It is perhaps rather telling that anyone who knows even the tiniest bit about astrology will often bemoan Mercury retrograde transits. We see it as an inconvenience — an annoyance to be endured — like a trip to the dentist. We hate being slowed down or diverted to a different path. In other cultures, time off is appreciated, a slower pace savored, and a change in pattern welcomed as opportunities to experience something different. But we in the West (and this is growing now in the East) feel we can’t afford to lose our productivity, and we’re infected by the “busy bug.”

We simply don’t know how to handle Mercury’s backward motion. As an example, under the recent Mercury retrograde, my friend had planned a festive group outing to a local place of interest. But on the day, there weren’t enough cars to ferry everyone about and the trains weren’t running for some reason. I woke up feeling that I desperately needed to rest, and another person dropped out. My friend felt she was on an uphill battle to make something happen that clearly wasn’t part of the higher plan. She persevered and came back later absolutely exhausted. I wondered whether she would have been better off resting since she’d recently been burning the candle at both ends.

That is what Mercury retrograde in Pisces affords us: It’s a time to come home to ourselves, particularly when we’ve been living at a hectic pace. It offers us the opportunity to jump off the hamster wheel, and instead of trying to pack in more activity, it asks us to tend to what we already have going on. We get the chance to sort through piles of paperwork or clutter, fix the car, find lost objects and generally straighten all that is crooked and right what is off-kilter — including ourselves. So I for one will greet Mercury’s about-turn on March 6 with open arms; I recommend you do the same.