Casting Spells with Mercury Retrogrades
Use retrogrades to empower your magick spells.
Witches can use Mercury Retrogrades for more powerful spells. However, they’re best for certain kinds of spells.
Every retrograde focuses on revisiting something from the past. The planet seems to pause, go backwards in time, pause again, and then move forward. This cycle usually takes place over several weeks. For some planets, the retrograde path can take months.
Remember, the planet only seems to go backwards for awhile. It’s actually moving forward. We just see it as something moving backwards, from our viewpoint on Earth.
That describes the influence of a retrograde, too: It can look like you’re going back over ground you’ve covered before. It can be fun or — more often — really annoying. You’ve been there, done that, and you’ve shredded or burned the tee-shirt. You really don’t want to go there again.
A small change in attitude turns a retrograde into a blessing:Â Think of it as a time to go back and get it right, this time.
All in all, this is an opportunity for tremendous growth and a better outcome.  It’s a chance to move forward with a clean slate, or at least a better history. You have a chance to banish past regrets and leave the negative parts of the past behind you.
You can also re-energize opportunities you missed, or things you’d like to bring forward into your current life.
Mercury retrogrades occur several times each year, and they can provide energy related to travel and communication.
So, any Mercury retrograde will be useful for spells and activities related to:
- Revisiting things you said (or neglected to say) in the past.
- Clearing up past misunderstandings.
- Going back to places where you want to change what you did there.
- Returning to places where good things happened, that you’d like to repeat or re-energize.
The best part about Mercury retrograde is this: You’re not the only one remembering these things from the past. So, you already have the collaborative energy you need to empower spells and activities that revisit past experiences.
For example, if you hate how things ended with someone who’d been close to you, chance are he or she is thinking about that, too. Maybe he or she would like a chance to do things differently. Mercury retrograde gives you both that opportunity.
Or, if you’ve lost touch with an individual or group you used to enjoy being around, it’s likely that the person or group has been thinking about you during this retrograde, as well.
You can choose a better outcome. This is like a do-over, or a chance to go back in the “Choose Your Own Adventure” story, and make a better decision.
Mercury Retrogrades
14 July – 8 August 2012 – This one’s in Leo. Expect very loud communications on both sides. Be very, very patient. Frankly, it won’t get easier, but you have a chance for astonishing progress if you can keep your outbursts in check, and exercise incredible patience, even when you’d be fully justified if you stormed out after blasting the other person.
6 Nov – 26 Nov 2012 – This starts in Scorpio (expect harsh communications and blaming, at the beginning) and concludes in Sagittarius (good time for a party). If you can keep your temper under control, this can lead to a very happy outcome. Cast early (as early as October 20th) and cast often, fine-tuning the outcome you’d like. This can be a roller coaster, fast-paced transformation for relationships.
23 Feb – 17 Mar 2013 – Take advantage of Pisces’ flow and mellow energy, to reconcile with people you’ve offended or those who’ve offended you. This is also an ideal time to re-apply for jobs, scholarships, or other opportunities that involve applications or important communications. The doors re-open during this retrograde. Find as many as you can, and plant seeds for future growth.
26 Jun – 20 July 2013 – This retrograde is in Cancer, which can be positive as a water sign. Focus on the flow, not the short-term obstacles in the stream! Pick up any “dropped balls” from the Feb/Mar retrograde, and keep moving forward. Ignore obnoxious behaviors by others, and try to rein in your own tendency to speak without thinking. Avoid nursing old grudges. Be the motherly figure represented by Cancer, not the fussy baby side of this sign! (And, allow others to have their bratty, petulant episodes. They may not have the self-control or insights that you do.)
21 Oct – 10 Nov 2013 – Falling on the weeks around Samhain, when things naturally conclude, you’ll find the most powerful energy in fixing relationships that should logically conclude now… but on happier terms than before. Spells after November 1st should focus on sending healing energy to yourself and others, with a chance for renewing broken relationships in 2014, around Beltane.
Casting spells with Mercury retrogrades can super-charge the positive effects of this time and your spells. Use them wisely.
Easter’s Pagan Roots
Easter has Pagan roots. Most Christians don’t realize that. They only know that Easter is usually celebrated on a Sunday in March or April. Unlike Christmas (always on December 25th), Easter is celebrated at widely varying dates.
Why is that? If Christ’s birth date is so easy to pinpoint, why does the date of his Resurrection seem so vague?
Ask almost any Christian why Easter is celebrated at such different dates, from year to year. He or she will usually pause and say, “I have no idea.”
Here’s the answer:Â Easter is always the first Sunday after the first Full Moon after the Spring Equinox.
Yes, like many Christian holy days, Easter is firmly rooted in Pagan traditions. Most people know that holidays such as Christmas and All Saints Day were deliberately placed on or near times when converted Pagans were accustomed to celebrating.
Easter — based on Ostara, the Pagan celebration of springtime renewal — is a holiday clearly founded on earth-based traditions.
Many Pagans and Wiccans embrace that as another symbol of how all religions are interconnected. We’re happy to share basic spiritual concepts with other faiths. The names may change, but the core beliefs are universal.
Ostara and Easter both celebrate the renewal of life, and they’re an affirmation that the spirit continues after apparent physical death.
Many Christians embrace that unifying belief system as well. Though firmly asserting non-Pagan concepts (such as a powerful devil or Satan figure), the book The More Perfect Way (by Chad and Christopher McCoy), urges Christians to return to first century Christian beliefs. Though some Pagans will be baffled by — or even resent — the “evil” references linked to the Old Ways, few books cover as much ground linking modern religions (such as Christianity) to their time-honored foundations.
Pagans may be more comfortable with books such as Solar Myths and Christian Festivals, by Edward Carpenter (Kindle format). He also connects the events and belief systems that preceded today’s Christian holidays and holy days. However, his views celebrate Pagan (and Wiccan) traditions rather than cast them in Satan’s shadow.
Drawing lines between religions is not helpful. Pagans, Wiccans and Christians can live in harmony. We can find joy in our common concepts, regardless of the labels placed on them.
Whether you call it Easter, Eostre, Ostara, or by some other name, the meaning of the season is the same:Â A celebration of rebirth, and an affirmation of eternal life through our connection with Deity.
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Though it may seem a little “too Christian” and heavy-handed for some Pagans, this book may be a useful bridge between witches and our Christian neighbors who aren’t too sure if their church is still authentic.
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