Agreed with Berta and Megan! It can definitely lead to superstitious and fearful thinking, such as “Don’t start anything when Mercury is retrograde” which isn’t realistic, and as a trend in Astrology it only started in 1979.
From the same article I linked: “The power attributed to the event has become so overblown that today it’s blamed for everything from digestive problems to broken washing machines.”
But as it was mentioned above, retrogrades are a time of reform and reflection. Here’s another interesting Forum topic about that: Retrograde Planets in your Birth Chart