Breaking Up During Mercury Retrograde - 11/14/06

Dear Lipstick Mystic,

I was reading about Mercury retrograde and romantic relationships on your website and I found it to be pretty interesting. I do have a question. Is it at all uncommon for people to break up during this time and re-connect once the retrograde is finished?

Please advise. Thank you, and I look forward to hearing from you!

---Sincerely, ETG

Hi ETG,

Yes -- unfortunately Mercury retrogrades tend to bring up the "shadow" side of a relationship, so if there are any issues that aren't being addressed, that stuff will tend to come forward during retrograde times. Depending on the emotions involved, this can lead to fights, breakups, and misunderstandings.

Sometimes these relationships can be revisited post-retrograde, and the people will get back together. But quite honestly, if just a little bit of psychic pressure (as experienced during retrograde) was enough to bring out the worst in the couple and they couldn't get over that rough patch with loving communication, there may be issues involved that don't bode well for the survival of the relationship, anyway. So sometimes it's best to just acknowledge this, make a clean break, and move on.

Think of it this way - as you journey through life with a partner, you will experience many shared stresses. The two of you will experience changes of job, changes in residence, health issues. You might have children and start raising a family, and there could be many money issues, etc. Mercury retrograde sometimes shines a light on a person's immaturity and his or her inability to handle minor stress within a relationship.

So if you do go through a breakup during Mercury retrograde, it's good to ask yourself if you really want to remain with someone who will blow up with very little provocation, who isn't loyal, mature, and self-aware enough to say "Gee, I'm in a really bad mood right now, honey, and I don't mean to take it out on you. Let's wait until I feel better and talk through some of these things, okay? 'Cause I love you, you know."

There will always be stress in life. It's how you handle it - and how you treat your loved ones during those times - that define you as a person and shape your character.

And if your partner lashes out or insists on staying stuck in anger or blame during retrograde, this may well be a lifelong pattern for this person. And you probably don't want to expend further energy or life force being caught up in their chaos.

So if you find yourself in this situation now, keep an open mind about whether this relationship is worth continuing. Mercury retrograde times have a way of revealing the truth about a relationship, the dark underbelly that needs to be faced, and if a couple can't handle that and negotiate their union through that stuff, then it often doesn't stand much of a chance to last for the long-term.

By the way, Mercury retrogrades should never be "blamed" as the source of a breakup! These are merely energies that exert psychic pressure on us, encouraging us to face the truth - even if it's unwelcome or it means we have lots of homework to do on ourselves or on a relationship.

I hope this info is helpful to you! Thanks for writing.

--- Lipstick Mystic