The Aesteria Codex //023: Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio 2026: How to Use It to Write Better Content
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I want you to do something for me today.
Well, in all honesty, it's not really for me at all, it's for you.
If you want your content to speak to the heart of your audience, and if you want to become a master of persuasion, then you're going to listen to what I say today very closely.
Go back and read/watch your last month's worth of content.
Now tell me, in 1 sentence, what were you trying to say?
If you can't explain exactly what each post said, in a short, simple sentence, within a snap of your fingers. Then, you're suffering from what I like to call "Content Fluff."
What Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio Means for Your Business
From Saturday, October 24 to Friday, November 13, Mercury is retrograde in Scorpio.
Mercury governs communication: how you think, what you write, what you say, what you hear, and the messages, contracts and tech that carry all of it.
So when Mercury goes retrograde: communication gets hiccups and confusions. Contracts fall through. Arguments break out with loved ones over something that would have been nothing a week earlier. An email lands wrong. A client reads your message differently than you meant it. An automation misfires and your launch sequence goes out with a broken link.
Which is why the classic advice during Mercury Retrograde is: to double and triple check your assets before you launch, wait to sign any new contracts, and pause and re-read your texts before you say something you don't mean.
Scorpio governs the truth nobody wants to say out loud: the secrets nobody wants to talk about, the uncomfortable conversation that would shed light on negative problems, the thing you know that your audience needs to hear but is too scared to believe. Scorpio has no patience for surface level conversations. It doesn't dance around the truth, it says clearly, and directly what needs to be said. In as few words as possible.
So during this retrograde, the truths you've been avoiding in your content want out: the soul-deep truths your audience needs to hear, and the lies they keep telling themselves. And on your side, you need to become aware of your thought leadership that you softened so nobody would be offended.
Content Fluff: When Your Real Message Never Makes It Onto the Page
When a client comes to me asking why her content isn't converting, or why it isn't getting the views she expected, the first thing I do is read/watch her content.
And here's what I see her doing wrong (and what you're probably doing too.)
She's writing a lot of words that sound pretty but say nothing. She's posting more (adding more emojis, adding pretty pictures, writing long fluffy feel good content) hoping volume makes up for what each post isn't saying. 9 times out of 10 (before a client has worked with me) I read their content and think.. what the hell did I just read? What are you trying to say?
My brain has to work overtime to understand the core message that they want to convey. Not because my clients aren't geniuses, but because they are such a genius at what they do, they have difficulty communicating that wisdom in easy to comprehend ways.
What Content Fluff Looks Like Next to Content That Says Something
In order to understand this further, let's break it down with some actual examples. Here are two versions of the same post. One, that has a lot of Content Fluff (aka: your reader has to work overtime to understand what you're trying to say). And the second, says what you want to say clearly.
Version A:
Something I've been sitting with lately is how much of what we call strategy in the online space is really just a reflection of the internal frameworks we've built around visibility, and how those frameworks, when they aren't fully integrated with the deeper layers of our identity, tend to create a kind of misalignment between the version of ourselves we're putting out and the version we actually want to become. So many of the entrepreneurs I work with are doing everything, the high ticket offers, the daily posting, the beautiful feed, but the doing is coming from a place of proving rather than a place of allowing, which means their audience is receiving a signal of effort rather than a signal of embodiment, and effort alone can't create the kind of demand that embodiment can. Which is why I always come back to inner alignment, because without it, everything else is just noise.
153 words, all of it sounding intelligent and "pretty," but it forces your reader to put together the pieces to figure out what you're really trying to say. And the thing is, there is real genius there, but you're forcing your reader to work overtime to figure out your message.
So what is Version A really trying to say?
You apply strategies to your business that are a reflection of what you think visibility means. But the strategies you're applying to be visible and successful in your brand aren't a match to your own belief systems. So you're trying to be someone you're not, because you believe that's who you need to be in order to be worthy and deserving of the success you want to have. You're overcompensating for the part of you that feels not good enough by working harder and doing more. But all that will create is more lack, less money, and more burnout.
That's the real key insight, and it took 99 words to pull it out of 153. Now cut it down to only what she needs to hear, and you get Version B.
Version B:
You're trying to be someone you're not, because you believe that's who you need to be to deserve the success you want. So you overcompensate by working harder, for the part of you that feels not good enough. And all that creates is more lack, less money, and more burnout.
AKA, if we simplify this further:
Posting more will not make you more money until you believe you deserve wealth even when you're not working at all.
That last line is the whole post in 21 words. She can repeat it back to you with a snap of her fingers, and it stings a little, which is exactly why it lands.
One Step Further: Embed the Tangible Details
Now, Version B obviously lands, and if you want to master persuasive content, we take this one step further, by embedding tangible details into your writing. I talk through this more inside The 5 Key Elements of High-Converting Content and How to Write Highly Persuasive Content.
First, here's where the tangible details go. Same Version B, with each blank described:
You're trying to be someone you're not <describe who your ICA thinks she needs to be: what actions they are taking that they believe they need to take, that aren't aligned with their values>, because you believe that's who you need to be to deserve the success you want <describe the tangible success she wants: who would she see herself as/what tangible result would she have when she calls herself successful>. So you overcompensate by working harder <describe what she's doing in her marketing that isn't authentic to her because she was told she should do it>, for the part of you that feels not good enough. And all that creates is more lack, less money, and more burnout <describe the tangible cost/negative symptom she's experiencing right now in her life>.
And here's how it reads with them written in, for one ICA, a coach selling a high ticket offer:
You're trying to be the polished, always-on coach with a reel going out every single day, because you believe that's who you need to be to deserve $10k months. So you post rushed reels you don't have the capacity to make, take selfies you hate because you never feel like yourself in them, and record TikToks when you'd rather be teaching in long-form video. You're overcompensating for the part of you that feels not good enough, even though the clients you want would never invest in someone who posts every day. And now the work you're spending so many hours a week on is actually repelling your dream clients.
While Version B from the section above was strong, the precision of adding tangible details is what takes a post that would sell a $3.7k offer and makes it effortlessly close a $37k offer. For a more in-depth guide, make sure to check out The 5 Key Elements of High-Converting Content and How to Write Highly Persuasive Content.
Your Mercury Retrograde Review
So here's what to do during this Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio from October 24 to November 13.
Go back and read/watch your last month of content.
Ask each piece: what is this really trying to say? If you can't answer in one short, simple sentence, it's Content Fluff.
Distill the real key insight, then cut everything that isn't it.
Embed the tangible details, so your ICA knows it's about her.
Now, all this new content, you can post again. Mercury goes direct on November 13, and you walk into Q4's launch window with your next quarter's worth of content already written.
And if you want to master persuasive content, these two are your next reads: The 5 Key Elements of High-Converting Content and How to Write Highly Persuasive Content. The Practical AI Guides start in November; subscribe and they land in your inbox the day they drop.
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