Mercury Retrograde: An Illusion but Real Experience

It's one illusion of several on the list, including the eight phases of the Moon and the color spectrum. We experience different phases of the Moon due to living on Earth, which has a 29.5 day cycle relative to the Sun. In reality, the Moon does not change in size, shape or color. And the color of the sky is not really blue—it depends on a species' perception; a bird's eye view is something entirely different.

There are several other illusions, both optical and visual, but let's not go down that rabbit hole, unless we're ready to jump like Neo. Despite all illusions, our physical experiences are real. Astronomers observe planetary systems with these facts in mind without much consideration for the non-physical. Astrologers who predated them understood non-physical phenomena as one of the driving forces of physical experience. Mercury Retrograde is an illusion, but is experienced energetically, like most things.

Planet Mercury by Zelch Csaba

A warning from an astrologer about Mercury Retrograde sounds less trivial when not related to a visual illusion of a planet appearing to loop in the sky. That obviously has no direct impact on Earthlings. Rather, it's what that illusion represents—on average. There's an observational shift in what the populace report experiencing. This is how Mercury Retrograde became popular. During specific time blocks throughout a year, things got familiarly wonky. Over time, it became evident: this is an effect of Mercury Retrograde. Life goes on of course. However, people often witness the following:

This year Mercury Retrograde falls in the water signs of the tropical (Western) zodiac: Pisces, Cancer, and Scorpio. Read through the sidereal (Vedic) zodiac, the same three stations land one sign earlier — Aquarius, Gemini, and Libra — because of the ayanamsa, the roughly 24° offset between the two systems. Sun☉Rah bridges both, so you can track the retrograde in whichever frame you work with.