How to Work With Mercury Retrograde (Without the Chaos) // Ep 004

What if Mercury retrograde wasn’t here to ruin your life… but to help you refine it?

In this episode, we’re reframing one of the most misunderstood and over-dramatized astrological cycles of all time. Mercury retrograde isn’t chaos. It’s not sabotage. It’s not the villain of your tech, travel, or ex-texting story.

It’s a predictable, cyclical pause that happens three or four times every year - and once you understand its purpose, it becomes one of the most supportive seasons for clarity, creativity, and course correction.

We look at what Mercury actually governs, why things can feel glitchy or delayed, and how to work with this energy in a grounded, practical way - especially if you’re building, creating, planning, or running a business.

This is about slowing down with intention instead of bracing for impact.

WE COVER:

• What Mercury retrograde actually is (and why it isn’t chaos)
• Why this cycle has such a dramatic reputation
• How this season affects communication, plans, creativity, and tech
• What to focus on during Mercury retrograde - and what’s best to put on pause
• How creators and business owners can use this time strategically

SHOW NOTES:

// Explore more soul-aligned guidance at clairesolomon.com

// Want to know the dates of upcoming Mercury retrogrades? You'll find them in my Mercury Retrograde blog post

// Want a grounded way to revisit and refine your ideas during retrograde? Listen to my Toy Box Process episode here

// New to working with cycles? My Moon Phase Magic course walks you through aligning with lunar rhythms

// Curious about your soul purpose and bigger life themes? Book a Soul Purpose Akashic Records Reading

// Looking for clarity on your current energy season? Order Your Solar Year Report

Disclaimer: This podcast shares spiritual insight for personal reflection and entertainment purposes. It is not a substitute for professional medical, psychological, legal, or financial advice. Please use your own discernment when interpreting and applying the information shared.

Transcript

Hey, I'm Claire Solomon, Akashic Records Practitioner, business strategist and astrology and human design nerd. And this is the Kinda Cosmic Podcast. Down to Earth chats about out-of-this-world stuff. We'll talk akashic insight, astrology, starseeds, cosmic intel, soul purpose, and all the strange, beautiful ways the universe shows up in everyday life. No fluff, just real talk about being a soul in a human body.

Well, hello there, lovely humans! Today we are talking about one of the most misunderstood, over-dramatized, meme-ified astrological events of all time— Mercury retrograde. Now, before we start, I want you to imagine me gently removing every chaotic story, every dramatic headline, every 'Mercury is ruining my life' post from your field, because honestly, it's not true and it needs to be reframed. 

The purpose of Mercury retrograde is not to sabotage your life and fry your laptop and make your ex text you and all of this stuff. It's actually a really, really helpful cycle once you actually understand it in a grounded way.

So let's chat about what it actually does, how it affects your creativity and your projects, whether that's business, art, writing, planning, life, life admin, whatever, and how you can work with this energy instead of bracing for impact every time it rolls around.

So to zoom out a little bit, Mercury is the planet that oversees communication, technology, plans, ideas, our minds, our thoughts, and all the fast-moving, kind of like constantly buzzing parts of life, really. And a few times a year, Mercury appears to move backwards in the sky. And it's not actually going backwards, it only looks that way from Earth's perspective, but the energetic effect is very real. The energy shifts gears because of it. Mercury retrograde occurs 3 or 4 times a year, every year, forever, always has, always will, and each time lasts for about 3-ish weeks. Each time. So this isn't some rare astrological phenomenon. This is a regular thing every few months, and why I actually love tracking it and working with it in my life and business. 

Mercury retrograde is basically saying, 'Yoo-hoo! Slow down! Let's have a proper look at this thing before you keep pushing forward.' And the reason it has such a bad reputation, in my opinion, is because we live in a world that worships speed and instant gratification, don't we? And like productivity all the time, momentum, go, go, go, go, achieve, do. So when Mercury, or any planet in retrograde for that matter, says, "Whoa, let's take a minute to go over this thing again," our mind, and sometimes our nervous system, goes, 'Nope! Absolutely not! No! Must keep moving! Entire world will collapse! Must do the things!' And this is why people interpret retrograde as things going wrong and chaos and upheaval, when really it's a beautiful cosmic cycle available to us to do anything, starting with "Re". Evaluate things, review, reconsider, reorganize, re-edit, reconnect, rethink, recalibrate, restructure, re-energize. Basically, it's the universe handing you a big folder called, "Let's tidy up these things before we move forward." 

So Mercury retrograde specifically, because Mercury is the planet that rules many of these fast-moving parts of life: our minds, communication, technology, schedules, emails, plans, travel, contracts, ideas, thoughts, the details. When Mercury goes retrograde, those are the things that you are being invited to "Re". So during these retrograde periods, which happens 3 or 4 times a year, remember, you get this cosmic window where you can go back over all the Mercury things and give them a bit of a tune-up. Mercury will be retrograding through different zodiac signs each time, which can add like a little bit of a sprinkling of different flavor, but generally the opportunity we have is to look at the things that were quietly wobbling all along and finally see the cracks in them, Notice the systems or the plans that we built too quickly. They may be revealing themselves where they need a bit of tightening up.

It can also be a time when outdated ideas become really obvious to us, or old projects that we abandoned months or years ago suddenly resurface and actually start to feel aligned. It's when conversations that you've been avoiding can pop up ready to be resolved, or where your energy is showing you where it's leaking so that you can redirect things with more intention. And it can be a time when plans shift, usually in the name of redirection or realignment, but our human self can be like, what the heck? So it's basically the universe saying, let's refresh this, let's refine this, let's rework this before you push forward and try and make the next thing happen. 

So, for my business owners, creators, healers, coaches, or soul-led humans just crafting an intentional life, Mercury retrograde actually becomes incredibly practical and empowering. And this is because during that 3-ish week stretch, 3 or 4 times a year, your ideas behave differently because, remember, Mercury rules the mind. Old ideas, dreams, and visions can come back around. Half-finished projects and creative ventures call your name again. Your notes app, or what I like to call the Toy Box of ideas, suddenly becomes alluring again. Or something you abandoned feels like it's time to be revisited. But the very important distinction is this: Mercury retrograde is not asking you to start and launch something entirely new out into the world, even though fast-paced human must-do-all-the-things-immediately feels like that. That's part of the discomfort of a retrograde, right? Sitting with something. Re-evaluating it, working out our new boundaries and approaches with something, or realizing we need to actually completely restructure or renegotiate or reconsider something, right? Like, ick, uncomfortable. It's actually about listening, editing, refining, and preparing from a more intuitive slower pace than pushing, launching, outward execution stuff. 

So then, what are some excellent things you can do during Mercury retrograde? Again, think anything that begins with 'Re.' Retrograde absolutely lives for the 're' energy. This is the season for slowing down and giving attention to things you've already created already started or already committed to. Revisit old ideas, outlines, drafts, concepts, projects you never finished. Review anything, anything you created in the last few months. Rewrite captions, emails, website copy, messaging. Refine your offers, your creative work, your ideas, your processes. Rework something that you've shared before, bring it to its next evolution. Reorganize your digital life, your files, your photos. Reevaluate your boundaries, your commitments, your priorities, your capacity. Reassess what's actually sustainable for you. Reconnect with past clients, past collaborators, or friends that you may have drifted from. Reoffer something that you've put out into the world before or taught before, but with some tweaks. Revisit old voice notes, journal entries, little creative sparks. Repair things around your home or in your tech or in your workflows. Realign your creative direction or your business plan. Reimagine what your next steps could be without committing to them yet. Rest, the most underrated re of all time. 

It's really a powerful time to brainstorm rather than launch things, edit rather than publish them, refine things rather than completely reinvent them, reconnect with people rather than initiating brand new relationships or collaborations, revisiting rather than forcing something brand new. It's like the cosmic version of tidying up and cleaning up your workspace before you build the next thing on it.

So then, what are the best things to put on a pause during this time? And in 3 words, that would be: rushed new beginnings. It's a season where the clarity comes from slowing down, not pressing forward with any urgency. Here's what's best to hit pause on. And caveat, life has to life, right? Like sometimes you have to do things at times based on other people's agendas or because that's the way that things have fallen. But if you can, putting a pause on these things for a 3-ish week period may be helpful. And that is launching brand new things publicly, especially if they feel rushed in any way. Starting big commitments that you're not fully clear or confident about. Purchasing new technology or relying on untested platforms or technology that you may not have used before. Signing contracts, agreements, legal documents unless absolutely necessary. Hiring new team members or entering into brand new partnerships. Rebranding your entire identity or building your business completely from scratch. Initiating brand new creative projects purely out of boredom or pressure. Locking in any names or branding or platforms or dates that you may need to rethink later on. Building any complex tech automations or funnels or anything in your business that you haven't tested. Pushing out visibility through high-pressure promotions or launches. Booking interviews or starting collaborations with people that you don't fully know. Making any big financial decisions. Or generally forcing answers movement, outcomes— basically anything that feels permanent or legally binding or completely new or tech-heavy or high-pressure or stressful. 

The whole purpose instead is to help us slow down and align with what actually matters to us. To give ourselves some breathing room on all the doing and in that slower pace, we have time to double-check things, pause before replying to the emails, back up our computers, just give ourselves some extra time in general, be mindful with our communication, ask clarifying questions, and not to jump into commitments until they actually feel really aligned. 

And if you do feel like you're in a spin and you're in doubt, go back to the 're's: review, reflect, revisit, rewrite, reconnect, reconsider, and rest. So instead of bracing for chaos during Mercury retrograde, I want you to use it as your in-the-diary, planned, creative, and energetic reset. 3 or 4 times a year, it is there and available for us. Pick one old idea, one piece of writing, one half-finished thing, one abandoned project, and just revisit it. Not finish it, not perfect it, not make it a tangible, real-life, out-in-the-world thing. Just see how it feels now. 

And I guarantee you'll be surprised what opens up when you actually gift yourself and your ideas this regular, repeatable space. And look, things do go glitchy and communication gets scrambled during Mercury retrograde, and the way I approach it, honestly, is I just laugh and I use it because firstly, you know that these hiccups are not personal. It's not a personal attack. It can actually be a bit of an invitation. Like your Zoom call keeps dropping out and, you know, you're forced to reschedule it. Oh no. That's extra time to relook at your notes or tighten your message or realise that meeting wasn't necessary anyway. Or you miss the bus and you have to wait for the next one. Excellent! That's the universe giving you 15 extra minutes of reflection time that you maybe wouldn't have given yourself. Your text to your friend autocorrects into absolute nonsense. So fun! But also an opportunity to slow down, clarify what you meant, and maybe even have a surprisingly meaningful conversation that you may not have otherwise had. 

So that's the vibe, my friends. Mercury retrograde is not the villain. It's the cosmic deep breath that we really regularly need.

Chat soon.

And that's it for today's Kinda Cosmic chat. Find more soul-aligned guidance at https://clairesolomon.com/