So many people in recent weeks have asked me whether Mercury is again retrograde, due to very noticeable technology and communication issues going awry, that I have decided that there must be something up there upsetting things very much in the same manner associated with Mercury retrograde. Indeed, I have myself recently suffered from many ongoing problems, mostly of a technological nature.

Checking my emails and other forms of communication re this topic, it would seem that the problems really started kicking in towards late August, my first queries coming in on the 24th. This would tie in with the Jupiter-Pluto quincunx, which by my orb settings, began around the 23rd August, peaking on the 5th September, and ongoing until the 14th. It is the only transit during this period that seems to fit the bill of acting as per Mercury retrograde! Mercury itself has not been affected by anything significantly untoward in this context, its square to Pluto by itself should not result in this sort of disruptiveness, that style is more accustomed to negative effects from Saturn or Uranus, the latter being the planet that is very associated with technology. Uranus has not been doing anything that would be responsible for these disruptions either, although the fact that it is retrograde cannot be discounted, as is of course Pluto. So we are back with the word retrograde again – both these planets being so and also square each other. Could this be one of those occasions when Jupiter, usually regarded as the great benefactor, does the opposite due to its enhancing properties latching on to negative energies? Being heavily exaggerated, this could grossly affect the retrograde effects of Pluto via the quincunx, then going on to indirectly affect Uranus too, via the Uranus-Pluto square. They are all systematically linked. The quincunx blocks planetary energies, preventing them from uniting, or at any rate from working as they should, and in this occasion reinforcing the retrograde theme. Jupiter is always prone to exaggeration and overdoing things, the resistance of the quincunx could in turn exaggerate that, and the real issue that becomes blocked is transformation itself (Pluto), instead kicking in its destructive side.

All very well, you may (or may not!) say, but where does the technological theme get picked up in all of this? It has to be Uranus and the ongoing powerful square to Pluto. Connect to one and you connect to the other, like a jigsaw. Yet, even now, having written this, I'm still somewhat puzzled by it all. Please have your say and fill in any gaps I've missed. It all feels so like Mercury retrograde!! But that's not until 4th October......