All of this changes when Mercury goes retrograde. Like it or not, focal length changes, lens opens and information pours in. I didn’t realize how irritated I am with my wife. I can’t believe I’ve been ignoring that leak in water heater for so long. What on earth am I going to do about that lost file? Why didn’t my order ever go through on such-and-such? Wow, I never noticed how good looking our new UPS man was before!

That’s one reason this transit is so disruptive. You‘re not only one who’s having trouble concentrating. So is mailman, bank officer, mayor, governor and president.

One Greek myth has young Mercury stealing Apollo’s cattle. Not easy to do under eyes of Sun God. How did our trickster get away with it? He walked backward over his own tracks in sand. Keep that image in mind during next retrograde. You are Mercury. You are Sun God. And you are cattle.

Mercury retrogrades for around three weeks but first 11 days are hardest. We’re processing a flood of new information plus getting subconscious reminders to review issues that have been dormant since last retrograde three months ago. That’s part about walking backwards over same territory. These issues need to be reviewed and new thoughts on them also have to be integrated with new information we’re perceiving about our current issues. You can see there are many levels to way we process important information about our lives. There are many currents in ocean of mind.

We also move from conscious, linear and logical data processing to favorite ways of unconscious – dreams, symbolic or synchronistic occurrences, Freudian slips and messages from strange places or strange people. Ever had someone in line at supermarket solve your whole life for you and walk away?

During a recent retrograde, my client was having trouble in her long term relationship. She had been separated for a few weeks and her boyfriend was returning home. She felt ambivalent. While we were talking on phone, a hawk crashed through her living room window. This message from natural world helped my client to see her very real distress at thought of her boyfriend returning. It helped her to see she wasn’t ambivalent at all!

There is another time when mind is operating on two channels at once. Driving while talking on a cell phone is like trying to be two different places at one time. Driving is a right brain activity where we basically look for patterns and spaces. Talking on phone is a left brain activity. Ever try rubbing your tummy and patting your head at same time? Who’s watching traffic?

Especially during a Mercury retrograde, please don’t talk on your cell while driving. Your chances of causing an accident multiply radically.

Now that you know more about Mercury retrograde and bigger reasons behind it, help spread word. While cars stall, phones go dead, answering machines bleep and faxes die, important information is coming in unexpected ways. Please pay attention! There’s going to be a quiz.

Imagine process of goal achievement as a guided missile.

The missile launch is where you are now in your life, and target is goal you have set.

Do guided missiles travel in a straight line? Of course they don’t, they can go all over place! They end up at target though.

It’s same with goal achievement. Yes, you need a plan on how to get to your goal, and yes, specifics can be good. Flexibility is vital though.

You need to be able to assess those opportunities that come your way. Some of them will amaze you, believe me, and you have to be ready to accept some, and decline others.

Other times your plan may not be quite working, and if you stick to it too rigidly, you can just end up stressed because your formula isn’t working, when in fact all it needs is maybe a little tweaking.

So remember, flexibility is required asset, and you can’t have *that* if you insist on ‘t-crossing’ and ‘i-dotting’!