MERCURY RETROGRADE IS A SUPERSTITION

By: Lucy Atkinson, Opinion Columnist

Astrological topics like Mercury retrograde and zodiac signs are no doubt interesting conversation starters, but they shouldn’t play a dramatic role in dictating your hopes for daily life. 

For many, anticipating Mercury retrograde evokes a sense of spiritualism and magic, which is a perfectly human thing to seek. We all benefit from a little more magic and a little more wonder in our everyday lives!

Beginning March 14, Mercury will be in retrograde until April 6. Mercury retrograde is a period that occurs a few times a year where Mercury appears to travel backward across the sky.

But the science behind the phenomenon that occurs during Mercury retrograde is magical in its own right.

The Mercury retrograde is a wonder both of light and – like any optical illusion – the miracle of our minds. Light waves pass through our eyes and are transformed into images by our brains. We’re not really “seeing” the universe as it is but simply witnessing our brains’ best guess in our mind’s eye. 

And every once in a while, certain visual information causes our brains to come up short in their interpretations. The resulting experiences are often mystifying, just like the idea of Mercury moving backward in its orbit.

The Mercury retrograde is also special for its grand theme. More powerful than your average optical illusions book with “magically” looping circles and double images, Mercury retrograde forces our minds to consider the unending universes beyond Earth.

But believing this awesome illusion to be something that can directly – even negatively – impact your life threatens faith in your own capabilities.

To be certain the Mercury retrograde will induce positive outcomes sets yourself up for disappointment. 

Likewise, expecting to experience complications during your day psychologically increases your chances of actually having a worse day.

Research supports the notion that when we believe we’ll fail or that something will go wrong, we’re more likely to fail – essentially self-sabotaging. As our morale declines, so does our performance ability and productivity in the workplace or in personal life. 

This is true regardless of the optical illusions thriving above our heads. But if we’re expecting negativity during a specific time, and then we experience negative situations, it’s easy to see how a belief would perpetrate. 

There’s no harm done in chasing a little magic. If following the Mercury prograde and retrograde patterns bring you only joy, go for it!  

Just remember, there’s plenty of beautiful, fantastically confusing and mysterious phenomena in nature itself to quench that thirst. Don’t allow superstition to determine what your day will accomplish. 

MERCURY RETROGRADE IS A REAL THING

By: Nia Jackson, Opinion Columnist

After wondering why you are having so much bad luck, do you ever think maybe it’s out of your control? What if something more powerful is at play here? 

Astrology is the supposed influence the stars and planets have on humans based on their position in space. Astrology is said to influence human behavior, emotions and life events, and each planet represents a different part of our personality and the experiences we have.

There are some things science just can’t explain. Often in our lives, it can feel like other things beyond our control are working against us. Sometimes, it is okay to have faith and belief in things that we can’t always understand, like god, the galaxy and our earth. Things happen we can not control, and sometimes, people need something to hold onto to explain all the bad things in their lives.

Mercury retrograde is when the planet Mercury enters a retrograde orbit. Many people believe that this phenomenon influences astrological signs. This period may be difficult for some astrological signs. It may include a revisit of past issues, miscommunications, a time for reflection or conflicts and chaos. Sometimes, Mercury retrograde might not affect you at all.

Many people, including me, believe that Mercury being in retrograde affects them. There have been times in my life when I could not explain all the bad things that were happening. When learning about spirituality and astrology, I began to believe the planets and the stars could be influencing my life. Not to say these are the only things influencing my life, but they could be contributing to some aspects of it. 

During Mercury retrograde, many people online believe that they are affected by Mercury retrograde and it is the reason for some of their problems. Every time there is a Mercury retrograde, it trends on social media because of all the misfortune that it may cause people. 

Mercury is in retrograde from March 14 to April 6, July 17 to Aug. 10, and Nov. 9 to Nov. 29. 

So, maybe next time you look up to the night sky, think about how those stars and planets many light years away may be affecting you.