Mercury Rx, Neptune, Ceres: Letting your fantasies feed you

Mercury stations retrograde in Pisces today at 4:43 pm EST. It will continue its apparent retrograde motion until Feb. 28, where it will station direct in Aquarius. But for now, it is in the creative, watery sign Pisces, brushing up against Neptune and stirring our psyches in interesting ways.

Eric has described Neptune as “what many people feel but don’t have words for.”

Conjunct Mercury, this can include everything from unexpected daydreams and fantasies (and an attachment to them), to fuzzy intuitive tugs, to psychic intrusion by another person (or entity), to untapped or unconsciously used psychic abilities.

That’s quite a range of experiences, and with Mercury in the process of stationing retrograde, there could be some static on the line, mixed signals or increased sensitivity.

However, Mercury is also stationing trine Ceres — which, among other themes, is strongly associated with the idea of nourishment and food, both literal and otherwise. In Scorpio, Ceres brings out the nourishing side of sex and deep transformation. Trine Mercury and Neptune in Pisces, using sexual fantasy as a source of deep self-nourishment is a strong theme.

Not everyone takes sexual fantasy on the level of nourishment or healing; in fact, often it gets twisted into the realm of ‘exploitation’, unrealistic expectations and projection, as with much of porn. That is not to say that porn cannot be used in a therapeutic or enriching way, just that many people do not consciously take it there.

Fantasy can be threatening, too; both to the person having one (Oh my god — is that what I want? But I’m a good girl/boy! And that idea is so dirty/scary/dangerous/wrong!), and to that person’s partner. Plenty of people are threatened by the idea of their partner thinking of other people in sexual ways. It’s almost cliché to get upset if you find out your partner is imagining sex with someone else while having sex with you.

Fantasy has an element of true anarchy. Anything can happen there. You’re not bound by the rules of your relationship, the rules of physics, the rules of biology, morals, ethics or any other aspect of reality. Not everyone is comfortable with the places their imagination is capable of going, and organized religion has often tried to shame people out of any attempts to try.

But what happens if you allow that anarchy to show you the freakiest corners of your psyche? There’s a lot of talk about how we have to love all parts of ourselves, including our shadow and the places where we have been hurt. ‘All of ourselves’ includes our ability to fantasize about anything at all, including things that scare us, and to get off on them.

When we can appreciate those freaky parts of ourselves and truly love them viscerally by allowing ourselves pleasure through them, the door opens to embrace the fantasies of others. That doesn’t mean agreeing to playing out a partner’s fantasy if you’re not comfortable, but rather accepting that they have an inner life that is all their own, that at times has nothing whatsoever to do with you, and that may sometimes startle them as much as yours surprises you.

Those surprises can open doors and feed you, if you let them.

Oh — and if you’re not boycotting watching the Olympic games in Sochi because of Russia’s anti-homosexual laws, the finely conditioned physiques and winning smiles of the athletes could proved some great inspiration for those fantasies over the next couple weeks. Hopefully, the athletes are experiencing better travel luck than the press corps have encountered so far with their accommodations. Mercury, after all, is the Trickster.