Mercury Retrograde provides 3-4 opportunities per year to pull back and check on your ideas, thoughts, concepts and perceptions of reality. Outer, worldly things seem to go awry, but I truly believe this is to encourage you to pull back and examine the data from a different perspective or using different methods to process all that is on your mind at this time.
2009 ~ Mercury Retrogrades in Air Signs and goes Direct in Earth Signs, giving you the opportunity to review your thoughts and ideas before getting to apply them in the 3-D.
2010 ~ Mercury Retrogrades through ALL Earth Signs, suggesting that "practice" is over and it's time to really see what / how your thoughts and ideas are truly *working* in the 3-D.
2011 ~ Mercury Retrogrades through ALL Fire Signs (with one brief exception), suggesting it is time to get creative with what IS working and infuse it with some energy and passion.
2012 ~ Mercury Retrogrades in Fire Signs and goes Direct in Water Signs (2 out of 3), suggesting that we connect with the *Passion & Flow* of the new ideas emerging.
Mercury Retrograde @ 6 ° Aries ~ March 12, 2012
Click Here for Retro *CHART*

Mercury Direct @ 23° Pisces ~ April 4, 2012
Click Here for Direct *CHART*
Mercury Retrograde @ 12° Leo ~ July 14, 2012
Click Here for Retro *CHART*

Mercury Direct @ 1° Leo ~ August 8, 2012
Click Here for Direct *CHART*
Mercury Retrograde @ 4° Sagittarius ~ Nov 6, 2012
Click Here for Retro *CHART*

Mercury Direct @ 18° Scorpio ~ November 26, 2012
Click Here for Direct *CHART*
This is a good time for almost anything beginning with "re" - re-evaluating, re-doing, re-arranging, re-building, re-covering, re-discovering, re-viewing, re-peating, re-newing, re-storing, re-pairing. It appears I could go on here, but you get the gist. Basically, it means two things: (1) you must communicate more internally, with the Self and (2) you must go over things with a fine-tooth comb, looking for anything you may have overlooked to begin with. That's what the *Shadow* Period is all about, revealing the clues to each individual review. Mercury Retrograde is always an opportunity to re-check the details and correct things before they're too big to fix, hopefully.
Click Here for Mercury Retrograde General Overview