Thought I had nothing to worry about since Mercury isn’t a main Time Lord for me this year. But when I got locked out of my laptop on the first day of the retrograde via BitLocker encryption (something I never initiated), I had second thoughts. Mercury retrograde was indeed afoot.
After two hours of research, seeing every BitLocker thread unsolved, with people losing all their data, I discovered that Windows 10 initiates BitLocker automatically, & I was signed into the Microsoft account for my other laptop, not the broken one.
Once I signed into the 2nd Microsoft account, I found the 48-digit recovery key that unlocked my laptop. I was in the middle of editing a podcast episode that I would have lost otherwise.
I realized that Mercury was only a Time Lord for me this year when profecting from the 5th & 2nd houses (5th = my podcast hobby; 2nd = possessions/resources like my computer). Unfortunately, this was only the beginning of my Mercury retrograde woes.
I discovered that my phone wasn’t sending or receiving texts this weekend, nor could I get on the internet with 4G, only WiFi. I didn’t even realize I couldn’t make or receive phone calls until I tested it a day or two later.
Turns out my phone provider randomly deactivated my service for no apparent reason & didn’t inform me. I had to reactivate my service & set up a new API to get everything working again.
At the same time, I’m about to give an astrology reading when my laptop power cord stops working (laptop is new, purchased in April 2018).
Moral of the story: Even if a planet isn’t a main Time Lord (protected from AC, Sun, or Moon), it’s a Time Lord for *some* area in your life, & can still cause things to go haywire – hopefully not enough to affect your whole year. Doesn’t help that so many planets are retrograde right now!