Mercury Retrograde in his own home of Gemini takes up his mantle of Psychopomp – Guide of Souls – for this New Moon at 14 degrees Gemini. While Mercury in Gemini needs to experience, ponder, categorize and psychologize, when he turns around and journeys backwards as Psychopomp, he opens the paths between the worlds so our egos can open to intuition, feeling and imagination and re-connect with the inner wisdom we need to move forward to new life, for ourselves and for our world.
There's a lot going on these days. Gemini loves the news! Gemini is curious about our experiences and what we think about them. Gemini/3rd house/Mercury show us what kind of mind we possess. Mercury wants us to engage in the life around us and think it about. What kind of mind do you possess and how are you using it to manifest your life's purpose?
There's a lot to think about these days! We see new natural disasters happening every day all over the globe. Is Global Warming creating catastrophic climate change? How many (multi) thousands of people have died in China and Myanmar? Darfur and Iraq? The American MidWest. Where is a peaceful vision for the Middle East? How is the Iraqi war really going? What about Africa and the AIDS epidemic? Or the food crisis? Or the mortgage crisis? The economy? The rise in gas prices. Etc., Etc., Etc.
Neither governments nor the people themselves are prepared. I don't say this to create fear. This is just the story of our times. What do you want your part in this story to be? It's almost like being asked to be part of the Fellowship of the Ring. We have turned our collective face away from these important issues for too long. Now we are being called upon to see the truth and heal the wounds of our people and our world. Can any political candidate do that? Probably not. It takes each individual creating peace within and taking action without. But having a government willing to take the necessary steps toward changing how we 'do business' is also imperative. The personal is political this election year and in the years to come.
Mercury rules the realm of Mind, our ability to think, intuit, process, categorize and synthesize, just as Gemini rules knowledge and life experience. Mercury is the conscious mind processing information, as well as the magical mind of the unconscious. Mercury helps Gemini collect facts and put them together in inventive, new and experimental ways.
When Mercury turns retrograde, he takes on a different coloring – the coloring of Virgo, the practical and ritualistic mind - which he also rules. Both Gemini and Virgo are mutable signs, which means that they have a flexible response to life circumstances. So Mercury retrogrades are times of patient waiting, while we perform everyday tasks, introspect, organize, plan, or refine a task. Sometimes it feels like we are living in an in-between time, when nothing seems to happen. It is a time to pay attention to what comes into our life and watch how we respond. Shift through your options, make a choice, create a ritual to bind it.
Mercury retrograde is also the time to follow Mercury down into the depths of the Unconscious. Mercury was known as Hermes to the Greeks: Guide to the Three Worlds, patron of magic, sorcery and alchemy as well as the trickster god, patron of merchants, patron of thieves. Hermes was the Guide and Messenger between Olympus, Earth and Hades.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
