Mercury stationed direct Sunday at 4:03 pm EDT in early Pisces. It’s been a fascinating Mercury retrograde: for some, it’s been easier than most and for others it has been emotionally wrenching; many have found its introspective potential to be richly rewarding, while others have felt too distracted by externals to really dive deep. Have you come to any profound insights about yourself, or are you hoping they’ll surface as Mercury moves forward through the section of Pisces where it was retrograde?
I know I’m not the only one whose dreams have been rich and varied (if often inscrutable), especially as Mercury has neared Neptune, and for whom the two storm phases (the days just before it stationed retrograde, and again these past few days) have held the greatest concentration of classic Mercury Rx shenanigans: mixed messages, wrong phone numbers, computer issues, unexpected detours and fool’s errands (preventable, had a phone call been made).
Here’s the important thing to remember: Mercury takes some time in getting back up to its usual speed after it stations direct, and so should you. Visualize a large ship pulling into a dock. It has been moving forward and its inertia would smash it into the dock if the captain did not reverse the engines to slow it down.
That’s rather like Mercury stationing direct and then beginning its apparent forward motion again, especially in Pisces. The water churns as it stops, and continues to churn to move it in the opposite direction. We experience the metaphorical churning as all these things that go wrong — things that might be preventable if we’re moving at a slower speed to begin with (or that hide a lesson if we’re open to learning it).
Bottom line: it will take a few days for the water to calm down again, so plot your forward movements carefully, continue to practice heightened awareness and listen to the little voice telling you to double-check something. The days immediately after the station count as part of the ‘storm’ phase, so easy does it. Despite Mars in Aries urging us to get on with it already as we approach the equinox (Sun’s ingress of Aries) on Wednesday, it’s still not the best time to push plans and big decisions (or the river) forward.
In fact, Mercury will not leave the degrees where it has been retrograde in Pisces until April 6, making these next three weeks prime time to listen for echoes of insights that have floated (or flooded) into consciousness during the retrograde. This time around, you might feel less overwhelmed (if that has been your experience) and more informed or empowered by the ideas and reflections, or more clear on what your next steps need to be if this has been a creative or spiritually fertile retrograde for you.
Bear in mind also that Mercury is spending some time hanging out between Neptune and Chiron. As it moves from its near-miss conjunction with Neptune to another exact conjunction with Chiron, you may experience a sense of gradual awakening followed by a more sudden one. Concealed information may yet show itself in these days; be mindful of factors you have not been considering.
As mentioned, the preponderance of planets in Pisces and Aries is creating real tension between the ‘easy does it’ and ‘get going already!’ urges. And even though the moment of Mercury’s station was yesterday, there’s another factor related to that event that could play out today.
At the moment of the Mercury station (the change in directions), the Moon was in Gemini conjunct Jupiter (the traditional ruler of Pisces). This offers additional emphasis on Pisces from another angle. It’s about the relationship between mind and intuition, or between reason and creative process. So the Mercury-Neptune conjunction is directly connected to the Moon-Jupiter conjunction, making for a potent moment precipitating events today. What you do this day can have real leverage.
Finally, as noted, the Sun enters Aries Wednesday, March 20 at 7:02 am EDT. Known in the Northern Hemisphere as the vernal equinox, it’s the first day of spring for those who have been experiencing winter. The first day of solar Aries comes in the middle this week when day and night are of equal length. It’s a tipping point and a time to gather momentum — though as noted, it’s best to begin that momentum-building gradually. We’re building toward a pair of truly potent Mars aspects as the week progresses, which we’ll cover in the next Daily Astrology and Planet Waves FM installments.
Maeve,
Another of the HPA dyfunctional here – but healing.
In addition to the excellent recommendation of STTM book and website, there are yahoo forums for Natural Thyroid (the list Janie started), NTH Adrenals, T3CM (one method of healing adrenals), end the thyroid madness, Iodine and Iodine OT lists.
It may take awhile to absorb and mentally (and physically) file pertinent info, but there IS help out there. There are several protocols which can help, some of which can work together, others not so much, and as I’ve found, it’s good to be willing to go outside even their *usual* boxes to find answers, when nothing else seems to work to solve a particular issue. btdt.
I saw mention of seaweed – I wouldn’t necessarily take seaweed/kelp. Our oceans are not in the best of shape to be looking there for iodine support. There are much safer and more consistent sources, which do not also supply us with bromides and toxins, which we’d just need to detox back out.
And, of course, listen to your intuition. Even before I had adrenal, thyroid and hypothalamus issues, something always kept me from taking the bottle of kelp I bought years ago. It’s really a good thing I didn’t take it.
Just as I knew my daughter’s PCOS and MAV (migraine associated vertigo) were both from low progesterone/high estrogen. The PCOS was ignored by many doctors, as being I guess in her head – they could see nothing to confirm it. The MAV had her losing her job, as she could hardly move her head, never mind drive or use the computer. Doctors, being just walking drug encyclopedias, gave her Topomax, which massively dec’d her appetite – she lost too much wt.
We got her weaned off, while inc’g her progesterone cream doses and taking DIM for her estrogen. She’s now back at work and doing much better.
HTH some.
Dawn
Yes fascinating retro mercury in fish, I have experienced unforgettable events… Thanks Planet Waves for your article 😉
Maeve,
First of all, I sympathize with the thyroid difficulties. Having been there, low thyroid and all its associated dysfunctions are hellish. I wish you the very best. Another resource I’d recommend, one I relied on heavily, is “Stop the Thyroid Madness” by Janie Bowthorpe. She also has a website with all of the info from the book, so you can check it out before buying to see if her style fits you. It’s less academic, but verrry useful info. In my very limited experience, once a major hormone system gets off kilter, the others struggle for balance. Be gentle with yourself, the answers are out there if you insist on finding them. Hugs!!!
Now why did I call you mauve….lol
Hi mauve ,
Careful with fluoride toothpaste aaaaand wear cotton t shirts but first remove the label at the back of the neck . Cotton labels are fine anything else a bummer. Keep up with conventional treatments but hopefully the above will give things a bit more of a chance to work x
lionesswimmer – Thanks. I’ll check it out. I do already do a modified diet… no gluten, low carb, low soy, low corn, no dairy (okay, very occassionally, but I do some non-cow juice dairy in small amounts (sheep’s milk romano on gf pasta, etc.), alcohol maybe a few times a year, low sugar, very low processed sugar, no HCFS, no coffee…
Hopefully the blood tests should reveal _something_, at least. I never really saw the doctor when I was growing up, so I have no younger/baseline blood tests results, so it’s pretty much going from here. Well, I had tonsilitis a lot when I was about 8-10 years old, finally got my tonsils out when I was 10, then started getting strep throat until I was about 18.
Lots of lost (and some found) keys, earrings; pocket-phonecalls; and vivid dreams–amongst my friends, acquaintances and me. Many broken wrists, arms, hands, a few ribs, amongst members of my spiritual community. Many of the more left-brained, normally- linear folks around me are having epiphanies about how they aren’t thinking “as clearly” or “as rationally” as usual, and it’s throwing them for a loop. They report having to surrender to “this different way of thinking” (what they mean is, “perceiving”), or to “intuition.” As for me, I’m used to it (I have Pisces on the cusp of the 3rd, Mercury in Sag., Moon in Virgo in the 9th, Mars in Saj. in the 12th, Neptune conj. Jupiter in the 11th). Am also going through a spiritual rebirth, thank the gods and goddesses; strengthening direct relationship with Spirit, for guidance, ease, grace, passion, life!
Maeve, I highly recommend the book, *Why do I Still Have Thyroid Symptoms?,* by Datis Kharrazian, DHSc, DC, MS. It discusses intricacies of thyroid conditions, about which most endocrinologists are still clueless. Specifically, it explains various thyroid markers, beyond merely TSH and T3-T4; plus, it gives functional blood ranges (ranges that assess disease risk before disease develops) vs. pathological (standard medical model) ranges. Importantly, the book also elucidates Hashimoto’s (autoimmune thyroid), wherein blood ranges can wildly fluctuate between hypo- and hyper-thyroid. This is a very tricky condition, in which blanket remedies such as seaweed ingestion need to be carefully monitored and sometimes avoided. Of course, avoiding gluten, sugar, queso-morphines (a la, cheese), coffee, alcohol, etc., is also important (a work-in-progress, for me).
Best to you, and all.
Thinky thinky (long comment incoming).
I feel a little conflicted.
I’ve had SO much stuff going on these last few weeks.
Two of the biggest themes – health and career.
As far as career goes, I was informed that my contract will not be renewed at the end of April, because my job is not a contract position (the need for this work never ends), so the big big boss said they had to either hire me on FTE or subcontract out the work. Due to headcount, budget, whatever, they’re subcontracting out the work. My boss, fabulous woman that she is, tried to secure me a job at the place where they’ll be subcontracting out the work. From the beginning, however, I had not the warm fuzzies about this place. Turns out most of my instincts were right. It’s a page-per-minute kind of place, where I would get no PTO, no autonomy, no choice in what I work on (with the exception of twice a year where I would theoretically work on the books I currently work on), no guarantee of hours… the only real benefit is that I’d get to work from home, and that it would be close to a sure bet that I’d get the job. I’d been struggling with saying no… I mean, it was nearly handed to me on a silver platter, but it just didn’t feel right. Plus, they wouldn’t even give me a wage range… they said I had to take their two hour writing assessment and then go through their entire interview process before they would give me a number.
One good thread through this is my boss. She has been very adamant that I make the decision that’s best for _me_. Not think about the company, or her, or anything, but that I make the decision for me. She has really helped to give me space, to do good for myself, which is something I’ve never had at a job.
Meanwhile, I had applied for anoter position that just “happened” to come up right around this time, where my husband works, for a rare FTE tech writer position. Due to technical difficulties and lack of clear instructions, I couldn’t submit the online application. But my husband spoke with my new boss (okay, really, soon to be, but I’m thinking Positively here), who requested my resume from him directly, and spoke to recruitment on my behalf who sent me an unsolicted (by me) email, offering help. So I got to speak with recruitment weeks earlier than I would have normally. And she now knew who I was.
Last Friday, after struggling with decisions, I end up emailing back and forth with the sales droid at the outsourcing company. She emails me and the first thing I read is “How you are?” Really, at a technical documentation solutions company, and you flub that up? Then she asks if we can chat on the phone (when I’ve specifically told them, repeatedly, that email is best for me). I told her I’d just sat down to lunch, but she could call me in half an hour. She says, well, I have a call at that time, but I’ll call you right after, and can you please confirm the phone number to call? I confirm it. Time passes. In fact, 1.5 hours beyond her call time passes, and my phone doesn’t buzz. She finally emails me back and she says that she called me and left a voice mail. It turns out I accidentally gave her the wrong phone number. Which was my final clue that I really didn’t need to go that route. I haven’t told boss-people, but I know.
Later that day, the recruiter from my husband’s company calls me and asks me when could I start… well, if I get the position, and how much do I want in compensation? I asked for the middle of the pay range (which I found out from my husband), which she said sounded great. I expect to be called back for an interview this week, I hope. I definitely saw the link between finally deciding to not go with the outsourcing company, and getting the call for the other job.
In the mean time, I need to tell my boss, and the outsourcing company, that I am… declining their offer. Which they haven’t even made. That I’m choosing to go elsewhere. But with the recommendations in this post to chill out…I don’t know if I should. Except the bosses are expecting me to tell them my decision. Sigh.
So here I am, a technical writer (hello Mercury!) trying to make big decisions and changes, about my writing career, just as Mercury stations direct, in the storm. Meep.
On top of that, things haven’t been fabulous health-wise. At a timely urging from a friend, I called to make an appointment with my girly doctor. I’ve still been having pain (after surgery to remove a large ovarian cyst that turned out to be an endometrioma, as well as that ovary), so I wanted to make sure everything was okay. My surgery was on November 26th, the day Mercury stationed direct during the last Mercury Retrograde. My cycles have been very short since surgery (18-20 days), and my acupuncturist is very curious as to what my hormones are doing (as well as thyroid, but I’ll get to that). I’ve been charting my temperatures (BMT/BBT) to see how my cycle fluctuates. My gyn seems to be of the opinion that if I’m not trying to get pregnant, then my hormones aren’t horribly important (as if you don’t need to have good fertility if you’re not trying to spawn. Piff.). Well, she’s testing them anyway. My acupuncturist also suspects I may be hypothyroid, which would explain A LOT. So, blood draw last week. Ultrasound last week revealed I have two cysts in my left ovary (one simple at 3.5 cm, and one complex at 2 cm). I have had cysts on the left side before (at those sizes), and they come and go. The big news for me is that my gyn seems to think I have endometriosis. I use “think” because as far as I know, I haven’t been diagnosed with it. But it’s scaring the hell out of me. After surgery, she said surgery went great, it was quick, you had just a few adhesions (from the cyst to my bowel and ureter). When I saw her last week, she said surgery was complicated, it was “a mess in there”, and there was a lot of dissection required. And she wanted to just up and put me on progesterone. Because that’s what you do for endometriosis. And short cycles.
I have my follow up tomorrow, where we’ll discuss the ultrasound and my blood test results. I got all my hormones tested (except for some I have to do at a certain period of time) and my thyroid. I have been doing a lot of research about thyroid tests and have discovered there are… disagreements with where the normal limits are. I don’t know what my actual results have been, I just know that I’ve been told they’re normal. So I will see what they actually are tomorrow. I have also requested copies of the labwork so I have the numbers myself. Did I mention that my new acupuncturist happens to specialize in fertility and has thyroid issues herself? Sigh.
Being potentially diagnosed with endometriosis scares the hell out of me. Here, you have this disease/condition that we don’t know why it happens, we don’t really know how to fix it, and there’s not a lot we can do about it. Good luck! I’m scared that I might be in pain for the rest of my life and I’ll just have to suffer through it. I’ve done so much work in the last few years on realigning my emotions and my physical self (which were awfully twisted up) and I pay more attention to my body and I act when I feel things (which isn’t all the time still, but I’m still learning the signs). The idea that I might be in constant pain for the rest of my life is… terrifying, really. I’ve been in pain most of my life, granted. And I know it fades. But I’ve become such an advocate for myself, largely to get myself out of pain, that the idea that I might “just have to live with it” is… so amazingly overwhelming.
I know, on one hand, it is what it is. Having something have a name doesn’t necessarily change what it is, but it feels … I don’t know, somehow less hopeful if it’s given a name of something that’s not well treated, possibly lifelong, and usually painful.
I know, somewhere, probably Len talked about how this Mercury Retrograde relates to the last one, but as typical for retrogrades, I don’t know what post it was or where it was (anyone? Bueller?).
Whatever advice people have, I’m happy to hear. I’m also fighting off a cold, so my body is a little depressed so my mind is racing, which generally doesn’t bode well for me. I need the balance. I seem to be running a rare fever, to boot. So all of all of this, plus a cold. I just wanna sleep with my kitties.
Thank you !