I can only say, there we have been: but I cannot say where. And I cannot say, how long, for that is to place it in time.
— T.S. Eliot
Mercury enters Taurus shortly after midnight EDT on Wednesday morning. It will be an occasion to note. Normally, the innermost planet sprints through a sign in about two weeks, but Mercury has been nowhere but back and forth between the emotional deep blue sea of Pisces and the wild intuitive of fiery Aries ever since Valentine’s Day. You may have found yourself similarly confined over the last three months or so, at least in your thinking. If that is your case, you can look forward to a chance to change your pace, taking your thoughts to a new place, mentally fixing on a different space.
Mercury’s movements most often correspond to those of your mind and its means. Mercury’s ingress to the fixed earth of Taurus will afford a symbolic opportunity to enter a new mental space at long last, a space where you can find yourself through values again, and just in time.
You may perceive yourself to be just confined in time, seemingly hostage to its single direction and unrelenting momentum. You are told that time waits for no one, even that it is the equivalent of money. Occasionally, however, you can get a clue from your own experience that Einstein was correct to conclude that time and space are equivalent. That experience is the mental space of Mercury in Taurus.
You know from your own experience that the apparent pace of time will vary depending on what you are doing and how you feel about it. That experience is a valuable clue which unfortunately is discounted by clocks, the artificial striation of Earth into time zones, and the perception of planets as part of a mechanism. It is difficult to release attachment to such deep conditioning, so deep that you identify with it as though it were life itself, but that is precisely what this particular ingress of Mercury to Taurus is asking you to do. It begins with finding the mental space where your values are alive, well, and as real as your hand in front of your face.
When you are doing something of value to your being, instead of working to the satisfaction of another, a great discovery takes place, and is often lost. Some call it losing track of time. Hours may rush by in what seems like minutes. Alternatively, a brief moment will expand to accommodate eternity. In any and all of those cases, the experience is not an illusion to be dismissed, nor is it something mysterious happening to you. It is reality, a phenomenon of your creation, a simple case of your mind taking possession of time just like your body takes possession of a space. It is the ultimate and most vital occupy movement, also the most deeply feared by those who would enslave and mine your life for their gain.
For what would happen to the masters of war and the one percent if you were to realize your power? Your body can be evicted from a space on the sidewalk by tear gas and a strong arm, but no force on Earth can remove you from the mental space you occupy when the nature of time changes in response to you rather than the other way around. The challenge is to do it consciously, and a challenge it is because you must create the circumstances to let it happen rather than attempt to make it happen. Those circumstances, however, are not unnatural.
The energy field of Taurus is the value of life itself, life in the body. It is as natural for you to be attracted to that simple value through the grace of your senses as it is for your body to be attracted to Earth by gravity. Yet, in both cases, the easy natural attraction makes it just as easy to take profound potentials for granted.
By the same token, we often take Mercury’s typically brief time in Taurus for granted by confining our thoughts to pragmatic desire, looking past potential with a mind narrowed to practical considerations that are encouraged as a virtue. Now that Mercury’s visit to Taurus has been so long deferred, however, you may feel a hunger to do something more than exchange one form of confined thinking for another. If your are indeed fortunate enough to be aware of such a hunger, the next two weeks will provide an opportunity for release provided you are able to do a little releasing yourself.
If you can release any attachment to expectation, you can open the possibility of unexpected results. If you can let go of perceived partitions, you can discover an evident unity. If you refuse to surrender the values you were born to appreciate, you could find yourself empowered beyond what you have dared to imagine. Most of all, if you can bring yourself to believe the simple truth of your own experience in the body, the lies which have confined your mind will be revealed for what they are, and they are most definitely not you.
What astrology reveals is that we are on the threshold of a period that will test all of us together at the same time. Those trials will, for many, be characterized by confusion and rapid change, confounding any attempt to simply cope. Making the best of Mercury’s tour through Taurus over the next few weeks will give you a chance to be among the exceptional who can literally rise to the occasion and encounter events from a mental space where this time, time is your own.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Ah, Len…Lyrical Len with his gifted, silver pen. (Well, maybe keyboard and nimble fingers…)
This essay is among your very, very best – cogent, wise, with excess cut away with laser like precision, leaving just the two dimensions to consider: time and space. Often my “time trap” and mental space don’t afford me an opportunity to read your posts until the next morning, when my time and space have been stripped of the excesses of the previous day. What a gift this morning (after yesterday spent with a 100 degree plus fever) to read this and be emboldened to be present in time and space, the now. Thank you. Thank you.
And thank you for the T. S. Eliot quote (my favorite poet) and to the rest with the other great quotes. Here something from “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock”:
“And indeed there will be time
To wonder, ‘Do I dare?’ and ‘Do I dare?’
. . . .
Do I dare
Disturb the universe?
In a minute there is time
For decisions and revisions which a minute will reverse.:
JannKinz
@Len
It is much better after a night’s sleep, this is my small reflection which is after my last article on Venus in parking lot that I have circulated widely in groups on facebook and thank you for being my faithful admirer wow
[Everyone does not live in the same way and will depend on its map of the sky of birth. for the moment it is March and Jupiter that encloses Venus, therefore all hopes are permitted which will bring out new devices. There is the optimist of Jupiter, joviality and the other March which will require caution to not commit the irreparable. The fact of not acting in the right place would inevitably lead to conflict of interests, animosities. Fear does not avoid the danger… With the entry of mercury in Taurus and the trigone of March Virgin, I see plans rescue of emergency that could benefit the Greece (Sun is in Virgo), conducted actions in the crisis, but plans will not be wrong because it might be fatal. March is also the staggered of Uranus (the difficulty is) and March was taken in the axis of Rahu and Kétu, well need to look before you leap….
the wheel turns indefinitely, which can be positive will one day be more another day, everything is change and transformation….] 🙂
Ah, “Time and Tide wait for no Man….” words that for me cause pause and reflection as they are not what they seem to be?
Well, and last night I jotted a note (mercury at work) about “so many Things (material/Taurus) pass through our lives…” the jist being that life is timeless and the ‘things’ are markers and milestones.
We can indeed turn the Tides if we but remember our Power, re-define our position to and perspective of space/time and for me your this, “you must create the circumstances to let it happen rather than attempt to make it happen”. Embracing time gives me the ability to “let”. Fear of time causes “make it”.
Beautiful, Len. Such a wise teacher you are. I feel I learn so much from you, not the least of which is Grace. Thank you.
CaraSusanetta: Thank you as well for your kind appraisal.
Anna Inxa: Welcome and thank you for your affirmation. Thank you also for sharing your tarot technique.
Maeve and Carrie: You are most welcome (and very appreciated).
be: Tank you or your excellent example and personal insight.
Huffy: Thank you for two excellent references from two very different but enlightened minds. May you be among the first to feel some relief this week.
Jude: It is you who regularly sets an instructive example of inspired thought and writing for Planet Waves readers. My efforts to serve are but an attempt to emulate you, Eric and others who set the bar and the tone. Thank you for your kind words.
susyc: Speaking of inspiration. Thank you for a depth of wisdom, love and (yes) courage that no only inspires but also humbles me.
Burning River: Ah, thank you for the lyrical continuation.
Lunesoleil: Thank you once again for your cogent observations. Please accept my wishes that you will not be stuck for very long. May the rising tide lift your boat over the bar and allow you to sail free.
Mercury is in conjunction a my Moon opposition Saturn, is the culprit in my mood fluctuations. Has fallen like a hair in the soup, it still surprises you and you fell in full inside, you you enlisez without seeking you out. The meeting of mercury and Vesta and Phaeton will create a momentary spiritual dimension as home this trio will be in my house 12 in Western, but in Indian Astrology my Moon is positioned on the ascendant. Just change of Zodiac to express another astrological repository…
SCORE!!!
Seriously, a great piece of work Len. Thank you.
“Except in the aspect of time,/ Caught in the form of limitation / Between un-being and being. /Sudden in a shaft of sunlight/ Even while the dust moves/ There rises the hidden laughter of children,,,” T.S. Eliot
Love this, time is an accordion which can play long notes and short notes as the musician requires, inhalation and exhalation pushing the notes and devising the rhythm.
“It is difficult to release attachment to such deep conditioning, so deep that you identify with it as though it were life itself, but that is precisely what this particular ingress of Mercury to Taurus is asking you to do. It begins with finding the mental space where your values are alive, well, and as real as your hand in front of your face.”
I am looking–being called to look at the ways in which I am divided against myself and therefore from my highest good. I know people who are able to put their physical, emotional and spiritual health together with the help of a loving universe and their own willingness, but I haven’t been able to turn away from my inner division to oneness inside and outside myself. There is a trauma which keeps me from full commitment to my highest good probably, or almost certainly, based in fear. Fear of loss, fear of gain, fear of change, fear of being seen, fear of abuse, fear of ostracism, etc., and this is where I have been confined my whole life. And the opposite of fear is not courage–courage is a byproduct of the true opposite of fear which is LOVE…Lately I’ve been feeling a deep connection to the earth and along with it the willingness to look at the ways I tend to lie to myself and tell myself stories, trying to sell myself on things that don’t truly nurture me, but rather dampen and suppress my spirit…Mercury is a messenger telling me to ground myself in the earth, in my best gifts, and in love instead of my own lies and rationalizations…my deepest conditioning tells me I don’t matter. My deepest value tells me I am worthwhile no matter what, beloved, and here to share that love in the world.
Not just inspiring, darlin’ — inspired! And let’s remember that “losing track of time” is also called ‘meditation;’ a way to plug in to the Cosmic amps and deliver a jolt of B12 to the spirit.
So many great quotes!
“For what would happen to the masters of war and the one percent if you were to realize your power?”
and,
“If you can release any attachment to expectation, you can open the possibility of unexpected results. If you can let go of perceived partitions, you can discover an evident unity. If you refuse to surrender the values you were born to appreciate, you could find yourself empowered beyond what you have dared to imagine.”
Divine!
And it brought to mind the wonderful William Blake lines :”To see a world in a grain of sand, And a heaven in a wild flower, Hold infinity in the palm of your hand, And eternity in an hour”. xx
Wow Len. This is so on the nail for me. My whole panic in these days has been about time. Everything you say is so very true. At my main job they’ve piled on a workload that’s almost impossible to do, in an absurdly limited amount of time, obviously without increasing the pay (luckily it’s for a part of every month, not the whole month). I desperately need to get more work in – so my mind has been going round and round in circles, wondering how to find the ‘time’, how to get out of this impasse. I went and grabbed The Power of Now after reading your blog, Tolle says:The more you are focused on time – past and future – the more you miss the Now, the most precious thing there is. (…). The eternal present is the space within which your whole life unfolds”. I so look forward to Mercury moving into Taurus. Thank you, Len.
How true, how very very true. It IS “difficult to release attachment to such deep conditioning. . ” over the last 8 years (since I retired) I’ve had at least 6 friends or family members ~ panicky over what pitfalls awaited them, ~ finally decide to leap into retirement too. How terrified they are that there “won’t be enough money”, the biggest fear by far, but also “what will I do with all that free time?” and “I’m going to miss my friends at work”, and a dozen or so specific dreads related to taking the plunge. I admit, it does take some time to adjust, but not all that much of it. These are genuine fears for most people who have worked for someone else for 40 or so years and have become mentally brainwashed into a set of values which they fully believe are their own.
It also has a lot to do with the age when most people retire. They are commonly somewhere in their 60’s, well after their Chiron return and usually after their 2nd Saturn return, often with a “is that all there is?” feeling, especially if their worth to the boss seems somewhat diminished, no matter how much their service experience and loyalty keeps the business on track. But then it happens. They discover what it is they find rewarding and they discover how to think on their own. Once hooked they wouldn’t go back to the old way for any amount of money.
When we are young, many of us foolishly suppose that some older folks envy us for our careers and involvements, but truth is when we finally are able to use our time according to our own set of values we appreciate life so much more. I’m speaking in generalities of course, but a large percentage of people in this country suffer from “the lies which have confined your mind”. So, by all means, take advantage of this respite of Mercury in Taurus, and think outside of the box you are locked into. It will be good practice.
be
“Most of all, if you can bring yourself to believe the simple truth of your own experience in the body,”
Such excellent advice, Len. Just when I doubt that you come along and remind me to believe. Thanks so much for this.
Inspired, inspiring writing this morning, Len. Nicely done and thank you.
This morning I did a tarot reading for Eight of Swords after shuffling just the swords and picking a card to see where I was at mentally. Yes, I was feeling confined and the Eight of Swords was so very apt. I journeyed through storytelling how I felt. And then I come here to read… as I do once or twice daily… and this post brought not only illumination and clarity, it brought relief. Thank you, Len Wallick.