When Mercury enters the echo (or “shadow”) phase before its next retrograde by passing 18+ Aquarius at 3:46 pm EST tomorrow, pay attention. See what is in front of you. Hear the sounds that reach you. Smell every scent, taste flavors, and feel every sensation as if it were an echo (or foreshadowing) from the future, because it just might be. That’s how Mercury retrograde cycles work.
To visualize how a Mercury retrograde cycle works on the zodiac circle, think of a windshield wiper making its first three swipes. The first swipe, from right to left (in direct motion) is the echo phase that begins tomorrow.
The first swipe gives you information about the state of both the windshield wiper (or Mercury) and the windshield (the portion of the zodiac circle that Mercury will traverse two more times).
The second swipe of the windshield wiper (from left to right) is the retrograde part of the cycle. Mercury’s apparent reverse motion begins Feb. 6 at 3+ Pisces. The retrograde swipe revisits the same swath of windshield (or zodiac) as the first swipe, but in reverse order. Hence, a different perspective on the same information is conveyed, a perspective you will be able to use if you paid attention the first time.