So, Mercury is in retrograde. What does that mean exactly?

It means that it looks like it is going backwards in it’s orbit, usually because the planet we are on is passing that planet. But I don’t think it works that way. We can be retrograde from Mercury’s viewpoint. I’m not sure Mercury can be retrograde from our point of view. Maybe that’s what it means—Mercury is passing between us and the sun.

how weird. I literally just watched the episode of the cosmos where this is explained…

From the Earth, as the planets go around in their orbits, some look like they go back and forth, in other words retrograde. It wasn’t until astronomers realized we are all going around the sun that the observations started to make sense.

Astrologers take their reading from the apparent motion, as viewed from the Earth when making their calculations.

It means your communication skills are not at their most fluent.

Astrologically-speaking, it signals a time of communication breakdown and loads of technological problems. It’s a time where it’s difficult to get anything done because things break, you miss your contact’s phone calls, text messages don’t go through, etc.

Here are some nice graphics, some of them moving.

Wow @gailcalled! Cool.