Mercury Retrograde.
The roughly three-week periods, three or four times a year, when Mercury appears to move backwards from earth, traditionally a time for review.
Mercury retrograde is the apparent backward motion of the planet Mercury as seen from earth. It is an optical effect, not a real reversal: it happens because earth and Mercury orbit the sun at different speeds, so for short stretches Mercury seems to slow, stop, and slide backwards against the fixed stars before resuming its ordinary path. The cycle repeats three or four times a year and lasts about three weeks each time.
Mercury rules communication, travel, contracts, devices, and small daily logistics in classical astrology, so its retrograde periods have picked up a reputation as windows when those areas can wobble. Misunderstandings, missed messages, late trains, software glitches, and second-guessed decisions are the standard list. The traditional advice is not to halt life, but to slow down and lean into the re- words: review, revise, repair, return, reconnect, reconsider.
In crystal practice, smoky quartz, fluorite, amethyst, and clear quartz are commonly reached for during retrograde stretches. Whether or not a planet thousands of kilometres away is involved, the deliberate slowing-down often does its own work. Three weeks of cleaner inboxes and fewer rushed decisions is rarely wasted.