“Mercury retrograde is coming back, my darlings.”
Sadicka, an astrologer and spiritual life coach, is telling her 5,000 Instagram followers to watch out for technology issues, trouble communicating with people and even car accidents, ahead of the planet Mercury going into retrograde from 5 August.
A few times a year, Instagram and TikTok are flooded with cautionary posts like this one – as well as more tongue-in-cheek content (think: “POV: you blame all of your problems on Mercury being in retrograde instead of actually dealing with them”).
Mercury is the closest planet to the Sun and Mercury retrograde is an optical illusion which occurs three or four times a year, making the planet appear to move in the opposite direction than it usually does.
It is a similar effect to when one car overtakes another and, to those in the faster car, the slower vehicle appears to be moving backwards. All planets appear this way from Earth at various points, as they orbit the Sun at different speeds.
People have observed Mercury going into retrograde for thousands of years, and many believers in astrology (the influence of stars and planets on interpersonal events) link it to an increase in personal problems.
Lina Sahhab, a 42-year-old who works for a non-profit, tells the BBC that she once believed superstitions surrounding Mercury were just that.
“Then I started noticing that the obstacles in my life really happen when there is a Mercury retrograde,” she says.
“My laptop would suddenly stop working, or I would buy something that has to do with technology that would not function properly.”
The lack of evidence for astrology doesn’t harm its popularity, especially on social media.
In an era where we can both predict the weather and find answers to most of our questions on Google, astrology enthusiasts often look to horoscopes for guidance on things most humans still feel they have little control over – like romance, friendship or even technology.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that, according to Google Trends, searches for “birth chart” and “astrology” both hit five-year peaks in 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, a time of immense uncertainty.
