Mercury Retrograde Sept.24-Oct.15, 2008

Three times a year, for three weeks, the planet mercury appears, from planet earth, to go backwards in our sky. The truth is, mercury is still whizing around the sun, moving forward, but to us mercury is moving backward. These kinds of mis-understandings are more common during the three weeks that mercury is retrograde. Just like this image, each of us lives in our own "telephone head" where we hear what we think we hear and see what we think we see, but in reality, this is our own personal experience. What is communicated between two "telephone heads" can easily be misunderstood. During this three weeks, remember that each of us is in our own head, when we communicate with others. During this time, there are some important guidelines for a more graceful, and even fun time:

1. Always double check dates and times
2. Always have a back-up plan
3. Communicate with extra care
4. Have patience
5. Be flexable
6. Know that mercurial glitches will happen
7. Be able to let go of a fax machine that is not working
8. Stop, breathe, let it go
9. Review whatever needs reviewing
10. Dig into our past to find treasures
11. Notice the syncronicity of our past emerging
12. If you need to, speak to planet mercury about it.

For activists, parents and mates, people's minds are most open to change during a mercury retrograde period than at any other time. Retrograde periods are times of review and rectification with our past. This one is in Libra, the sign of the balancing fall equinox, the place where male and female, self and other, seek to find balance. This three weeks, we will review relationships. This is a perfect time to clean out the closet, releasing the old, to make way for the new. This is a great time to re-pattern, by replacing old patterns with new ways that support our conscious evolution.

During the three weeks between September 24 and October 15, it is best not to sign contracts or begin new projects. If you do either of these things, it is likely you will repeat steps and need to redo things. This is a great time to pull out old projects that needed redoing or that piece of writing that just needs one more edit; a perfect time for re- words, renovation, reconsideration, recognition, remember, re-do, re-calculate, re-negotiate, re-file, re-store, re-write, re-imagine, re-work, respect.

Between September 24 and October 15, your mind will be worked on, by the evolutionary forces of life. If you find you are having a difficult time with communications devices, even your own mind, take it to nature, breathe, and return to devices and communications issues, refreshed. Renewed perspective makes all the difference.

Photo Credits: top: "Loop_oh" on flickr
middle: "malias" on flickr
Bottom: Scenic Telephone Box - "fakelvis" on flickr

Pluto Direct - Power Check

PLUTO DIRECT - On Monday, September 8th, Pluto went direct at 28 degrees of Sagittarius. This retrograde has been a force in our lives since April 2nd, 2008, when Pluto went retrograde at one degree of Capricorn. Pluto had made the transition from Sagittatius to Capricorn, and then, on April 1st/2nd, said, "April Fools! i'm moving back to Sagittarius, there is a little more work to do at the bottom of the Sagittarian barrel of beliefs."

Pluto has been digging deep into our belief system to find any weak links we may have. Wherever we believe we do not have enough power to meet the challenges we face, we see the weak link in our belief system. Those are the places we need to focus on dismantling and rebuilding in this transition, between now and November 26, 2008, When Pluto makes the archetypal shift, for real, into Capricorn, Earth. We may have found ourselves, in one form or another, over this past five months in a pluto initiation of our power or lack of power, or (whatever our story is about our lack of ability to create the world we truly want). This Pluto retrograde purification of old shadow, old victim and old "giving away our power" dynamics, has shown each of us, where and how we give away our power to something which we then feel oppressed by. That whole dynamic happens inside of us. Our personal version of that pattern is what we are being given an opportunity to release. Whatever it was that came up as a challenge, during the month of August, this is our place of powerlessness and purification, our place of release--Now.

From April 2nd through yesterday, we have been in a season of Pluto Retrograde: dust storms of shadow from the past. These shadowy dust storms made it difficult for us to see where we were going. The storms have stirred up a bunch of shadowy dust that is still clearing away. Now, as Pluto is moving direct, it is time for us to once and for all, CLAIM OUR POWER. We must once and for all CLEAR OUR BELIEF STRUCTURE of any victim consciousness. We must claim the truth that every thought, every word and every action is an expression of our power here, and will create and affect. As Pluto moves into Capricorn for real, our thoughts will manifest more profoundly and more deeply. It is time to build the world we have been imagining for the last fifteen years, even if it is one thought, one word, one piece of writing at a time. As this Pluto shift becomes more manifest, we'll have the opportunity, more than ever before, to brick by brick, build the world we dream.
This is a time of cleaning up our beliefs, to prepare for what could be an increased level of power in our Capricornian physical form hands. PLUTO/PURE POWER moves from the realm of FIRE-Sagittarius (imagination/beliefs), to the realm of EARTH-Capricorn (form). During this last fifteen years or so of Pluto in Sagittarius, we have explored all possibilities of how power can manifest through ourselves, or through others, in our imagination. We've imagined all the best and worst scenarios for our future. We have been preparing, in our minds, our beliefs and our friendships all over the world, for this power to move from the realm of the mind, to the realm of the earth. That shift is about to take place from the reference point of our power. PLUTO, Power, in Sagittarius, the sign associated with higher mind and wisdom, has empowered in all of us, great understandings, through our connections to sources of information on the web, other people and other places in the world. As Pluto moves into Capricorn, we will all be asked by the evolutionary forces of our lives, to put all that we know, into practical application on the earth.

The important concept to get, for this transition is the old over said idea: "Every Thought Creates Form." Focus of attention and intention is Power in the Physical world. If we believe we are at the effect of the physical world, then Pluto in Capricorn could be highly oppressive. Now is the time to reprogram the mind. No matter what may have been true until now, Now we get to write the story. We must know that we can effect change in any moment with a thought that will affect the physical world. We ARE that powerful and we must build that into our belief system.