Manya Bergen interviews Julie Simmons who explains the astrology involved in THIS particular Mercury Retrograde. Carolyn Winter discusses the healing opportunity. Audio Interview…
As always the general theme of all Mercury retrograde periods is reflection and communication. It is a time when a bit of inward turning goes a long way in helping us deepen our awareness of our lives. It is also a time to pay attention to important details and to make room in your mind for synchronicity. It is generally a good time to write, edit, meditate, retreat and organize. Based on the sign it is in at the time it makes this journey, we find more specific direction about what is required at this time.
This period of Mercury Retrograde from April 17th – May 11th is in the sign of Taurus. Mercury is oriented toward production and material manifestation when it is in Taurus. It has a show-me-the-money quality. Given that Taurus is a sign that makes serious challenges to Leo and that Mars has been in Leo for many months doing it’s retrograde dance, I think we are asked to take a look at our creative impulses. We are all passionate about something (or someone) and these next few weeks are meant to challenge us to put our passion into manifestation or admit defeat. Doing the extra work, investing the extra effort enables manifestation which is always preferable to defeat unless we have really been barking up the wrong tree. In that case what looks like defeat may actually be acceptance of the limits of matter. Generally speaking when Mercury is retrograde it’s advisable not to push the river. Even so this meeting between Mercury and Mars suggests that we should be committed to investing effort, time, money and/or love in our creative projects. Perhaps we can do this with a sense of patience and persistence rather than simply forcing our will on our world. Once Mercury goes direct we will undoubtedly move forward with greater ease. Mercury also interacts with Pluto in this retrograde period which suggests that what does manifest will have power to transform things over time.
Specific dates when these planetary connections are felt more strongly (although they are active throughout the whole Mercury retrograde period) are:
Mercury square Mars: April 5th (before it goes retrograde) and April 26 (during the retrograde) These are the times to be especially aware of the tension between 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration which are both required to bring a creative project into being.
Mercury trine Pluto: April 6th (before it goes retrograde), May 3rd (during the retrograde) and May 19th (after it goes direct): These are times to be especially attuned to the lasting and possibly transformational qualities of the creative projects which are close to your heart. Who will benefit? Who might like to invest? What can you do to make your work more efficient and useful to those around you?
So just to prove that there is a difference between Mercury retrograde and Mars Carolyn and I spent all afternoon creating a wordpress.com blog site for me. I would never have done that with Mercury retrograde. But Mars liked it just fine. You can try it out at Julie’sBlog.
Mercury went direct at 9:15AM here in Toronto last September 29th. Today I can finally feel the breeze of a new energy as the retrograde period dims in my memory. I have to share my last AMR encounter, something delivered by the trickest lest I forget its presence.
Unconsciously, I left my bank card in the bank machine earlier in the week, likely at the peak of the retrograde. Luckily (and I consider this the alignment part), the machine ate my card after I had walked away, – an unexpected security feature of this bank. I didn’t actually realize my card was missing until 5 days later and still in the retrograde frequency, and was told by officials to get it replaced at the bank in person with 2 pieces of ID. So I contentedly went to the bank and presented my passport, but unbelievably my second photo ID – a pouch containing my drivers license and other important stuff was just GONE!!!! Gone from my purse. I looked and looked and looked again. It was not there. Luckily a non photo ID was accepted by the bank.
Frantically, I rced home, and spent the next hour retracing my steps of the last 7 days. “Where could it have gone”- I wondered. The one possibility was a grocery store I had been in the same day as loosing my card. Perhaps I had left the pouch on the counter when I paid. So while waiting for my sleuthing sister who was helping with this search, I called Julie for some astrological advice for the panic strickened. Her description of my chart at that moment was hilarious but true. I was very scattered and the moon void of course day didn’t help. She said urgency was of the essence and to move quickly. It was encouraging words that suggested I had a window of opportunity to find my ID. I yelled to my sister “Hurry up -we have to go NOW” and made a bolt for my purse to looked inside and grab my car keys. Instead my eyes landed on my missing pouch with the ID. It was as though the trickster was right there laughing his fool head off.
So the aligned part was happily finding all that was lost without the worst possible disasters.
My thanks to Julie for her wisdom!
With Love and light
Carolyn
Aligned for Mercury Retrograde 