As of March 22nd, Mercury went retrograde, and it will stay that way until April 15th. If you aren’t familiar with what this means, allow me to break it down for you. Mercury is the ruling planet of Gemini and Virgo. It is the messenger planet, housing communication, coordination, and analysis of our thought processes and senses. It’s a curious little planet, taking things apart, sorting them, and then putting them back together in ways that allow us to view things from different perspectives.

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Where Mercury lands in your chart determines how you process information, your style of communication, the way you study, the concepts and ideas you tend to intellectualize, and even colors the areas of life you feel the need to have a voice in. Someone with a lot of Mercury energy will be intelligent, witty, curious, and animated. You can find out which sign Mercury falls in for you here and what that means for your specific sign here.

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When Mercury is direct, things tend to go smoothly for us. Communication breakdowns are few and far between. We can quickly transition from one concept to the next, gaining important psychological insights, as well as practical ones. Travel is also favored when Mercury is direct, as this planet also rules short trips and transportation, in general. Our relationships with our friends, siblings, neighbors, even our co-workers are manageable and function with no major issues.

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It’s when Mercury isn’t direct that we encounter problems in these areas. As Mercury is the fastest planet to orbit the Sun, this happens about three to four times a year. This is what we call a retrograde-when the planet’s position appears to be moving backward. It isn’t, by the way. No planet moves backward. It looks that way to us from Earth. The effect it has on our lives is real, however.

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When Mercury is retro, you can expect a breakdown in communication, mechanical issues, technological failures, and transportation issues such as shipping and receiving mail. It’s like a fog of confusion descends upon our lives. We may find ourselves misunderstood and misinterpreted. We may misunderstand and misinterpret others. That package that was due by 8 pm tonight may not arrive until next week. That girl’s night out you planned may be fraught with delays and challenges or may be canceled altogether. Studying may be harder. Technical issues may arise at work, and a general frenzied, angsty dust may seem to have settled over everyone.

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This retrograde, Mercury is in Aries. This is my sun sign, so I feel the need to apologize profusely for its effects. As an Aries, I can tell you that communication with one of us can be brash, direct, and even a bit brusque. We aren’t usually diplomatic. We’re movers and shakers, wanting to get the boring task of communication out of the way so we can get on with it already. We’re also impulsive, aggressive, and spontaneous. Used the right way, this makes us determined go-getters with lives of adventure. Used the wrong way and, well, we’re the ram for a reason.

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Surviving This Retro Cycle

It’s not all bad, however. There are things you can do to keep the mishaps to a minimum and even more things you can do to benefit from this cycle. I’ve listed the top five survival tips below.

1. Hold In That Sass!

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Mercury in Aries is hot, fiery energy and you’ll be tempted to clap back. Don’t. Word vomiting on that well-deserved coworker who constantly eats your yogurt and never returns your pens may feel good in the short term, but the Human Resources meeting you must sit through afterward won’t. Not to mention the write-up that will go on your record and possibly prevent you from obtaining that awesome team lead position with the hefty pay increase. So, hold your tongue for the next three weeks. Use that angry energy to write the yogurt thieving asshat a nastygram instead. Keep it locked up though. When Mercury goes direct again, you can read through it and decide if you want to send it or not.

2. Stay Away From That Ex!

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An interesting side-effect of this particular retro is that you may begin to reminisce about the past. Mercury allows us to gain some much-needed perspective. Perhaps you were a bit of a douche to said ex. Maybe you’ll realize that the problems in your relationship weren’t all his/her fault. That’s good. This allows you to grow. However, the problem comes in with pushy Aries. It will not want you to file these useful insights and label them for later use. Instead, it’ll make you want to act on these. Maybe he/she wasn’t that bad. I should text him/her and tell them I’m sorry. See if they want to go get some coffee or something. Generally speaking, it’s never a bad idea to apologize to someone you’ve wronged. However, now is NOT the time. File away those insights for when Mercury goes direct again. If you still want to contact this person after April 15th, do so. Until then, allow yourself some time to process this new information.

3. Breathe New Life Into That Old Project

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A much better way to spend this Mercurial Arian energy is to dust off that old project you abandoned. Take the time to consider why you left it behind and why things didn’t work out. You should be able to come up with some out-of-the-box ways to renew this venture. Breathe new life into it. Start again, just be sure you do so with a new approach. Past ideas should be recycled and used in new ways during this time. Aries loves the new and Mercury wants you to think about the past. The combination makes tweaking an old venture the perfect use of the next three weeks.

4. Take Care of Mundane Tasks

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Aries doesn’t deal with boring, day-to-day stuff. They like the big ideas. You’ll be tempted to forgo that oil change in favor of something more exciting. Don’t. You’ll likely end up on the side of the road if you do so. Take the car in and get everything checked instead. Anything else that requires maintenance should be taken care of as well. Remember, a retro Mercury is infamous for breakdowns. Try and stay a step ahead by getting everything cleared for takeoff, so to speak.

5. Listen. Ask Questions. Then Listen Some More.

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Mercury in Aries will want to be “hands-on.” That’s great for some things. Not so good for others. You could want to rush through communication, but you should stifle this urge for the next three weeks. Not listening during this period could be especially costly, so make sure to pay extra attention to what someone is telling you. Remember, they’re being affected too. Ask them questions to make sure you understand what they’re trying to convey. This will help both of you out. Also, any instruction you receive during this time could be hard to digest without action. If you’re in school, be sure to take good notes or record your professor’s lecture if allowed. If you are a teacher or professor, you should focus on learning techniques that demonstrate principles through experience.

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Now you’re prepared to take on this Retrograde and even benefit from it. I hope you find this useful! This cycle will definitely be an interesting one. I’m sure most of us will have some interesting stories by the April 15th. Just remember, we’re all going to be going through this together. If you like, you can share your experience of this cycle below.