Mercury Retrograde Made Simple ~ What to Expect & How to Handle It✨

This week, Mercury takes center stage.

In this episode of Astrology with Alisa, I’m sharing why I rushed to upgrade my phone before a specific astrological deadline—and how Mercury retrograde played a starring role in that decision.

You’ll learn what Mercury retrograde really is, what it affects (spoiler: a lot), and how it might show up in your everyday life. I’m also sharing real-life stories from my own travel delays, tech mishaps, and the patterns I’ve come to expect whenever Mercury goes retrograde.

If you're traveling this summer, signing contracts, or making any tech upgrades—this episode is for you.

Want help understanding how Mercury retrograde might impact your chart?

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Transcript

Mercury Retrograde Made Simple ~ What to Expect & How to Handle It✨

📍   Astrology isn't just about signs and symbols; it's a tool for navigating real life. Hello and welcome to Astrology with Alisa. I'm your host, Alisa Dixon, and I'm so glad you're here. Let's dive in.  I feel like this week's episode is part two of last week's story. If you tuned in, you know, I was in a rush to upgrade my phone before a specific astrological deadline. That deadline is the upcoming Mercury retrograde. And today I wanna unpack why that mattered and why I wasn't just being dramatic about the timing.

So, let's rewind for a second. When I first started studying astrology, I barely knew anything. I knew the signs, I knew the planets. I had heard about full moons, and I had definitely heard of Mercury retrograde. It's one of those terms that slips into everyday language; even if you don't know what it is, you've probably heard someone mention it, usually with an eye roll.

So you know, it means something's going wrong. Ironically, Mercury was retrograde during my first few weeks of astrology school. Since our classes always began with a discussion about what was happening in the sky, it was one of the first things we talked about. So here's the gist. When Mercury is retrograde, it appears to move backward in the sky from our point of view here on Earth.

It is not actually going in reverse. It's just an optical illusion caused by our planetary positions. Think about when you're on the highway and you pass a slower-moving car from where you are in your car doing the passing. It looks like the other car is moving backward even though it's still going forward.

That's basically what retrograde motion is. Now Mercury rules communication, contracts, scheduling, technology, and travel by car, plane, or bicycle — any trip — although traditionally shorter distances, so when Mercury goes retrograde, all those things can feel off.

Emails go missing. Phones glitch, flights get delayed. Previously scheduled appointments might not be on the calendar. Misunderstandings happen, and that's why astrologers say. If you can help it. Don't buy a new phone or computer during a Mercury retrograde if you can help it.

Don't sign any contracts or do any of those things. Just double and triple. Check all of the details. Make sure you read through whatever contracts you're signing at least once or twice. If you have an appointment scheduled, call to confirm it before you leave your house, and if you're going on a trip, allow extra time for inevitable delays.

Mercury retrograde isn't the end of the world, and you certainly shouldn't stop living your life, but the energy is just moving backward. Things tend to take longer, come with surprises, or require extra steps, and Mercury goes retrograde three to four times per year. Since it's the fastest-moving planet closest to the Sun, this retrograde optical illusion happens a few times a year because it moves super fast and gets way ahead of Earth in the race around the Sun.

And then, as Earth catches up, Mercury appears to move backward, then rushes forward again, then moves backward again, and so on and so on. So here's how it can show up in real life. One year, we were flying during a Mercury retrograde, and I knew we were gonna have some travel delays.

So, despite my husband's supreme annoyance, I insisted we leave for the airport much earlier than usual. And boy was I glad we did. Clear. The FastPass system we used to bypass the long security lines was doing surprise upgrades that morning. We had to stop and retake our pictures before we could get through.

And of course, the line was much longer than usual because everyone was getting in the regular line first, only to be asked by the clear agents if they had already done the update. And no one had, which meant the clear agents then had to walk each traveler to another place outside security, where there was another line to update the picture.

I. And then people were getting back into the long, clear line, which now had some people who had done the update and others who were starting this three-line process. It took forever, and people were losing their minds. Everyone was frustrated, including my family. And it was all I could do to hide my amusement at the situation because I had allowed extra time.

I knew we were going to be fine, and I was getting a kick out of observing the astrology in action. I obviously had no idea that Claire was going to go wonky, but I was pretty confident there would be some delay that morning, and I was right. We made our flight, and I was glad we had that extra time.

Even my husband appreciated the extra time he had been so annoyed about in the very beginning. I've learned over the years, as I've watched these patterns, to expect to hear about travel hiccups, especially at certain times during a retrograde —for example, in the week or so leading up to it.

Or when we are in those periods of time when Mercury is about to change direction and appears to stand still, we call that Mercury in station because it seems like it's in a stationary position in the sky; those are the times that the retrograde wonkiness feels especially strong. It's during those days that I'm usually extra careful with my planning.

One time we were on the day that Mercury stationed to go retrograde. I didn't have anything planned that day that went wrong, but I was part of a group text my friend sent to a bunch of us. He was on his way to vacation when his car broke down at the side of the road, far from home, requiring significant repairs or a rental to complete the trip.

I honestly don't remember what he did, and I definitely didn't say anything in the moment. Still, I wasn't surprised in the least that this happened on this day of all days. Classic Mercury retrograde situation. And that brings me back to last week's episode. The last time I upgraded my phone, it was during a Mercury retrograde.

This was before I started really watching the world around me during retrogrades to see how the energy would manifest. And on this last phone upgrade, things got complicated.  I don't remember all the details now, but I had a lot of issues with app transfers. The Wi-Fi setup — whatever free things were supposed to come with — didn't work correctly.

I even had an issue at the end of the whole process with the phone that I had planned to get, and it had been such an ordeal. I just went with whatever they had in stock. It all worked out, but the process felt clunky, and I wasn't pleased with it.

And it was just like the energy wasn't flowing. It just wasn't my day.  That's how Mercury retrograde works. The planet's energy isn't lost; it just expresses differently. It's reversed, it's slowed down, turned inward. Instead of smooth sailing, you get speed bumps. And Mercury isn't the only planet that does this.

The Sun never goes retrograde. The moon never goes retrograde, but every other planet does. Venus went retrograde earlier this year, for example. When Venus is retrograde, I tell people, maybe don't get that makeover just yet. Don't change your hairstyle and don't make any big purchases.

Venus rules beauty and money, so you can guess what might go sideways. In fact, this year, my husband decided to start interviewing contractors. During the time when Venus was retrograde, he wanted to redo a bathroom. I told him, No way. We're not starting this until Venus goes direct. We still entertained the appointments with the contractors.

I even told one of them that he could send the quote, but we weren't gonna do anything while Venus was retrograde. That turned into an interesting conversation that I bet the contractor had never had before. Still, ultimately, that is the guy we went with. But we haven't started yet, but we're well beyond the retrograde.

Then there's Mars. When Mars goes retrograde, you can feel a little lethargic or a little energy drained. Mars is the planet of action and drive. It's the go-and-do planet. So when Mars is retrograde, you feel like doing the opposite. Okay. Mars was also retrograde earlier this year, and I originally planned to launch this podcast closer to the beginning of the new year.

I was so excited over the holidays about my plans and bringing my astrology out into the world, but with Mars retrograde. It wouldn't have been well received; it wouldn't have had the momentum we started with.  This is one of the significant ways I use astrology to work with, not against, the energy.

Astrology is a timing tool. I look at the moon. Is the energy building or losing steam? I look at retrograde, which planet is it? Whose energy is behaving a little backward? And then I adjust where my priorities are for that time period. I choose when to start projects —usually when the energy is building or moving forward —or when to revise and work on things that have already been in motion.

I. That's when the energy is dropping or retrograde. Retrogrades are actually significant time periods for revising, reworking, reorganizing, re-strategizing, and rethinking. Are you noticing a theme here? It's all the rewards. I look forward to Mercury retrogrades, to do things like clean out closets or cupboards and reorganize my stuff.

It is also a good time to redo or rethink communication styles. Do I still wanna go along the same way? I usually email, call, or text people —do I wanna shift things up a little bit? Interestingly, Mercury spends about the same amount of time in retrograde each year as we spend sleeping each night.

Just like our bodies need sleep to reset, repair, and process mercury, retrograde can be seen as a time when our communication systems, tech, thoughts, and schedules need a little reset, too. It's not broken, it's just recalibrating. So I tell you all this for a few reasons. If we can change our expectations about how energy will show up during a retrograde, we can deal with it much better.

If you're expecting life to continue as usual, you'll be aggravated with every little delay or hiccup. But if you wish the energy to go backward and slow you down, then you can roll with it a little better. You can plan for it. And we are coming into vacation season. It's mid-June. This is the time of year when many people leave school.

Sports are finished. This is when people usually have time to take trips, and I want you to be prepared. That brings me to one more important detail: the shadow period. That's the period of time when Mercury is still moving forward, but traveling through a part of the sky. He will eventually travel backward through that zone when Mercury hits it.

The shadow. It's like we're entering the prequel. You may start to feel the effects of the retrograde before the official retrograde period begins, and that's why I didn't wanna wait to upgrade my phone. Mercury goes retrograde this summer on July 18th. Still, Mercury enters its shadow on June 30th, which is why my self-imposed deadline for upgrading my tech was June 29th.

Thankfully, this time I'm well ahead of schedule, and we'll continue to talk about Mercury and all the retrograde energy as it happens. But I wanted to share this information with you before the shadow period starts, so you can get ahead of any weird retrograde energy or be aware and observe how it shows up around you.

Mercury retrograde doesn't mean stop  📍 living. It just means pay attention. Leave room for the extra steps, the delays, and a few plot twists. And if you've got travel coming up in July, just pat in a bit of buffer time because Mercury may have some mischief in store for you. Thank you so much for listening.

It's a pleasure, as always, to talk astrology with you all. If you're interested in how this Mercury retrograde might be hitting your chart, you can book a reading on my website. I'll leave the link in the show notes.  I would be happy to unpack this a little more personally with you all. Thanks again for listening. Take care, and I'll see you next time.