Planetary Optical Illusion Is Either Life Guidance Or A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Mercury Retrograde Puts Planets In Control Not You

Clear your calendar.

Don't make any plans that will take you far from home.

Clean the dust bunnies from under your bed. You might need a place to hide.

This is worse than seeing Godzilla on the horizon.

Prepare for things to screw up. People are going to misunderstand you. Electronics are going to blow up.

Make sure you have enough food rations to last the month. You don’t want to leave the house.

If they can't see you, nothing happens.

Doomsday right? No, Mercury retrograde.

This is my usual reaction to it. It is an astronomical event that is taken further by astrology.

Mercury's Optical Illusion

Retrograde in astronomy/astrology is the appearance of a planet’s orbit going backwards.

It is an optical illusion.

This occurs because of the position of the planets, Earth, and the sun's orbits. We see the planets' orbits from west to east. It is like the Earth's orbit caught up to the planet moving faster, which now appears to be moving backward.

It is like having two cars on the road, going in the same direction but at different speeds.

The slower car sees faster car pass. The faster car sees the slow car moving backwards.

Same principle.

Earth rotates around the sun faster than Mercury. Mercury appears moving backwards in relation to Earth as it passes.

Astrology takes retrograde further

Astrology says a planet’s retrograde motion is a time when the energy that we associate with the planet goes crazy.

Every planet goes into retrograde motion at some point. Mercury is the most popular because it happens more often—three times a year, to be exact.

"When Mercury is in retrograde, speak softly and carry a backup charger." – Unknown

According to astrology, Mercury retrograde is:

• Communication Breakdown – Emails get lost, misunderstandings increase, and arguments escalate, aligning with Mercury’s astrological association with communication.

• Technology Failures Spike – Many people notice phone crashes, computer glitches, and social media outages during Mercury retrograde

• Travel Delays Are Common – Frequent flyers and commuters often report increased delays, cancellations, and reroutes coinciding with Mercury retrograde dates.

• Contract Confusion – Legal documents, business deals, and agreements signed during Mercury retrograde sometimes result in revisions, disputes, or cancellations later.

• Exes and Past Issues Resurface – Many report reconnecting with old friends, lovers, or unresolved personal matters more frequently during Mercury retrograde.

• Astrological History Supports It – Ancient astrologers, from the Babylonians to modern practitioners, have linked Mercury’s motion to changes in human affairs.

• Anecdotal Evidence is Overwhelming – Millions of people across different cultures and professions claim to experience similar issues during every Mercury retrograde.

• Mindset or Reality, The Effects Are Felt – Whether psychological or cosmic, Mercury retrograde influences how people approach life, making it a ‘real’ force in its own way.

Maybe not a great reason to hide under the bed.

I felt that I got a double dose of this. I am a Gemini with Mercury in my natal astrological chart, in Gemini.

We are in the middle of a Mercury retrograde right now.

I decided to be an adult and approach this from a different perspective.

What if it is just my belief in it? What if I made it a self-fulfilling prophecy?

I used my mindset tools and unpacked it. I thought I was done.

Coincidences start stacking up

I got through the first week okay. Nothing happened.

It was the second week that started to go wrong.

We also switched to daylight savings time during the retrograde. This always causes confusion no matter what else is going on. People forget to set clocks or make the right time adjustments.

I had Zoom calls that were in my calendar wrong. Hence I missed some important meetings. Links didn't work to try and reschedule the meeting.

Past emotional issues were coming up. Doubt was everywhere that I had made the right decisions in things.

Not to mention, every time I seemed to open my mouth, I was misunderstood. A lot. More than normal.

I made writing mistakes where I looked like an idiot.

Maybe I was wrong. Maybe there is something to this beyond belief.

Science to the rescue

I am a chemist. I have studied physics. I looked at this under my scientific microscope.

There is no scientific proof that there is anything special about Mercury retrograde, but it is an optical illusion.

I didn't let that stop me.

There have been times in history when there has been no proof something is real which started as superstition.

For example, the proof of germs. Sickness was blamed or based on other things until they could see the germs.

I started looking up the distances between planets. I won't go into details but we are talking millions of miles.

Then, I thought about forces the planets might give off. Is there still some unknown force we haven't detected yet?

I stopped here. This is going to take more time than I thought. I wanted an answer to the question to put some of the confusion to rest.

Looking closer at coincidences

We don’t learn much when things go right. It’s when things go wrong that we learn the most.

Simon Sinek

I thought back to all the things that happened during the week.

Writing mistakes and calendar mix-ups. I noticed a pattern. I wasn't giving things my full attention. I was filling in too many blanks.

Making too many assumptions. I know better.

My emotional issues are nothing out of the ordinary. I change my perspective when I notice my thinking is outdated.

It isn't a retrograde issue. It is me just being me. This happens any time of the year. I am in a constant state of change.

You are what you believe

Do the planets influence us? I don't know yet.

Is Mercury retrograde an influence? Yes.

It comes down to what you believe. For years, I believed it was a disaster, and my brain was happy to supply the evidence.

When I changed my perspective and decided it was a self-fulfilling prophecy, my brain found evidence of this too.

This is where you have to decide things for yourself. Cop out right?

You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.

Maya Angelou

Whatever our perspective, our brain is trained to find evidence of it.

If you become fascinated with cows, then you are going to see cows everywhere. They had been there the whole time, but it wasn't important to you. You didn’t see them.

Now you can't turn around without bumping into one.

Your brain is supplying the evidence.

I decided to focus on other things. Mercury retrograde becomes just another month in the year. I might be more careful with my communication and electronics during this time.

But we can always learn to communicate better, and some downtime from screens is always beneficial.

Thank Goddess that I don't have to clean under my bed.