Timely Consideration: "This particular Mercury retrograde cycle has left many of us feeling more disoriented than usual – and there’s a reason for that."
This current Mercury Retrograde ends August 11th. Getting the most out of it involves considering what makes you special and the true value you bring to the world.
Contents
How Knowledge of Cycles Helps Us
Causation vs. Modeling Clay
Personalizing: The Individual’s Unique Connection to the Cycles
Mercury Retrograde: Perspective Matters
This Current Mercury Retrograde (until Aug 11th)
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How Knowledge of Cycles Helps Us
Great benefit is available to us from increasing our awareness of cycles and their impact on the individual and on the human collective.
I’ve long appreciated that knowledge of cycles and their inherent rhythms offers me perspective for what I’m experiencing, feeling, or thinking. That perspective can improve how I feel and it can provide context that informs my actions.
Some cycles are:
Women’s menstrual cycles
The astrology wheel and planetary cycles
Humanity’s cycles such as the Vedic Yugas and the Mayan Calendar
Causation vs. Modeling Clay
I remember what I first learned about an aspect of Mercury’s planetary cycle called Mercury Retrograde. Retrograde refers to the appearance (from our vantage point) of a planet moving “backward” or retracing its steps.
At the time, information being widely circulated implicated Mercury retrograde as the “cause” of communication and computer issues. And lo and behold, I noticed some connection between such glitches in my work and this three-times-per-year event. “Blaming” Mercury Retrograde seemed to have a basis in reality. But while there was a connection, the perspective was incomplete.
I came to understand that planetary cycles never cause anything, but rather present conditions to work with. Astrologer Pam Gregory refers to astrological energies as modeling clay; we decide what we’re going to do with it.
All cycles are this way. Take the menstrual cycle. Modern society tells us that some phases of the menstrual cycle “cause” physical pain and mental distress, which indeed seems to be reflected by experience. But in 2001, reading Women’s Bodies Women’s Wisdom by Dr. Christiane Northup, I learned that the cycle’s phases represent different experiences and energies which naturally invite different responses in order to optimize those times. This need for different activities at different times is in direct contrast to societal expectations to do the same things everyday: work 9 to 5 and interact with the world in the exact same, externalized way day after day. So what might happen if conditions set by a phase of the menstrual cycle are inviting us to rest and turn inward and we instead continue with frenzied external energy? We can only know the effect by trying something new, investigating what happens when we respond differently to different phases.
Personalizing: The Individual’s Unique Connection to the Cycles
People who advance in their understanding of cycles are knowledgeable not just about the qualities of the phenomena being investigated, but also about the particular impact upon the individual interacting with those energies.
From an Ayurveda lens, for example, we seek to understand how an individual’s constitution (in part described by doshas) is impacted by environmental inputs and by cycles such as seasons or the menstrual cycle.
It’s the same when considering cycles from any lens, and is particularly obvious in astrology. Through better understanding of a birth chart, we gain more clarity about how external energies interact with and impact that individual.
Mercury Retrograde: Perspective Matters
Around 2012 or so, Stephanie Gailing, an accomplished astrologer I had come into contact with, described Mercury retrograde with much more depth and an empowered perspective, describing this phase as a time for re-viewing, re-considering, re-doing, and so on. From that moment forward, my relationship to Mercury Retrograde became quite positive as I learned to expect that those phases would be good times for cleaning out and cleaning up existing material.
But even that perspective is just one step in understanding as it still doesn’t take into account the significance to me personally. For that, I must reflect on my personal relationship to the planet Mercury (significant) and how its current movements and relationships to other planets and at various times interact with me and my chart.
But even if you don’t know such things about yourself, you may gain insight by simply knowing what modeling clay we’re being presented with. Perhaps you’ll be prompted to seek more knowledge, or perhaps it will be enough to inform your perspective for now.
This Current Mercury Retrograde (until Aug 11th)
Mercury Retrograde July 18 - August 11, 2025
This particular retrograde cycle has left many of us feeling more disoriented than usual – and there’s a reason for that.
In the part of the zodiac where it retrograded, Mercury had very few aspects to ground or guide it. For much of the retrograde, Mercury was literally unaspected.
When you combine Mercury’s usual retrograde fog with a lack of cosmic input, you get a confused, slightly lost Mercury in Leo – one that’s no longer receiving the attention, interest, or feedback it normally thrives on. Simply ‘being ourselves’ wasn’t quite landing.
However, this existential no-one-is-interested-in-what-I-say-or-think crisis has pushed Mercury to dig deeper and ask: What’s truly different about me? What do I stand for? What’s the real message underneath the layers of identity and performance?
[When Mercury turns] direct – close enough to Pluto to gain depth and perspective – we have the chance to start again. This time, with a better understanding of what makes us special and the true value we bring to the world.
Maybe what we thought made us stand out was just surface-level – and what truly matters lies deeper. Or maybe it’s the same truth we’ve always known, but now we’re expressing it with more nuance, maturity, and authenticity.
Self-Inquiry & Vision
Due to the way my personal chart interacts with the current energies, that message hit home big time. With this comforting resonance, I felt renewed inspiration as I returned to the Mercury retrograde activities on my plate: self-inquiry and marketing communications tasks.
May you, too, find comfort in considering the cycles that provide the raw material of our experience.
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Recent Newsletters
Timely
Planning Ahead: Considerations for August 2025 — Holidays & Observations, Doshas, Seasons, Moon Phases link
Yoga
Teaching Present Moment Awareness — When the Light of awareness shows us what we don’t want to see or feel, what do we do? What happens if we choose to stay present? The power of Now and teaching present moment awareness. link
Integrity & Perseverance — Everything can be compromised, including yoga. How your integrity helps real yoga persevere. link
Adaptation Principles — “If you ask all the people in your session to do exactly the same posture in the same manner, it’s almost like asking them to wear the same shoes.” Principles for customization and adaptation of yoga for various uses and needs. link
Shadow Work — “Unconscious denial of any experience freezes some portion of our available energy in shadow.” Why shadow work (exploring the subconscious mind) is vital for improving our life, and how yoga helps. The subconscious mind is wildly powerful. And it doesn’t learn or function like the conscious mind. link
Research: Yoga's Impact on Heart Health — Brief summaries of 28 research publications on the safety and positive impacts of yoga, meditation and breathing practices on heart disease & heart health. link
Energy Philosophy — Why Do We Have Energy? Where Does it Come From? Subtle Energy from a Yoga Perspective. link
Asana Benefit — Teaching the verifiable benefits of yoga poses to reduce stress, increase concentration, reduce chronic pain and inflammation, and much more. link
Health & Wellness
Let's work together and do things better — Calling all yoga therapists and teachers, doctors and healthcare providers, coaches, and anyone who offers health and wellness support. More people are aware that establishment medicine has contributed to skyrocketing chronic illness. They're realizing they need more knowledge & better solutions. We can do better. link
Placebo & Nocebo Effects — Extensive research on placebo effects and sham surgery provide invaluable data for optimizing conditions for healing. link
Root Cause Index — Root Cause Index: No more drugs to mask symptoms while the causes remain unresolved, resulting in more serious illnesses. By dealing with root causes, the body restores functioning & health returns. link
Vitamin D — Vitamin D’s functions are so foundational and essential as to be virtually indistinguishable from bodily functioning as a whole. Get the key facts here and get your un-sunscreened skin in the sun. link
Toxins & Detoxing — Establishment doctors weren't taught about toxins or detoxing. We need to educate ourselves and our clients, so that we're all making informed choices. link
For more: Newsletter Archive