Please wait The concept of "Mercury Retrograde" has become a household name, because the mass media has promoted it well. Astrologers talk about it often too, because Mercury's retro periods (unlike other planets) occur several times a year - sometimes 3, sometimes 4. In general, people like to focus only on regular phenomena such as Full Moon or eclipses, forgetting that the giant planets also turn retrograde twice a year, and this greatly affects the global situation and the development of worldwide processes. But everyone likes to watch the cycles of the small planets - the Moon and Mercury, which are responsible for fleeting circumstances in our private lives. I will devote my other article to the lunar cycles, but today I will analyze in detail the phenomenon of Mercury retrograde in astronomical terms.
Astrology uses celestial bodies and real astronomical phenomena as a basis for its interpretations. Retrograde is no exception. This is not an astrological, but an astronomical term related to how we observe the movement of the Solar system planets from Earth. In astronomy, the phenomenon of retrograde is accepted just as a natural and explicable fact, but astrology gives this phenomenon a special meaning, arguing that the reverse planetary movement correlates with unfavorable phenomena on Earth and in people's lives. Let's look at what these conclusions are based on, and why planets are retrograde in general.
Anyone who has ever tried to look into the future and received an ambiguous forecast knows that there is nothing worse than expecting bad things, - your faith in the best disappears, and a sense of vulnerability increases.
In sidereal astrology, there is a branch called "13 sign astrology". This is the only fork of science that considers Ophiuchus as a ecliptical constellation. My astrological service is built on this system, whose zodiacal signs completely coincide with astronomical constellations. But why does 12 sign tropical astrology use Ophiuchus?