It’s true, not everything difficult one experiences during Mercury Retrograde should be relegated to what is at times a cop-out pop… astrope?  But while the present pileup of planets in Saturn-ruled Capricorn reflect some of the weightier dynamics at play in our lives, I’ve seen some amusing ones in my own that just kind of ooze Mercury Rx in Pisces — soon to re-enter Aquarius in its backspin from an earthly vantage point.

Mercury, planet of communication, transportation and transmission, stationed retrograde at 12°53' Pisces on February 17th, and remains so until March 10th on which date it stations direct at 28°13' Aquarius.  The swift planet, with a heckling 88-day orbit, finds itself at home in Gemini and Virgo, and in detriment when moving through the opposite Jupiter-ruled signs of Sagittarius and Pisces.

Being that this Mercury Rx spends most of its slide back through Pisces’ psychically porous paths before reaching Aquarius’ third decan severance, let us watch for confluences of mercurial and piscean themes.  The sharp angles and critico-rational faculties of Mercury do not always cut clearly through oceanic depths.

This is my semi-ranked list of Mercury in detriment —> shadow phase —> Mercury Rx moments so far:

* On February 22nd, I was riding with my yoga teacher whose intent was to print and sign our certificates of graduation from his Unity Vinyasa 200hr certification course via Yoga Alliance, only to discover that Kinko’s was closed due to flooding.  Rather mercurial hub, that.

* From February 14th to the 16th, I flew twice (roundtrip) over Lake Michigan to see one of my favorite musical acts, Opeth, live in Chicago for the second night of their current North American tour — the first of which in Cleveland I also saw.  After their third date, the band’s frontman — singer, songwriter, and so forth — developed laryngitis and cancelled their next three dates as Mercury stationed retrograde directly on his natal Venus at 15° Pisces in the 9th!

* In preparation for said travels, I overwatered a tree of mine whose pot sits in an open storage container; the lagoon-like circumstances I absentmindedly left it sitting in got a bit moldy and spawned a mini-ecosystem.  I culled everything back and cleaned the situation without any major deaths or, gods forbid, tree rot.

* During Mercury's shadow period, I dropped my phone in a watery area without submerging it whatsoever, and hours later it appeared to stop holding its charge.  I thought perhaps the battery was wearing out or the charging port was damaged, when in reality the third-party charger I'd recently purchased as a replacement wasn't cutting it.  Had to wait until the next day to confirm this at the store, purchase a new charger and get back to work!  The whole thing was way more of a headache than it needed to be, and so Mercury in its watery detriment.

​The clincher though: Dropped the phone right before getting a pedicure.  Age-old zodiacal rulership assigns Aries to the head... descending to Pisces at the feet.  Always taking care of those 11.5 cosmic strollers!