Dear Moonies,

 

I wrote this piece about Mercury retrograde in response to a question(in another group) about its period, and all the 'chaotic energy' thatit has been stirring in some people's lives. I thought it would begood to post it here, in light of the fact that this Gemini New Moon will be adding an additional level of potential conflictive energy tothis much maligned planetary transit...but I believe the potentional for healing with it is also tremendously empowered! Read on (I've left out parts that pertain to personal responses to the person that asked about it): I'd like to take this opportunity to also break some 'old paradigms' regarding Mercury retrograde, who's had such a terrible wrap - not completely unjustly, but, not necessarily reflective of the whole true picture about what s/he represents. So, pardon me while I go into one of my Astrological tirades (can't help it - I 'see' Astrology everywhere!). For those of you who may be interested… I thought I’d go ahead and give you some of the symbolism and technical pieces about this phenomena in the next paragraph…and if you are not, then you can skip to the following one:

 

The first thing is to be clear about some basic key words for Mercury as an Archetype: Communications in all its forms, Mind and the Mental body, Self-Talk Cycle, Preferred Learning Style/Sense, Education(especially early), Information & Data. It's waaaaayyyyy more thanthat, but when people talk about Mercury being retrograde, they are usually focused on these pieces. What retrograde means is that from our vantage point on Earth, the planet 'appears' to be moving backwards...and so it would appear that all the above issues,especially Communication, go a little ‘haywire’ in daily life. And it’s sort of true…it can…and does…and it depends completely on what it is ‘activating’ in your chart (& therefore, life). Exactly what goes berserk depends also on what sign Mercury is traveling through in the retrograde period (including the Element of the sign in question –Water, Earth, Air, Fire). And a big piece is what aspects(relationships) Mercury is forming with other planetary bodies during this period. Enough of the technical…

 

So, how Mercury retrograde deals its cards so to speak, is a very,very personal matter. Some people have great experiences, and others have more of a challenging time with it…and yet, that can get switched around at the next retrograde period since other parts of a person’s psyche will get activated at this other date. My belief (and that of most professional astrologers) is that ‘forewarned is forearmed’ (not the greatest of metaphors, but hey, it works to get the message across) – which is to say, that if you know the dates & signs in which Mercury will retrograde (happens 3 x per year), and you know which parts of your ‘astrology chart’ are going to get activated or hit with it, you will be in a much more empowered position – you can choose to look at the experience from a more wholistic viewpoint – be pro-active and set your intention ahead of time in how you can work with it. Get it?

 

Mercury is also known as The Trickster, The Psychopomp (leads the dead into the Underworld), The Teacher, The Healer, The Scholar, The Writer. There is a psychological piece to all of this – S/he helps usto delve into the deeper spaces of our minds so that we can make decisions – hopefully ones that lead into healing. S/He assists with the collection of information and data, so that we become more fully Conscious – especially of any beliefs or thoughts that may have been ‘driving’ us in our lives, and some of those may be counterproductive ones. So, the deepest level of healing that a Mercury retro period can present us with, is to take a serious look at what kind of faultyconscious or unconscious belief patterns we may be functioning from. So, if Life is going a little crazy, take the “Witness” or “Observer” perspective and ask yourself: “What would I have to belief in order to have created/co-created this?” And don’t beat yourself up for it –lots of time it’s beliefs that were instilled by others waaaaayyyyy before we were old enough to choose the kinds of beliefs that would be ‘good’ for us. The ‘healing’ that Mercury offers is there when we are willing to take a serious look inside (even if we are spurred to do so by ‘outside’ drama!). For those of you who are familiar with various cultural/world mythologies, Mercury is related to Thoth, Hermes Trismegestus, Asclepius and others of that sort of archetypal lineage…all are Sacred/Shamanic Healers…and therefore, instead of looking at Mercury Retrograde as a ‘bad’ thing, I invite you to consider this time as a potential for doing deep, inner healing.

 

Ok, so what of THIS particular retrograde period? Well, it’s been occuring in the Earth Sign of Taurus. This means that what I just wrote about Mercury, you may apply on subjects related to Taurus: Values, money, bank accounts (as well as what I call the "Inner Bank Account" - your 'Inner Resources' such as your gifts, talents & abilities and how you put them in circulation in the outer world, thereby affecting your 'outer bank account'), how you value yourself, issues relating to material/physical life, etc. For folks that choose to fear this time, it will show up especially rough in communications…you’d want to be careful not to sign contracts (but it’s great for researching whatever you want to sign a contract on!)…and think twice before you speak as much as possible – which is hard when so much ‘stuff’ is coming up for healing! My beloved teacher, Jeffrey Brock, taught me something his beloved teacher, Robert Ball, taught him: Be especially mindful of what you say to children during a Merc/Retro because it goes deep into their subconscious minds and can grab hold for a very long time. Once again,this can be tough – but do your best (I’ve often failed here, too!). You see, when it’s going ‘backwards’ all logic and left-brain and rational thinking tend to become very jumbled, and go directly into the subconscious, in an emotional manner…so ‘words’ get very deeply etched at this time.

 

Back to this particular period: It lasts technically from May 8-31, 2009…but there’s something called the ‘shadow period’ and it extends the range a bit: April 23 to June 15. So, that’s the period you have available to work on your healing. Be especially rigorous with yourself regarding what your own early childhood educational experience was…and consider what you heard and saw as a child…even those silly cartoons could implant negative thoughts into our Consciousness! Especially consider how these experiences may have built your value system, especially in how you value (or not) your gifts, talents and abilities...as well as if these experiences negatively or positively impacted your connection to your physical body and all matters pertaining to what you say to yourself about your body, money, career, and these Taurus themes. I would suggest having an ‘ally’ to talk to during this period so that you can feel supported as you go through your soul-searching. I get this sense with this one that since it’s what we term ‘trine’ to the planet Saturn, we can rebuild our mental structures by re-recording our self-talk tapes about our value systems...so take advantage of this (and ALL) Mercury Retrograde cycle to do your inner work. There’s more to it than this…but this is good enough for now (don’t want to get too technical or I’ll lose you LOL!).

 

So, for those of you that do know your astrology chart…and can decipher the ‘degrees’ of each sign in your chart, here are the exact degrees covered and re-covered (there are 3 passages of the planet to these during the retro): 22 degrees 52 minutes of Taurus through 1 degrees 42 minutes of Gemini. Plot those out in your chart and you can determine which ‘area of life’ (as shown by the House/s being activated) as well as any natal planets, are up for review and healing during this period.

 

Well, if you are still with me after all that, I hope you learned how to be pro-active with this fabulous Archetype! If you have questions about this period, I’ll cover some of it on Monday during my Gemini New Moon Circle (6:30 pm in Roswell, GA)…since the New Moon will actually accentuate this particular Mercury Retro…and I’ll look at where that is in everyone’s chart! If you want to join, please be sure to pre-register so I can print out your chart.

 

 

Peace and Moonbeam Blessings,

Silvia J. Pancaro

 

 

Supercharge Your Goals & Dreams with Nature's Power!

 

Copywrite 2008-2009 Silvia Pancaro and MoonCoach, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

 

 

PS: Please tell your friends about this page on my website, as I would like to 'di-spell' the mass paranoia on the planet about Mercury. The page link is: http://mooncoach.com/mercuryretrograde.aspx