Unless you’ve been hiding with your head in the sand, you are likely aware that Mercury, our planet of communication, technology, and travel, goes retrograde at 10° Aquarius this Friday. I wrote about the specifics of this retrograde here and also, how and why to figure out the specifics of a Mercury retrograde here – but now I want to talk about the magic of it all.
There are a lot of ways to do magic to work with the Mercury retrograde cycle and I wanted to talk about a few that I am particularly familiar with. Mercury is a major player in my natal chart (my Sun is conjunct Mercury and my Venus and Mars both fall in the signs ruled by Mercury), so staying in tune and ahead of the energy of Mercury retrograde is very important to me. Over the years, I have tried a number of different strategies for handling retrograde energy – all have worked, to a greater or lesser degree, but in very different ways. My goal here is to inspire you with some retrograde magic that will work for YOU and your personal path – feel free to adapt any and all of my suggestions in any way that you feel fits.
Since Mercury rules over Communication, Technology, Travel, and Boundaries (along with Saturn); all Mercury retrograde magic will likely be focused in one of those generation directions. If you are a writer and need to make a word count every day, focus on that. If you need to travel, maybe a protection spell is more in order. I am going to cover the wide strokes, make each piece your own.
Mercury Retrograde Oil
One of the easiest ways to incorporate your intentions for the retrograde is to make an oil using correspondences appropriate to your desires. If you are prone to emotionality, you might want the oil to be grounding. If you need to sit down and work every day without spacing out, you might want the oil to increase your focus. Here you want to create an oil that is both pleasant to smell (so that you are eager to don it every day) and that has aromatherapy benefits that work towards your intention. I won’t go into the specifics of every possible smell and their associations here because you can find that information all over the internet but you could certainly find a recipe already created online or try your hand at writing your own.
I particularly like to include grounding gemstones, dried herbs, and essential oils in an olive oil base since I make my oils in small quantities for short-term use. When I have made a Mercury retrograde oil, I have used it both to anoint myself every day of the retrograde but also to anoint any candles or intention papers that I also used during the retrograde cycle.
If making your own oil isn’t your thing, you could certainly purchase a specific Mercury retrograde oil from one of many talented makers online or use a Road Opener or Van van oil that you already have as both tend to contain Lemongrass which is an herb closely associated with Mercury and keeping things flowing during the retrograde cycle. The point here is one that you will see continue throughout this post: you want to create a daily practice for yourself during this retrograde cycle that will bring you back to your goals, and to yourself.
Enchant a Stone or Spellpouch with your Mercury Retrograde Intentions
This suggestion is very similar to the first and in fact, can build directly off of it. Now that you have created (or purchased) an oil to use during Mercury retrograde – let’s get to the use of it. (Or you can do this without a particular oil, that’s okay, too!)
The idea here is to create either a spell pouch or enchant a crystal that you will carry with you throughout the Mercury retrograde cycle. I personally like to do both – I create a spell pouch with one of the crystal type that I am looking to use inside of it (as well as my intention paper and other botanical goodies), this will stay on my altar during the retrograde. Additionally, I carry another of the same stone, linked through my spell, on my person. This is because I’m not fond of carrying spell bags as they are bulky – you choose what works well for you, of course.
There are a number of stones appropriate to this (really any if we’re being honest): you could use any crystal that you would normally use for protection, sodalite or lapis lazuli if you feel like you need to stay connected with your voice and/or your throat chakra, or an inspirational crystal like fluorite if you need to work or study through the retrograde. If you need to stay grounded, try tourmaline – for staying in your heart, rose quartz. This is the fun part and has a lot to do with you and how you, particularly, respond to retrogrades and to crystals. (And if crystals aren’t your thing you could forgo one altogether and make your spell pouch out of other ingredients entirely – again, this is your magic – let it be yours!)
I like to charge my crystals and spell bags with fire – a yellow or blue candle works perfectly for Mercury energy. This is a great place to include sigil magic – you can make yourself a sigil for your specific intent or look one up online that suits your needs. My sigil is written on a piece of birch bark that I foraged from the forest floor during a prior Mercury retrograde cycle. I also used lapis lazuli for this particular spell pouch as well as sunflowers for happiness and the aforementioned lemongrass.
Again, the goal here is the same as before: be consistent and perform daily magic to connect you back to yourself and the retrograde cycle. I like to do this by creating a simple mantra that I say every day as I touch the stone/charm that I will be carrying throughout the retrograde.
Work with the Tarot, Runes, or another System of Symbols
There are many systems of symbols from all over the world and each likely have symbology appropriate for the Mercury retrograde cycle. This goes along with my suggestion about sigils above – you can find something that works for you and your practice that already exists or you can make your own. The Icelanders have a sigil called Vegsvisir that is supposed to help you find your way, the equal-armed cross is said to represent the crossroads, Hekate has her sacred wheel, or you can always go with the ever-present skeleton key. Remember to be mindful of taking symbols from cultures that are not your own and make sure that you understand what you are using or else you might invoke more than you intended!
In the tarot, it is appropriate to work the King of Swords for mastery over language, or the Fool to find a new path. You could do this by putting a copy of the tarot cards on your altar, meditating with them, or even printing them out and putting them onto a candle. You can also use the Magician for mastery, Death if you are seeking drastic change, or really any other tarot card that aligns with your intentions.
Additionally, you could choose to work with the sign that the retrograde falls into in astrology or the planetary ruler of that sign.
Vigil candles are designed to burn for a long time and when I burn them for a purpose such as this – I aim to light them for somewhere around 1-2 hours per day for the entirety (or most of) the retrograde cycle. Keeping the roads open (here represented by a vigil candle with the Fool card from the Londa tarot deck on it) is one of my favorite rituals to perform during the Mercury retrograde cycle.
Wayfinding
Lastly, we come to the creme de la creme or the way in which I put all of these types of magic together: Wayfinding. When Mercury is retrograde, the paths less taken and almost always the right paths. But how do we know what paths are the right paths when everything is foggy and dense?
The answer is simple: you do the work and then trust your intuition. Wayfinding is an art that magically often begins with a Road Opener – you set the intention for new opportunities to come your way. Then, by using your oils, your crystals, and your intuition – you let the paths unfold before you. Every retrograde is different and required different things, different skill sets, different attitudes, and adjustments. Though we astrologers try to predict these things through transits, the truth remains that the experience is subjective and will be entirely about you and where you are in your life.
Learn to trust that. Learn to be where you are. Learn to let one door close and the next open with wholeness and grace. It is only then that you can say that you have mastered the retrograde experience. And it may take a lifetime but it is universally worth it for the growth that it will bring.