Warning: this post long and is asking you to do some shadow work. This means I am asking you to dive deep within your self to heal. We can simply talk about how Mercury retrograde is a time where technology and communication struggles; but, we’ve gotta go deeper than that and do our shadow work in order to really create change in this world.

The Astrology of Mercury Retrograde in Cancer

To understand how this mercury retrograde will affect us, we must first understand what a mercury retrograde is. Mercury is the planet of communication and the mind. When Mercury is retrograde, it appears to travel backwards in the sky. Therefore, Mercury retrograde makes communication extremely difficult. So think about Cancer themes when it comes to communication. We’ve been experiencing many emotional and moody conversations with each other since Mercury entered Cancer on May 28th 2020. But you may notice during this retrograde period, June 18th 2020 to July 12th 2020, it is even harder to express your emotions to your loved ones. And guys, since Mercury entered Cancer, I’ve been an emotional roller coaster and feel like no one understands me!

Mercury retrograde is asking us to slow down, reflect, redefine, release. Keep these terms in mind when it comes to communication and the mind during this time. I’m not saying avoid tough conversations with your family and friends (although that’s what I am doing, so I’m a major hypocrite right now). I’m just saying now is not the time to waste your energy on arguing. This Mercury retrograde in Cancer is a great time for self reflection and rejuvenation in the home. Cancer rules the home, ya’ll! And with home comes home work.

Is Mercury Retrograde a Bad Thing?

No, it’s not a bad thing! Mercury retrograde is not scary. There are conflicting messages on social media (always). White people are being asked to shut up and listen, while also continuing to speak up about injustice. Don’t be discouraged. This is so Cancer Mercury to me. You can take it as moody; saying one thing then saying something totally different seconds later. But we have to think deeper than that! If you are taking this personally, Mercury retrograde in Cancer is confirming the intense need to do some shadow work and self reflection at this time.

In this article, I am asking everyone who’s ready, to start on their inner shadow work by reflecting on good vs bad. Knowing what is good and what is bad is important in understanding the cultural and societal factors that have shaped us today. We must understand this before we can explain to others what we think went wrong.

Using Mercury Retrograde in Cancer to Help with Your Shadow Work

I don’t know about you guys but 2020 has not been a bad year for me. I’ve had way worse years, and I understand this is a privileged stance. But I have to tell you, I feel relieved that all of this chaos is happening in our world right now. I have felt in my core, for a very long time, that I didn’t belong in this world. I thought traditional American society was bull shit, but I didn’t know why. Before 2020, I avoided shadow work because I didn’t understand the planets and how their energies, like Mercury – the intellectual, could help me. I hated diving deeper into my dark thoughts, but with Mercury retrograde in Cancer, I have a better grip on my thoughts and thus, my ability to do shadow work. I thought I was insane, because when I would explain my struggles to people, they would shoot me down, say I was too sensitive, and say that’s just the way life works. Now I can see the strength in my sensitivities.

With that said, I know that 2020 has come with death and destruction. And death and destruction, which are heavy Pluto themes, are bad when you look at them at surface level, right? Well death and destruction also come with the ability to change the things that needed to be changed. This is one of the areas where Mercury retrograde in Cancer is asking us to reflect and redefine at this time.

Music break: Check out Tupac’s song Changes, for more plutonian inspiration.

Understanding Good vs Bad

What is good and what is bad? Where is the line drawn between the two? Death and destruction are depressing. They’re unfair, frustrating, and scary. But death and destruction are inevitable at some point. We as humans, are blessed with powerful minds and within those minds we have intellect, reasoning, and logic. We as humans have the ability to go deep within our psyches to understand the meanings behind our actions and the actions of others. Some of us spend lifetimes going deeper and deeper trying to understand the root cause of human actions while some of us stay very surface level, choosing to ignore that there are actually many understandable causes leading up to the actions a person makes. Blurring the line between good and bad.

We are all given a different genetic and astrological makeup that helps us navigate the world in our own unique ways. This, we cannot change.

Along with this makeup, we are taught societal good vs bad and cultural good vs bad. These good vs bad teachings that are ingrained in us. They lead us to determine who, as individuals, are good and who are bad. With these teachings, we are also led to determine if each choice a person makes is good or bad. Then we reward or punish from there. When we refuse to see the root cause of a persons actions, the good and bad distinctions we make are extremely generalized.

For example, I was told that people who don’t make eye contact with others are rude. Meanwhile, I hate long drawn out eye contact, so for the longest time I thought I was a rude person. But with Mercury retrograde in Cancer, let’s dig a little deeper into some shadow work.

Shadow Work Questions

What makes a person who doesn’t look you in the eye, rude? To put it simply, the way our society and current American culture is shaped has made eye contact, or lack thereof, rude. In many Asian countries, it’s actually rude to look someone in the eye. It means you are either angry at that person or want to fight them. So are Asians bad since they don’t make eye contact like Americans do? Unfortunately, some people stop there and say yes without going deeper and considering our cultural differences.

Compassion is lost with the inability to dig deeper.

Who told you giving a firm handshake makes you a good person? Who told you, not smiling at someone you pass in the hallway is bad? Was it your caretaker who came up with the “right” and “wrong” way to do things? Or is it deeper than that? Who told them? Overtime, what caused that action to be considered either good or bad? Get out a piece of paper and go way back in your answers to these questions. Dig deep, and create a string of examples. Pull out a history book and think about how those outdated ways of understanding are still appearing in today’s world.

Reevaluating Your Relationship with Death

Overtime, our societies and our cultures teach us trillions of things that shape us into who we are today. If you are like me (a white, suburban, Midwestern lady) you were taught that death was not a good thing. Death was not something to truly celebrate. Funerals were sad. We all hated having to dress up and sit in a church or funeral home for hours; we hated having to cry (or trying not to cry) in front of others; we hated the awkward “sorry for your loss” comments. Death was something we feared, fought against, and just prayed wouldn’t happen too early to us. But this is what we knew. This was just the way funerals worked. (Something to note, this is typical of the Catholic/Christian funerals I personally attended. But I have also been to non religious funerals that were set up the same way minus the church.) Is this type of funeral a Midwestern thing? Is this an American thing? Is this a religious thing? How has religion shaped our cultures and the ways we function in society? Has religion moseyed it’s way into politics and societal structures, regardless of our First Amendment to the constitution? There are so many questions here guys. Mercury retrograde in Cancer wants us to dig deep!

So that’s predominantly how we go about funerals in America. Maybe we think it’s celebrating the life but to me it’s the most boring, dull, sad “celebration” possible. In Mexico on the other hand, they have very different ways of honoring and remembering the dead than we do, including Día de los Muertos or Day of the Dead. They carve out this time every year to celebrate life WITH the deceased. Even in New Orleans, they have Jazz funerals that celebrate the deceased (these funerals actually originated as a way to celebrate the release from slavery). So why do we all celebrate life and death differently? Where did these ideas about death come from? Is one way better than the other? Or are all of the ways we can celebrate/mourn death good? Or are they all bad? Or all they all just what they are? Shouldn’t every way be respected and acknowledged for what it is, not deemed good or bad? Who’s to say that death itself is bad or scary? We all die don’t we?

Overcoming Suicidal Thoughts with the Help of Astrology

But if you’re still with me, the point I’m really trying to make here is that we distinguish good and bad based off of the cultural and societal factors that we observe and pass down over time. It’s what we’re taught by our direct elders, yes. But societal and cultural structures are formed and adapted over long periods of time. And just because we think they are good and right for us, does not mean that they are good and right for all.

We are experiencing major global shifts. There is no denying it. Mercury retrograde in Cancer is asking us to do our own shadow work and reflect on the major themes of societal and cultural structures. What emotional (Cancer) connections do we have to the societal traditions that are being shattered this year? How does that make us feel? Does this explain some of our discomfort throughout 2020?

Or are you like me and love the shattering of the society that never truly resonated with your soul?

How do we communicate (Mercury) with others about cultures that are not our own? Is our tone negative or positive?

Understanding Society vs Culture

And society is different from culture. We have to realize that society can have systems in place that divide us by culture. Not usually directly, but our current society has many systems that divide us.

Our current society does not respect cultural differences among humans. Our current society determines good vs bad, right vs wrong, then locks up, ships off, or kills its understanding of bad, wrong, or just plain different. Reflect on what it is that you feel makes our society function in a divisive way. There are many ways but what do you see reflected in your day to day life? It’s there guys, we just gotta dig deep.

If you feel like our society is not divisive and everything is golden, know you are:

1. Privileged.
2. Not opening yourself up to the shadow side of life and therefore spiritually bypassing the hurt and pain of the fellow humans around you.

To me, we are divisive because we don’t take the time to understand and appreciate other cultures. In our current American society, we move too fast, don’t respect our land, our ancestors, and people who are different. It’s hard to stop and think about the darkness of the past, so most of us don’t. We bury the darkness in the systems and quiet those who speak out against them. We don’t dive deep into good vs bad. We don’t look at humans as humans. We assume what we learned was bad, is bad, and we leave it at that. Our structure is very surface level and the surface is starting to crack open!

Now you know what I see, but what do you see? Don’t worry about arguing with me if you feel differently. Sit with it. Go deeper. See the patterns that have caused you to feel the way you feel about life in general. We’re you privileged in this society? We’re you treated well and given countless opportunities to succeed? Why? Did any of this treatment, good or bad, have to do with the color of your skin? Is this good? Is this bad? Have you ever thought of it as good or bad? Or was it just the way it was?

We cannot shift into a shiny brand new society without first accepting the old society for what it is. Accepting that we were a part of it, but are working to overcome it, is essential.

Summary

The questions of good vs bad are never ending. What is good and what is bad? We may never know; but, diving deeper into our own understandings of good vs bad and finding the source of these notions helps us to understand our actions, our peers actions, and actions throughout history. When we understand where these actions come from, we can release the old patterns that no longer serve us and build a cohesive life, for all of us to live in peace. We’ve held on for far too long, it’s time to let some shit go.

Mercury retrograde in Cancer is confirming, change starts at home. You have to do the inner work, before you do the outer work. Retrogrades are not about analyzing then festering. Retrogrades are for redefining, renewing, and releasing, so when Mercury goes direct again, we come out with new opinions, new discoveries, and new deeper connections to the Earth and all those who inhabit it.

Cancer has been in Mercury since May 28th. We’ve been speaking up. We’ve been spewing our emotions out. Many of us have been fighting for injustice. Mercury retrograde is not telling us to give up the fight and sit quietly while Trump tweets a bunch of ludicrous nonsense. Mercury retrograde is telling us to buckle down on our emotions and feelings and really start to understand what these feelings mean for each of us personally. Mercury is still in Cancer so the emotional conversations are still there. But when Mercury is retrograde, having emotional arguments is even more ineffective. When we do the internal work, the outer work will come easier to us. Keep fighting the fight; but, accept and process your emotions as they come up. Do not push them aside during this time. Do not wildly argue with those who do not understand. Protect your energy. The oppressor may not understand while mercury is retrograde; sometimes all you can do is your own internal work. It’s then that you’ll know inner peace. This inner peace will reflect and inspire others to do their own internal work.