On October 18th, the same same day that Jupiter in Aquarius also stations direct, Mercury in Libra enters retroshade and the retrograde madness is OVER….. you thought.
While Mercury will certainly no longer be moving backward any longer once it reaches 10 degrees of Libra but now the planet of mental processing, intellect + communication must now retrace its steps back to 25 degrees of Libra where the retrograde first began.
The post retrograde shadow period known as a “retroshade” is a process of reorientation + integration. Mercury is certainly moving direct but this is territory that Mercury has already covered so it’s a final revisitation of these themes and is a necessary part of the process.
The Retroshade is kind of like when you attend a plant medicine retreat or experience a breakthrough in therapy, the pieces that came up and dropped in must now integrate and find their way back home and take their place in the puzzle.
The retrograde itself always makes me think of the “hanged man” card in the tarot deck. It feels precarious, uncertain, stressful and disorientating but if you look at the card closer, you realize that not only is the man hanging himself but he now has a chance to view his experience from another perspective.
When any planet is retrograde, it turns its attention inward and we turn the other way on our path and go back to where we’ve been but you can take the same road going north and have a very different experience than when you take it going south.
Retrogrades are gifts and this Mercury retrograde has its fair share of missed texts, late packages and old relationships resurfacing exactly as predicted but it’s true gift is not what came up during but how you process and integrate what was reviewed that brings lasting change and final closure.
“I AM GRATEFUL. MY RELATIONSHIPS DO NOT DEFINE ME BUT I ALLOW THEM TO REFINE ME AND I AM ATTRACTING HEALTHY RELATIONSHIPS THAT ARE IN ALIGNMENT WITH MY HIGHEST GOOD NOW!