Anyone involved in communications can attest to periods of time---lasting about three weeks, three to four times a year---when even the most simple messages seem to be wildly misinterpreted. Also during this time, mechanical and electronic things tend to break down "out of the blue." An astrologer will tell you that this happens when Mercury is retrograde---a phenomenon that almost everyone's heard of but nobody really understands. Wilkinson offers the inside scoop on Mercury retrograde, teaching you how to play it to your own advantage. He also offers ways to value Mercury retrograde people, projects, and situations to make the best of Mercury retrograde energies. For astrologers, Wilkinson describes a wide variety of ways a retrograde Mercury may manifest for each sign, and provides lists of characteristics showing how the energy "behaves" in the signs and houses in natal, progressed, return, and transit charts. Wilkinson helps the rest of us understand why people born during a Mercury retrograde think and act the way they do, and how to interact with them productively. And for celebrity hounds and history buffs, he includes a list of famous people born during Mercury retrograde, information about world events that occurred during Mercury retrogrades in the last 25 years (revealing some thought-provoking patterns); and an ephemeris of Mercury retrograde periods for 1900-2035. This book will prove as relevant 50 years from now as it is today!