Heather Walden has posted this down-to-earth guide for managing Mercury retrograde. Look to see where Mercury in Aquarius falls in your chart, and follow her sage advice:

1st house – personal identity

Follow the bouncing fire ball. Remember those old battles, imagined and real. Where do you still have armor that may be dragging you down? Does the mind have the tape player on permanent repeat. Listen closely and erase the parts that don’t serve you or your colleagues. You’ll feel a lot lighter. Don’t burn all the rubber off your tires waiting at the starting gate. You’ve got about three weeks from yesterday.

2nd house – possessions and values

Get your assets lined up. If your worried about the bottom line make sure you know what it is. Go through your old bank statements and find out what there is to declare. You can find that note you wrote so you wouldn’t forget what you forgot. But remember you are your greatest asset. Take care of what you think. It is creating your future.

3rd house – communication and learning

Get out your old notes and reread them. Kept a diary; now is a good time to look over the last three months. What were you doing that you meant to do more of. Look through pictures. Sort out the ones that didn’t capture your essence. Walk it off. Peace through fast moving meditation. Update your profile to reflect your new thoughts about your life.

4th house – home and inner life

Clean out the closets. Like fast. Get those network cables checked out and untangle those cords that bind. Feng shui hates a cluttered room. See what eccentric ideas for home décor add just the right flavor for an innovative backdrop to your life. Use a bit of wild color somewhere to inspire the genius in you. Your lunar landscape needs to be your muse.

5th house – creativity and children

Take a walk with your child or inner child somewhere that elicits memories from the past. Use the memories to build the future. Separate the now from the right now and breathe. Your Heart is telling you where you need to put your mental energy.

6th house – health and work

If things have been making you angry, upsetting your digestion or causing pain in your innards find that mountain top and scream or try a kickboxing class and think about who it is that needs a good swift kick to the head. Then let it go after you have broken a good sweat. Forgiveness frees the mind for other, more important things. Resentment breaks down the body and we lose the ability to see things clearly as our large intestine fills up with bad ideas for revenge that eat away any chance for redemption. Nothing helps you break out of bad spell better than service to others who are worse off.

7th house – relationships

Partner problems or no, rewrite that love note and this time send it come Feb 18. Think about the action you need to take after Valentine’s Day has passed you by again. Think about what it feels like to hold someone’s hand for the first time. What you take time to visualize now will be the seeds for the future.

8th house – sex, death and other people’s money

Investigate your investments. Are they working for you or are you working for them? Your time and money have a way of escaping from conscious control. Make a plan that puts you in charge. Is there something with a green, ecological attitude that might help others you could put some energy toward.

9th house – travel and philosophy

You might want to explore your life concepts and rewrite the script of your life based on new inspirations rather than past programming. Consider the quality and equality of your relationships and your vision for the future. Write down the good, the bad and the ugly. Purify with fire and watch your ideas release. Expect Mary Poppins any day.

10th house – career and public life

Make a career chart and fill it with dates, jobs, and duties. What did you like and dislike? Were your peers supportive or do you still nurse old knife wounds? Were you supportive or do you have a little blood on your hands? Focus on the type of environment you want to create with your career. Is it green and clean, friendly and supportive? Do you enjoy waking up to work with your cohorts? Your life energy depends on it.

11th house – social groups

This is the easy part. Your friends are important right now. Make time to take an introspective journey here. Make dinner and talk about your hopes and dreams. Have them over to make a collage with all the things you envision for the here and now. Or re-commit to your blog and see what flows at the keyboard. Inspire others and see how your life changes.

12th house – the spiritual and unconscious life

Dream baby dream. Go there deep in the shadows and see what is transpiring while you are asleep. Here’s a trick. Drink lots of water before bed and when you wake up train yourself to ask, “What was I dreaming about?” Keep a notebook nearby and maybe a flashlight so when this happens you are ready. The subconscious is so ready to speak. The more you know about what it is churning over every night the more clear the daylight hours will be. And then too maybe your nights will be lucid.