I think it’s safe to say this Retrograde is clearly not like the other ones. Often times we can hear people over-exaggerating or fear-mongering certain transits, but I’m pulling out the facts. This is a Retrograde in the middle of Eclipse Season, co-present with Rahu. This isn’t to say something catastrophic will happen, for challenging transits that’s not what anyone is trying to say, but things are very volatile during this Retrograde in particular, so it’s best to act with caution. In the same way, you wouldn’t take a trip to the beach (for example) without packing some food, water, towels, a bathing suit, etc. You don’t just wanna raw dog a Retrograde LMAO. This Retrogrades Cazimi point, which represents a pivotal moment in the Rx cycle is during an Eclipse. This is the main reason why I think this Retrograde is no joke, it’s because we’re dealing with Eclipse energy, and for y’all who know, know I highly recommend not fucking w Eclipse energy, because Eclipses are highly malefic energy. Remember when we say malefic, we’re not talking about good versus bad, we’re talking about extreme. Malefic is synonymous with extreme in the sense of extreme hot, or extreme cold; desert vs arctic for example.

Eclipses are Luminary Power Outages, because the Sun’s light is literally being blocked out by the Moon during a Solar Eclipse, and the Moon is being cut off from its light source by Earth’s shadow. Luminaries rule our organs of perception, and the celestial eyes being blocked out can be the equivalent of our own perception and circumstances around us changing dramatically. It’s not always a bad thing, but it is volatile. It’s part of why I say starting things on Eclipses is done in poor judgment because Eclipses have the significations of ending things, and revealing the shadows of circumstances and situations. If anything, use Eclipses to end things. That is the nature of them. Now, let’s go back to the Retrograde. What is the function of a Retrograde? A retrograde is when the planet, from Earth’s perspective, is moving backward. We know planets don’t actually move backward, and what is happening, in reality, is the planet is moving around the Sun. This backward motion talks about having to revisit, revise, redo, recalculate, restart, return, think of more words that have “re” as the prefix. Re as a prefix talks about doing something again, repetition, and going back. Reverse. When we’re dealing with Mercury, we’re talking about the concept of change. That is what Mercury signifies: change and our nature to change things. Mercury also signifies communication, connection, transportation, reasoning, judgment, skill, etc. Think about the faculty that judgment does for you in your life. You have to judge whether you should make a decision or not; to be or not to be. When Mercury goes Retrograde so does our judgment because it’s not moving in a forward motion. There are things we missed, errors, revisions, and other provisions that need to be corrected in order to move forward again. If Mercury isn’t going direct, the capacity for us to make things move forward as effortlessly as possible becomes stifled. For Retrogrades, of all kinds, but especially Mercury, it is so important to be diligent and practice better judgment over the things, projects, and ideas going on in your life, especially because in Gemini: there are conflicting sources and pieces of information. This is the thing about Mercury too: they’re the trickster, & can just subtly change something or masquerade it. Avoid being deceived during this Mercury Retrograde, because Mercury going Retrograde in Gemini can talk about having to redo something because of deception and tricks.

Gemini can be confusing territory (I know as a Gemini Rising), and this is because there is an explosion of so many perspectives, opportunities, and directions to move in, and oftentimes, these options and perspectives can contradict one another and we’re caught in the middle. Gemini is all about choice and having a million choices can be hard. We have to ask ourselves what it is we want, especially when what we want may be in two different directions and contract parts of ourselves. The goal of Gemini is not to be a hypocrite, but to be a person with incredible range and to be multi-dimensional, and multi-faceted. Ultimately, we will have to make a choice and decide on a direction to move in with Gemini. Especially in this last Decan, there is this finality and need to decide something, and with Mercury here, we may have made a decision that will eventually have to be looked over, once Mercury stations Retrograde and realize, well.. was this the right decision? Once Mercury enters back into the 2nd Decan of Gemini, where we are faced with a choice again, after regretting decisions, and then BOOM: Eclipse. It’s as if once we’re faced with this choice that the universe is like “You can’t decide? Copy copy. I’ll decide for you”. Take a look at where Gemini falls in your chart, the topics of that house will be relevant.

What can you do for this Retrograde and be well equipped? Mercury is a humble observer of life and does not try to necessarily change life, but changes itself to adapt to life. Mercury is like a chameleon, Mercury is the principle of evolution; we adapt to our environment to survive. BE the chameleon. You’re allowed to change & to adapt and be multi-dimensional. Shit’s coming your way? Make sure you’re keeping yourself light enough to be able to change. Carrying too much weight will keep things stuck and stagnant, and create too much resistance for what the energy is during this Retrograde season. Remember this is a Mutable Season, shit is gonna change regardless. All you have to do is use your skills to adapt to any situation. Remember, we are just humble observers of life, and we are here to experience it. Use your skills, use your brain (and I know all of ya are smart as hell bc you’re here doing Astro and shiiiit), and allow yourself to experience directional changes just like the wind.

A lot of this Retrograde season ties back to Jupiter in Pisces believe it or not. Jupiter wants to support you and help you achieve your dreams, and it’s funny because we only have like a month of Jupiter direct, but the majority of that will be Mercury Retrograde. Mercury is Jupiter’s son, remember? Jupiter is working through Mercury. In order to obtain the dreams and materialize your goals, you need to make changes in the direction of your life and where you take things first. That’s why this Jupiter ingress is a *preview period*. You’re making the necessary adjustments now that will have impacts on what Jupiter’s ingress on December 28th, 2021 will bring. This Retrograde is not just about now, it’s about 2022 tbh. Not to mention this Eclipse season features the FINAL Eclipse in Gemini for 8 more years. This Jupiter ingress is all about pushing yourself & asking questions of what REALLY will make you happy, and as a result of asking these questions, you make necessary changes and take your life in a different direction, that way you can achieve something that will bring long-lasting satisfaction, enabling you to feel so effortlessly content with where you are now. And sometimes that means having enough courage to let it go. Honestly, this Jupiter transit is about having the courage to let go of what you had/have to have the freedom to explore something more.

Ultimately, this will ALL circle back to the Mars Retrograde in Gemini in 2022 because (believe it or not) Mercury will station at 24° of Gemini on May 29th, and Mars will station Retrograde at 25° on Oct 30th, 2022.

Of course, go through the typical precautions during a Retrograde:

- READ THE FINE PRINT
- Be extra diligent with small pieces of data (like dates, numbers, etc)
- Retrogrades are a good time to get things Fixed! Fix your laptop, car, phone, you’ll find the issues.

Advice for anyone who HAS to start something during a Retrograde, because it’s obvious sometimes we can’t put a hold on life just for Astrology. Be extra mindful and diligent on the slowness and miscommunication of information and do your part to not do it fast, but do it right.