On Thursday, July 26, Mercury entered what's known as apparent retrograde motion, a phrase often shortened to "Mercury in retrograde" or simply "Mercury retrograde."
This phenomenon occurs when the super-speedy planet appears to be moving across the sky in a different direction than it normally does.
It's an optical illusion created when Mercury catches up to and then passes Earth in its orbit around the sun. It's all about perspective.
Since Mercury moves so quickly, a "year" on that planet (the time it takes to complete its orbit around the sun) takes approximately 88 Earth-days. So Mercury's apparent retrograde motion relative to Earth happens three or four times a year, and tends to last approximately three weeks each time. This time, it will last until August 19.
As NASA and countless astronomers have pointed out, there's absolutely no evidence that astrology can tell you anything about the future, how you should behave, or what your personality is based on the position of Earth relative to the stars when you were born.
My Take:
Last week was a real anomaly in my office. The previous week I had three new patients with seemingly simple, but very chronic back issues. Their symptoms dated back years. During consult and examination, I wondered why these three simple cases had not resolved on their own. (Cases of acute low back pain resolve much more quickly with spinal manipulation, but they will eventually resolve without treatment as well) I had the nagging feeling I was missing some factor is each case.
