Begin Again, as Mercury Retrograde Completes
Since April 9, the planet Mercury has been retracing its steps…as have we.
During this Mercury Retrograde period, we've likely seen how going slow, taking pause, being reflective, and re-visiting territory already covered seemed to be not only the path of least resistance but also one that yielded a bounty of awareness.
It's actually been a multi-month period of going slow, given that this Mercury Retrograde came on the heels of Venus Retrograde, which began March 4, and continued through April 15. During this time, we re-evaluated what we value, what truly had worth, that which mirrored back to us pleasure and beauty and a sense of grace.
As such, since early March, the invitation of the kairos has been to turn back, turn in, and revisit territory already covered. All of this has been in honor of more solidly and integrally moving forward when the time was right, after we clarified things through re-examining what occurred before, in the past.
It may have been a time when we had to have a lot of patience, to sit with things, to mull over things, to let things stew...until the time that we felt that we were connecting to the feeling that the winds were shifting and it was time to take that newfound awareness out into the world again.
We are on the verge of that moment, as Mercury will complete its retrograde cycle today on May 3 (at 9:33 am PDT).
Yet before the full forward march begins, there's a time of great stillness, notably around the days when Mercury changes directions.
When it is doing so—as it approaches or ends its retrograde cycle—a planet, such as Mercury, seems to move very slow, at times seeming to be stationary against the celestial canvas. We call this a planetary station. When this occurs, it seems as if the realms that are associated with that planet become concentrated and highly noticeable. So this week, which encompasses the Mercury station, you may very well find that Mercury arenas—communications, messaging, dialogues, transport, bridging, et al.—are quite loud in the personal and collective conscious.
It could possibly feel like a dam is opening and there's a vast flood of information/thoughts/ideas being galvanized. Go slow, like Mercury—see what happens if you stay still (or relatively still), how you receive and process facts, figures, and inputs in a more peaceful and generative way. Connect to a quiet space within so as to be able to not feel overwhelmed, and to help yourself digest and synthesize all that is emerging.
After today, you may find that the natural flow is to move forward again. Yet, remember that it's not that we just had a multi-week time-out for nothing; it was inexorably valuable for our progress.
Reflecting this, I want to share a Mercury Retrograde axiom I recently discovered—Research before Resetting—that was generated in a dialogue with my dear client RAF. (In a very Mercury Retrograde fashion, this axiom came to life through misspellings, IPhone autocorrects, and misinterpretation—a lesson: sometimes the retrograde miscommunications can hold gorgeous value.)
Consider how the past several weeks the revisiting of territories previously covered was actually research necessary for a new phase upon which you are embarking, and how this research will actually have been vital so that you can reset—start something new, deeply embody a new phase of creativity and initiation. Consider how without doing that—without researching and re-searching—you may have continued on the path you were on, and yet something may have been missing—some realization, some fact, some awareness that would have kept you from integrally creating anew. Yet with following the lead of the retrograde's "research" orientation, we can "reset" with more foundation as Mercury, and we, begin to re-orient toward the horizon that resides in front of us.
As Mercury resumes its direct motion, consider how its three-week retrograde period—and the retrograde cycle of Venus before it—have offered you foundation-supporting and validity-strengthening awareness that is etching more confidence in how you now choose to pursue a new path in your life.