Your Daily Astrology for Wednesday, May 7, 2014 by Eric Francis
Mercury enters Gemini at 10:56 am EDT. The planet for which the element quicksilver was named arrives with the sensation of opening up after being in solid, earthy Taurus since April 24. With Mercury in an air sign, the pace of your mental processes will increase and you may experience amazing mental agility. You may be able to find words for things that you might never have spoken. Giving a voice to the ‘other side’ of your personality will feel natural. There are reasons for care, however, because Mercury is heading toward a square aspect (90 degrees) to Neptune in Pisces. Exact Sunday, this aspect demands integrity in the form of self-scrutiny, sincerity and evaluating everything you say and hear on the basis both honesty and motive. Refrain from exaggeration. Scrutinize carefully what people say to you, and note how much alcohol was involved. As this develops, Venus edges into opposition with retrograde Mars. The deeper theme is communication not about sex per se but rather something designed to lead to sex. This might have the presumed motive of a relationship. Measure how deep that really goes and be real about it. Sexual tension will be running high, so it’s a situation where you or someone else might say anything to get the desired result. Romance, fantasy and a kind of dream world are all in the planets — just keep your mind alert. Do your best to focus the conversation on something real, and to say what you might normally avoid. Everyone will benefit. Read yesterday’s post.
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It’s interesting that Shelley mentions the last Uranus/Pluto square was supposedly linked to the 5th chakra of communication.
I have heavily been feeling the pressure of things said and things unsaid, and those things said but said in vagaries to either protect ourself or another from the harshness of the truth.
The eclipse in April followed by the grand cardinal cross tipped a few dominoes that had been precariously lined up for some time (in my case since roughly August 2013).
A whole stand off has been created in several of my relationships. It almost follows like a story line- stubborn Taurus in Mercury would rather not say and just goes about his business.
Suddenly Venus is in Aries and I can no longer “try and understand” why certain people’s actions toward me are so angering, nebulous, or under the table, as I did while Venus was in compassionate Pisces. It suddenly seems much more logical to make my needs known. Many emotional bombs started to pop like fireworks.
Mars’ present retrograde in Libra adds to the frustration, because behind everything the peace loving tendency is feeling thwarted or sidetracked, yet Mars is hellbent on persevering, still trying to keep the harmony however long it may take to get there.
Now the picture is painted of a situation that Mercury in Gemini could majorly help. Gemini is straightforward like Aries and knows that a few words could clear up all of this, but the fastly approaching square with Neptune brings those slippery urges to sidle around the truth and avoid the hard edges.
The story is unfinished but it’s seeming that the best antidote to Neptune’s avoidance tendencies is to approach communications (Mercury) in touchy relationships (Venus) from a place of love and transcendence (Neptune), hopefully remembering during the Mars and Venus opposition that behind all the frustration the ultimate point of confrontation (Aries) should be resolution (Libra).
Alexander – I was writing something similar when I read your comment: “…it feels to me as if Mercury has been on a journey of dredging somatic memory for some residue or other.” Though I hadn’t realized how Mercury was connected, I was thinking more in terms of Nessus near Neptune, (and square my natal Nessus in Gemini- NN at 3-30, Psyche at 4-41, Nessus at 4-49, with the moon conjunct my SN at 4-14). But since Mercury has moved from having been conjunct Pluto, the Moon and the Sun at the beginning of this year (and my natal Mercury) to where it is now, many things have shifted and much energy has been cleared. It has been like a spring cleaning of the hidden cobwebs of buried abuse, always sneaking their way into thoughts, or popping into consciousness triggered by world events. The lingering bits that seemed to have been worked through long ago, yet still held on a cellular level. This year has really helped me to cleanse the remnants, accept the shadow material, and realize the strength that has emerged from the intense vulnerability from the experiences, but also the vulnerability it takes to look it in the eye shake free of it’s grip. Neptune and Pluto are helping the deeper layers rise to the surface, to bring the person you really are to the present moments, and let the past remain forever behind you, shed like a snakes skin. Though I haven’t recently tried saying what I normally avoid, I’m hoping that now it will cut through the thick air, rather than repeat the usual patterns. I have recently stood up for myself in certain social/work situations, discussing specific boundaries where I might not have in the past, and those communications have produced very effective results. I learned the Nessus lesson long ago to say a very firm no to what I wasn’t willing to experience in my life, and to the behavior of others that was unacceptable. That is when the deeper healing began.
With Mercury in Taurus, I found myself laughing in slow conversation with friends over brie & bread, olives, grapes and simple salads… and now Mercury hits Gemini and in the first day I’ve had two conversations I never thought I’d have while hearing words come out of my mouth that I’d never thought I’d use with all kinds of eloquence and grace. The pace of mental responses has increased, indeed! I love shifts like this…
I normally enjoy reading your articles and learning from them, responding to them in my mind, in silence. But with this Mercury / Gemini movement going on, I thought I would open up and share my experience for a moment. My computer, the communication I have with this world was returned today, after being sent off for repair two weeks ago. It’s been a long, slow two weeks.
As Eric’s title stated, I had to evaluate what I heard and said in a phone interview this afternoon, after being contacted by a “head hunter” too many times yesterday, and too many times today, to see how it went, what was said and who said it. I was overwhelmed with all of this talk, all of this communication interruption, into my usually very quiet, planned day. I was relieved to read Len’s comment that Mercury’s motion would be slowing down. Whew.
And although I’m not really familiar with Mayan Astrology, I was excited to read that I can get back to my passion, one that began many years ago, this…Astrology. I love the addition of the Daily Astrology and all of your passion to present such great articles.
Shelley — thank you for sharing what your friend the body worker / astrologer said about the relationship between the 7 Uranus-Pluto points of contact, and the activation of each chakra …. I must say, that I have certainly noticed a marked increase in the amount I say, and the depth of content of what I say — this from a Pisces that always just tried to dissolve into the background …. I am definitely feeling a mandate from deep inside, to speak my truth, and live it.
Shelley,
Interesting about the 7 Uranus-Pluto squares and chakras. Fits right in.
Thanks.
Thank you, Alexander. Your descriptions of dredging somatic memory for reside seems apropos and I appreciate that you shared this. Each time Merc enters Geminii, he squares both natal Pluto and natal Sun (who are in opposition). So this is always an opportunity (for me) to make dark the light and light the dark, so to speak. There is more than usual being made available for processing at this time, I can feel it too (and seem to be processing a lot during sleeping hours).
Dreaming for me, has become simply another “place” I go. I no longer try to remember nor to analyze because that now, is not different from holding a seance in that perhaps there was a time and place for that activity while we were learning to access other realms, but it is not longer necessary because we have transcended and understand multiple dimensions of life differently than before. Being a Pisces with Neptune/NN/Jupiter conj on the IC (Scorpio) may give me a different perspective re: dreaming than others.
I’m experiencing a lot of opening up of personal “denial that has nonetheless felt like a given, irrefutable fact, or aspect/element of your essential self,” as you put it Alexander, and it’s connected to a strong need, as Eric says, “to focus the conversation on something real, and to say what you might normally avoid.”
It seems that the saying of what I normally avoid has in effect peeled away some of the denial I’ve been experiencing since I was a teenager. It’s harder to deny something once you tell someone else about it and if you let it, it all starts to unravel. I’ve actually had trouble controlling what comes out of my mouth, which I’m normally guarded with.
And, in the midst of all of this, I feel my sense of self grounded in the shifting dream world that I mistrusted in the past.
A friend who is a body worker and astrologer told me the seven exact Uranus/Pluto contacts are each functioning to work on a particular chakra and the last was the fifth or throat, which, in part, has to do with speaking your truth and taking responsibility for your own needs. This is key when interacting with other people, no matter what they say or do.
Eric (and readers), I have a feeling about this looming square between Mercury and Neptune. This roughly correlates on a symbolic level to experiences that are concrete at the present time in my personal life. So I throw out a reflection that is a kind of dialogue point between surface level experience, the unconscious agenda and the symbolism of the planets.
Mercury entered Taurus on my birthday, a short while after the Sun’s ingress. For me, here, the mind is trying to catch up with what the soul knows on some level. But, the soul has a bodily connotation that perhaps the mind lacks. Transiting Taurus, and now ingressing Gemini, it feels to me as if Mercury has been on a journey of dredging somatic memory for some residue or other (in my case ancient, but only in the context of this particular earthly incarnation). Mercury bringing something which has been codified into the body up into the mind for processing, is a useful lens for interpretation.
Now, the square upcoming from Mercury to Neptune seems to speak of a tension between the information that has actually come to light and, shall we say, some rather more transcendental interpretations that have persisted for a long time and that may have the character of seeming emotional ‘facts’, when in truth such interpretations may have more of the texture of delusion, or perhaps more accurately, childish ideals that have gone unexplored and that were, in truth, born out of a reaction against something unpalatable in your youthful experience – Stated baldly, a form of denial that has nonetheless felt like a given, irrefutable fact, or aspect/element of your essential self.
It seems to me that the question of this square is one of investigation of layers of the onion. Neptunian to the core, the question is “What exactly IS real here?”
Might it be that Mercury is seeking to operate as a clinically efficient therapist on your behalf through this aspect? While Neptune says “I am the gatekeeper” and “Are you once again going to honour the childish illusion that has kept you bound, or finally avail yourself of the moment of lucidity that will enable you to see what you really need, rather than what you have always believed you needed?”
Herein, it may serve you well not simply to follow your old paths and tracks, blissful as they may superficially appear. The challenge would appear to involve seeing beyond/through the fog and making a corresponding break from the past into something based upon your soul level karmic intention in being birthed.
Dreaming can never be a substitute for the actual living and that feels to me to be a key message to be brought through from the underworld.
Alexander