Last night we started into another Mercury Retrograde.Unlike the long string of retrogrades preceding it, this one is not taking place in an Earth sign. That's little comfort to me, however, as the Fire sign of Aries which is accommodating this backward motion is a bit of an unknown factor in my natal chart.
Aries seems to represent the ego at its beginning. The point-like emergence of I Am from the sea of consciousness. The war-mongering, power-grabbing, dionysian-celebrating result of the first stages of individuation. And as such, it can be dangerous.
In fact, if we think about the function of a Mercury retrograde - to review the past 3 weeks or so, and revisit that ground again - I should really be crouching in a corner, whimpering. I mean -the last 3 weeks? For gods' sakes. Car bursting into flames on the highway, spending thousands on towing fees and then thousands on repair and then spending a week without a car at all; intense and vicious little 'flu virus which hit me for a good ten days, which is 8 days too long;failure of serenity and failure of communication and failure of humility. You want me to revisit the last three weeks?
But I'm not taking it as badly as all that. In fact, I'm rather looking forward to what this period can teach me. My natal Mercury does reside in a Fire sign, after all - albeit the more refined fire of Sagittarius - and the Guide of Souls who is Mercury/Hermes/Odin/Enki has not been known, by me anyway, to make too many great big mistakes.
It's feeling like being in a classroom again, and the teacher is saying "Now, class, this is an important bit. I want you to learn it very thoroughly. So, let's just go back over this piece again, hmm?"
I intuit that my personal lessons will involve flash-or-trigger-points, keeping a clear mind, and opening myself to some less savoury aspects of Who I Am. With, hopefully, a hefty dose of gentle humility thrown into the mix. Let's wait and see then, shall we?
Pic: Fire Dragon by Vlad Gerasimov
comment?
ReplyDeleteAWESOME pic!! I love dragons. Actually, recently I've been focusing on undoing the estrangement of my "inner dragon" (symbolizing the element of fire) and reintegrating that part of myself in a healthy way, after a really intense dream of fighting for and finding my baby dragon, the last of a nearly extinct race who I had dedicated my life to protecting (and in which I, coincidentally enough, fought with the god Aries, as portrayed by the character in Xena).
I've been thinking about Mercury going retrograde, but didn't realize it was in the sign of Aries. (!!) I've spent a lot of time thinking about how to "rewild" astrology away from the symbolism of civilization, theism, and "power-over", making it more animistic and representative of healthy, natural "forces". To me, the sign of Aries represents self-centeredness (in a healthy way - the "centered self"), willpower ("being our own champion", so to speak). In other words, knowing what we want/don't want and trying to make it happen in our lives. I consider Libra to symbolize the other half of the process of negotiation in relationships - respect for the will (Aries) of others as equal to our own will - so to me Aries means "respect for oneself", representing our power over ourselves and what is ours (i.e. our bodies) and our "power-with" others.
Conversely, I consider many of the common astrological associations with Aries to reflect the unhealthy expression of will - the domination of one's will over the will of others ("power-over"). Thus, war as genocide vs. war as sport, killing out of hatred vs. killing out of love (and as part of a larger relationship), etc.
Anyway, this mercury retrograde promises to be interesting!
Jessica,
ReplyDeleteThose are certainly some points to think about.
Rewilding astrology sounds like something I could really take onboard- thank you for the thoughts!
Love,
Terri in Joburg
Astrology, rolls eyes. True spirits don't bother with such nonsense.
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