Mercury Retrograde, August 2010

On August 20th at around 8pm UT, Mercury will station retrograde once again. Last time it did that was on April 18th when the Ash Cloud emerging from a volcano in Iceland sent the travel industry, airports and many of us trying to take a flight, into turmoil.

In fact this year, started with a retrograde of Mercury, from December 26th, 2009, till January 15th, which coincided with 2 eclipses and the earthquake in Haiti, towards the end of the cycle.

Ok, ok, no need to writhe

in your seat, let’s put some perspective, there are 3, sometimes 4 retrogrades of Mercury a year, so not all of them are so devastating. Still, we know by now, that it will send all communications into a slow motion mode, may I say, often necessary.

These year they are happening in Earth signs, first one was in Capricorn, second in Taurus, and now in Virgo.

It will station retrograde at about 19º, on the 20th, yet its shadow face has already started on August 1st, around 5º. It will station direct on September 12th-13th, but it will not arrive to 19º of Virgo until around the 27th.

All of us with planets in Mutable signs between 5º-19º will feel its effect quite strongly. And this does not mean, in a negative fashion, but the delays that may happen, will induce us to sit down, take a break and re-study whatever situation we find ourselves in.

Being Virgo the recipient of this Cosmic event, the subject of health and our work become pivotal.

We may experience it ourselves or “via” our children, spouses, grandchildren, parents.

Virgo and the 6th house are the experience of illness as a tool for self-knowledge. What does the symptom say to us?, What is our body trying to express through the imbalance or dis-ease?

A proper check up might not be a bad idea, if you are worry about anything.

Curiously, just last week someone gave me Eric Pearl’s book, The Reconnection, which talks about Re-Connective Healing.

It was easy to read and although he does not provide any answers or pretends to turn us all into healers, (well, he does a bit) some of the things he says are true, especially when it comes to Traditional Medicine and this Prescription Pills society of ours.

The issue of how Healing works is a true Virgo issue. Although none us are saying that you should not go to see your doctor if you feel you must, or take an aspirin if you have a headache, the fact remains that we disempower ourselves when we automatically think that we cannot heal ourselves. In many cases we can.

On the other hand, when someone is ill and takes the inner decision to pass, there is nothing anyone can do to change that. Each of us have our own Time on this planet and we, and only we (albeit, unconsciously), know when the time has come.

Admittedly, all of this remains a great mystery, but as we understand more and more our own destiny, all of it, becomes clearer and clearer.

I do believe we can heal ourselves and others, by the way. I know so.

Somebody said: “Everything that happens to us is the best thing that can happen to us”. I do agree, yet, it’s difficult to think this way when there are 14 million people displaced in Pakistan, because of the floods.

Few other aspects happen at the same time that Mercury enters in its retrograde motion. For one thing, the Moon in Capricorn activates the T-Square and so just fresh from making a conjunction to Pluto, comes to square (90º) Venus and Mars in Libra which happen to be in exact conjunction at 13º Libra 38′. Also, SATURN MAKES ITS LAST SQUARE OF THIS CYCLE TO PLUTO. Wow! It hasn’t been an easy one!

Everything seems to guide us to TAKE A BREAK, even if the break simply means to turn our antennas off to the outside world, to concentrate on the INSIDE. Time to re-consider and re-analyze a relationship we might be involved in. Being a parent-child, teacher-student, spouses, lovers, etc. Whoever is pressing your buttons right now, that’s the ONE.

Since Mercury is transiting Virgo, the question could be: Is this relationship healthy for us? What happens to my inner power and my mental health? Truth is, there aren’t unhealthy relationships even if they look like that.

Whatever induces us to question ourselves isn’t unhealthy, yet, if we begin to sound like a scratched record, then we should really question, where is this relationship taking you to. What is that that we are not learning? Which part of us benefits from it, even if looks as we are only suffering with it?

At the

point of Retrograde 19º Virgo, Mercury also links with Ceres. one of the archetypes of the Great Mother. Persefone’s mother- So many mother-child, lover-younger person relationships are being moved.

If you are experiencing these archetypes in your life right now, then this Retrograde might be what you really need.

Time to re-think, to reflect on what you are feeling and what the other person’s needs might be. So many of us find in this type of relationships a way to look after and nourish our inner child.

The Sun (in Leo), opposes Neptune and Chiron, at the last degrees of Aquarius, a wonderful opportunity to lay a bridge between our longings and fantasies and the reality of ourselves.

Often very frustrating, the Mercury Retrograde periods which coincide with mobiles not working, people not answering the phone when you most need them, the Internet going crazy, Hotmail and Facebook changing their settings might send many of us into real turmoil, etc, there are moments to simply STOP, and reflect, re-study your present situation.

Might mean a problem for Pakistan and Haiti and China, which so desperately need help to arrive as soon as possible, by causing unwanted delays.

An almost comical example of this Cosmic cycle though, was the flight attendant, Steven Slater’s exit from the airplane he was working in, after freaking out with a passenger. It’ll probably cost him his job and a fine, but he definitely had his 15 min. of fame in YouTube.

Mercury retrograde in Virgo!

When the conductor of an orchestra says:- “In C minor” -the musicians know it must be played in C Minor for the good of the orchestra and the audience. When Mercury says: ” Time to re-think your plans, re-evaluate your work and your relationships”- so must we.

To ignore the Gods is very silly, since is only us that will suffer.

Use your sense of humor and meditate!