Mercury Retrograde Effects In Your Daily Business

Mercury is Retrograde September 24 to October 15, 2008

Maybe you are saying “Mercury retrograde? Where the heck are you going with this post, Claudia?” I’ll tell you …

I’m no astrologer but I pay attention to this phenomenon.

Oh boy is communication starting to get affected, both mine and with other business people around me. Stick with me here and you might learn some interesting information.

First though, I must tell you I am not someone who is very knowledgeable about astrology. But I have had my astrological chart and updates cast for me professionally. And I do believe the planets have an affect upon me. I am not one to bother to read a generic “daily horoscope” as I do realize that our birth charts may be such that we really are nothing like the Sun sign we were born under. This holds true for me, thusly I learned long ago to not pay too much attention to generic horoscopes.

I do not mean to offend anyone who enjoys reading their daily horoscope! I’m just honestly stating my personal opinion and telling you I am very far removed from the typical traits associated with my Sun sign. That’s all.

Anyway without trying to give you an education about what happens when Mercury goes retrograde, let alone what a retrograde is, I suggest you do an internet search for “retrograde Mercury” and you’ll find many fine sites with good information.

Basically, Mercury is the planet that rules communication. And in business, well … communication is a large part of what makes business take place! After all, we depend upon our telephones, our emails, contracts, invoices, faxes … you name it, if communication of any sort is involved, I have come to learn since 1986 that a Mercury retrograde can affect my business dealings.

The astrological effects can manifest from a very slight, yet noticeable slow down in communications from customers, vendors, etc. all the way to big goof-ups such as major mistakes in contract wording (“but I proof read that darn thing three times before I sent it???), to things like what happened this morning. I was waiting for a live webinar to take place. I called in about 5 minutes before it was scheduled, to make sure I’d have no problems with the connection. (Remember, I keep vigilant during a retro-Mercury!).

Well, when I got into the webinar, I could hear the two moderators bemoaning the fact the featured guest speaker was not there yet, was not reachable via his email, nor could they reach him by any of his phone numbers. On top of this, they thought no one else could hear them bantering back and forth about what to do, where could he be, how could he have forgotten he was supposed to teach the webinar class, etc.

It was kind of amusing to me, and I thought “Ah ha … you don’t have to explain anything to me … Mercury is retrograde!!

Evidently they could not hear those of us that were waiting on the lines, so someone used the “email a question” feature and told these people that we could hear everything they were saying! Then they started profusely apologizing saying “oh dear … we’ve just been informed everyone can hear what we are saying!”

And yes … they also told us the webinar would definitely be cancelled due to the no-show of the guest speaker!

That’s a pretty good example of just one of the types of snafus a retro-Mercury effect can do to us! The best laid plans can just go haywire and leave everybody scratching their heads as to how things got so goofed up.

As of today’s date, I am beginning to personally experience a light effect on anything having to do with communication in my own business dealings. As example, even though I swear I found no typos in an autoresponder email that I helped a client send out yesterday … there were three dumb typos in it! For the life of me, I read that email over carefully before I loaded it up for her.

That’s not at all like me. I am very careful of things like that, so yup … I really believe it is the Mercury retrograde phenomenon taking place.

Be aware that depending upon many different factors, a retrograde will affect some of us more strongly, or adversely, than it will other people. Right now I am keeping my fingers crossed I only have “light” snafus.

Take this for what you wish. I’m just sharing with you that we’re into the middle of this retrograde; that I am personally experiencing what it is doing all around me; and that I, for one, am going to just make sure to be very aware of anything as it pertains to communication. And I am especially going to slow down and re-read everything I write, whether a simple email to a friend … or a new SEO contract to a client. Oh yes, gonna double-dot my i’s and double-cross my t’s!!

I have seen some retrogrades really wreck havoc and be quite problematic. I’ve seen some be almost problem-free. Also, I do have many other friends and acquaintances who are business owners, who agree that a retrograde Mercury affects there businesses, too. So, that causes me to pause and take notice. It’s not “just me”.

I’ve come to pay attention to the thrice a year retro-Mercury’s as this is one aspect of astrology I have found to warrant my careful attention. Hey … to be forewarned is forearmed!

Though as is said … your mileage may vary. If nothing else, read up a little about it. You might find that being aware of when Mercury goes retrograde to be somewhat useful if not downright helpful to help keep your business communications flowing smoothly.