Civilized man tends to be in a state of chronic worry and fear and anxiety, because he is always confronted not with the simple actuality of what is happening before him but with the innumerable possibilities of what ‘might’ happen. And since, because of this, his emotional existence tends to be in a state of anxiety and tension, he increasingly loses the ability to relate to the concrete world as it manifests to him in the actual present in which he lives.
— Alan Watts (from Zen and the Beat Way)
Mercury will encounter retrograde Venus passing through Gemini in the opposite direction tomorrow. The opposing directions of apparent motion will make make this particular conjunction of Mercury and Venus brief but meaningful. As if to make sure we understand just how meaningful, Mercury and Venus will meet while opposed, to the degree, by another conjunction that has persisted to the degree for literally months on end, the Sagittarius merger of Pholus and Ixion.
As complex as it may seem, the combination of contrast, precision and paradox held by the unlikely and ephemeral double aspect of Mars and Venus opposing Pholus and Ixion will pertain to your life as a simple but urgent wake-up call to mindfulness.
Somehow, attending to where you are, what you are doing, and events in your vicinity has become quaint at best, a vice at worst. Yet nothing is more vital to survival than paying attention. What could we be thinking to elect unconsciousness? When it comes to thinking, or lack of it, astrology tells us to look at Mercury.