This morning, May 7, 2009, at 1:00 AM EDT, Mercury, that planet of mischief and the mind, started going backwards again! Of course, the planet is not really going backwards – but that’s the way it looks to us from our little spinning globe, and – well – perception is absolutely everything! Mercury remains retrograde until May 30 – three weeks.

I know so many of you are at the end of a school year, whether it’s your personal school year or whether you’re a parent. Some of you are even graduating – finally able to hold in your hand the fruits of your labor, hard work and ambition. Some of you are getting married – or you’re helping a bride or groom who is. Kudos to you! This is always an incredibly busy time of year, and it’s hard to slow down and find moments of peace and reflection. Yet, let me suggest that you really try. No. Just do it. Consciously move with the “one-step forward, two-steps back” gift of this new Mercury Retrograde in Gemini and Taurus, and create space for introspection and reflection despite your hectic schedule. If you do, and you know this is true, it all won’t seem quite so hectic, and the end result of all your plans will be a little sweeter.

So far as I have been able to discern over the years, the best way to greet Mercury Retrograde is with surrender, and of bit of stroking. Take a moment each day over the next 3 weeks whether in a ritual, during your meditation, while you’re walking or taking a shower, or simply when you have a moment alone to take a deep breath, and say “Thank You”.  Thank you opens so many more opportunities,  and inspires a beautiful shift in attitude. If you simply say “Oh no! Mercury Retrograde again!” you really don’t get that sweet shift and that ephemeral portal to possibility stays firmly shut.  The “Thank You” is for the chance to rest – the often overlooked Mercury Retrograde opportunity to set aside the churning and demands of life, just for a few minutes every day if that’s all you can manage. My advice here is to create the space to slow down a few moments each day – or it will be created for you. Savvy? Move with the flow of energy, rather than fighting against it. And in that pause that you consciously create, reflect on your life and the way you communicate that life to others.  Let me just say that again – reflect on the way you communicate with others. No kidding.

Think about that for a minute. Do you communicate in a way that effectively and compassionately confirms understanding of your meanings and intentions? I won’t list all of the other ways to communicate here – but you know them all by now, and many of them are far less than effective and certainly far less empathetic than communicating compassionately. The fact that Mercury is retrograde in it’s own sign of Gemini, the sign of communication and the mind, underlines our assured energetic focus on the mental processes, communication and transportation (See my Mercury Retrogade article for a complete understanding of this.)  But on the 14th of May, Mercury moves back into Taurus, the sign of the body, the earth, pleasure, business, practicality, and money.

Another opportunity for a further shift of focus. After the 14th reflect on your body. Reflect and re-instruct yourself in pleasure. Look at the business of your life and your finances and and restructure whatever isn’t working. Re-connect with the Earth. (Re-read the previous post on the “New Moon in Taurus – Body Connect” to get your physicality flowing.) Don’t spend unnecessarily – but on what brings simple pleasures that feed the Soul. Reconnect with beauty. And even, based on the sextile between Mercury and Venus over the next few days, do something physically demanding – sweat, get hot, feel the muscles flex in your body. Push yourself physically and reap the rewards of that. Trigger those endorphins of pleasure to secrete in your brain, and then relax with a smile. These things won’t take long – and you’ll certainly be working with Mercury, rather than against him. You really don’t want to work against Mercury – that’s when you experience all the negatives that people fear with Mercury Retrograde!

This energy certainly affects everyone, however if you have points, angles and planets in any of the following signs, this is an especially important retrograde for you and you really should try to follow the above advice: Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, Pisces, Taurus, Leo, Scorpio and Aquarius. If you don’t know your points, angles and planets, then send me an email.

I’ll end here with some words from the great master, Leonardo da Vinci:

Every now and then go away,

have a little rest and relaxation,

for when you come back to your work

your judgment will be surer;

since to remain constantly at work

will cause you to lose power of judgment…

Go some distance away

because the work appears smaller

and more of it can be taken in at a glance,

and a lack of harmony or proportion

is more readily seen. 

~Leonardo da Vinci