Retrograde is because I want others to know there are energetic seasons affecting us whether we believe it or not. Sometimes in Mercury Retrograde we feel the energy on some level, even if we don’t yet understand it fully.

Years ago, I owned a computer software company, and I always had to increase the staff hours for tech support during Mercury Retrograde because of technology glitches and connections gone awry. Many skeptics even understand there is something to this phenomenon.

Okay, so what’s the big deal with me sharing a bit

about Mercury Retrograde???

When I asked myself that question, the typical insecurities emerge…which always started with the ‘what if’ and ended with that proverbial powerful mysterious ‘they’. What if ‘they’ think I am only speaking about astrology, and my point is misunderstood? What if ‘they’ think I am being dismissive to the power of astrology and the real experts in that field? What if ‘they’ think discussing Mercury Retrograde projects a vibe of hocus pocus and doesn’t have practical applications?

That 13 year old girl I used to be — trying to make sense of the world…

I keep coming back to the thirteen year old girl who that stood one Saturday morning in front of hundreds of people when they were giving out the trophies and awards for the bowling league. Bowling? Yep, not a popular sport today. However, I grew up in Michigan and lived with a house full of brothers, so my parents had to find ways to keep us busy to survive our long winters. Back then they only gave awards to first placers, not like today where everyone gets trophies and awards just for showing up. It was a different era when it came to awards and how they were given out.

I remember the announcement that they were giving out a super special award for a bowler who had demonstrated a high level of courage and character throughout the season. I had no idea who they were going to announce, so imagine my surprise when my name was called! I remember standing there looking around as hundreds of people clapped and smiled at me.

My head began swirling in a dizzy, disorientated way. Then they continued to say they were going to call the award the “Anne Ribley Award” and give it out annually to whichever bowler demonstrated the same kind of courage.

You would think this might have been a proud, gratifying moment for me. It wasn’t. I remember being mortified and wanting to shrink completely away. Why? It felt bizarre, hard to assimilate. You see, I was getting all this attention for my newly amputated leg (full story here) and what I had overcome. Somehow, perhaps strangely at that age, I didn’t see myself as overcoming something. I was just trying to be me, live life and find my way.

Most might imagine that trophy being proudly displayed next to my other trophies. It wasn’t. I hid it away in my closest. I don’t even think I own it anymore (darn). Back then, and still today, there is a sense that I want to be defined as the person I truly am and not someone else’s unclear perception. In some ways this has really worked for me because I have never let ‘my leg and the accident’ be the story that defines my life. In another way, it is okay to say: ‘this is who I am and the journey I have lived through’. Even now, as I write this post in which I began by talking about Mercury Retrograde, I feel my own hesitations, questions, doubts about what I am writing, because I don’t want to make it about me.

I am sharing here because I want it to be about you. I want to be a source of reassurance to you that wherever you are on your journey, you can find ways to be kinder, more loving and forgiving with yourself, even as life’s shifting energies happen.

I go through this same internal process as I share with others about the Moon Rituals. Fear surfaces - maybe people will think I am a moon worshipper and totally not get me. Yet, when the Moon Rituals come close, a natural push to share them wells inside me because I know that every single one of us holds the power to self heal.

Having a spiritual practice with a ritual around the cycle of the moon can liberate us. Why? It isn’t just a prayer or wish in our heads. It becomes an actionable intention that carries power, synchronizing us with our natural world, boosting our own healing, power and transformation.

What does all this have to with Mercury Retrograde?

There has been plenty written online about Mercury Retrograde and why, in the real world, factual sense, Mercury appears to slow down as it nears and then passes the Earth, and effects communication and connection.

What I want you to know is that there can be fear circulating around Mercury Retrograde. Sometimes, people expect or project that things will just go wrong during this time. It is not truly that way, just like the full moon isn’t always a weird, crazy time. These different movements of the celestial bodies are all powerful ways to get in touch with our natural world - inside and out.

My wish for you…

My wish for you is that you know your calm, peaceful truth and that when energies and experiences feel unsettling, you don’t let them settle into your soul. I wish for you to know how to give yourself sacred space and let your gifts become clearer to you, allowing these energetic windows to inspire truth on the deepest level of who you are, as you relax more into your life.

When the times of Mercury Retrograde rotates around, as it does a few times a year, let it serve you - get more inside yourself, and find your best life instead of feeling blown around by external energies. Let the unique and sometimes odd aspects of living in this world be a reminder to re-calibrate your emotions. Work towards reacting less and not personalizing situations that undermine the real you.
I don’t know if I nailed the magnitude of what I was trying to share about energetic windows, Mercury Retrograde, Moon Rituals and how it all applies to you. I hope I did.

If I weren’t trying to be brave and publish this so fast, I would do what Mark Twain is famous for saying: ‘If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter.’ 

Soul to soul, friend to friend, I hope you usher in fabulous New Creation Energy when we exit Mercury Retrograde and welcome back the fresh boost of the New Moon!!! (How to do a Manifesting New Moon Ritual Here).

Namaste,
Anne