By Len Wallick
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Mercury has been retrograde in Taurus since April 18th, less than two days before Chiron made its temporary ingress to Pisces. Today it stations forward in the third degree of Taurus. According to the generous ephemeris resources at serennu.com the exact point is two degrees, thirty-nine minutes, thirty-four seconds. The exact UTC time (on a 24-hour clock) is 22:26:35.
To translate, that’s about 6:26 pm EDT on the East Coast of the United States, 3:26 pm PDT on the Left Coast. As has been noted in this space before, the transition is immediate, Mercury spends no measurable time standing still. Thus we are in the midst of what is usually called the storm phase, when the expression of Mercury retrograde is at its peak.
Hence the highest implementation of retrograde protocol is indicated. Above all, be patient. Distinguish between a thoughtful response and a thoughtless reaction. If you go off half cocked, let it go. Another chance is coming up.
Just as the beginning of this Mercury retrograde had a link with Chiron, so does the station forward. Mercury’s position today is within one degree of where Chiron is situated on its discovery chart. This dance of concurrency continues with a third event. Just before the end of May, Mercury will emerge from its echo phase just as Chiron is entering the exact arc minute at which its own retrograde will begin. Not incidentally, Saturn stations direct to end Memorial day weekend. As the saying goes, one is a fluke, twice is a coincidence, three times a pattern. Mercury and Chiron are in the midst of a pattern involving the astrological phenomena known as a retrograde. Saturn is involved.
Let’s break it down a bit. First of all a retrograde is an illusion. Planets don’t actually move backwards. The illusion is generated by perspective, but not the kind we are used to. On earth we consider perspective to be a matter of changing our static frame of reverence. We go to a museum. We look at a marble sculpture by Michelangelo. First from one side. Then from another. The sculpture remains unchanged while we move. We go into the mountains. We take a compass reading. First on one peak, then another. Then we create a triangle on our map to get a “fix” on where we are. We can do this because we and the peaks are holding the same position. Those are the types of perspective we usually think of. Those where the object being observed or the viewer or both are fixed in place or in form or both.
Take it up into the sky (or down to a chart) however, and perspective is a whole new ballgame. There is no fixed point of reference. Everything is moving, either apparently or in actuality. The perception of the motion of the observed is relative to the motion of the observer. In the solar system, most moving bodies trace the pattern of an ellipse, an elongated circle. Some ellipses are smaller than others and that’s where the retrograde illusion comes in.
From our moving perspective Mercury seems to be faster because it traces a shorter ellipse around the Sun. It completes about three orbits to our one. Therefore it effectively “laps” us three times a year, which by no coincidence is the number of Mercury retrogrades we have over a year’s time. A rough comparison is like being in a train or on a bus with another close along side. As we start to slowly move forward, out of the corner of our eye we perceive the other moving backward. It is disorienting and so is the perspective of a planetary retrograde.
Even if we don’t see the planet in question, synchronicity assures sympathetic resonance of all events within a particular context. Part of that context is subject matter. If it resonates with the planet, it will go backwards when the planet does. No cause and effect, mind you, synchronicity. That and evidently a profound connection with consciousness.
Another part of that context is placement. In what sign(s) or house the retrograde is taking place? Finally there is the temporal context.
So let’s take a flyer. Among other things, Mercury is about thinking and thought. Taurus, a fixed earth sign, second house, is, among other things, about what we possess and value. Mercury retrograde in Taurus is synchronous with a change of perspective about what we have and what we value. This can be disorienting. One way of dealing with that is to adjust our thinking about having and being. Sound familiar so far? Lets go to Chiron.
Chiron, among other things is about systems. Specifically awareness of what element(s) in a system needs attention so that the whole can be sustained. Pisces, a mutable water sign, representing the twelfth house is where the whole story of the zodiac comes together dissolving in preparation for a new beginning. A mysterious, fecund, deep place. Like maybe, the ocean?
On to Saturn. Saturn, among other things is about the relationship between the individual in the collective. Retrograde in Virgo, mutable earth, 6th house, is synchronous with a change of perspective as to the health of that relationship and the adjustments that can facilitate a reorientation. Virgo’s element connects us back to Taurus. Taurus back to Chiron. The quadruplicity (mutable) connects us back to Pisces. The house connects us back to Mercury, Virgo’s ruler, thus completing a circle.
Put it all together. The health of our relationship with the collective and how we identify with our earthly values is undergoing a re-orientation that includes a growing and even painful awareness of dysfunction in the system that contains and sustains both. How does that leave you? On the edge?
Now, what do we do? Besides the usual Mercury storm precautions and forbearances, we can start at our original edge and move out for a wider perspective with the timely help of none other than the Moon.
For a long time humanity thought of Saturn as the edge of the solar system and, by implication, our consciousness. Being part of the collective was life. Ostracism was death. Simple as that. Then for most of us now alive and aware, Pluto took over the edge. Life opened up to the mysteries of the infinite universe even as imminent universal death became constant in consciousness — confounding as that.
Today the Moon conjoins Eris, allowing us to to actually feel the new edge if we want to. The outcast woman — upon whom an epoch of patriarchy projected its failures and transferred its responsibility — has come home. Not just to roost but to rule. Come home with the perspective of the outsider. Not in illusion about the hypocrisy. Not invested in the failed and the failing. Comfortable with disorientation. Secure in adjustment. Possessed of a new perspective. Eris, among other things is the place we arrive at after a retrograde experience. Luna reminds us that she’s waiting. Amazing as that.
Offered In Service
Carrie – “For the sake of the planet, I hope we can rise above our victim programming and reach for better things.”
Me too.
Caroline Myss wrote a book called Sacred Contracts where she identifies several archetypes we all carry – one being the Victim. There is an exercise in this book where you create your own personal archetypes and do a wheel reading, based on the astrological houses model. I entered into this reflective exercise in 2003 and it yielded a personal epiphany about victimhood and its role in my world.
To cut a long story short, you put you finger on the main point: If we are going to share power, to speak truth, to heal the world and change the game – each one of us needs to be aware and heal our own wounds. This is a process that takes time and patience but it is also not an excuse to procrastinate when doors open and we are offered entry to a larger sphere of influence.
In Chiron’s dance, the wounded and the healer are linked through need. Thus to shirk our responsibility is to forsake a sacred contract made long before we entered this cycle of existence. bkoehler said it – don’t give up the ship! I must admit some times, some days, hell – some entire years, I have. But just because heart is lost for the plot – it’s only temporary. And Eris has jealousy issues too – big ones.
Yes, victimhood spawns a whole web of negativity that needs to be acknowledged and let go of…… But the real name of the game (from an Arian point of view!) is to simply say YES as often as possible.
Linda,
“Home? Home to what? A house that has been desecrated by greed, stupidity and fossilised ways of seeing things ie: oil pouring into our mother’s blood stream. What have we done to our HOME – our EARTH? Been watching this same bad movie since I was a teen in Haight Asbury – why hasn’t our collective will and intelligence been able to stop the insanity? I feel as mad as a hornet and as wounded as a bull. This is old, festered frustration – very familiar territory. Looking patiently (desperately?) for the stone wall to morph into a door…….”
I have felt that same anger too. You have climbed into my head with that paragraph.
“The corridors of power, creaking in their self-interest – the corporate boards of cronies keeping themselves behind gated golf courses.”
God that is perfectly written! I could not have written that better; you capture the entrenched nature of the old, toxic ways so well.
“More women on Boards? Are they REALLY ready for us and what we have to say? Speaking truth to power is not for the faint of heart. Are WE ready? As an Aries (Eris), my very cells are crying out YES! Oh baby – let me at ‘em.” ”
I love the way you said that. But…..dare I say it? I sit in abject fear of women being in power because we have been so oppressed for so long that every woman I have encountered that has any power at all is horrible with it. Yes, I wrote that and I am a woman.
Each and every one I have even seen, heard about via friends, dealt with myself or watched my husband deal with has been fearful, micromanaging, belittling, resentful of anyone they even think may be a threat, and deliberate sabotagers of others.
For too long the only roles women have been allowed to play have been shallow, petty backstabbers who prostitute their dignity for a sliver of power. We grovel and quarrel over men when deep inside we should know better; we are far more choosy and as such, men should be currying our favor instead of us fighting over theirs. In every other species, the male is the colorful one to attract the female; we are the only ones that have females fighting over males. Patriarchy may have set that up but we have fallen in line for so long I wonder if we can envision a different world, a non-competitive world where cooperation is the norm?
I wonder if we women are really ready for taking up the reins? Or are we so damaged that, like trauma survivors, we incorporate our damage into our decisions and actions?
For the sake of the planet, I hope we can rise above our victim programming and reach for better things.
Fe,
“I can see more of what I have to do, instead of being clouded over by a sense of overwhelm draining my energy.”
That says exactly what I have been feeling. This Merc Rx happened in my ninth house and my husband’s 8th house and it has been one hell of a ride. Today, I felt so edgy, like time has sped up and I haven’t got enough of it to accomplish what I need to do this week.
Thanks, Len for saying it so well as always.
Hey wavers, here’s a thought — let’s midwife ourselves!
Let’s imagine holding hands together and riding this wave on one big surfboard.
Yes it is a challenging pain filled birthing process but dammit, we can do this, right?
Breathing deeply, clenching hearts and fists and focusing intently on surfing a magnificent swell of ocean waters, that direct us to a new and wondrous land.
LindaGM,
I’ve enjoyed everybody’s comments here, but I could feel the passion in your words and decided to respond again. I felt a similar passion yesterday morning when I wrote in response to Len’s Childhood’s End piece.
There comes a time, even though you have been beat down by resistance or exhaustion or fear, that the spirit rallies one more time. The strength to express your anger or frustration or even love is provided somehow. Call it God or the Universe or whatever it is that makes you give it one more shot. I think that maybe Len is telling us the time is coming for a change. Really, and you and I and all of us here will play a part in that change.
Not just a change in your own life, although that’s where it begins. Not by yourself either. This change will be wrought by the many people who, like yourself, have wondered: How could we have let it get this bad? What is wrong with humanity that could be so selfish and thoughtless to allow all the killing of the creatures and our fellow humans and our own home; earth?
We start with getting a new perspective (I like yours. . a brisk autumn morning!). Or like Fe noticing a change in how fast things are starting to move now (me too Fe), like a quickening, a birthing of something totally different. Eris is here to lead by example. The goddess who was shunned learned how to be alone and yet not become defeated. All of us will have to learn new ways to live in order to thrive because the world won’t be the same. But the world, our home Earth, will also be reborn thanks to people like you and all of us here.
Don’t give up the ship my dear.
I have Eris, Chiron, Mars and Moon in Aries in my Pisces 12th house (Aries is intercepted), and transiting Moon is conjunct the stellium. Transiting Eris is conjunct my Mars.
Your words about Eris reverberated in my soul like the after effects of a church bell carillon.
My ears are still ringing!
It’s an early, brisk autumn morning here in Sydney – just made morning coffee and read the 13 posts from the sisterhood in response to Len’s heartfelt oracle. Feel like contributing but have no elegant order or framework worked out. Decided not to let that hold back the mighty river….
“The outcast woman — upon whom an epoch of patriarchy projected its failures and transferred its responsibility — has come home.”
Home? Home to what? A house that has been desecrated by greed, stupidity and fossilised ways of seeing things ie: oil pouring into our mother’s blood stream. What have we done to our HOME – our EARTH? Been watching this same bad movie since I was a teen in Haight Asbury – why hasn’t our collective will and intelligence been able to stop the insanity? I feel as mad as a hornet and as wounded as a bull. This is old, festered frustration – very familiar territory. Looking patiently (desperately?) for the stone wall to morph into a door…….
“Not just to roost but to rule.”
The corridors of power, creaking in their self-interest – the corporate boards of cronies keeping themselves behind gated golf courses. More women on Boards? Are they REALLY ready for us and what we have to say? Speaking truth to power is not for the faint of heart. Are WE ready? As an Aries (Eris), my very cells are crying out YES! Oh baby – let me at ’em.
“Come home with the perspective of the outsider.”
I’ve colonised the edge for so many years that it’s become my art.
“Not in illusion about the hypocrisy. ”
Oh sheeeit. It’s everywhere. And when I speak of it to my various communities for awareness and adjustment, the reactions vary but mostly fit on the scales that measure between lllllllllllllll Polite Acknowledgement lllllllllllllllll and lllllllllllllllll Ignore the Negative Bitch lllllllllllllllll
“Not invested in the failed and the failing.”
Been thinking a LOT about how to transform my small store of fiat paper ‘money’ and invest in tangible assets (a Taurus moon thing?) like gold, silver, food stores and arable land. Problem is the pitiful amount I have been able to save won’t buy much in the arable land category and the fucking inflation is burning up the paper value. Their game – do I have to play?
“Comfortable with disorientation. Secure in adjustment.”
Well girls – come on – what choice did we have but to learn how to live with this?
“Possessed of a new perspective.”
Necessity IS the mother of invention.
Thanks for the page to play and the hearts to witness.
Been an intense Merc RX – very, very intense few weeks …. but today kinda felt the shift happen.
All of a sudden, there was a qualitative shift in the light (felt this exact same feeling before esp around eclipses) and lifting of the load….
I know there’s still lots of stuff out there but more than glad for this one to be over ….
“Coming home” feels like the old me is walking a half-pace away at my side. It’s gonna take some time to recalibrate, I guess. Sort of like being away for a long time as a kid and then when you go into your old bedroom as an adult, none of the stuff there feels like it belongs to you.
To explain… my shaman friend did some powerful magic on my behalf over the Walpurgis weekend which removed a Binding from my ancestral “motherline.” Every woman in my family for five generations back has suffered alienation from her mother, or the parent who was related to the bloodline where the binding resided…. The Binding is removed and now we can all come home… my sisters, my cousins, my nieces, all of us.
I am a little bit awed at how you (Eric) laid this out pretty specifically in your writeup for Libra Confidential… i.e., The Wisdom and Baggage of the Ancestors. Now that this certain piece of baggage is handled, the wisdom can flow down to us unimpeded through the motherline as it has not been able to for generations.
For all the various difficulties many of us are experiencing, remember… magic is afoot.
Poetry, Len, so beautiful. And hopeful, something we desperately need. The image of the feminine returned. Would it be naive to hope that Obama’s nomination for the Supreme Court, problematic as it might be, could actually be a manifestation of Eris and Luna?
Thank you as always,
Jan Seward
P.S. I too am feeling, finally, able to move forward, with energy. Hallelujah!
shebear:
I hear you about motivation. Its like suddenly I can see more of what I have to do, instead of being clouded over by a sense of overwhelm draining my energy.
This has been a highly physical retrograde for me. Today, in anticipation of moving forward, I feel more energy.
aword:
I’m a construction contract administrator in my day job. A woman challenging the male status quo. My natal 7 Aries Eris is with my natal 12 Mars in Aries in the 1st House. Now 21 Aries Eris is transiting my 2nd house, nearing to conjunct the degree of my natal Venus in the 10th. I also work in theater with women who are marginalized socially and culturally (former ex-offenders).
Talk about Erislandia. Maybe more renumeration for my art with wayward women? Would love it if it happened.
Howl………
Aw Fe, that’s sweet — thanks a lot. 😉
I’m so looking forward to meeting her.
To your other post — yes, yes, I think I sense what you are talking about. I am feeling that today I have found the motivation to begin packing for my house move to a new apt. later this month. I’m finally facing the packing along with making intermittent visits to my new digs, to plan how to paint and prepare it for me and my stuff.
It’s a humungous bunch of multi-tasking but I’m finally feeling plugged in AND kinda buzzed!
Yes, Fe! Although for me the speeding up is more reflective of an awareness of – and ability to – actually slow down.
That is, I feel the speed because I’m more strongly “braced” (don’t like the visual of that word but all I’ve got in the moment) against being pushed with a flow that controls me rather than me directing my flow.
So – I FEEL LIKE I am now directing my own flow-ing-ness.
Hmmmm.
As far as Len’s lovely idea – which gut goes with a thousand times over and Chaos has been my friend for long now – my natal Eris is right there with my moon at 8 Aries 9th house according to Astro.com — which I suppose then means it also squares Mars and trines my ascendant (Leo) and Trines Uranus. Just to throw that into the pot.
Another thought:
Anyone out there having a feeling of speeding up? Suddenly it seems my head is wrapping itself around situations much easier, thus problems are resolving themselves faster.
Boy. It feels like a whole other day from yesterday.
shebear:
I have a good feeling about the new baby, too. Congrats. And may you be a blessing in her life as well.
bkoehler, thank you for you congrats!
As one of those people who were born with Eris conjunct exactly my Jupiter in Aries, I’m kind of wondering what “coming home” is going to be like. Maybe like wandering along thinking nobody’s been there before and finding a neat old stone path and following it off to some neat place. I hope anyway.
Very profound and insightful. . . .Eris as the new edge. Not only including the feminine, but IS the feminine. Well, it has taken us. . what .. 60+ years to accept the Plutonian edge? And that doesn’t include all of us. What do you think Len; how long will it take us to reach beyond the scope of Pluto? Surely, not so long as that.
All of the synchronicity you revealed today; is that like a path leading us somewhere? Does it reveal a pattern or is it only part of a pattern? I get the feeling that the Universe IS leading us, for the time being anyway, gently toward comprehension of a greater whole, and that certain people like you and Eric are here to find the dots first and then connect the dots. I get the feeling that we have to figure out what the dots reveal for ourselves, but that it can be done within groups as well as individually.
I will relish and absorb this new perspective for now, but await further edification from you as it develops. Thank you for today’s gift.
Congratulations shebear!
yours and truly,
be
Oh Len,
“The outcast woman — upon whom an epoch of patriarchy projected its failures and transferred its responsibility — has come home. Not just to roost but to rule. Come home with the perspective of the outsider.”
I have spent nearly a year as that outcast woman, wrestling with, really trying to untangle what is mine and what has been projected upon me, what is my responsibility and what it’s up to others to shoulder. It’s been non-stop relationship, relationship, relationship stuff. Eric’s deceptively simple question in the Scorpio Cosmic Confidential “what do you want?” has been rattling around in my fuzzy brain for all this time, with me only able to grasp the edges of the answer before it slips away. It’s only in the last few days that I have been able to begin to form the rudimentary thoughts/sentences that might make up some sort of answer. All this time I’ve had to keep reminding myself that ‘down time’ (work has dried up, love packed it’s bags and left, I’m kinda sitting here on my own like some PTSD sufferer wondering whatever next?) isn’t wasted time – it can be very rich and fertile and necessary – but given my usual level of activity and intensity that’s had to be an intentional daily practice. Looks like it might be a daily practice for a bit longer. But here’s hoping there really is a shift on the horizon. Thanks, P
thank you. ~ eris
I just got a phone call from Ireland. My brother’s first grandchild was born at midday in Belfast. That news made me especially eager to read what you had written today Len. Here’s the thing; you write about the outcast woman coming home, possessed of a new perspective, and for our family steeped in ages old stale and debilitating patriarchy, she has arrived! I am overjoyed. I could sense her coming these past few days, wondering if her birth day was to coincide yesterday with that of my dearly departed Dad’s, but no, she choose instead the day after and thus begins a brand new chapter.
I cannot wait to see what she magic she weaves as we follow her to the edge and beyond.