Make Your Mercury Retrograde Easy (ish)
With a few tips -- plus some hot, spicy and sweet Sex and Your Stars
Sex and Your Stars comes out THIS TUESDAY!
Isn’t she pretty?
This is the perfect moment to preorder my hot little book baby, because you can still scoop up a 10 percent discount on all of my sessions (for the next 12 months) and be entered into a drawing for a FREE SESSION with me — but only until midnight on Monday, July 29. After that, the only perk you’re getting is the book itself — which I consider an excellent perk, of course — but you might as well go for the gold. It’s Leo season (and the très sexy Parisian Olympics) after all. And if you’re a reader of Pleasure Centers and you want to support me — preordering Sex and Your Stars is the very best way to do so.
Mercury stations retrograde at 4 degrees of Virgo at 12:56 am ET on Monday, August 5th — and this 3rd retrograde of 2024 is a doozy. When the messenger planet appears to travel backward in the signs it rules (Virgo and Gemini) it tends to bring even more of the classic array of human error that leads to technical breakdowns, communication failures, and annoying af (and sometimes dangerous) travel delays. Of note, the massive IT outage that caused widespread airline chaos on July 19th happened just days after the Mercury retroshade phase began on the 16th.
This is to say: we’re already in it. Deep in it. Often, the pre-retrograde shadow feels worse than the retrograde itself, at least in terms of tech fails. A retrograde that starts in Virgo and transitions back to Leo calls for ORGANIZATION above all. Be on top of your calendar. Double and triple-check your appointments and meetings. Back up your data, and back it up again. Make sure your batteries are charged and your backups, too. Give yourself tons of extra time to get to the airport, bus, or train.
In Virgo, Mercury Retrograde often comes with an uncomfortable amount of physical anxiety, so remember to breathe, stretch, and employ pleasure as a healing tool (everything from deep tissue massage to acupuncture to orgasms can help).
What I’m telling friends and clients about August is this: if you can be on vacation — GO ON VACATION AND STAY ON VACATION. The fewer tasks you have to complete, the less stress you’ll feel. Ideally, this is a time to unplug and indulge in some sweet beach reading. (Sorry, I am contractually obligated to badger you about this).
By the time Mercury stations direct on August 27th, it will have traveled all the way back to 21 degrees of Leo. During this 3-week phase, you’ll have the chance to revisit and re-tool parts of your life, work, or relationships that went awry starting in mid-July — especially in the Virgo and Leo areas of your chart.
Mercury will be cazimi (in the heart of the Sun) on August 16th — this is often a grand moment of revelation when you’re struck by a realization about WHY the big messes of the last few weeks have been so damn messy. Often this will bring an answer, or at least a hint of an answer, about a question or problem that first came up before the retrograde began. Think of it as the SECRETS REVEALED moment of the MR. The final answer may not come until after Mercury stations direct and finishes its post-retrograde shadow by September 13th. But expect at least a couple of big AHA moments along the way.
When I send out my August forecast later this week, I’ll tell you more about why this retrograde is so intense — in part because of the other August aspects adding kindling to the fire. Mars in Gemini is joining with Jupiter and then clashing with Saturn in Pisces on the 14th, and 15th, respectively. Then Jupiter squares Saturn on the 19th, a Full Moon in Aquarius AND the first day of the Democratic Convention. (Send the energy of peace and calm toward Chicago starting now.) These days are the hottest hot zone of the month, but not hot in the way we like things to be hot.
Speaking of hot things, watch me read aloud from the Venus chapter of my book below (you can hear excerpts from the Leo chapter, the Venus chapter, and the Black Moon Lilith chapter (an ode to childless cat ladies) all up on my Instagram page right now.
