![\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/03\/das.jpg?resize=215%2C227&ssl=1\" "\\"Daily")
Mercury is retrograde for about 23 days, three times a year. But there are warm-up and cool down periods before and after that in effect make the phenomenon last about half the time — about eight weeks, three times a year (for a total of about 24 or 25 weeks per year). I consider this a pause time, on making new commitments or major purchases. I also don’t have things repaired during this phase; waiting always proves to be profitable because the problem is not usually what you think it is.<\/p>\n
Though I’ve seen such things go strangely under Mercury retrograde (a good reason to avoid signing or buying, or to be ready to have to do it over when the retrograde ends), I use it to help me organize my time; for example, by restricting my purchasing activities to half the year, which in effect saves money. This is in part by buying less, and by purchasing at more appropriate times so the what I do buy has a higher value.<\/p>\n
This discussion, however, is worth filing under routine astrology. Mercury is one of those things that you need to be able to navigate like a good driver can get someplace safely when it’s raining. You have to negotiate the same roads under slick conditions, while other people are being careless. So it’s interesting that we have this particular weather leading into the conjunction of Jupiter, Chiron and Neptune. The conjunction peaks the last week of May, while Mercury is still retrograde, and then after Mercury goes direct, all within days three planets involved in the conjunction turn retrograde at once.<\/p>\n
For weeks I’ve been describing the energy involved in this triple conjunction, and the rarity of such an event. This is a culmination point of decades of effort, struggle, progress and indeed for many people, backsliding. There are few astrological events that can actually signal spiritual progress. This is one. The problem is that for many, it may not feel like that. The energy may simply be too intense to feel good. The calling may feel too strong, or too demanding, for comfort.<\/p>\n
I reckon that the issue of ‘why we believed the lies’ may be particularly painful for those who are discovering they did so. I would work with the question, rather than laying it as a judgment. The antidote to lies must be some aspect of the truth, if either concept is to be meaningful. However, when truth is revealed in the context of deception, one common resonse is anger. And I would say that if anything this astrology is calling on us to be aware of whatever comes up and move through it to another space. Anger is productive but only to a point; only if we use it to get in touch with our feelings in general, acknowledge them and use it as fuel to motivate us to strive for something better.<\/p>\n
I think anger is an issue that we don’t talk enough about; that we don’t feel safe expressing; and that a lot of us are dragging around. Whether that anger is ‘legitimate’ is one question – and we do have plenty to rage over these days. The more difficult situation is when we feel anger, then try to temper it with guilt, which basically amounts to turning it on ourselves. This creates a space where it’s not only difficult to love, but where we are protected from love.<\/p>\n
So in the spirit of Chiron and Neptune, I would ask: do we really need that? Or can we be with our feelings, and at the same time, be a lot kinder and more responsive to ourselves and one another? In the history of our society, that would be a watershed.<\/p>\n
Yours & truly,
\n![\"Eric](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.planetwavesweekly.com\/resources\/images\/sign_white.jpg?resize=185%2C45&ssl=1\" "\\"Planet")
<\/p>\n
Note, my Beltane series continues with several new chapters in Book of Blue<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dear Friend and Reader: As the long-anticipated Jupiter-Chiron-Neptune conjunction reaches full strength, we are in the midst of some meaningful short-term astrology: the current Mercury retrograde has reached its midpoint. You can tell this by Mercury’s conjunction to the Sun, which was exact yesterday. This was the interior conjunction, with Mercury coming directly between the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[456,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15060"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15060"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15060\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15060"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15060"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15060"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}