Photo by Mohammed lak on Unsplash
Today, Mercury stations retrograde in the sign of Cancer. This is such a blessing, as it gives us a few days to review the part of our life—individually and collectively—that’s ruled by Cancer before it receives a strong activation over the weekend. As I’ve been saying and writing, this weekend’s portal requires that we lose any extra spiritual and emotional weight. Otherwise, we will not fit through the portal. The combination of Mercury Retrograde, the end of a lunar cycle, the end of a season, eclipse season, and Venus slowing down affords us an opportunity to purge that extra emotional weight more easily than we may be able to otherwise.
Mercury rules communication with others and the divine, how we move through our local environments, technology and social networks, and our neighborhoods. He is the fastest moving planet of the Zodiac, so when he slows down and retrogrades, it gives us a chance to catch our breath and understand these aspects of our own lives and movement better. It’s a great time to recognize patterns—especially unhelpful ones—as well as to notice how we respond when things don’t go our way or the way that we expect. Enter the obnoxious American stereotype …
The period between any planet’s Retrogrades represent a full cycle of that planet’s energy. Mercury last retrograded from mid-February to mid-March in the sign of Pisces as the Coronavirus was emerging onto the world stage. Mercury is the planet that rules information. What information have you gathered about yourself and the world since then? Likely, more than ever before. But then again, Pisces is the sign of infinity and it is ruled by Neptune, who dissolves boundaries. How has the Coronavirus dissolved boundaries? How are we fighting that dissolution of boundaries by seeking to draw more? What is fluid can’t be resisted, but it can certainly wash you away, destroy, and kill anything in its path that tries to resist it … which is the nature of Cancerian energy. Water sign to water sign. It’s almost like Mercury is skipping from one stone to the next across a vast body of water. I suppose even the gods enjoy a bit of island hopping from time to time.
What is certain is that the immense amount of hot air that’s been circulating over the past couple of months—beginning with Venus’ Retrograde in Gemini—is now starting to hit the warm waters of Cancer. This is the perfect cocktail for a hurricane—an event ruled by Cancer and other fierce maternal energies, such as Yemaya. Structures will be destroyed over the next month, so your safety depends upon your ability to remain in the eye, which is likely to just become visible over the weekend. As the eye of a hurricane becomes more pronounced, it tightens, its walls become more definitive. This, too, is a border, a boundary.
Photo from NASA on Unsplash
Your eye is your peace. What do you need to maintain a sense of peace in your world right now? What boundaries do you need to set to maintain a sense of security and safety in this uncertain world? A hurricane is unpredictable. The only way you can remain in the eye is to become one with your own personal sense of peace and security and follow your intuition—even (especially) if it leads you somewhere that feels/seems unlikely or irrational to/for you.
The Moon rules Cancer, so if you’re not entirely sure where to find your own sense of security and peace, the house and sign of your moon and the house of your chart ruled by Cancer are pretty good places to start … Many questions need to be asked and answered right now, but none of them can be asked, entertained, or answered honestly without a sense of safety. Find your center first (and do whatever you have to do to find it), then sit with the questions.
Mercury’s review often comes through unlikely or out of the ordinary conversations with people from your past or even with strangers. It often comes from detours or being redirected down unexpected paths. When you take the same route all the time, you always see the same things. When you take a different route, you see different things. Every detour in life, regardless of its size or impact, is an opportunity to encounter and see something that usually remains outside of your line of vision—a concept that also defines eclipse seasons, such as the one in which we’re currently embedded.
Mercury’s review falls at the tail end of the Venusian review we’ve endured over the past month and a half. The first image that comes to me when I think of Mercury and Venus retrograding together is one of love letters or poetry. Use this week of their overlap to consider the love letter that would feel most comforting to receive right now. Perhaps it’s from someone in particular, but if you’re not in a relationship right now or not in one that’s satisfying you, consider the love letter you’d like to receive now, given the current realities of the world and your life.
Photo by Laura Chouette on Unsplash
Over the weekend, the Earth and the cosmos will activate the connection between our lunar and solar energies with a Solstice and a New Moon Solar Eclipse conjunct the North Node of the Moon (the indicator for eclipses and one of the most significant points of destiny in a chart). The next two eclipses are connected to the last set of eclipses that happened in December and January. What has arisen in your life over the past 6 months? What have you learned over the past 6 months about what you need to feel safe, well, and nourished?
The last set of eclipses were initiated on the Winter Solstice. What were you doing around the time of the Winter Solstice? What were you initiating then? What intentions did you set then? What intentions did you set for this calendar year? The Summer Solstice is like the Sun’s full moon. What is your relationship with those intentions now? Which of those intentions remain? Which of those intentions are culminating at this time? Which of the seeds you planted at the Winter Solstice are now blooming or even fruiting under the energy of this Summer Solstice? Which fruits are you harvesting now and how will you use those fruits to nourish and support the powerful new beginnings being initiated by this Summer Solstice Solar Eclipse?
The beginning of one season also always represents the ending of another one. So equally important, what are you prepared to release in order to ensure that you’re growing what you want to grow? Energy cannot be created or destroyed, so the limited energy you have must be invested into that which you want to grow because it can support you and sustain you moving forward. This could be a tough time because it’s likely that many of the people, places, projects, etc in which you’ve invested your energy in the past aren’t offering you a return anymore. You may also find that they’ve never offered you a return. They may have been depleting you or, at best, you may have just been breaking even.
Every person has unique gifts. No one is meant to live this life alone. Cancerian energy rules the household, so this is a good time to apply home economics to our greater economic systems. In a household, things run smoothly when the labor is divided among its members. This can mean that each person does different things or that everyone does a little bit of everything. But regardless, everyone does their part. Ideally, the tasks are divided according to what comes most easily to each household member.
Photo by Christiann Koepke on Unsplash
In a household, if someone who is terrible at cooking is given the task of cooking, everyone suffers. The investment of perfectly good ingredients is wasted, the food tastes bad (which puts people in bad moods), and the person’s sense of value is diminished just because they can’t complete that particular task well. The same is true in business, societies, and life. We expect people to complete tasks that are unaligned with their gifts and potential contributions or unaligned with the unique ways they can contribute, rather than making space for everyone’s unique gifts.
Spoiler alert: #thisiswhatdiversitylookslike.
It’s not that the person can’t learn how to cook eventually, but why not have that person discover which task comes easily to them and that they do well and give the cooking to someone who’s good at it and enjoys it, rather than wasting everyone’s time, money, and pleasure? When people are forced into tasks that really aren’t their gifts, everyone suffers and everyone’s time, money, energy, and pleasure is wasted.
Your destiny is something for which you receive at least as much by offering it as you offer—usually more. We are moving beyond the time where people have to figure out how to fit into structures where and/or because their unique destinies are invisible. It is now time to get clear about when and how you are served when you serve the world and to find the people, places, and structures that support your unique forms of service.
You are allowed to be supported. Your gifts are allowed to be supported. You deserve to be supported. Your unique gifts deserve to be supported. Lunar/Cancerian energy is less about doing and more about a state of being.
During this upcoming season, if you feel like you’re trying too hard or meeting resistance, whatever you’re doing probably isn’t the right thing for you, or at least the path you’re attempting isn’t the best route for you. When everyone takes the same route, there are traffic jams and so much is left unexplored. This moment really isn’t meant to be hard. It’s meant to be soft and supportive. Move like water – take the path of least resistance. Receive every detour as a gift that’s preparing you for your desires—even if you can’t see how.
Have a JOYFUL Mercury Retrograde!!!
<3, Hilary