Mercury In Retrograde: What It All Means

Graphic by Marisa Goldberg

If you feel like your life has been spiraling out of control lately, you might have something to blame other than midterms. Mercury is in retrograde, and you probably don’t know what that actually means–only that it fucks you up big time. Don’t panic though, because we’re here to give you a little astrology lesson to help you survive until the planets are realigned. 

So why should we care? Mercury is known as the messenger planet. It rules over our ability to communicate and make rational decisions. When it goes into retrograde all hell breaks loose, and our daily interactions are thrown off balance. Friendships and romantic relationships become vulnerable, and we feel uncertainty within ourselves.

Now should be the time to generally slow down. Give yourself time to do big assignments and avoid making big plans and rash decisions. Small inconveniences can really kick you in the ass right now, so try to limit things that cause you stress. 

Things get a little rockier when it comes to our relationships. We might get into more arguments with our friends and significant others and feel the need to cut them out over small issues. Remember to take a step back–you don’t have to dump your situationship right now because they liked someone else’s picture on Instagram.

We don’t want to scare you too much, but essentially everything is prone to go a little wrong. We’re more sensitive, restless, and easier to piss off, so if you see a girl crying outside of a bar because “Mercury’s in retrograde,” give her a hug; we feel her pain.

Obviously, not all of our decisions should be based on astrology–we’re college students, so some things are bound to go wrong anyway. That being said, if you’ve been feeling off lately it might be comforting to know that it’s temporary and out of your control. Take care of yourself a little extra this week, sleep in, and maybe skip that 8 a.m. After all, it’s the universe’s fault, right?