4 Tips to Thriving During Mercury Retrograde
We’ve arrived at yet another Mercury Retrograde - the final one of the year. And while internet searches for this astrological phenomenon will yield headlines warning you of the inevitable mess, chaos, and catastrophes of Mercury Retrograde, I invite you to see past the propaganda and shiny clickbait.
Mercury Retrograde presents a fantastic opportunity to strengthen your communication skills, to emphasize and discern truth, to minimize assumptions and sharpen perception, and to imbue your thoughts, words, and deeds with more power to impact your life, and the world, for the better. So while, yes, there may be messiness, chaotic moments, and well-laid plans that go splat, it’s up to each of us to not get hooked into the drama and to focus instead on the opportunity to grow and progress!
Before diving into what makes this Mercury Retrograde special and 4 tips for making the most of this opportunity, I’ll briefly recap some of the basics of what Mercury Retrograde actually is and how it can affect us. If you feel solid on your astrological and metaphysical understanding of Mercury Retrograde, feel free to scroll down. And for a slightly more in-depth description, click this button to read my previous blog post about navigating the twists and turns of Mercury Retrograde with more grace and gratitude:
So….What is it?
All the planets in our Solar System travel around the Sun in the same direction. But they do so at different velocities and with varying trajectory and length to their orbit. It is these differences that create an “apparent retrograde motion” from the perspective of Earth. Meaning that the planet isn’t actually moving backwards. However, as seen from Earth, it appears that way.
Think about runners circling a track. When a runner passes another runner, it can appear from their perspective that the runner they’ve just passed is moving backwards, even though they are still clearly moving forwards! This can be an example to help you understand apparent retrograde motion.
Throughout the year, many planets will be perceived in apparent retrograde motion relative to Earth. Faster planets, like Mercury, will appear in retrograde motion more frequently than planets with slower, larger orbits. So while today’s blog post focuses on Mercury Retrograde, know that this phenomenon occurs with every planet in our Solar System. In fact, at the writing of this, there are currently 6 planets in apparent retrograde motion! So if you’ve been feeling disorientation, recalibration, or even feeling a bit lost as new possibilities in your life begin emerging (from my experience, it feels kind of like a flip book), this retrograde motion from the 6 planets, including Mercury, may play a significant role!
How can it affect us?
Each planet has a unique theme, or archetypal pattern, that influences life on Earth. For example, Venus corresponds with the archetypes of romance and beauty, Mars with conflict and courage, Jupiter with prosperity and good fortune, Mercury with communication and truth…and so on. Normally, when a planet is in direct motion, we experience them assisting us with these archetypes. I like to think of us as apprentices learning from each planet as our expert mentors. However, when the planet enters apparent retrograde motion, the tables turn, and during that period, the planet no longer assists us with those energetic aspects of our lives. And it is we who become the teacher, practicing and applying what we’ve learned thus far from the planet.
What is the opportunity of Mercury Retrograde?
When Mercury Retrograde occurs, it’s common for communication, truth, finances, and travel – some of the primary archetypal energies that Mercury has dominion over – to go a bit haywire. Because Mercury is no longer steering the ship: We are!
Approached from a victimhood perspective, it can seem like a horrible time, affirming the suggestion by some websites that Mercury is up to no good and messing with you. Priority mail getting lost, sensitive emails being sent to the wrong recipient, unanticipated delays when signing contracts, credit cards getting frozen, surprise expenses, flights getting canceled, rocky relationship dynamics rising to the surface…not many people’s idea of fun.
But approached from an empowering perspective, Mercury Retrograde is illuminating the patterns of where communication and truth tend to break down in your life. It’s not that these problems and weaknesses weren’t there before – you just get to see and experience them more fully now. Which, in truth, is a gift. The mentor’s role is not to create codependency in you, but rather independence, so you can master these archetypal energies for yourself and, as a result, learn some of life’s most valuable lessons. And when any planet enters apparent retrograde motion, that is the opportunity they present.
So in the case of Mercury:
Where do assumptions and judgments tend to fill in the blanks?
Where does your communication come up short or fall out of balance or integrity?
Where do you jump straight into action without thinking it all the way through or planning it out?
Where do you allow opinions and “white lies” to substitute for truthfulness?
Where do you sacrifice thoroughness for productivity?
All good questions to reflect upon during Mercury Retrograde!
So what makes this final Mercury Retrograde of 2021 special?
Having just passed the Autumnal Equinox, we’re now experiencing the journey towards Winter in the Northern Hemisphere, with ever shortening days and lengthening nights. The emphasis is now shifting inwards, towards stillness, reflection, and exploring the world within. So with this Mercury Retrograde, we’re presented with the opportunity to focus on strengthening our communication with ourselves and healing and cleaning up the patterns and cycles that perpetuate negative self-talk, self-sabotage, and self-limiting beliefs and actions. Where do you always stop yourself and how can you change that story?
Additionally, and very importantly, we have entered into a New Paradigm on Earth: the paradigm of Divine Union! There are new energies now anchoring on the planet to serve Humanity in moving away from divisiveness and competition and towards unity and co-creation. There is a mending and healing that will now become possible to bridge the rift that has formed between masculine/God and feminine/Goddess energies and to correct the corruption of our understanding of what it means to be men and what it means to be women. And remember that each of us has both masculine and feminine energies within us. So this is not just about healing the wounding and the fighting between men and women, but also between men and men, between women and women, and how each of us may be at war within ourselves, suppressing our own expression of our own inner masculinity and femininity.
These energies of Divine Union are still new, so it will take time for them to build in strength to be perceived and acted upon by the collective. However, if you exercise discipline to quiet your mind, tame your ego, and allow yourself to tune in, even now you can begin to access these new expansive energies and start building them into the foundation of your life.
This Mercury Retrograde can assist us in accepting responsibility to move away from old patterns and choices that perpetuate division, judgment, and blame and move towards new possibilities and choices that empower togetherness, forgiveness, and compassion. The energies of the New Paradigm and Divine Union are here and have the potential to help us build a New Earth, but they won’t impact the planet nor Humanity without our free will to choose them. The power to shift the collective consciousness lies with us: Each of us influencing our own world within to contribute to change in the world without!
So from 9/27 through 10/17, don’t be surprised if you’re more frequently faced with choices, situations, and circumstances that highlight imbalances and conflict between masculinity and femininity, between the God and the Goddess, in your life.
This can manifest in a myriad of ways. Headlines accusing individuals of sexual abuse, coercion, and rape, particularly men. The discussion of toxic masculinity and toxic femininity on social media. Debates on gender, transgender, and non-binary identification. Gender inequality and discrimination in all levels of society…these may be more obvious. But then there are the less obvious manifestations. The compulsion and normative pressure to overwork and burn the candle at both ends, sacrificing sleep, self-care, rest, and healing. Placing undue emphasis on what’s on the surface and what others see and think and paying less attention to what’s happening below the surface and within your own mind, heart, and subconscious. The role of intuition and when you choose to listen, or not listen, and what happens as a result. Knowing when it’s more helpful to speak up and externally process and when it’s more helpful to keep it to yourself and process internally.
The masculine and feminine energies are meant to interact, to weave, and to spark creation.
Like Yin and Yang, they complete one another. So to believe that only one type of energy is needed, whether it be masculine or feminine, or even neither, is an illusion that blocks progression and the alchemy of life! For when both energies are in balance within us and in our relationships with others and our environment, we experience flow in our ability to manifest and create. When they’re out of balance, we’re more likely to experience plans and ambitions falling short.
So as you grow more aware of imbalances in masculine and feminine energies in your life, there is a choice of whether to perpetuate the imbalance – focusing on the strength and hiding the weakness – or to correct it by strengthening the weaker one to bring it into harmony with the one that is already strong. And remember that balance does not necessarily mean 50/50. There are certain situations that require more masculine, direct, outward energy and then there are other situations that require more feminine, containing, inward energy. So it’s about striking that dynamic balance that’s appropriate for facilitating creation.
Don’t get me wrong: It’s no small feat and absolutely easier said than done. But the take home point is that it IS possible! Possible in a way that it has never been before. And so this Mercury Retrograde carries with it the unprecedented opportunity for you to begin building the foundation to manifest this possibility – to experience Divine Union within you - and to contribute to making it so in the world at large. To check in with yourself thoroughly as we approach the darker months, to become more aware of the actual state of your world within and the relationship between your inner masculinity and femininity, and to make new choices that cultivate peace, forgiveness, and harmony within yourself that can then reflect into the outer world with greater light!
Because the strife, “canceling,” and needless warring we’re witnessing in the headlines, on social media, and in our everyday interactions is a symptom and repercussion of the war we’re waging within. The ways in which we devalue, judge, and disrespect ourselves and dampen the light of our own divinity and the ways in which we cancel, shut out, and hide parts of ourselves in shame and fear because we want to belong, we want to be loved, we want to fit in…we want to be enough.
But when we are not whole within, and we resist that union within us, then we cannot experience it in our external relationships. The true self cannot belong, cannot be wholly loved, and cannot fit in, because we are not presenting our true self. We are presenting a false self and the personality and the masks that comprise it. And it is through presenting our false, lower self as our true, higher self, this masquerade diminishes the pure power of union and togetherness in the collective consciousness. The feeling of not being enough will persist, because the false, lower self is not who you really are. It is a shadow to your true, Higher self and all the pure and powerful potential you carry within you.
And your shadow will never be enough, period.
So how can you rise to this challenge and embrace the opportunity of this particular Mercury Retrograde? Bearing in mind the energetic shift into Fall synergizing with the New Paradigm of Divine Union, here are four suggestions you may find useful:
1) 5 minutes of passive meditation to start the day and end the day.
Passive meditation helps you to become a detached observer to your thoughts. It’s the opposite of the monkey mind and racing thoughts that cause stress and anxiety because we’re clinging to our thoughts, judging them, and replaying them over and over again. In Max Meditation System™, we use the image of a river flowing through the mind to access passive meditation and help the mind to relax. Another way to access a more passive state of meditation is to simply focus on your breath and follow deep breaths in and out of your body. Practicing this for 5 minutes as bookends to your day can go a long way to decreasing stress, inner conflict, and self-judgment and increasing relaxation, inner peace, and self-acceptance – all energies that unify rather than divide.
2) Practicing daily affirmations.
Words have tremendous power and simple statements of affirmation can help counter negative self-talk and start to reprogram yourself away from disempowering inner dialogue and towards a more empowering relationship with yourself. Examples include: I am strong. I am love. I am patient. I am more than enough. I am capable. I am beautiful. I am abundant…and so on. The key here is to challenge yourself gently to begin countering beliefs that limit or block your higher self from shining through. So choosing affirmations that stretch you and beg the question, “Do I really believe this about myself?” is important. If it feels silly, or even preposterous, to say it out loud, then you’re on the right track towards growth and tapping into new possibilities!
3) Choosing response over reaction.
We often are unaware of when we fall into disempowering thought patterns that fuel victimhood and the belief that we have no control to shift our circumstances. But we always have control over how we perceive and choose to respond to the events of life. We don’t have to fall into our triggers and buttons and the cascade of emotions, thoughts, and reactions that follow – which is a huge drain on your vitality. In fact, this process of being triggered is a core aspect of what makes social media so addictive. The “high” of adrenaline and cortisol rushing into your bloodstream when strong emotions ignite the stress response of fight, flight, or freeze. The strong high is inevitably followed by a strong low, and thus, we seek the high to get out of the low, and the cycle continues. Alternatively, you can work towards observing the trigger, the button, the inflammatory circumstance and seeking the lesson, or lessons, to be learned. To step outside yourself and wonder, “Do I have another choice in how I respond to this that will lead to something good?” Practicing this will conserve your vitality to live with more ease and harmony, thus strengthening your free will to create more unity and togetherness within yourself and in relationship with others. The Energy Clearing or Shamanic Aura Cleanse are two modalities I offer that support breaking these kinds of patterns.
4) Be prepared for twists and turns that can show you a bigger picture.
The saying, “Expect the best but be prepared for the worst” is appropriate here. It’s more likely during Mercury Retrograde that plans may fall through and communication can be misheard or misinterpreted, which will test your patience and adaptability. So instead of being caught off guard and needing to scramble to find a solution, why not prepare yourself for the tests and challenges with a readiness to pivot, if needed, and an openness to seeing a bigger picture? To be clear, I am not saying to expect the worst and to therefore manifest it – not what I’m saying! What I am saying is to know that facing challenges to communication, truth, travel, relationships, and finances is the key to learning the lessons that Mercury is presenting to us. Also, sometimes our plans are diverted in order to help us release attachment to controlling our lives and tapping into serenity and surrender so we can get out of our small-mindedness. Not my will, but they Will, be done. So be ready to be flexible and go with what “is,” as opposed to what you expected or what was “supposed” to happen. What you discover may far surpass your expectations, uniting you with a greater understanding of how you fit into the grand scheme of things!
Whether you employ one of these suggestions or try a little bit of all of them, my hope is that they will serve you to have more flow, more creativity, and more joy on the adventure of life. Because Mercury Retrograde is an amazing opportunity, especially in this time, to:
Lean into the discovery of Divine Union and what it is
Strengthen your intuition and inner communication skills
Be more honest with yourself and to work on self-control
Minimize assumptions and sharpen perception
Imbue your thoughts, words, and deeds with more power to impact your life, and thus the world, for the better
Manifest more peace, love, and joy in your world
I would hate to see you miss out!
So until the next time, I invite you to debunk the drama associated with Mercury Retrograde and, instead, choose to shine a brighter light on the opportunity to grow more balanced, more clear, and more unified. There is a much bigger picture that is starting to come to light - Mercury Retrograde can serve you in sharpening your perceptions and cleaning out assumptions so you can discern the true importance of this time, and your mission, on Earth.
Have questions or seeking spiritual guidance in these rapidly changing times? Ready to book a 1-on-1 session to support your healing journey? Please reach out and let me know - I am here to serve. Let there be light and seize the day!
