Mercury Retrograde 2024: What Is It And Does It Impact Us?

Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun, and Mercury retrograde is an optical illusion that occurs three or four times a year, making the planet appear to move in the opposite direction than it usually does. This effect is similar to when one car overtakes another and, to those in the faster car, the slower vehicle seems to be moving backwards. All planets appear this way from Earth at various points, as they orbit the Sun at different speeds, according to BBC.

People have observed Mercury going retrograde for thousands of years, and many astrology believers link it to an increase in personal problems. According to experts, Mercury retrograde influences communication, travel, and technology, leading to misunderstandings, delays, or equipment malfunctions.

Forbes reported that the days between August 5 and 27 will be full of frustration with communication, not only between humans but also between devices.

Lina Sahhab, 42, told BBC that she once believed in the superstitions surrounding Mercury. "I started noticing that the obstacles in my life happen when there is a Mercury retrograde," she said. "My laptop would suddenly stop working, or I would buy something related to technology that would not function properly."

In an era where we can both predict the weather and find answers to most of our questions on Google, astrology enthusiasts often look to horoscopes for guidance on things most humans still feel they have little control over - like romance, friendship, or even technology. 

Perhaps it is no coincidence that, according to Google Trends, searches for "birth chart" and "astrology" both hit five-year peaks in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, a time of immense uncertainty.

While astrology is now considered a pseudoscience, in ancient civilizations, it was a survival skill used to predict the timing of rainfall, temperature, wind, and sunlight. Astrology can be traced back to between 3000 BC and 2001 BC in a region of West Asia then known as Mesopotamia. From there, it spread to India and eventually began to resemble its current form during the Hellenistic period (323 BC to 31 BC) in Ancient Greece.

According to Dr Nicholas Campion, professor of cosmology and culture at the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, the Mercury retrograde phenomenon was discovered during the final century BC. In medieval times, Mercury in retrograde was interpreted as a sign that the answer to a question was negative or that something was "unlikely to happen."

"It is only in the 20th century, in the astrology of the English-speaking world, that it came to mean 'delays' in particular," says Dr. Campion, adding that this interpretation took hold in the 1980s. Modern astrologers who believe in the influence of Mercury retrograde think it means plans are going to be put on hold or that it is a bad time to start a new job or begin something new. "It is very much a feature of a particular strand of western astrology," he says. "Western astrology now spreads all over the world through social media and apps, so it is becoming global."

Dr. Campion notes that Mercury retrograde didn't always have the same prominence it does today: "It was always a very minor phenomenon in astrology."

Dhara Patel of the National Space Centre in Leicester says, "While astronomy and astrology may have been more closely rooted in the past, the general scientific consensus at present is that astronomical phenomena like retrogrades don't have any predictable effect on people's lives."

If science indicates that Mercury retrograde has no impact on our lives, why do so many people still look to the stars for answers? Some studies have linked belief in horoscopes and zodiac signs to "confirmation bias," which is the tendency to believe or remember information that aligns with our pre-existing beliefs and interpret it selectively to support those beliefs.