Mercury Retrograde In Pisces: The Power of Feeling Your Emotions

As the sun and Mercury retrograde in Pisces both continue to travel through mutable water sign, the two conjoin at 9:47 pm ET on March 14th, 2019. This marks a critical moment of the retrograde process, the midway point known as an inferior conjunction. Mercury, seemingly traveling backward (remember he doesn’t actually go backward; it is just how it appears from the perspective of the earth) switches places with the sun. And as the two meet up at the same degree of Pisces amidst changing positions, we find ourselves in the crux of the retrograde heart.

This is a time to intuit soul-driven guidance and expand the capacity for compassion. Consequently, it might also feel like the planet of communication, the prankster, toys with your plans.

For example, I spent last week spontaneously bursting into tears (yay!). Waves of grief, sadness and overwhelm surging through my body turned into a few blubbering cries on more than one occasion. While intellectually I know Mercury traveling retrograde in Pisces will dredge up old emotions, especially at the time of the new moon, I still questioned how I could feel so… much!

Mercury Retrograde: Revisiting Unhealed Trauma

It began with watching the HBO documentary about Michael Jackson’s alleged pedophilia, and Oprah’s subsequent special highlighting the journey of sexual assault survivors, totaling five hours of intense content on young children experiencing sexual violations at the hands of a beloved authority figure. It took a toll on me.

The impact of holding a secret like that on one’s sense of well-being, and confidence, isn’t a benign act. I know this first hand, as I believe holding a secret about the inappropriate sexual experiences/abuse I had as a child created a garden for my cancer to grow, and ultimately took my life down a path I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

I woke up the morning after I watched the second episode and Oprah’s follow-up special, feeling hungover. I was so out of it that I forgot to move my car for alternate side parking (and got a ticket… oy). This snowballed into a less than a pleasant day. While my morning grogginess had to do with processing emotional content, it also had something to do with my husband waking up at 5:00 am to catch an early flight to California. My husband travels a lot for work and rarely does it impact me. This morning as he hustled out the door for an early flight, I tossed and turned, feeling frustrated.

To top it off, after being in a funk for hours, I realized that my mother-in-law died of metastatic breast cancer four years prior to the day. I had forgotten the date, and when I wove it together, it made sense why I’d feel so incredibly emotional. So, I gave into my emo rollercoaster. I cried it out. I gave myself space to let what needed to move through me.

Agonizing? Yes. And, healthy? Absolutely.

Emotions can feel tricky and overwhelming—scary even—especially when they surge with intensity. Amidst my catharsis I questioned myself and I judged my sensitivity. Like, how can I feel this much?! Thankfully, after decades of personal development work, I know that emotions come and go. Resisting them, suppressing them, or denying them usually backfires with a vengeance. It’s far better to process them than to deny them—even it means crying the ugly cry!

How to Handle Intense Emotions

Learning how to ride out intense feelings remains paramount to our spiritual and personal growth. As we navigate Mercury’s retrograde journey in Pisces, a retrograde that will end with Mercury and Neptune conjoined, it is essential to talk about how to be with pain, without numbing out.

The benefit of Pisces season means that spiritual prowess becomes possible. The downside, however, means we may experience the Pisces proclivity to want to escape even more than usual.

When we talk about pain, there are so many reasons to want to escape it.

Depending on where you find yourself on the spectrum of your personal development journey you may have different needs when learning how to do with pain. In my own life, I have spent nearly two decades on the receiving end of high-quality therapy, coaching, and very sophisticated support, so at this point of my life when the emotional waves hit, I know how to ride them. (You can hear me go deep about this topic with Nitika Chopra in her podcast, The Point of Pain.)

So, consider where you are on your journey and ask yourself these two questions:

1. How can I lean into my emotional experiences healthily?

2. Am I in a perpetual cycle of trying to outrun my emotions or escape them when they come up? If so, what do I need to do right now to tune into them healthily? (This might require getting skilled support.)

Checking in on these questions will help you substantially understand how you can feel your emotions fully, in a super healthy and productive way—and use them to your advantage.

A note on sobriety

As I mentioned in my previous post, astrologically speaking, this isn’t the moment to indulge mood altering substances like alcohol. Instead, the cosmos call for rolling through life dry. I know as I say this, some of you roll your eyes, while others silently nod.

As a food, wine, and, cocktail lover, I prioritize sobriety for large portions of the year. Here’s why!

I am a fan of the work of Ruby Warrington, big time (I wrote for her site, The Numinous for two years). Over that time, I took her message about being sober curious to heart and abstained from imbibing for long periods of time. For the last decade of my life, I’ve consumed alcohol in a very mild manner. Because of this, I didn’t expect to see a big difference between light drinking and no drinking.

But the truth is, I did. I felt amazing.

I slept deeply. I had simple joy. While I still choose to partake in drinking when it feels right to me (think: concert, a fun celebration, a beautiful dinner, etc.), I also understand the power of extended periods with no alcohol at all. Thankfully, Ruby’s book, Sober Curious: The Blissful Sleep, Greater Focus, Limitless Presence, and Deep Connection Awaiting Us on the Other Side of Alcohol, goes deep into this subject.

Let’s be real, alcohol can complicate things on our healing and wellness journey.

For starters, it’s a depressant, and when handling the tough stuff, it can feel like adding gasoline to a fire. Further, it impacts our capacity to get great sleep (again, Ruby goes deep into this in her book).

As we go through this deep Mercury retrograde cycle in Pisces, a period that’s ultimately very healing, the desire to check out may feel incredibly real. When Mercury stations direct on March 28th, he’ll conjoin Neptune. Because of this, this particular Mercury retrograde cycle brings crucial and important medicine. It asks us to feel deeply, to look at where our addictions keep us from processing more in-depth emotional content, and ultimately it wants us to use our spiritual journey as a portal of opening for the expansion of our compassion.

So, on top of the simple advice to feel your feelings, I also really recommend abstaining from alcohol! (If you need support around this, please check out Ruby’s work!)

Remember, feeling your emotions is healthy—even hard ones like grief. And you don’t have to do it alone. Far better to get support than to self-medicate or try to go it alone!

What’s been coming up for you during Mercury retrograde in Pisces? Let me know in the comments. And know that whatever you’re going through, you have the strength and resilience to get through it.