Why Mercury Retrograde Matters
Even though Mercury won't be going retrograde until later this March—on March 14th—the planet of trickery and mischief has already started planting the seeds of what this retrograde is all about.
In this week's horoscope on the Astrology Channel, I talked a great deal about how Mercury in Aries right now might be a bit of a negative influence on the other planets. While Mercury in Aries certainly has its perks, like sharp and witty problem-solving skills and an incredible ability to come up with new ideas at unmatched speed, Mercury is still somewhat unfiltered in this sign. This is because the agility that Aries promotes dampens Mercury's natural ability to think ahead and plan with the intention of diminishing any unwanted consequences or side effects.
This lack of awareness can be especially tricky right now, as Venus is also retrograde, making our communal interactions a lot less reliable and a lot more unhinged. This can make even those we thought were our most reliable supporters capable of delivering some really bad advice—or they could even go entirely M.I.A.
Mercury: The Patron of Astrologers
With all this retrograding in mind, I've been trying to narrow down some possible scenarios that could manifest from this configuration. One particular expression continues to bug me and I feel it must be addressed: if Mercury is the planet said to rule over astrologers, diviners, and mystics, how do we know that we can trust these figures during a retrograde?
This is obviously a tough question for me to sit with as an astrologer myself. But I think that even just taking a second to consider how sensationalized Mercury Retrogrades have become over the years, it's easy to see how Mercury going retrograde can reveal the astrologer's Achilles' Heel: Business.
This retrograde is very interesting to me because it reveals a facet of the astrology business that people often forget: astrology is, in fact, a business, and every business requires marketing. Every marketing initiative (even the most righteous) features at least a small dose of distortion of truth, or at the very least, adheres to the rules of marketing by emphasizing the good things about a product while dampening some of the less-than-ideal truths.
This might drive astrology headlines to catastrophize over faulty tech, misunderstandings, and the like. But the problem isn't so much the catastrophizing as it is how this mode of speech becomes a vehicle for sales tactics and schemes. After all, fear sells, and Mercury in a sign ruled by Mars—the planet of survival—is keenly aware of that.
Now, this is not to say that every astrologer becomes untrustworthy during a Mercury Retrograde—astrology doesn't really work like that. Rather, it means that Mercury Retrograde could be a great opportunity to study how our current structures of commerce influence and reward professionals in the metaphysical world for behaving like scammers. It is my hope that this article will provide the astrology enthusiast with tools to safeguard themselves against these manipulative tactics, as well as tools for the astrologer to assess whether they’re reporting on these astrological transits from a place of genuine care rather than simply offering a solution to a problem they may be creating (even if unintentionally).
Tips for the Enthusiast
If you are an astrology enthusiast, it might be a helpful exercise to think of yourself as the Venus Retrograde in this dynamic. As I mentioned in this week's horoscope, Venus represents someone in a troubled situation trying to reinvent themselves—a figure who is also vulnerable to Mercury's many persuasive tactics.
I noted how Venus' primary vulnerability now is to someone nudging her to experiment with sides of herself that lie outside her comfort zone. Some of those nudges can be useful in realizing new facets of her identity, but some could very well be leading her astray, as symbolized by the incoming retrogrades. For that reason, one of the most important things as a consumer of astrology right now is to be comfortable and aware of your ability to learn about who you are and where your life is going outside of the astrology of the moment before engaging with it. The role of astrology should be to provide additional data to promote the creative exploration of your life’s course, but not to serve as the starting point. Here are some ways you can do that:
1 - How do you feel?
Before engaging with an astrological report, it's important to first note how you feel in the moment versus how you feel after reading the report. Astrology has great storytelling potential, so much so that it may be easy to identify with a narrative that, in fact, isn't yours. Remember that not every astrological transit matters to you, and that your personal experience is more real than any astrologer's delineation.
2 - What's the urgency?
One common marketing technique is "false urgency" or FOMO (fear of missing out). Think of those emails that shout, "Hurry up!!! The sale ends in 24 hours," even though you’ve seen the same email about the same sale multiple times in one week.
Because astrology is primarily a calendrical tracking system, it's perfectly suitable for these tactics. If you see a headline proclaiming that this Mercury Retrograde will change everything, remember that Mercury goes retrograde about three to four times per year. If every retrograde were touted as THE one to turn everything upside down, we'd all be insane.
This retrograde COULD shake things up, but so could many future ones. Chances are, if you're not feeling the motions already, there’s likely no urgency to book that reading or buy that course.
3 - Where's that coming from?
Astrologers often look to the past to forecast the future. While this technique can be very fruitful, it’s important to remember that it isn’t infallible.
Sometimes, when listening to an astrology report with historical examples that match the symbolism, we may subconsciously create biases that suggest every Mercury Retrograde has impacted us or someone we know, even if that isn’t necessarily true. In those moments, remember that while one particular event may have matched the retrograde's symbolism, the majority of events occurring at the time likely did not.
Sharing every instance where the astrology didn’t work doesn’t make for the most entertaining or convincing report and though this doesn’t invalidate astrology as a whole, it does illustrate that there isn’t a one-size-fits-all delineation. Many factors contribute to an “astrological manifestation” beyond a single planet going retrograde. So if you ever feel anxious because someone said Mercury Retrogrades will cause your car to break down in the middle of nowhere, remember what would really happen if everyone’s car broke down at once during a Mercury Retrograde, and keep in mind all the retrogrades that passed without incident.
4 - What are they selling?
During these peculiar astrological times, remember that astrologers are professionals with a business to run. It’s vital to understand what’s being sold and ensure that it matches your needs. Otherwise, you risk falling for marketing techniques that generate needs out of thin air. Especially when it comes to counseling, seek professional help when it’s genuinely needed, not just because a transit says you should.
Tips for the Astrologer
If you're an astrologer, I hope you’re not taken aback by some of what I’m sharing today. This isn’t meant to call out any particular practices. Astrologers, like all professionals, have a job to do and need their business to thrive. Marketing techniques are a necessity to ensure that our practices continue to succeed, and there’s nothing inherently wrong with utilizing these tools.
One point I mentioned earlier is how fear can drive negative or biased engagement with astrology—whether it’s from the consumer or the astrologer. Our fear isn’t necessarily about the movements of the sky, but rather the fear of failing at something we love, or not maintaining a profitable practice.
Online, it’s easy to feel pressured to resort to manipulative marketing practices as if they're the only way to succeed, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. In fact, by continuing to perpetuate these manipulative techniques that we all detest, we risk endangering the future of our businesses, and the future of our craft as a whole. Though moving against the grain isn't necessarily the easiest thing, it's very much the only way to make an impact.
Here are a few ways to ensure that fear doesn’t drive your business, and that you protect your values and integrity as an astrologer from the grasp of modern capitalism:
1 - How do You want them to feel?
Astrologers may not like to think of themselves as manipulators, but when you remember that Mercury is the planet of both astrologers and tricksters, it’s easy to see that our work involves a degree of persuasion. However, manipulation doesn’t have to be negative. Mercury is also the only neutral planet in the traditional roster, which means we can harness this influence for evil as much as we can for good.
I think Nir Eyal's essay, "The Morality of Manipulation", is a great read for any astrologer. The essay outlines ways for marketers to gauge whether their approach is ethical. While the article focuses more on tech, it provides a solid framework for public astrological delineations like horoscopes, podcasts, and video essays. Essentially, it invites us to ask two questions: "Is my product going to improve someone's life?" and "Would I use my product?"
For our purposes, I reframe these for astrology as:
Is my advice ultimately going to make someone feel ready and capable of improving their own lives?
Have I or will I follow my own advice?
The benefit of being an astrologer is that we’re not immune to our own influence. Reflecting on how we engage with astrology can be very helpful.
In Eyal's article, he outlines a marketer archetype called the "Facilitator." This archetype describes a marketer who genuinely believes in the product they're selling (because it improves their life) and has either used it earnestly in the past or is currently using it. As an astrologer, I'm sure you're using astrology, as we all already know. But the question here is: how are you using astrology to improve your life? I doubt that catastrophizing and expecting the worst makes anyone's life better, so it's important to keep these tendencies in check; otherwise, you run the risk of becoming a mere Entertainer—someone whose astrology doesn't improve their life but is eager to market it—or, even worse, the Dealer, someone who isn't using astrology or heeding their own astrological advice yet is selling it anyway.
2 - What do You want them to do?
Honesty is crucial—not just in forecasting, but in being transparent about what you want your audience or clients to do. As astrologers, our goal is often to build a thriving business. But that often means our communication is designed to prompt enthusiasts to buy an offering or book a reading.
When you genuinely believe in your services, that isn’t necessarily unethical. However, the fear of a failing business can creep into how we present our practices. Author Saba Tekle writes in her article "Are You Marketing or Manipulating? Let's Find Out." that effective marketing involves giving people the free will to decide whether to buy your services without manipulation. Marketing becomes manipulative only if it benefits you at the expense of your consumer’s needs. As astrologers, our practice is rooted in altruism and a desire to help clients improve their lives, but we must always be clear about what we’re offering and avoid creating needs that don’t exist. This is especially important in counseling, where the service should be sought only when genuinely needed.
As Tekle's article suggests, the goal of the marketer—or in this case, the astrologer—should be for the consumer to improve their life first and foremost. At times, what a client needs to improve their life is something that astrology alone cannot provide. Even though astrology is an extremely helpful time-tracking system, its ability to heal complex physical, mental, and even financial concerns is incredibly limited. That’s why it’s important to ask whether the way you're communicating about astrology is helping the client find solutions or simply positioning you as the solution. In other words, be humble and know your limits, as well as the limits of your craft.
3 - What works?
Focusing solely on what not to do rarely gets anyone very far. So, let’s highlight techniques that do work.
A 2016 study by Gary Ottley suggests that consumers have grown more jaded toward aggressive marketing over the years—a trend exacerbated by our hyper-digital existence since 2020. Whether you’re growing a mailing list, running a workshop, or offering a course, you may have noticed that people are increasingly exhausted by constant marketing, as evidenced by the growing challenges in sustaining these ventures over the past few years.
The cornerstone of ethical marketing is trust. Modern social media offers a great platform for building genuine connections with your audience. One of the best ways to build trust is to be honest about what astrology can and can’t do, and to be open about your own mistakes and misinterpretations.
Still, Social media may also tempt us to only showcase our successes or the times when Mercury Retrograde (or any other transit) clearly “brought upon” a symbolically relevant event. However, Morgan Jenkins, in her article "Why Marketing Must Become an Activity of Transparency," illustrates how manipulative practices, when exposed, can turn loyal customers into skeptics or even detractors. In other words, demonstrating both when Mercury Retrograde "worked" and when it didn’t is far more effective at building trust and a loyal customer base than simply highlighting its "successes".
The Importance of Trust
Trust is crucial, so I turned to a paper by Rempel, Holmes, and Zanna titled "Trust in Close Relationships. Although focused on intimate relationships, it outlines three dimensions of trust that are very relevant to our practice: Predictability, Dependability, and Faith.
Predictability is about consistency and stability. For an astrologer, it can mean sticking to a particular approach or clearly defining your target audience.
Ethical Marketing isn’t about having a product that’s "for everybody." And the predictability factor is an excellent way to approach that. A good starting point is narrowing down the types of people you can truly help. For example, if you're a trained and licensed therapist, you might excel at addressing psychological needs through astrology techniques. Meanwhile, someone like me (first and foremost a project manager and marketer) can help people finalize their projects using astrology. Having clear, targeted messaging helps everyone find the right match for their needs, builds trust, and curbs disappointment.
Dependability is all about ensuring that your clients feel confident that you have their best interests at heart, even during tough times. This means prioritizing their well-being over immediate financial incentives. It’s crucial to understand the limitations of your own practice and recognize when a client might benefit from a referral to another professional who can better address their specific needs, even if that professional isn't another astrologer.
Though referring a client might seem like a loss in the short term, it builds long-term trust. Clients will remember that you genuinely cared for their well-being, which can bring them back when they have challenges you can help solve. If not that, in the long run, this trust can also help prevent PR issues or any unintended harm that might occur if a vulnerable client doesn't receive the right support.
Faith is perhaps the most challenging dimension of trust to cultivate, yet it naturally follows when predictability and dependability are in place. For an astrologer, faith means building a deep level of trust with your audience, one where clients believe that you are committed to delivering honest, transparent astrological insights today and will continue to do so in the future. While there’s no one-size-fits-all formula for building faith, leading by example and consistently adhering to your values is essential. When clients see that you stand by your principles and are open about your own experiences and even your mistakes, they are more likely to invest their faith in you, trusting that your guidance will continue to be both genuine and beneficial.
Summary
In the end, whether you’re a consumer or a practitioner of astrology, staying grounded, honest, and true to your values is key. By understanding the influence of astrological events—especially the dual energies of Mercury Retrograde’s challenge in communication and Venus Retrograde’s call for reassessment in relationships—we can minimize the potential harm we may inadvertently cause one another. If Mercury and Venus are so influential right now, recognizing their tendency toward mischief and trickery, and actively working to minimize those effects, will undoubtedly create a better experience for everyone in the upcoming month.
Most Important Day for Your Rising Sign: March 3rd - 9th
Aries Rising: Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Aries is by far the most vulnerable sign to the transits happening this week, especially Mercury’s bad influence. As I mentioned in previous horoscopes, this month is likely to put the spotlight squarely on you, and so this week it’s especially important to be aware that all eyes might be on you, even when you think you’re impenetrable. To put it simply, if you’re likely to get caught, make sure you’re caught doing something good.
Taurus Rising: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Taurus is another sign this week that can be vulnerable to Mercury’s tricky ways. However, Taurus has the perk of having all this action occur in an area of your chart that deals with hidden matters. Knowing that, it’s possible that naughty deeds go unnoticed, but that doesn’t mean they won’t come with consequences. This is a week that calls for a bit of caution and integrity.
Gemini Rising: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Because you’re one of the two signs ruled by Mercury, you’re likely to be the one doing the persuading this week. As you’ll see in the coming weeks, whatever cause you’re trying to rally support for is likely to gain traction rather quickly. The challenge here is that Mercury will soon go retrograde, so be careful not to draw people into a cause you’re not ready to spearhead just yet.
Cancer Rising: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
Cancer is having an interesting week. While the attention might not necessarily be on you right now, someone in your life with great influence may be going through the motions. The transit I’d pay especially close attention to is the one on Thursday. In this week’s horoscope, I mentioned that this could be a day when people are willing to turn a blind eye to trickery. Although the charts suggest you’re less subject to deceitful influences, you may feel prompted to call out bad actors as you see it. Just be careful not to burn any bridges as you do so.
Leo Rising: Tuesday, Saturday, Sunday
Tuesday initiates the buildup toward a rather difficult week ahead. Though the sense of heaviness I mentioned in this week’s forecast is mostly present over the weekend, it’s likely to linger a little longer. The big thing to focus on is that these transits are occurring in an area of your chart that deals with guilt, fear, and a sense of indebtedness. There’s a chance that all you can do is push through this time of toil. However, as I mentioned in the horoscope, there’s a very good chance that your efforts will pay off in the long run—even if it’s hard to see that reality for now.
Virgo Rising: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Paying attention to Mercury this week is very important for Virgo. This is because Mercury is your ruling planet, and whatever it does is said to reflect your actions down here on the earthly plane. Keep in mind that most of this trickster energy is being filtered through an area of your chart that deals with finances. With tax season upon us, consider this a warning to be extra careful this year to ensure you’re not misrepresenting or misinterpreting any data.
Libra Rising: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
This week’s Venus retrograde developments are quite interesting for you. The implication of Venus’ interactions with Mercury is that this double retrograde period is here to teach you a lesson about partnership and independence—and how to balance the two. With Mercury being a little shit disturber right now, you may be compelled to tip these scales off balance a bit. If that happens, remember that sometimes we need to oscillate between extremes before finding a common ground that works for everybody. Be patient and kind to yourself and your partners; retrogrades are all about taking things slower, so don’t push for a resolution just yet and enjoy the process.
Scorpio Rising: Tuesday, Sunday
Now that Mars is feeling a little better, it’s likely that things can change for you too. Still, Mars is in an area of your chart that deals with some of your biggest and most philosophical questions in life. Like I said in this week’s horoscope, there’s no point in trying to rush these things. This week is a time to digest the progress (and regress) you’ve made over the last two months. Sunday’s transit can be a great time for a jolt of inspiration to wash over you, so you may have the answers you’re looking for sooner than you think.
Sagittarius Rising: Wednesday, Thursday, Friday
Thursday’s transit is by far the most important for you this week. As I mentioned, Jupiter (your ruling planet) is somewhat yielding to Venus and Mercury’s mischief, and that may very well show up in your personal life one way or another. However, in contrast to Pisces (the other Jupiter-ruled sign), you might also be tempted to join in on the fun. This could yield promising results, but considering the retrogrades, it might be wise not to do anything you might later regret.
Capricorn Rising: Tuesday, Saturday
With Saturn getting ready to move forward, you might have sensed a change in pace recently. The biggest thing I’d pay attention to is the theme of sacrifice that appears toward the end of Pisces. As you prepare to set new foundations in the coming months, you’ll likely be tasked with modifying or revising certain aspects of your future plans. The good news is that Mars is in a supportive position in relation to your ruling planet Saturn right now, which could make saying no, and severing bonds, plans, and ideas, a bit easier than it would otherwise be.
Aquarius Rising: Tuesday, Saturday
This new chapter that Saturn embarked on last week has likely set some things in motion for you. Still, it may be difficult to see the positivity in these developments due to financial or workplace troubles. At times like these, it’s important to remember that much of the motion in the heavens right now is occurring in areas of your chart you’re said to be “blind to.” While that can be infuriating for a plan-oriented sign like Aquarius, trusting that things simply cannot remain the same forever might be enough to help you harness the patience you need to overcome your current hurdles.
Pisces Rising: Thursday, Friday, Saturday
This week’s challenge for you, Pisces, is all about finances. With Mercury and Venus now in the area of your chart that deals with cash flow, it’s likely that the ever-so-pushy Mercury in Aries will make some rather extravagant (or even unnecessary) purchases seem like a far better idea than they actually are. Spend your money however you like (it’s yours, after all) but before you do so, make sure you actually have the funds to back up that purchase before hitting the buy button.