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Astro 101 by Dawn Elizabeth
For those of you who have never heard of Mercury Retrograde, you might be wondering what all the hype is about.
For some, feelings of dread and a need to "batton down the hatches," may permeate the more fearful side of your being.
Yet, there are also likley to be at least a handful of souls who welcome Mercury's symbolic journey backwards and the chance to reflect, reassess, reorganize, re-do and release.
In fact, just about any word with the prefix "re" in it gives us an opportunity to reflect on where we've been, reassess our plans and our visions, reorganize and restructure our priorities so that they might be better realigned with the rediscovery of our unique and fully revealed inner being.
Mercury goes retrograde for a period of 3 weeks, 3, sometimes 4 times a year (about every 3 months).
This particular Mercury Retrograde will slow our minds back down into earthy, serene and peace-seeking Taurus, where we will have another chance to release any fear of moving forward, then re-view, re-do, re-edit and then finally re-affirm and re-cover our true authentic selves and begin to confidently move forward with all of our re-discovered, re-vamped visions.
If I have over-done it just a bit on the "re" words, it's to make an important point.
It's common to hear people blaming the Mercury Retrograde for just about anything that seems to go wrong during the 3 week backwards motion of this versatile planet.
Astrologically speaking, Mercury rules our communication and our intellect. The sign, house and aspect of your natal Mercury describes how you think, perceive and express yourself through language and learning style.
(If you are interested in finding out more about your own natal chart, click here to check out our Spring reading specials).
Reading, writing, speaking, singing, chanting and gesturing are all part of the way we express our own belief systems and ideals.
Mythologically, the Roman god Mercury was essentially the same character as the Greek Hermes. Hermes was the messenger between the gods. He had the magical ability to spiral back and forth between the underworld and the outer world, acting as a dextrous translator of language between the gods.
Think of the Mercury Retrograde as an opportunity for your own inner Hermes to go into your own personal underworld or subconscious to reveal your true beliefs and untainted thoughts ~ to bring them forth and help you to communicate clearly between the layers of your unconscious and conscious self ~ and then finally, to project the result out into the world through your own langauge and voice.
Often, it's not uncommon for things such as car breakdowns, computer crashes, bank errors, electronic failures, bad purchases, bad contracts and general misunderstandings and communication errors to occur.
Before I knew much about Mercury Retrograde, it seemed that I was more privey to the kinds of breakdowns described above. To this day, if I know that I have some piece of equipment in need of repair, have an important phone call to make or bank matter to take care of, or if I simply need to be able to communicate something very clearly, I try to be sure to accomplish those things prior to Mercury's backward movement.
I believe that the more we use this time to reflect inwardly, the less we will have to contend with the outward manifestations of things needing to be repaired.
All of that said, though Mercury Retrograde's are typically not the best time to start something new or move forward with important plans (as they will often require some sort of major re-adjustment later on), I don't believe we should ever hold ourselves back from taking action if our plans have been well thought out, structured and organized previously.
With that in mind, it is important to note that Walt Disney launched and released Disney World and Oprah premiered the Oprah Winfrey show during a Mercury Retrograde cycle. So, if you have something really powerful and feel ready to release it, then, by all means, go for it!
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