Mercury Retrograde: Reflection on Endings

“The world in solemn stillness lay, to hear the angels sing.” Christmas Carole

In my Solstice/Full Moon newsletter, I wrote of 2023 as a year of major energy shifts which herald new beginnings. With the exception of Jupiter’s return to Aries on December 20th, however, we have a three-month period in which to focus on endings. How perfect that the Heavens bless us with a Mercury retrograde in which to reflect on those elements of our lives that are ready for release.

To make a good beginning, we need to take inventory. We have been through a challenging Rite of Passage in which our physical reality has revealed the disease, corruption and dysfunction in our society stemming from our limiting world view and our current stage of evolution in which consciousness has been dominated by ego.

We are in transition, both personally and collectively, to a higher state of consciousness in which we awaken from a paradigm of separation and realize, as science has already discovered and mystics have proclaimed for millennia, that we are One with All That Is. This emerging world view will transform our reality. This truth will be the bedrock of the Aquarian Age.

This Remarkable Mercury Retrograde

So that’s the big picture, but what does it have to do with our personal lives and where does Mercury fit it? Last August 21st Mars entered Gemini for an extended stay. He turned retrograde on Halloween at 25+ Gemini and at year’s end is slowing down and will turn direct on January 12th at 8+ degrees where he will hover, waiting for Mercury to turn direct exactly quincunx Mars from 8 degrees of Capricorn.

Gemini is one of Mercury’s domains where he moves freely through Air, loading up with information, generating new ideas about our manifested duality. Gemini is the sign of the Twins, symbolic of our dual nature and its reflection in the outer world. During this time we had a mid-term election, the political battle between warring factions in our society. We observed Russia brutally attacking the infrastructure and innocent children of Ukraine. We witnessed the alarming rise of fascist malignancy which has now joined forces with a faction of Christianity to bring God onto their side. And most recently have seen our nation paralyzed by freezing temperatures and ravaging storms which ruined the holidays for so many as their flights were cancelled, or worse – Christmas in an airport. Many ate cold dinners in the dark, huddled together for warmth. Some of us even died of hypothermia.

We witnessed the heavens raging here in Oregon as 100 mph gusts ripped tiles off roofs and drove rain through tiny cracks in our walls and window frames. And we were the lucky ones this holiday season. Many got a huge dose of frustration. The airlines were scrambling to accommodate disgruntled passengers, emergency workers were trying to rescue people trapped in their cars, or dying in their freezing homes. Frantic times! I shudder to think of the impact on our suffering homeless.

Lots here to think about. Mercury is about thinking and Mars is activating Gemini, bombarding us with information and demanding our courage and resilience. When Mercury turns retrograde, we take a pause. We’ve had four months of input. Now it’s time to digest. We don’t just keep eating our food. Our bodies need periods of rest to process and harvest the nutritional value. And so it is with our minds. We don’t need more input at this time. We need to rest and process.

Processing

We all talk about processing, but in my experience, many don’t really know how to do it. So forgive me, you sages, for a small tutorial in case there are some of us who would like some guidance.

Processing begins with observation. Self-awareness. We take a look at our lives, or focus on one specific issue. What is causing me stress? There’s the first clue. Our natural state, believe it or not, is joy. Life could be a constant celebration and expression of gratitude. So what stands in the way of that?

We can think of Mercury retrograde as a quest. We seek the truth, the courage to make changes, the clarity about what we really want. This brings in the second key to processing. We’ve looked life in the eye, we see clearly, we’ve thoughtfully digested our feast, now we ask, “How do I feel about it?”

Our feelings are lodged in our bodies just waiting to be discovered and to release their wisdom. This is where it might get scary. We are afraid to feel our pain, our fear, our grief, our disappointment, our loneliness, our failure. But this is where the treasure lies. Lean on Mars for courage, receive Faith from Jupiter at the threshold of Aries about to take us on a wild adventure for the next five months.

If we can summon the grit to feel our feelings – all of them – as deeply as we can bear – the deeper we go, the more subtle layers of truth begin to emerge. Our assumptions begin to fall away and we see ourselves and our lives in a new light. We reclaim part of our wholeness. We are released from misconception. Truly this is an exquisite process, a peeling of the onion, layer by layer. And I ask you to trust me on this, once all the layers of illusion fall away, what resides is our essence – our joyous, loving, compassionate, grateful, glorious selves. It is this state of consciousness, this high frequency of vibration, that will open up new options, new worlds.

The final stage of process is to ground it. We have journeyed through Air, thinking and reflecting. We have faced the turbulent waters of our emotions. We have discovered the light and fire within. And now we need to bring it into our physical reality. This moves us into manifesting. We’ll talk more about that next year.

My personal favorite way to ground is to journal or write to you. Journals are particularly valuable when processing. We tend to get into circular thinking and can’t break out of the loop. But when we put it on paper, we can discern themes, repetitive thinking, recurring emotional defenses/reactions. The written page is a mirror in which to examine more closely the inner workings of our psyche.

Someone said to me that they don’t journal because they never go back and read them, so why bother. That idea stems from a belief that a journal is a history or chronicle. Like literally everything else, writing is a process, not a product. It is the action (Mars) of writing that integrates new truths, insights and vision into our body where it becomes wisdom.

Our ancestors worked their magic through their relationship with the Earth. They didn’t sit on the couch and wish and hope and dream. The did ritual. They purified the Air, offered gifts, shared a reality with the consciousness of Earth. We look at it now and judge it primitive, but they had a wisdom we have lost. There is power in action, in ritual, in honoring the Earth with gratitude. It wasn’t superstition. It was connection – to Earth as a manifestation of Spirit. They worked together with the consciousness of nature and the unseen Reality behind our illusion.

So there’s another way to ground. And I recommend devotion. It is a self-generating source of growing awareness. We can get lost in our thoughts, our routines, our habits. We can place objects around the house that remind us of the sanctity of life. A plant, a geode, a fountain, an altar with objects that are sacred to us.

And candlelight. We’re so proud of our modern electricity, but there is no more supportive atmosphere than candlelight in a dark room. A womb for thought and the flame of Spirit. Amazing what insights flow forth.

On another level, we can clear out the clutter in our homes, our closets, the junk we store in the garage. I’m cleaning and organizing my studio after 15 years of projects. I want a clean slate as I shake off the dust of 2022.

One final thought about processing. This is a heightened time for dreaming. In the last two nights I have had several revelatory dreams and I actually found the commitment to get up and write them down. It disrupted my sleep, but when I went back to bed, I got another amazing dream.

Conclusion

On the moment of Mercury’s station today, he was holding hands with Venus at the same degree. Mercury represents our mental realm. Venus is about pleasure and desire and this is part of our quest – What do we really want?

Synchronistically, the Moon is at 29 degrees of Pisces within a couple hours of joining Jupiter, telling us to feel our way to faith and receive it. It’s a perfect symbol for the theme of endings and beginnings, letting go of the past and stepping into the light of the future. Mercury retrograde opens a path into our depths. It calls for stillness and silence. Find a way to cultivate all of that. It’s a gift from the Solar System.

The quincunx I mentioned between Mercury and Mars, by the way, represents a challenge which we can ignore or act upon. It requires the very inner work I have outlined. Capricorn is an Earth sign. Gemini an Air sign. It tells us to take a second look at things, and maybe a third or fourth. This review will prepare us for the winds of March, bringing fresh air. Now is the time to leave behind old baggage, to develop a new relationship with ourselves, find our passion and release all the limitations of our programming. The New World can only be built by the New Human.

I didn’t expect to write another newsletter before the New Year, but I was prompted to share all of this information with you. By the way, Chiron turned direct on the 23rd of December, moving forward the themes of wounding and healing. It too is in Aries awaiting the arrival of Jupiter on March 11th. Amazing potential for healing. The energy is building now. What wound is festering? Time to shift the dynamic.

Mercury goes retrograde on Dec. 29th. Pluto makes its final return and launches our country into new territory as he heads for his entrance into Aquarius on March 23rd. Mars turns direct on January 12th, Mercury on the 18th, Uranus on the 22nd. The pace will quicken. So give yourself the gift of this retreat to listen to the angels sing and harvest the wisdom you have gained.

Wishing you all the happiest of New Years!