Hey so this week I want to talk about Mercury retrograde. It's coming into action from today and tomorrow onwards. Personally I've been feeling it for about a week, since the start of the lunar new year everything's felt a bit topsy turvy in life. Sometimes going in deep to what it all means just feels like being in Pans Labrinth. So let's not. As ever, I advocate cosiness over chaos so at least when things do go off piste you're in a resilient space to rise up to life's curveballs.
Let me give you a few western astrological representations of Mercury, what I do to manage this type of of time and how you may tune into this to understand how it affects you and how to ride the wave - hopefully from this you can follow your own intuition, see where you meet your resistance and give yourself permission to take up space. A bit like yoga, right? I try to apply this to most aspects of the day to day, again like yoga practice it comes and goes with the ebbs and flows of life itself.
The planets can't physically go backwards, the galaxy would be in dire straights if they did. However it appears to be moving back in the sky due to an optical illusion caused by the planets moving at different speeds from one another. This has been observed in many cultures for as long as the sky has been recorded by humans.
Mercury - planet of communication and is named after the messenger of the Roman gods. It is the closest planet to the Sun, Venus is between Earth and Mercury.
Mercury is also the ruling planet of Gemini and Virgo.
This Mercury retrograde and the other two for this year are all occurring in water signs (Pisces, Cancer and Scorpio).
Which is suggestive that things are gonna get emotional, you may have more dreams about loved ones, getting lost or not knowing where you are.
Typically the Mercury retrogrades are associated with mis communication, faulty electronics,the past coming back to haunt us in some form and the re-emergence of old thinking patterns and behaviours that maybe you thought you'd grown out of. (Don't worry most likely you have) I tend to see these reappearances as 'ghosts' of what they once were especially if they had a tight hold over a period of time.
A good way to reassure yourself is to look back to a year ago or to when that ghost was more real and see how far you have come.
It is often advised not to make grand plans, grand gestures etc because of their habit of backfiring. That said Mercury retrogrades can definitely be a time of seeing where things fall and allowing the dust to settle, and forming your communication and actions with intention. Putting thought into things and continue making the sort of efforts which in the long run build a sturdy bigger picture.
I'd love to share a tarot with you although I admit I am still working through my last reading.
When called to pull from my Rider Waite deck, the other day I had the 8 of swords reversed. It's a a very real talk card synonymous with burying one's head in the sand, having awareness of a situation and choosing to not use your power to change it even though you know can. It's usually quite a depressing card and depending where you find yourself and the position of the card it can foreshadow things getting worse. It's not much better for the reverse position either but again it can mean change in perspective, situation and adapting to something unknown coming forward.
To finish for this week I just want to wish you all the best for the coming week. Mornings this week in the studio have been filled with light as we turn to face the sun a little bit more everyday. (And also a break from biblical rains- pats on the back to everyone who came to their classes because weather like that can be seriously demotivating!)
Mercury retrograde ends on the 20th of March just in time for the spring equinox, Ostara and the start of Aries season.
I wish you good luck, don't fight the tide, ride the wave, it won't last forever.
Big love
Layla.
