Mercury Retrograde: Depth of Focus

The Seer, Wildwood Tarot

Mercury stations retrograde
October 21, 2013
6:29 am EDT / 11:29 am GMD

Uranus–Pluto square
November 1, 2013
6:30 am EDT / 10:30 am GMT

New Moon in Scorpio
November 3, 2013
7:50 am EST / 12:50 om GMT

Astrological Samhain
November 7, 2013
1:14 am EST / 6:14 am GMT

Mercury stations direct
November 10, 2013
4:12 pm EST / 9:12 pm GMT

We've entered our last Mercury retrograde for this year, the last in the Water element. Following on the heels of the fiery intensity of the Aries Full Moon, Mercury's station (the moment he slows down and stops before turning back) ushers in the season of Samhain.

At Samhain, deep in Autumn in the Northern hemisphere, we enter the dark time of the year. This is the time of stories around the fire, of mending and making, of looking within. For the ancient Celts, this was where (and how) everything began––in the depths of quiet yin.

The astrological year begins at the Spring Equinox, with fiery yang Aries energy. We felt a burst of that at the Full Moon, and now, only a few days later, we're dropped into the depths of something ancient and dark.

This is the waning cycle of the Moon, but this post is not my usual post for this time––I will write another in a few days describing what the Moon will be up to. We've entered an intense and focused time within a much larger cycle now, and it feels important to get oriented.

dive in ...

Samhain arrives every year, after all ... the time of Scorpio, the energy of fixed Water that asks us to look our fears in the face, embrace our Shadow, have tea with our demons.

Scorpio time is also for connecting deeply with what fuels us, what brings meaning and creative fire into our lives. And for honoring the past and the ancestors.

These themes are connected: We fear what we don't understand and don't want to face, often these things come from the past, and are shadowy. The things modern culture wants most to ignore––age, death, decay, depth––these are Scorpio things and the source of all new life.

This year... well, this year we're offered extra Scorpio. A Scorpio main course with Scorpio on the side, and some Scorpio sauce.

Mercury's retrograde in Scorpio opens the door and nudges (pushes?) us through. The usual caveats apply––double check plans and schedules, make extra backups of important files, and avoid leaping to conclusions about what you think someone meant when they said that to you. But this is not what Mercury retrograde is about.

The mess-ups in communication come about because our attention is being directed elsewhere. The ordinary details of life are not where our hearts and minds want to be right now. We're being drawn into the depth of our own lives, the lives around us, the life of our world. 

This is the time to examine our deepest goals and desires, to face our darkest fears. Mercury stations retrograde while trining (in a deep flow of energy) with Jupiter in Cancer. This connection reminds us of the waves of Water energy we swam in this summer, when so much was happening in the sign of Cancer.

Now we're asked to take all of those emotions to a new level, placing them in a context that includes the past, potential futures, and the creation of meaningful lives.

The next exact Pluto–Uranus square's coming right up too. Pluto rules Scorpio, and remains in mutual reception with Saturn who is in Scorpio. This square, coming at this time and during the waning lunar cycle, says, Let go! It's time to take off the water wings, leave the shallow water, and trust that we can swim to the far shore.

The New Moon in Scorpio will be conjunct Saturn, Mercury retrograde, and the North Node, offering an open portal for new beginnings in the deepest parts of our psyches. This New Moon arrives with a Solar Eclipse, giving extra energy and resonance to whatever seeds we plant. Astrological Samhain (when the Sun reaches 15 Scorpio) and the ending of the retrograde will follow.

... the water's fine

By the time we reach that far shore, we'll be in a waxing cycle, growing something new. We'll also have changed our clocks, which may carry extra symbolic weight this year––it certainly will for me, because I will experience it twice. We'll "fall back" here in Ireland before I leave, and then I'll "fall back" again in the US a few days after I arrive.

In the next days and weeks, be aware that whatever happens is likely to feel "extra" ... extra strong, extra important, extra meaningful. And most likely, it will be. We're entering a time when signs and portents could be anywhere and everywhere.

I invite you to choose the deep over the superficial. One thing I've learned on my long travels is how easy it is for me to allow ordinary anxieties (Did I lock the door? Did I pay that bill? Is she angry about what I said?) to keep me from experiencing the layers of deeper emotion underneath. I think this is fairly common, and something we want to get beyond, especially now.

These next few weeks invite us to look closely at who we are, how we feel, what fuels us, what blocks us, and where we go from here. Ordinary live recedes. We're called into a reflective time. That cave might feel scary but there are riches within. Take the plunge!
    

Creating Creative Structures: Saturn in Water

bumblebees can't theoretically fly ... and do

For lots of reasons, I'm thinking about Saturn these days. I am also moving a bookcase. A heavy one. One really too big for me to move alone. But, like the bumblebee, I won't look at limitations and so I'm doing it.

Then I heard a voice saying, "Mary, what are you DOing?" It was my father's voice––in my head, but quite clearly his, and if anyone who knew him reads this, I'm sure you're getting the intonation exactly right.

Because of course I'm not moving this bookcase in the way my very Saturnian Dad would have done it: Carefully clearing everything out of the way, taping, securing, protecting edges.

I'm just, you know, doing it. There are books in piles all over my apartment, and I had to walk the d*#n thing around dressers and tables I did not move first.

When I heard the voice, I thought, well, what am I doing? And what would the sky say about it?

Right now, the Sun and Neptune are conjunct––expressing creativity, deepening spirituality, and doing things in loopy ways.

Mars is just past a flowing trine with Saturn, both in Water––taking action to create structures to support Piscean and Scorpionic stuff.

Venus is conjunct my Descendent, trining my Mercury-Neptune conjunction, both in Air––wanting to support my creative thought and writing in ways that work for me, valuing my own unique process.

The Moon in Cancer is trining the Sun-Neptune conjunction––aligning home and emotions with creativity and spirituality.

I'm moving this bookcase because I decided a few days ago that I need a different space to write. I need a dedicated space that says "writing" to me. My main computer and desk have been in my bedroom, and while I sometime write in bed, it's not the most structured, professional way to do it.

I don't have quite this many books, really...

So, this bookcase is moving into the bedroom so the 'puter and desk can come out to the "library" which is a wall with two other bookcases.

As a side benefit, I will now see a bookshelf from my bed, one of those odd things I find comforting. (Venus in Aquarius conjunct the Descendent = quirky things about me.)

I'm also emerging from a period of being not in 100% health. Feeling my energy coming back, I felt a surge of agency––by gum, I says to myself, that bookcase ain't gonna move itself. Sometimes a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do.

For the record, in case my Dad's actually worried about this (or anyone else is), I moved the bookcase carefully. I didn't lift it, I walked it. I put an old towel under it to make it slide. And I've been working on this for hours, with rests in between.

And once it was in place (yes, books are still stacked all over, but hey, it's progress), I decided to look at the charts and write about it.

This is how Saturn retrograde in Scorpio might look, in the presence of a ton of planets in Pisces: Doing something tangible and specific to support other more nebulous and hopefully creative things happening. And, oh yes, Saturn is retrograding through my 3rd House of writing.

May something magically creative happen today for you!