Is Mercury retrograde to blame for your troubles?

What is Mercury Retrograde

The retrograde motion of the planet - not only Mercury distinguished itself here - is called an optical illusion, when it seems that a celestial body is moving in the opposite direction.

All the planets of the solar system, including the Earth, revolve around the sun at different speeds and at different distances from it. Naturally, they are constantly moving in one direction - without initiative. But sometimes the Earth lags behind the planet with a smaller orbit of rotation or overtakes the one with a larger one. And then it seems to an observer from Earth that such a celestial body is moving in the opposite direction.

Any planet can be retrograde. And for each astrologer assign a certain area of responsibility:

Mercury - communication, devices and devices, documents, transport and travel, intellectual efforts.
Venus - relationships, mostly romantic.
Mars - endurance, will, fearlessness.
Jupiter is the realization of a person in society.
Saturn - responsibility, goal-setting, hard work.
Uranus - transformations, craving for the unusual.
Neptune - intuition, change of consciousness.
Pluto (if you consider it a planet) - superiority, power, big money.

According to astrologers, in the retrograde period, the planet turns backwards. This means that not everything may be smooth in her area of responsibility.

Why people like to complain about Mercury retrograde

Usually he has the most questions. There may be several reasons for this.

Due to the area of responsibility

The most common part of life is assigned to Mercury. You can hardly hear: something I am not very hardworking and responsible in the last week - this is retrograde Saturn. Obviously, the reasons are somewhat different. But when devices break down, documents are lost, and people throw away the pretzel, it's hard to believe that this happens by accident. To admit that he himself is to blame, too. So why not shift the responsibility to the planet.

Due to the frequency of retrograde periods

It depends on the size of the orbit: the longer it is, the less often an optical illusion occurs. But the longer it goes on. For example, Neptune and Pluto, farthest from us, are in retrograde motion for almost five months of each year. It is the Earth that catches up with them periodically. Mars and Venus around us are relatively close to our planet, so we don't even intersect with them every year. But Mercury has the shortest orbit, so it overtakes the Earth 3-4 times a year and has short retrograde periods.

Accordingly, it is counterproductive to refer to most of the planets. If something bad happens five months of the year, albeit because of Pluto, it is obvious that you will have to solve the problems yourself. And you won't be able to do nothing for half a year because of the fear of an unfavorable period.

And Mercury visually turns backwards constantly. Such a frequency gives hope: now everything is falling out of hand, but in a week the situation will change. And this is a convenient way to shift responsibility and do nothing.

Due to the popularity

Mercury retrograde has become part of popular culture. Songs are dedicated to him, eyeshadow palettes are named after him. And there are a million memes on this topic.

But popularity has a downside: the poor man is shifted the responsibility for all the troubles.

Why is Mercury innocent

Only astrologers make claims to Mercury and its influence on life. And it is hardly worth listening to them: they are engaged in pseudoscience. Moreover, representatives of this science have investigated many times whether the stars and planets affect human life. It turned out - no. And scientists are convinced that retrograde periods do not affect us in any way.

One of the reasons people believe in astrology is the desire to shift responsibility onto someone or something else. If a person is angry and aggressive, their zodiac sign is to blame. Mercury retrograde interferes with entering the online conference, and not because the person did not begin to understand the settings.

Andrey Smirnov Master of Psychology, practical psychologist.

Many people tend to blame anyone for their failures, but not themselves. It takes a certain amount of courage and strength of character to plead guilty. Indeed, in fact, the person himself is to blame for many troubles, although sometimes it is difficult to accept.

Of course, in all events there is an element of chance, force majeure. But man is given reason for that, in order to minimize falling into force majeure circumstances.

Often, someone does not really think about the consequences, does not act according to his mind, but according to his wishes, and then wonders why he got into an unpleasant story. A person blames the whole world, government, environment, planets, but not himself. I want to appear good in my own eyes and in the eyes of others. Only there is little sense from this. The trouble has to be sorted out alone, although this could well have been avoided.

How to stop shifting responsibility

To begin with, you have to admit that blaming others or retrograde planets is unproductive - it is much better to try to fix the situation yourself. It is worth focusing on what depends on you personally. And then set a clear realizable goal and start acting. In other words, you need to grow up.