Mercury is in Retrograde and I can see Uranus
So it seems that the planet Mercury is retrograde and had been since June 4 and will stay that way until June 28, in 2001. (Retrograde means that from our perspective on Earth, Mercury appears to stop and then go backwards through the zodiac, before it stops and then goes forward again like it's supposed to, for those of you who like me, understand the word in context but haven't looked it up because you're too lazy.) Practically, this means that communications are blocked and it's a prime time for misunderstandings and the woes caused by such.
Of course, most people on the street (unless it's a street in Santa Cruz or maybe Berkeley) will probably say that they don't really go in for all that astrology hocus-pocus. To our scientific minds, those are just stars up there and most of them don't really look like lions and crabs and scales anyway, and usually we can't even se them unless we live in the middle of Nowheresville, USA. It's preposterous to think that they have any influence on our lives. Absurd. And while I maintain a rather agnostic view of most things I don't understand too well, I generally agree.
Funny though, how once you start suggesting to people that they just had a fight or a miscommunication with someone perhaps because Mercury is retrograde, they accept it. Sure, they chuckle a bit and say they don't believe in it, but then they get a pensive look on their faces and a moment later say something like well, they'll make more of an effort to express themselves clearly this week. Just in case.
Communication seems to be the big sticking point these days. Over the last 20 years we seem to have developed a lot of new ways to communicate, with cell phones and chat rooms, and pagers, and so forth. But we still have a huge amount of trouble making ourselves understood. And often the very people we expect to best understand us are the ones who seem to fail the most often. I'd like to propose that the fault lies with us, not them; I assume that because my friends/family/lover know me so well, I can use shorthand in communicating that I would never use with someone I didn't know as well ("Remember that place we went to that time in the city?"). Sure, shorthand is great and it saves time, but often, I realize a few days later that the reason I had a quarrel with someone is because I assumed they knew what I was talking about, and clearly they didn't. Perhaps they also assumed they knew what I was talking about and didn't ask for clarification; in my opinion, failure to communicate is always shared, even if the split is 90-10, not 50-50.
But back to good old Mercury: once people know it's going to give them problems, they seem to make extra effort to be clear, concise, and not react overemotionally to misunderstandings. Too bad we don't all do that all the time. Think how nice it would be if we all made an effort to be patient with each other, and be as clear as we can about what we're saying.
Give it a try this week, for just seven measly days. Maybe we can all beat this Mercury Retrograde thing and instead make it a time for stellar communications! Maybe it will be one week with no misunderstandings for you to deal with. Imagine the time saved! I'll try to report back my findings next week.