Transmuting the Water of Life

There's a scene in Frank Herbert's Dune where the Lady Jessica, in an attempt to change the Water of Life - a deadly poison - observes that her personal time has slowed down and almost stopped. This, she realises, is in order to save her life as she delinks and relinks the molecules of the raw poison into the consciousness-altering brew of the Fremen Tau orgy.

Napping on my bed in the sun this afternoon, the dogs sprawled on the carpet around me, recovering from the most godsawful bout of 'flu I've had in years, I felt as if this Mercury retrograde was granting me the same boon. Time - my personal time - was being slowed down until it glooped like the molten sunshine across my half-awake form. To save my life? Possibly.

These Shamanic moments are the axis around which my sanity turns, and, turning, transforms me each time. I have Virgo as an eleventh House*, astrologically speaking - the House of Friends, of life connections with other souls, and coincidentally the House where my natal Venus is found.

It is sometimes said that our fifth House indicates from where we will receive love, and the eleventh the direction we will give it. I can't disagree, as I've always been overwhelmed with love from the Pisces direction, all my life, and have only in the last 11 years learned to give it - and yes, in the direction of Virgo.

So I'm not complaining about this particular Mercury retrograde period - although let it be noted that Virgo is also in charge of computers, forecasting that the next three weeks will be a rough ride for those of us in IT professions - but I'm measuring my heartbeats, my inbreath and outbreath, the rise and fall of my soul on the daily round. Slowing...slowing....nearly stopping...and reversing.

This is where we transmute the raw poison of our civilisation-saturated lives into something resembling the anima mundi.For better, or -maybe -for even better.

*= this Mercury retrograde, starting about now, commences in Virgo.

Pic: Jessica prepares to change the Water of Life- Lynch's Dune