Besides the Sun and Moon, Mercury retrograde, Neptune, Chiron and Vesta are all in Aquarius. Most of us know by now that when Mercury, the messenger of the gods, goes retrograde, our outer communications, travel and commerce slow down, or break down. It’s a time to re-think, revise, re-do etc. But Mercury was also known as Hermes and he was also the Guide to Souls, traveling between the three worlds, baring news, information and gossip. During Mercury’s retrograde, he definitely takes up his mantle of Guide, leading us into our own depths to seek the answers to our questions about life. Mercury wants us to pay attention; this energy lets us evaluate the particular circumstances we find ourselves in and then determines an appropriate course of action. Mercury energy alerts us to pay attention to what turns up in our immediate environment so that we can make use of it in the situation. In the ancient myths, the baby Hermes/Mercury must make amends to Apollo for stealing his cattle. As he crawls across the cave-mouth of his home, he finds a turtle and uses its shell to make the first lyre, which he gives to Apollo in payment for his mischief. Mercury – our objective mind – is a trickster, an inventor, a fact-finder, a magician, a thief, and a double-edged sword.
In inventive Aquarius, Mercury wants us to pay attention to our inner ‘mad scientist’, listen to our dreams and intuitions, and start thinking ‘outside the box’ to discover our soul’s mission and possibly solve some of our personal and collective problems. Mercury in Aquarius can connect us through mental telepathy or connect us through the Internet or networking with like-minded souls. This energy understands how systems work! So go out – or in – and meet up with your group to help plan the next stage of our revolution/evolution. Two minds (or more) are better than one!
Mercury is aligned with Chiron, the teacher and healer. These two energies encourage us to find the ways we can teach what we know and heal what we can. For those of us who have felt different or ahead of our time, this conjunction at the Solar Eclipse can be a time of healing, when we find the other ‘misfits’ in our soul group. And perhaps find that the times have finally caught up with us.
When we add to the mix Neptune, the embodiment of the Collective Unconscious and the Imaginal, archetypal world, we might be looking at the birth of radical, new, inventive ideas and stories which will bring about the real change that the politicians are just talking about.
The change we are going through will demand not just quick fixes for the economy, or even a different policy about the war. It will entail a radical new approach to the whole basis of our civilization. In the coming years, we the people will have to create a different environment for our children to grow in – one that enlivens their Spirit instead of deadening It. Why do children take drugs? No, the answer isn’t that the war on drugs isn’t going well. Our children are drugging themselves because they have come into a dead and deadening world and they want something more. While their adolescent bodies are exploding with change and energy, they are forced to sit in classrooms learning uninteresting facts with their minds instead of learning some trade that puts them into their bodies so they can understand and deal with what they are becoming. We need to change our views of education so that we teach our people how to be human before we teach them how to become workers.
And the list goes on and on for ways we can revolutionize our culture. Just because we can invent something doesn’t mean that it is good for us. In reality, it’s not about the Economy – it’s about our vision of a fulfilled life. Once we take the emphasis off the economy and put it on creating a fulfilling and responsible lifestyle, we might actually have the democracy that our Founding Fathers imagined.
The Sabian symbol for 18º Aquarius, the degree of the Eclipse: A man’s secret motives are being publicly unmasked. On the collective level, this might indicate that the truth behind the Bush administration’s machinations will finally be revealed in the waning months of his administration. But we already know most of what he’s done – and nothing is being done about it. On a personal level, this degree calls us to face the truth, speak our truth, live our truth and share our truth freely without fear. 2008 is shaping up to being an interesting year.
With the other planets in the eclipse chart sending good wishes, great energy and the power to ground in change for this ‘sacred marriage’, we can all sing “Imagine” together as we sit around the sacred and eternal fires of life. Our companions are all those, living and dead, who dare to dream big about the possibilities of life on our mother, Earth.
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