The Spirited Witch Mercury Retrograde Guide (Free version)
Non-woo activities that even the deepest astrology skeptic can enjoy
Welcome to the Spirited Witch Mercury Retrograde (Rx) Guide
In true Mercury Retrograde form, this posting is late. I had my reasons, and hey, you're still reading this.
But Diana, you’re not an astrologer!
That’s true, but I’m not. I appreciate astrological services, and I may add them to my repertoire someday. But for now, I’m not.
So here’s where the following suggested activities come from.
Longer ago than I care to admit, I wrote a daily Mercury Retrograde for my author's blog. My readership then was tiny, so my personal and Facebook friends read it. Given the size of the audience, the day-by-day Mercury Retrograde guide was a hit.
My friends liked the series so much because, even with the " woo" premise, the advice wasn't particularly woo. For example, Mercury Rx is associated with theft and digital crime - so it's a good time to get a digital password vault. It's also a good time to yeet anything in your closet that makes you feel bad about yourself. The reason I have not released a PDF (yet!) is that many parts of it no longer hold up. Most people reading this would even know of delicio.us or Digg links.
The non-woo is part of what makes magick work for me. Forgive my 1990s Wicca reference; I must invoke the name of Scott Cunningham. He wrote about "acting in accord" as a foundation in spellcasting. Act in Accord refers to taking physical world effort to support spiritual effort. A common example Cunningham used was that of a friend who kept casting spells to get a job. Jobs manifested once that friend sent in his resume! While a lot of what I believe about witchcraft has changed in my 28 years of practice, Act in Accord has held up.
But please, give yourself grace. You can only act in accordance with the energy your body can conduct each day. If you're low energy, pick a small activity from the list that takes only a small effort. You may have to let effort accumulate over days going into the time of Mercury Direct. If life happens, prioritize life!
I speak only to a witchcraft practice, not a witchcraft perfect.
The traditional advice for Mercury Rx is to refrain from any new business. Don't sign contracts, launch new ventures, or give that guy you met at the bar your real phone number. Most of the advice extolled is "don't." I sought to send a few recommendations of "do."
My next Substack will be for paid subscribers only, on the Magick of Mercury Retrograde. I’ll be sharing some of my best spells and practices developed with retrograde energy in mind. If you’d like to see that, consider subscribing!
The Mercury Retrograde Daily Activities Guide
I've divided the "dos" into the following categories:
Security, Finances, Data, Decluttering, and Memoir.
Select the area that speaks most to you, and move forward.
Security
Mercury Retrograde tends to fire off its season with that dread-inducing phone call from my bank, asking to verify some charges I made in northern Africa while enjoying coffee in my Michigan home. Hermes is the god of thieves, and that means that when Mercury shifts backward, hidden activities such as theft increase, even if they also come to light faster than they might when Mercury is direct.
1. If you don't have a password vault, get one. LastPass, Bitwarden, and 1Password are popular options, and LastPass offers a free option.
2. If you already have a password vault, take a little time to clean it up. Change passwords as recommended. Delete defunct accounts. Merge any duplicates, especially if it's creating login confusion on your favorite browser.
3. Make sure you have a legacy plan for your social media setup.
4. Gen Xers are familiar with the fireproof box. It is what it sounds like a heat-resistant box for vital documents. If you experience a housefire, you can grab the box (if it is safe).
5. That literal or figurative broken staircase in your home? Fix it if you have the means to do so, or research what steps to take to fix it.
6. Go through your phone contacts and delete your exes—not just old lovers but anyone you no longer communicate with. Removing those links is a curious way of lightening the energy load we carry daily.
7. This one may be weird and hard to do, and I'll admit I can't get myself to do it: remove any Facebook friends who have died. If their loved ones cannot convert the page to a legacy page, the page is likely a target for hacking.
8. If you use security cameras in your home, recharge them and clean their lenses.
9. Check the settings on each of your most-used social media accounts. Revoke any permissions for apps you no longer use.
10. If you use Windows and have an annual subscription to the software, check to see who has access to it. Is anyone on your family plan who has stopped using the shared access?
Finances
Mercury is the planet believed in Western occultism to rule commerce and communication. While Jupiter and Venus are different faces of the wealth planet, Mercury is the money planet. That makes Mercury Retrograde an ideal time for a financial review.
1. Spend time journaling on money and what you want from it.
2. Go through every credit card in your wallet. Copy the "if lost or stolen" phone number to the following places:
a. Your email or phone contacts
b. A secure note if you have a password vault
c. If possible, in a paper notebook or day planner.
3. Make a list of all your financial accounts. You can do it offline with a notebook, or if that doesn't work for you, create an offline document. Log into all your financial accounts. Update addresses, phone numbers, beneficiaries, and so on.
4. Look for money and property that might have yet to be claimed.
Never go through for-profit websites for this. Only use those with .gov in the URL. Search "unclaimed property" and any states you lived or worked in. Mercury Rx is a good time to turn up little stones like these, as they often surface secrets and forgotten things.
5. Spend time surfing bank and credit union sites. The first reason is that many people are unaware that banks don't operate similarly. Banks especially count on people not knowing they don't have to pay a monthly fee for a checking account.
The second reason is that almost every bank and credit union has a charity or grant branch. Some seed entrepreneurs and others put their money towards local nonprofit efforts. See what's available for your projects that you might have yet to learn about.
6. If you don't already have one, research no-minimum High-Yield Savings accounts. You'll thank yourself when you can grow even a tiny emergency fund.
7. If you are overwhelmed by finances, check out the Financial Feminist book and podcast.
The podcast is women-centered, but the advice is good for everyone. If you want an intensive dig into your money motivations, read Money Drunk/Money Sober. (affiliate link)
8. Check under all your furniture and car for loose change. Go through purses, wallets, and suitcases. If you can fill up a jar, take it to the change counter at your bank. Before you do, look for wheat pennies or mercury dimes that may have snuck into your stores. Both coins are wonderful for crossroads and luck magick.2
Data
Go through your contacts list on your phone. Delete anyone you know you don't need to be calling ever again. Include your ex. Include that ex, too.
We've all had to scramble and clean up for people with Google accounts lately. But it's worth doing it again on your own terms. Go through your photos and your files. Do you need to keep everything, or can you make room there? Take one item or platform at a time and go through them all.
For people who like to cough download, how much of what you've pirated have you read? Is any of it still relevant? Can you get a non-pirated copy from your library? Also, you might enjoy this article on Book Piracy from Book Riot—it differs from what most people think!
Overhaul your data security. Consumer Reports, a longtime consumer watchdog organization, has extensive tools for protecting data privacy.
What's going on with your phone? Do you need to update your apps? Check all the apps, and delete any you haven't used in over a year.
Decluttering
Mercury Retrograde is a great time to lighten your energetic load. One of the best ways to do that is to let go of anything you’re not using that is making you feel more bad than good or that doesn’t fit your life. Letting go makes more room for prosperous energy to come into your home when Mercury goes direct.
Decluttering can be overwhelming, but it doesn't have to be. First, assess your energy levels and your time commitment.
photo by Diana Rajchel - Synty’s upcycled coffee paraphernalia tray
If you have low energy or limited time, focus on decluttering one surface at a time.
If you have moderate energy and time, focus on cleaning a single bookcase or shelf.
If you have high energy and plenty of time, pick a closet.
I strongly advise against decluttering an entire house or apartment in one day. Pace yourself. Focus on one room or one section of a room per day at most.
The Process:
Step 1: remove anything that is unequivocally garbage. I always want to repurpose everything, and that doesn't only sometimes work.
Step 2: Is there anything you know you want to move out of your space? Put those items in a box or basket.
Step 3: is there anything you want to get rid of but also want to get a little bit of cash for? Take four or five photos of those. List them on Facebook or Nextdoor after Retrograde.
Step 4: What do you have that you can repurpose? For example, I rarely bake cookies anymore but have many cookie trays. I recently took an especially icky one, scrubbed it up, and covered it with contact paper. Synty has their solo coffee items collected in one aesthetically pleasing spot.
Consider what you can make to get organized (or at least contained). If you have snacky folks, clothespins work, as do chip clips for opened bags. Sturdier boxes can have the tops cut off and redecorated. 48-oz cottage cheese containers make fantastic craft, storage, and frozen food containers.
If you run out of home to declutter, look to your desks, workplace lockers and desks, and vehicles.
Memoir and Memory
Mercury Rx is a good time to reflect on the past, sort mementos, and explore past selves, past lives, and ancestral relationships. If you'd like to see what spirit has to say to you or invite ancestral conversation, memoir, and reflection, open those paths beautifully!
You can write, draw, or create something new from the art you generated as a kid.
Here are some reflection prompts: write, draw, or meditate on those that speak to you.
1. Where was your favorite place to live? What did you like about it? What do you wish you could have changed?
2. What were all the different things you wanted to be when you grew up?
3. Have you ever had a paranormal experience? If you had more than one, what was the first you remember?
4. What have you changed your mind about since you were 20?
5. Do you operate best with priorities or with lists? Are you a planner or a by-the-seat-of-your-pants person? What is one thing you would like to learn going forward?
6. High Fidelity: List all your exes, and write why you broke up with them in one sentence. In a second sentence, write what you learned from that experience. You need not limit your exploration to romantic relationships.
7. How have you encountered other people's religious beliefs? You might have been via a Bible study in the public school cafeteria. Maybe your friend asked for a pizza without any meat on it. Pick an interaction and write about it.
8. Self-reflection: is there something you'd like to try, redo, or repair again?
9. What is something you're bad at that you enjoy?
10. Explore detachment, what it means, and where you could apply it in your life.
11. What do you believe about astrology?
12. What do you believe about life after death?
13. What is most important in your life right now?
14. What are the things you're waiting until after Mercury Retrograde to do?
As I write this, we have about 14 days of Mercury Retrograde left. The above activities should give you a way to work with it rather than feel like you have to wait it out.
My next installment will be for subscribers only—the Magick of Mercury Retrograde, as created and experimented with by me. Enjoy and explore 7 practices, from meditation to artful messiness, that align well with the Mercury Rx pace!
Fertility Magick is not just for babies! Learn how to work with fertility magick for healing artistic creativity, and to manifest out-of-the-box solutions in your life and for your community!
Class happens ONLINE via Wicked Grounds Magickal Crossroads at 6 pm Pacific, 9 pm Eastern. Scholarships and sliding scale tickets available, and YES we can make the replay available to all ticket holders! Grab your spot in class now, and share the ticket link with a friend! https://forbiddentickets.com/events/wicked-grounds/2024-05-08-online-alternative-fertility-magick
More Reads
If you’d like to catch up on my writing elsewhere, you can find the following on my Medium blog:
On Golden Apple, we have more on the Deep Beginning Witchcraft Series. Even if you’re advanced, take a look—there are some charts there that you might get a kick out of!