Mercury, on its way into new territory

The Full Moon has passed through our lives, though we get an extended version of the energy because the Sun is still moving into an exact square to the lunar nodes, Mars and a number of minor planets — Eris, Vesta and Ceres. So we will be feeling this turning point for a few more days. The Moon square the nodes can have the sensation of an eclipse, especially with so many planets gathered around the nodes to emphasize the point.

Meanwhile, Mercury has left Gemini and ingressed Cancer, and is about to leave shadow phase (thus, enter new territory for the first time since the recent retrograde). Does anyone remember the discussion of Mercury in Cancer making three trines to Nessus in Pisces — one of which was before Mercury retrograde, one of which was early in the retrograde and the last of which would be after the retrograde? We are now up to the third event. When the first two events happened back in early June, there was a discussion raging about victims and victimization.

Where has that discussion gone, or how has it developed in the approximately six weeks since Mercury was first visiting this territory? We don’t need to approach this on the level of society, which is really not possible anyway. Rather, when you consider the concept of being personally victimized, how have your thoughts and your feelings evolved? If something was really irritating you in early June, where are you with that issue now?

In a Planet Waves subscriber edition at that time, called “Mercury, Weaving the Story of Nessus,” I commented on the drama triangle proposed by Transactional Analysis in the 1960s and used by many therapists today.

Yet in the current environment, especially the political one, Nessus seems to be reminding us of our need to stop the endless cycle of persecutor, victim and rescuer. As my Facebook correspondent Beverly Spicer put it, “Here in the West, we are stuck in the relative stagnation of unconscious behavior on a wild merry-go-round, riding first the horse of persecutor, then victim, then rescuer. But the carnival never stops. Real life begins when we say no to the ride on any of the horses.”

I think what is not exactly transparent here is that from the political standpoint, claiming the right to be the victim is the time of reckoning and revenge. One gets to be next in line for recognition, compensatory damages, protective laws, assured privileges and maybe the punishment of the persecutor. From a spiritual or psychological standpoint, the Karpman drama triangle is invoked. Victims become persecutors, rescuers become victims, and the cycle continues — creating ever more casualties and injured people ready to persecute.

11 thoughts on “Mercury, on its way into new territory”

  1. OMG…EF this as are many others of your writings — is so-o-o brilliant, dude!
    So, now you’ve written ‘The Book’, that pardon these ‘borrowed’ words (another brilliant talented musician/singer song-writer/poet: Ms. Laurie Anderson), as they are meant only in complimentary fashion, m’dear:
    “…and that book will be thick enough to stunn an ox.”

    So where can i buy/order/barter…even ‘borrow’ from some bookshop this tome of your fab writiing on the ‘Scopes, the world astro. always with love, anaella

  2. It’s been a very unsettling time, ever since the Cardinal Crunch in April, a tension producing roller coaster, but the destination is – hopefully – a move OUT of victim consciousness and into empowerment. These guys are hitting very major points in my chart, and Mars is preparing to exit my first house. Which means he will enter my second. Money. As a result of Relationship dysfunction and injustice, has been the subject around which the victim/empowerment/thinking/mental over-drive has revolved.

  3. Gotsta say, Merc. is transiting my natal Mars, rx 0+ cancer. Which is a trip in and of itself. The Sun is about to cross my Asc., at 24+ Cancer, so, I’m pretty much stoked. Wild ride, but, fun as all hell. (Side note: Chiron is at the tippy-top center of my natal, 24+ aries. The fulcrum of the pendulum, so to speak. Which is being worked over in more ways than one.)

    I don’t view the victim/victimized sense of reality, as much as others’ might. I ‘believe’ (could be wrong) that I’ve dealt with all the hard-core shit that I ever didn’t need. I feel energized. Ready (or not) to take on reality for whatever b.s. waves my drop in the bucket can generate. I feel that my Sagittarian mind is focusing.. (which I am truly looking forward to Jup. in Leo).

    I ‘believe’ that I’m the only ‘thing’ that has ever ‘irritated’ me. I’m attempting to step out of my own way, in order to step into my-self. I’ve messed myself up over the course of time, intentionally and otherwise.

    ..I’m on my own (theoretically) and enjoying the freedom… I have noone to blame, or congratulate but myself. I take full responsibility for my own ephemeral carnal, and soulular existence. I AM NO VICTIM. I choose this life.. I choose to ‘continue’ knowing full well that ‘I am That I Am”.

    Good Luck, and more Power to you, (It’s the best a Sag. can say),

    Jere

  4. There are people I am acquainted with and see daily (work related) who started lashing out at a woman who was overly competitive (she was). What they did was to deliberately do things to hurt her financially and consequently it hurt everyone else as well. I felt victimized and afraid as it hurt my bottom line and I had to hustle even harder to keep afloat. Finally, I stopped playing their game (stopped hanging with, talking to, agreeing with) them and they got angry with me. However, when I severed those psychic ties to them, I was overcome with a huge sense of peace. I started to rely more on my intuition and intelligence to make up for the loss, and the universe seemed to conspire to help me. I felt a more energized sense of flow. I NEVER allowed myself to match their aggressiveness with aggression. The next time I saw them, they lashed out against me in public, but in front of an authority figure. They are now being punished and their ability to make a living is in jeopardy. What I’ve gained is trust in my ability to be true to myself.

  5. Approximately 6 weeks ago – when Mercury first trined Nessus – which was just a day or two after the Gemini New Moon (7+ degrees) that squared Neptune (7+ Pisces), while Vesta opposed Uranus and Juno opposed Saturn. No doubt all of these (Mercury trine Nessus, Sun-Moon square Neptune, Vesta opposite Uranus and Juno opposite Saturn) and perhaps even Venus’ sextile to Mercury and semi-sextile to Nessus were woven together like the braids on Sampson’s head.

    Dramas that occurred to us on a personal level (as well as a societal level) picked out various threads of this symbolism to weave each of our Stories of Nessus and we could play any or all 3 of the roles of Victim, Persecutor and Rescuer. In my own story, my downstairs neighbor (condo building) felt he was “the victim” and in turn became “my persecutor”, but then the law stepped in and became “the rescuer”. For me anyway. 🙂

    Many stories that became conscious as Mercury trined Nessus and did his retro thing continue to play out. I do see Nessus’ themes (generational, abuse, revenge) intertwined among them, but also overcoming fear and finding one’s own voice are there too (thanks Patricia and AuntieRacquel). Mercury started his retrograde conjunct the U.S. Venus and ended it where the present cycle between Mercury and Jupiter (understanding) began.

    Funny how you happened to use the word “weaving” in your title as that suggested “hair” to me which recalled the musical play “Hair” and the Bible story of Sampson. It then occurred to me how our challenges to find a balance in the polarization of our personal and political worlds could be de-coded by examining the symbols around us, the symbolism of hair for example.

    I’m of the opinion that, like guns, hair is – in part – a (conscious or unconscious) kind of symbol for masculine energy, as well as a symbol for rejection of defined social rules and also a way of hiding something. The threat of elimination or even a reduction of either of them (guns or hair) can produce the feeling of emasculation for those of us prone to incorporating this symbolism. In a reverse messaging, it would also be why most females (in this society anyway) feel compelled to remove leg and facial hair in order to feel feminine. Symbols can be very powerful can’t they?

    Thanks Eric for opening new paths to examine the present Zeitgeist. By reviewing the May New Moon in Gemini chart, I rediscovered the oppositions to the two (masculine) rulers of Aquarius opposite the two (feminine) asteroids. That event took place before I became conscious of what their (Uranus and Saturn) quincunx of long duration was symbolizing; a new understanding of what the sign Aquarius is evolving into. Hopefully, the August 10th Full Moon in Aquarius will bring even more to consciousness, as will the new cycle of Mercury-Jupiter (and Panacea) conjunction in Leo that starts in August and squares Mars. Baby steps are the only way to go these days in order to survive this birthing process.
    be

  6. I also ended a relationship. I’m totally afraid of the future but I couldn’t keep doing what I was doing – it wasn’t working. So it’s nice to hear other people are braving the unknown too.

  7. Thank you, Eric for picking up that Mercury-trine-Nessus thread so cogently. As my personal response to your question about what has happened since the “irritations” of early June, my choice was to own and take responsibility for those irritations by getting off the merry-go-round before things escalated. Allowing the buck to stop with me by neither participating in nor contributing to a cycle of abuse any longer. It was the correct decision, but it sure put me in a tough spot to work my way out of. Fortunately, my participation in Planet Waves is making my way out to a better day possible.

  8. Nessus killed Hercules. I think that’s the part of the story where the buck stops. He’s considered a hero by many, but he’s just another rock star at the end of the day when he tries to use his reputation to open wine out of season, just like our culture where we expect to have access to everything all year every day as long as you have money while the land fills with trash, the water fills with pollution and plastic and the sky is choked by the plumes from all the little and big fires industry loves to set. Even Odysseus is way more of a dick than he needed to be to free himself from the Cyclops: they were free as soon as they had him drunk, but then the hero decides to gouge out his eye like a drunken frat boy.

    Under all the crucifixes, corpses and wastelands of the West is the indigenous current of Europe. The Holy Grail is lost to the world because the warriors won’t stop raping the well maidens and the sons of Hercules continue to open wine out of season and unleash hellfire upon the Earth for the sake of America’s reputation, amen. Hercules sees an old growth wood as a Hydra and does his best to kill it. But the current is still there. To get into it takes stillness. When the culture has fear of emptiness and pushes people to go go go all the time it’s hard to observe stillness. How can you feel the subtle currents in any way if you’re making waves yourself?

    Medicine in our time is taking time to be silent with the non humans. It’s taking time to sit, stand, lay around and breathe deeply in between activities. It’s drinking water, sweet water, clean water with nothing else in it like coffee, tea, or high fructose corn syrup. I think the loss of the Grail to society is largely expressed in various states of dehydration. We pollute the water and then industry sells it back to us in plastic bottles. The sacred springs are almost all polluted and trapped under pavement if they haven’t dried up from all the deforestation. The polluted sexuality is the human portion of the general pollution the Empires have brought to the world. But water can be cleaned. The water on Earth was once in a comet and may have been part of another polluted world way way back. Water gets around and it’s still water once you filter all the other stuff out of it. The Grail is hidden under all the pollution.

  9. watched in horror this a.m as my 3 yr old son (Pisces sun & moon) played out all these roles this a.m & found in my tea making reverie afterwards was unconsciously playing through the old victim record with the persecutor finale as background music even whilst I was detaching myself to consider.

    thanks for taking me out of this – over recent weeks I have watched myself (Libra) saying & doing things I have never had the strength or courage before & finally participating in my key role in family relationships & being a conscious integral part of breaking old patterns … unconscious denial has transmuted into conscious acceptance …

    and yet was totally avoiding this one! … I shall consciously observe these patterns now Eric – sincere gratitude

  10. Phew! thanks for this Eric – the intensity has not eased off at all since the full moon, and am feeling weird and rough, both physicallly and emotionally. Not long now….

  11. Six weeks ago I was very concerned about my young niece, who has been having nightmares. Her parents try to tell her they are not real, but to her they are very real, and it seems she has become resentful and self-reliant, because no one is helping. I wanted to help her – take the nightmares or her fear away. I felt helpless.

    Two weeks ago I left my marriage and have at times felt terrified. I wanted to tell my inner child, I am the adult, you can trust me, I will take care of you.

    Now, I’ve learned: I can’t. The fear will be there. The world is a frightening place. I can’t take it away, for my niece or for myself. I can only say, I see your fear; yes, it’s terrifying. I can’t take it away, but I will hold your hand, and we’ll get through it.

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