Mercury Retrograde, August 2011

WHEE ! ! ! Here's we go again ... (p.s.: this is a VERY important retrograde because of it's placement in the skies and there's so much good (and so much crappy, imho) information out there so I have gleaned quotes for this post, much of it verbatim and some of it supplemented by my undestanding (and flair, tyvm) from various sources across the interwebs so you can have a better understanding of what's going on. there are links to each of the websites i've quoted at the end of this post. gratzie, i'm sure. PEACE to you and just remember to BREATHE!)

Mercury, http://bit.ly/HendrickGoltzius

From our inherited myths about Mercury (also known as Hermes) we know that he was the only god able to come and go at will from the underworld, the celestial world, this world or any of the worlds. He was not from any one particular place, but able to go to all realms and dimensions easily as the messenger of the gods. The planet Mercury symbolizes the alchemical magic of the mind, how we process information, how we perceive our reality and how we communicate. Mercury is also noted for its quickness and speed as it goes around the Sun every 88 days. Thus, Mercury’s speed is linked to the quickness of the mind. Our minds, our thoughts, our perceptions are not limited by time and space. Our thoughts can take us anywhere past, present, future and beyond this galaxy in an instant.

July 15 to Sept 9 is the Mercury alert zone with Aug 2 to 26 the actual time of retrograde "motion". From our perspective, it appears that the planet of communication stops dead in the water so that WE feel stalled, then turns around, and goes backwards so that we feel it pressing against us. Not so, but it sure looks like it from where we’re standing. It’s similar to what it feels like when we pass a slower moving car and we have the sensation that the car is moving backward...Mercury slows down, reverses direction, slows down again, and returns to a direct motion, much like a pendulum. This retrograde is about "slow and steady wins the race" and about planning, planning, planning ... and then deep breathing when all the planning seems to have been for naught.

Robert Wilkinson says in his book A New Look At Mercury Retrograde, that this timing is an opportunity for us to witness magic revealing itself gaining an understanding of how it works. If the magician slows down we get a chance to see how the magic works. The invisible becomes visible, the unknown becomes known. It is a time for fully exploring the magic and mystery of life in a way that is not always available to us.

Mercury, the “winged messenger”, is the planet which rules communications: emails, telephone calls, letters and text messages all come under his domain. He takes care of your cell phone and your internet connection, your office mailroom and your local post office. Mercury’s there when you book plane tickets and chat over the fence with your neighbour. He absolutely loves gossip and trivia. Twitter and Facebook, with their instantaneous messaging capacity, are Mercurial inventions.

This is all great fun until you remember the bit about “going backwards”, and until you remember that Mercury also has a reputation as a trickster, a jester, and a practical joker. In Shakespeare’s words, he’s “a snapper-up of unconsidered trifles” and he delights in provoking you to put your foot in it for his own amusement.

This is a time of two steps forward and one step back. It can be frustrating in regards to programming, flights, bookings, letters, documents and communiqué of all kinds if we try to rush. Electronics can be tricky. The best approach is to discover what irks us (what we do and can tolerate) and either get rid of it or find a way to see it in a different light. Retrograde Mercury says, rethink, retreat, regroup, reconsider, reorganise, redress.

This is a time to sort through old, worn out perspectives; a time to clear the clutter of ideologies and thought patterns that are entrenched but not useful any more. Retrograde Mercury suggests a time to contemplate this; not to take radical action. Consider the conversation of your life: Is it interesting? Do your friends and associates get what you get or is there a gap? Is the gap only a mental gap? If so maybe the heart connection makes it worthwhile.

It seems, because of the planetary aspects, that the theme of this retrograde is the end of the end but not quite the beginning of the beginning. Chaos, change and revolution. This theme has been strong at least since at the eclipse on the Winter solstice. These factors suggest that our retrograde experience might have something to do with the need for radical change in the ways we think as well as the things we think about.

So … what are the frustrations ... and are we frustrated by misguided attachments? are we clinging to ideas? people? jobs? situations? because they're comfortable? or because we're weary? or because they're healthy and lifegiving.

Try not to become frustrated under complications under Mercury's influence. Communication: Mercury loves gossip so it pays to watch what we say, how we say it, and to whom. Computers: BACKUP YOUR WORK! Save early, save often. (This is not a time to upgrade to Lion, Mac-ies! There seem to be enough problems with the OS right now and you don’t want to complicate that with a full install.) Travel: plan to be early so you can arrive on time. Don’t be frustrated if YOUR plans don’t work out; remember: God orders your steps and directs your path and needs you exactly where you are so be content with where you are and take any opportunity of being stalled to pray: pray for your self and your plans, go through a list of all your FaceBook friends and pray for each of them individually. Just remember that this retrograde needs to be handled with caution, carefulness and retrospection to avoid glitches, personal misunderstandings, delayed, flawed, disrupted communications with ourselves and others. Mishaps that are unavoidable during this period, but many of the frustrations and stresses we experience are sometimes caused by our own carelessness in paying attention to the particulars. Plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead and THEN breathe even if your plans go awry. This retrograde is in the beginning of Virgo is saying to each of us that if we always articulate and pay attention to the minute details, we will be playing it safe and be avoiding much of the frustrations and upsets this period can bring with it.

On a positive level, it can also be a great time to reflect on where we’re at in our lives, to go back over the past few months to see what lessons we have learned and how we can integrate them. Reflect, re-examine, re-consider. If there’s an important decision coming up, it’s a great time to detach, take a step back, and look at the pros and cons. Retrogrades are good times for “inner work” that we can all do on our psyches. Much like spring-cleaning the garage or our kitchen cupboards, it’s ideal to take time out and see what attitudes and thought patterns are holding us back.

The coming retrograde will be an extremely important one showing us how to shape our minds to welcome future fulfillment and will give us many signs and signals for what will dominate late August through mid-November. It is a threshold time, where we again look back before moving forward. We can get all kinds of new insights into future potentials, while seeing things in the recent past differently. For all of us, during the next several weeks the future that's already rolling forward will slow a little so we can get a new look at crucial elements of the process we cannot afford to ignore.

(Sources:
http://bit.ly/qUPAAM, http://bit.ly/oHgsOt, http://bit.ly/rhQNOG, http://bit.ly/nd38cl, http://bit.ly/qkuqfb, http://bit.ly/pRVxXK)