Touching Down

Today (here in the Pacific Northwest) or early tomorrow morning, Mercury will begin it's apparent backward path through the sky. For 3 weeks, until May 11th, it's generally considered to be a time when travel complications arise (hello Eyjafjallajökull!), when communication can go awry and when signing legal documents, purchasing new technological equipment or buying a house can be trickier than usual. This cycle occurs three times each year - the next will occur in late August, and the final for this year will begin after the first week of December.

This particular go-round comes at a time when we're all being asked to adjust. In some instances, we're being asked to change behaviors that are near and dear to us, changes that come with a cost. With this in mind, it may be worthwhile to focus on some of the more personal uses of this aspect.

One of the great uses for a Mercury Retrograde cycle is to review what's working for you and what isn't, in your life. Are you juggling more projects or events than usual, is that working for you? Have you made progress you aren't giving yourself credit for? Is there dust lingering on your bookshelves that you can take a moment to clear off - or files you can put away or shred?

Another good way to approach this time is to consider what private conversations do we need to have, either with ourselves or with others, to move things along? Mercury is the planet associated with communication and during it's retrograde cycle it's common for more closed door conversations to occur. This can be more obvious at work, where projects may appear stalled, but really have gone underground. The same is true at home, where it may be time to bring up topics that shouldn't be swept under the rug, and that may benefit from being out of everyone's view.

This Monday, a day or two into this cycle, the comet Chiron will move into the sensitive sign of Pisces. Chiron isn't used by all astrologers - when it is, it's typically associated with a wounding that doesn't heal in each of us, that either allows us to see the worst in others, or have compassion for each other, knowing our own unhealable pain. That this comet is moving into the most sensitive sign in the zodiac, there is an opportunity for us to be more gentle with ourselves and our own human frailty and a likelihood that we will see more of other's weaknesses in this month than usual.

Be patient, take a walk outside, take a breath.

More soon.