Mercury stations retrograde at 1:44 am on 19th May GMT, and remains in
its own sign, Gemini, throughout its retrograde passage. Practically
speaking, this is an inquisitive Mercury, seeking information and
answers, reviewing events of the past three months, wondering about
relationships and connections with others and generally taking stock and
sorting through unfinished business. It efficiently clears the decks of
outstanding matters, enabling positive progress in the months to come.
Of course, that also means current misunderstandings will need to be
addressed in the coming weeks whether we like it or not! It may be a
hassle at the time, frustrating our desire for progress, but if we
commit to sorting through the chaos and getting things back on track now
we’ll make up what felt like lost time, in due course. If, however, we
try to battle on, ignoring the increasingly obvious signs that something
somewhere is going awry, we can be absolutely certain that once Mercury
turns direct again we’ll wish we’d listened better to its warnings and
done what was needed back then!
Mercury’s retrograde station occurs opposite
The Great Attractor.
This anomalous point in space is the ultimate in seduction, drawing us
towards and beyond it whether we like it or not. The Great Attractor
reminds us that in a world of infinite possibilities all things must
both repel and attract each other at some point in their cycle of
becoming. Just as children can be repulsed by foods they enjoy as
adults, and the ‘love of our life’ can become our most ardent enemy when
the tides of passion turn, the existence of polarity is central to the
very nature of being. We must know the extremes to find the balance that
allows wholeness, entertain possibilities that before seemed too
outlandish to be true, discard what once meant the world to us and be
prepared to release even the very facets of our nature that previously
made us who we are. The Great Attractor is our portal to the future,
born of the deepest contradictions which may paralyse us in the present.
We
cannot resist The Great Attractor (hence its name!) but we can
surrender to its intensity of extremes, allowing its contradictions and
profound paradoxes to penetrate our every cell until we know them as the
very tension which animates life itself. In its darkest depths we
encounter fate, those things we simply cannot change, a certain quality
of being we cannot escape. Mercury’s opposition to this point as it
turns retrograde poses the question ‘What do we do when we can’t change a
thing? What does it mean to live a life shaped by powers beyond our
reckoning?’. Whilst the practice of astrology reveals the deeply
creative role we have in the weaving of our life’s fabric, The Great
Attractor reminds us we are still the tiniest pin prick on the surface
of a relatively small planet in one of hundreds of solar systems
swirling through infinite space! Sometimes, it reminds us, life just
does what it does, unfolds as it must and we simply have to deal with
it!
It may all sound rather negative and resigned: not what we
want to hear. Which is precisely the point. The very fact we don’t want
to hear it is why Mercury is shouting it loud and clear right now: there
is still so much we simply don’t know. Infinite knowledge is not in our
grasp. We are not the architects of this awesome universe but instead a
small part of it. As much as we yearn for control, the heavens remind
us now some things are simply beyond our authority and wasting time and
energy trying to influence them may have caused us to take our eye off
the ball in recent months.
Time now to get to grips with what is
rather than what we think should be, especially when it comes to
relationships. In the coming weeks Mercury highlights what we simply
cannot control: responses received from others; decisions made by those
we love which turn our world upside down; misunderstandings which seem
to arise out of ‘thin air’ simply because you and I are two different
people; dynamics sensed immediately upon meeting someone which bear no
‘rational’ explanation: ‘you creep me out’, ‘I like you’, ‘I want to get
to know you better’, ‘I hope our paths never cross again’. All point to
the unavoidable consequence of life doing what it does: the interplay
of our energy with that of another, creating outcomes beyond our
control. No matter how hard we try to elicit the result we want – tying
ourselves in knots of avoidance and denial in the process – there are no
guarantees. Life now calls for living truthfully in the present, not
with guile to create an imagined future. Speak the truth. Say it as it
is and make doing that our purpose, no matter the outcome.
Contrary
to popular belief about power and powerlessness, recognising the limits
of our own influence is profoundly liberating. In doing so we can
simply stop trying to shape what refuses to be moulded by anything other
than its own nature. There is a deep and nourishing peace at the heart
of The Great Attractor when we simply allow it to draw us in and have
its way. For its way is our way eventually. Through our very acceptance
of what we cannot change we become a living, breathing reflection of the
creator spirit, not resisting its expression but accepting it as a
force of greater intelligence than the ‘little me’ who always thinks it
knows best. Once aligned with fate as an active participant there is
nothing we cannot be or do, for all that is asked of us is who and what
we already are.
This current period of Mercury retrograde will
reveal much about what we can change and what is simply the fundamental
nature of life, of ourselves and other people. By its end we will know
what is and isn’t up for debate.
We may well feel resistant to this
revelation, but resistance doesn’t mean we’re right and the universe
needs to shape up and get with the programme! It means we’re being too
small in our outlook, too confident of our power in a cosmos which
unfurls constantly, revealing ever deeper recesses of infinite space.
There is still SO MUCH for us to know. We are mere ‘new borns’ in the
infinity of creation. Only in celebrating that fact can we be open
enough to receive ever more profound revelations of truth when it is
time. The burgeoning Age of Aquarius is not the destination, the
culmination of aeons of development, it is merely a way-station on an
endless journey of becoming, a revelation of a new way to live and love,
a new mode of existence. In cosmic terms it is still a lower rung of a
very long ladder stretching into endless space about which we know next
to nothing. Being alive at the shift of ages can lead us to believe we
have arrived. In fact we are still on the starting blocks, preparing for
the off in a very long race.
The Great Attractor polarises all
things, including ourselves. It offers the objective and subjective and
bids us choose which perspective we prefer. Either way the opposite is
also true. Behind all of this polarity lies the future, born of the
creative tension of opposites and similarities interwoven throughout our
lives. As Mercury travels retrograde in the coming weeks we have a
chance to view those polarities, to encounter paradox and contradiction,
different perspectives in the same space of one relationship and honour
them for what they are: the fertile seeds of the future, not problems
to be resolved into beige blandness of a uni-dimensional view.
If
we’ve swept discord under the carpet, said ‘yes’ when we felt ‘no’,
committed ourselves when our spirit yearned for freedom, now is the time
to do the opposite and reveal the truth. But in doing so we must accept
that the choices we make may have consequences we cannot control. Each
decision carries its own power, unleashed when we make it, thrust forth
to live a life all of its very own. This is how doing the ‘right’ thing
can sometimes ‘backfire’ and doing the ‘wrong’ thing can get us exactly
where we need to be. The power to choose is ours, then the roller-
coaster begins, fuelled not only by our own desire, but also that of the
universe: the force of becoming which propels our lives through time
and space in ways we have yet to understand.
The future is born of
each moment. We are its creators and its subjects, thrown hither and
thither by influences beyond our control. Such is the paradox at the
heart of the human condition: we have enormous creative power but may
lack influence over our creation. This is The Great Attractor at work,
offering the freedom of self determination with no guarantees. As
Mercury retrogrades through Gemini their combined power invites us to
claim our creative potential, exercise it with integrity and in doing so
know that what will be will be. The most precious goal is simply to
honour who we are in the moment and share ourselves honestly with life.
The present moment is all we have and living it well is the best we can
do. The future isn’t ours to shape but to embrace as it arises, secure
in the knowledge that we rest in the arms of life itself, cradled in an
infinite universe born of its own design.
Click here for the truth about Mercury Retrograde
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Sarah Varcas
Tagged as:
Age of Aquarius,
Conscious Evolution,
Conscious Relationships,
Coping with emotions,
Deep Truth,
embracing the shadow,
facing fear,
managing change,
managing the mind,
Mercury,
Mercury in Gemini,
Mercury Retrograde,
personal truth,
Spiritual development,
The Great Attractor
