While watching HGTV with my husband last night, there was a show featuring a young couple trying to purchase their first home. The home they picked out had a price tag of $259,000; they offered about $240,000 and asked for closing costs. The seller’s counter offer was a staggering $258,000 and no closing costs. She’d only budged a mere $1,000 on her asking price. The buyers countered at $245,000 plus closing costs, and again the seller came back with $258,000. She hadn’t moved an inch. When the couple then offered $249,000, the seller asked for some time to think about the offer. A few weeks later, the offer was accepted. When the purchasers asked why it had taken so long for the seller to accept their offer, I was stunned when their realtor’s response was that “the seller did not want to sign any contracts while Mercury was in retrograde.”

I must admit: my jaw just about hit the floor when I heard that answer. Yes, Mercury is currently in retrograde and will continue to be so until May 11, and this period of retrograde is supposed to wreak more havoc than usual, but I was still astonished. To me, losing a buyer on a house in these economic conditions is far worse than signing a contract with said buyer because of the current planetary alignment. Mercury is the planet of communication, and I will fully admit to, at times, falling prey to its apparent backward motion, but should we really hide under our covers every few months until Mercury goes direct again?

Marguerite Manning, author of Cosmic Karma, points out in her article “Mercury Retrograde: Above the Hype and Beyond the Spin,” that Mercury retrograde’s strong influence doesn’t have to be a negative one. Instead, Mercury retrograde is a time to focus on those things revealed to us, things we can work on and ways to improve our lives. You hear that? Perhaps we don’t have to fear Mercury retrograde after all!

Have you ever postponed something or taken different actions simply because Mercury was in retrograde?

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Written by Anna
Anna is the Senior Digital Marketing Strategist, responsible for Llewellyn's New Worlds of Body, Mind & Spirit, the Llewellyn Journal, Llewellyn's monthly email newsletters, email marketing, social media marketing, influencer marketing, content marketing, and much more. In her free time, Anna ...