Thoughts on Prediction & Mercury Retrograde

The time around New Year is always fertile ground for prediction of one sort or another - astrological, psychic, tarot, cystal ball, entrails of an ox, clouds, tea leaves.....take your pick! It's useful at this time of year to read, or re-read, what Nicholas de Vore had to say about astrological prediction in his Encyclopedia of Astrology.

"Although predictions, as drawn from a birth Figure, often show a high percentage of correctness, the practice teaches a fatalistic philosophy that denies the gift of Free Will and Self Determination. The high percentage of correctness proves only that a high percentage of people permit themselves to be ruled by the emotions instead of the dominance of the reasoning faculties. It is only in the realm of Mundane Astrology, which deals with the mass reaction of large political or geographical groups, that predicting can be indulged in without inculcating a harmful philosophy."

Those are wise thoughts. To become "a slave" to astrology is to give up our freedom to be free. Considering what astrology has to offer is good, but becoming too enmeshed in, excited or worried by, detailed personal or communal predictions isn't good for anybody.


A postscript relating to the current Mercury retrograde which started in earnest on 26 December; the "shadow" period, when effects are also often felt, ran from 15 December. Mercury retrograde periods often bring upsets in communication, travel, and problems with electronic devices, not always, but quite often. You cannot usefully predict what, or if, anything will happen. For me, this time, things happened!

RETRO EFFECT #1 ~I hadn't remembered that we were in the retro-shadow period on 23 December when my computer monitor suddenly gave up the ghost, after more than 5 years' use with never a hitch. With the holidays around the corner, and bad weather forecast, we dashed out to a neighbouring town to replace the monitor.

RETRO EFFECT #2 ~ The bad weather arrived on time next day - worse than expected too, making travel even for very short distances hazardous. Our intended trip on 25th was a complete no-no as road conditions were worse than ever. On the morning of 26th December, while looking up something on Google my computer froze and various messages started appearing, including porn adverts and fake warnings. The dreaded Antivirus Live trojan had got me. It took my husband and me literally all day to find out how to rectify the situation. Luckily we have access to another computer and a laptop, which helped us find a solution. This is a very, very nasty trojan, and must be taking advantage of Mercury retrograde because on various help sites there are dozens of comments all dated this month, from people whose computers have been infected recently.

RETRO EFFECT #3 ~ On Sunday evening (27th) our furnace stopped functioning. We guessed that the problem might be with the thermostat. We have a gas fire in the fireplace - things were not as bad as they might otherwise have been, but it was still too cold for comfort in other parts of the house. The problem was an electronic part - limitation control - and now fixed by husband's son, a heat& air expert.

So this time around Mercruy retro has me in its sights! Mercury is in Capricorn now -so is my natal Mercury, at 21 degrees, just about the point where the retrograde began! Yes - "something is happening here, but we don't know what it is, do we Mr. Jones?"