Mercury Retrograde has arrived in Virgo 2023: Here’s what experts have to say about the phenomenon

As Mercury retrograde begins on August 23, be prepared for astrologers to blame the planets and stars for a myriad of communication issues over the next few weeks.

For 400 years, astronomers have long believed that the basic truth of the universe is that Mercury is “entering an apparent retrograde motion,” according to The Verge. Fox. But in astrology, Mercury retrograde is a borderline religious holiday that is usually expected to result in dysfunction for everyone under the sun.

While the astronomical phenomenon has become a popular topic on the Internet in recent years, Atlantic Ocean He says that “the idea that planets can influence people’s lives” has been around for over a thousand years. This belief system has had many interpretations over the centuries, with the most recent incarnation being New Age astrology – which usually comes in the form of memes and related lists.

Astrology social media accounts have amassed hundreds and thousands of followers in recent years, enticing users with retro jokes and rating memes involving anything from cats to Weird things Characters. Meanwhile, horoscopes and lists centered around astrology have also gained popularity on the Internet.

said astrologer Chani Nicola Atlantic Ocean In 2018: “Something has happened in the past five years that has given it an interesting character and relevance in this time and place that hasn’t happened in 35 years.”

Since 2018, astrology has become more popular with millennials and Gen Z, and the idea of ​​Mercury retrograde has become more prevalent in popular culture. Some astrologers are said to credit Taylor Swift with the phenomenon’s “sudden leap into the mainstream”. in 2014 MTV News “Everything is going to be completely wrong, messed up, and miscommunicated,” Swift told viewers in the video. Your phone will break, or you’ll send a text and it won’t reach the person you’re supposed to go to.

The idea that Mercury in retrograde could wreak havoc is a fairly recent one, traced back to the late 20th century by independent researcher Joanna Martin in the early 1970s. Martin — who taught astrology and historian of cultural astronomy Nicholas Campion — said she discovered some of the earliest references to Mercury retrograde while doing research for her 2018 master’s thesis on the cultural history of Mercury retrograde. Harper’s Bazaar He wrote that Martin noticed “a spike in references to retrograde Mercury coinciding with the development of computers in the 1980s”.

Martin also discovered that the astrologer Edith Custer had printed a newsletter in 1974, which was an Internet talk forum where “astrologers wrote about their problems” and complained about the effects of Mercury retrograde.

While the idea that communication problems are a result of planetary motions may be recent, astrologers are not wrong that something is wrong in the sky. Really, what happens in the sky is primarily due to the way Mercury appears to humans. In short, Mercury retrograde is an optical illusion.

And because Mercury orbits closer to the sun than the Earth, the planet moves faster in the end — taking 88 days for its trip around the sun, compared to 365 Earth days. A planetary scientist named David Rothery explained Atlantic Ocean that the planet was essentially “bypassing us on the inner track”. And when that happens, it appears on Earth that Mercury is going retrograde. In the end, Earth is catching up and Mercury seems to be getting ahead. This astronomical phenomenon usually occurs for about three weeks, three to four times a year.

When asked if Mercury retrograde affected humans, Rothery said: “As far as I’m concerned the only effect of that on events on Earth is that most of the time when Mercury is ‘in retrograde’ it is very close to the sun in the sky.” Radio communication with a spacecraft on Mercury is compromised by signal interference.