About Michael Erlewine
For starters, among those who do credit retrograde
planets with an interpretation at all, it is generally
agreed that, when a planet is retrograde, its nature and
its effect are somehow retarded, delayed, or obscured.
For the most part, and with a few exceptions, it is not
considered a good or helpful thing to have a planet
retrograde.
The most well known example of a retrograde planet
and what it portends is that of Mercury. Most of us have
heard things like "Don't sign that contract! Mercury is
retrograde"—there is a whole astrological subculture
built up around what you should and should not do
when Mercury goes retrograde. When Mercury is
retrograde, so it is claimed, communications of all kind
cannot be trusted, and may go haywire. The advice is,
usually "Wait until Mercury goes direct." With that in
mind, let's examine the retrograde phenomenon.
If we want to understand what most astrologers agree
retrograde indicates, it would be something to the effect
that, when a planet is moving backward in the zodiac, it
is not moving forward, doing its thing. As obvious as this
statement is, it makes sense. If we have been
progressing forward in one direction or another, and
then suddenly find ourselves backtracking over the
same ground—we are not going forward. This seems to
be the essence of the traditional interpretation of what
retrograde motion is all about.