What's Up Wednesday

Mercury is in retrograde.

I'm not a big astrology buff, but I've been known to read my horoscope on occasion, and to pay some attention to the monthly perspectives sent to me by a psychic friend. Sometimes they're right, sometimes they're wrong. Kind of like everything in life.

Mercury goes retrograde three times a year, and it's happening right now. It started May 26 and will continue through June 19. The planet doesn't actually go into reverse orbit, it just looks like it does from our viewing perspective here on Earth. What it's really doing is moving together with the earth as the two travel around the sun in unison.

Since Mercury rules over the mind's processes, this retrograde phenomenon can have a powerful effect on writers. Communication is strongly influenced by this astrological event. Think "backwards" since that what retrograde is. This is not the time to be signing contracts, starting new books, taking trips to places you've never been to before, getting married, or buying a new car.

Does that mean this retrograde thing is all bad? Of course not! Now's the perfect time to take advantage of a number of tasks during this period. This is when you want to double-check that polished manuscript, make those revisions (ding! that rings my bell), or finish an older project. You'll find that going slowly over the course of the next couple of weeks will spare you many efforts of redoing the same action that wasn't done right the first time.