That crafty trickster Mercury has again gone retrograde, this period (entirely in Capricorn) lasting from December 26, 2009 through January 15, 2010. Perhaps it is because the new year is just days away that this particular retrograde period I'm focusing on rebirth and renewal. Mercury retrograde is synonymous in popular culture with a time of messy communications, lost items, frazzled travelers, and altogether, frustration. But while Mercury retrograde may provide us with an inconvenience or two, it also gives us a time to step back and re-evaluate our lives. That's right. However harried Mercury retrograde has the potential to make us, it provides us with a valuable time of "re."

Please welcome guest blogger Sharon Leah to Guided by the Stars! Sharon works with Llewellyn's Calendars and Almanacs in our Production department. Mercury is in apparent direct motion again after being retrograde nearly all of September. Did anyone breeze through this retrograde period unscathed? The winged trickster tagged me. I purchased a new domain name for a Website on September 28 (one of the worst days to conduct business, because Mercury was almost stationary). The domain remained in limbo for several days before it became active on October 2. While Mercury was retrograde, it slid back into Virgo, where it drew attention to the details of life, and we spent three weeks

We are told that Mercury Retrograde is generally not the time to start something new. We certainly should avoid beginning projects or dealing with any form of technology. So why did Llewellyn decide to launch its new website? I was thinking of this, and decided it wasn't such an inauspicious beginning. Mercury Retrograde is not as frightening as everyone thinks. While most people worry about delays and setbacks, lost mail and broken electronics, I tend to find the retrograde cycle quite refreshing. Mercury is one of my favorite gods, and that's not just because I'm a Gemini. He's the winged messenger, a trickster and teacher. So what can this cycle do for us? Right now, Mercury is

As of Saturday, May 30, Mercury was no longer retrograde.  And yes, as I write this I can be found dancing around the office, for the flustered communication, mussed social plans, and kaput electronic devices that have so plagued me in the last few weeks shall bother me no more! (Well, until September 7, when Mercury again goes retrograde, if you want to get technical). I know that I can't be the only one suffering from a bad case of the Mercury retrogrades. Some of our authors have submitted multiple drafts of articles and manuscripts during the past weeks, catching just one more thing to be changed with each read through. Even our readers have had their worlds turned upside down by