Mercury is in retrograde (in Gemini!) from May 18th to June 11th. What does this mean, exactly? Retrograde happens when a planet slows down in its usual orbit, appears to move backwards and is in a resting state, thus leaving all the areas it rules to run amok.
Here's the thing: I don't "believe" in astrology as much as I
acknowledge the truth within it. Case in point? I know how to cut my hair by the moon. (Yes, it works.)
According to Susan Miller of AstrologyZone, Mercury rules communication of every kind. That means listening, talking, learning, reading, editing, researching, negotiating, buying and selling. It doesn't stop there. That list includes formal contracts
and agreements as well as any other important papers like leases, wills,
deeds, book manuscripts and such. This planet also rules travel,
transportation, shipping and all kinds of code. So when your cell phone is constantly going in and out, when Skype won't work, when the email you carefully composed disappears from your screen all of a sudden, you know it's in full effect. The kicker is that because it's in Gemini and this is the sign that governs the same areas as Mercury, the effect could be twice as powerful.
Fun stuff.
When this stitch in time happens, I try to make myself scarce and stick to a routine to keep my equilibrium: morning workouts, practice sessions, low key evenings. I declutter like crazy. I eat clean. I double check everything. I'll send a text and follow up with an email, to make sure my message went through. I'm painfully aware of everything I do and say. Blah, blah, blah.
At 1:02pm Eastern Standard Time on October 4th, Mercury goes retrograde in Scorpio. It'll go retrograde in Libra on October 10th until it things go back to normal on October 25th. Whenever this backward spin somehow drags everything forward, I usually get a sudden ah-ha moment when my hard drive stops working or a phone call won't connect *or something!* that makes me feel like a gigantic hippie. And then everyone in my world lets out this collective groan as they brace themselves for the inevitable -- miscommunications, missed connections, problems with electronics of any kind, having to hurry up and wait for the most basic things, and so on.
Like the pull of the moon on the water, it seems that the planets are always yanking hard in some way or another. When Mercury is in retrograde -- having the appearance of traveling
backwards in the sky -- it takes on aspects of the planet in whose house
it resides. Every planet has its own attributes. Scorpio is emotional intensity. Libra is balance.
You've heard all this before, haven't you: don't get married, don't sign any contracts, don't start a new business, don't spend any money, don't make any important decisions, don't buy anything new. I don't pay any attention to any of that stuff until I'm looking for an explanation as to why something weird happened. When all else fails, I hibernate -- especially when it's cold. Aside from slathering myself with gobs of patience, crawling through a 7 day cleanse along with 21 days of eating clean and a fairly steady diet of bikram yoga should be enough of a calming distraction.
The thing to do is redo, renew, review -- and, for me at least, rehearse. I'll be singing and playing at Lincoln Center on November 15th as a finalist in the Mountain Stage NewSong Contest, so this month is prep time. I dug through my hard drive and found three songs I forgot I had. What's especially annoying is that one of them is really good.
According to astrologists everywhere, Mercury will be in retrograde in Scorpio from 10/21 to 11/10. Everything will be wonky for the next three weeks -- eight weeks for the whole thing, according to some. That means the entire month of November is a bust, if you're enough of a hippie to follow that sort of thing. And let's face it: isn't there a little bit of a hippie in all of us?
How wonky will things get? I suppose that depends on who you ask -- and which planet rests in your sign. I think it feels like my world is still turning and yet everything is on pause. This gives me a moment to assess and reassess, and get my proverbial house in order.
Here's a few highlights. (You've heard this stuff before, right?)
Expect lots of missed calls, missed appointments, wrong messages, computer glitches, your smartphone on the fritz, misleading information, weird misunderstandings, slower connections and the like -- because Mercury rules communication.
It also affects all modes of travel, so expect traffic jams, delays, holdups, etc.
Commitments made during this period are most often not kept, so don't make any binding agreements of any kind (ie marriages, contracts)
No medical appointments. No surgery. (Mercury rules the hands, apparently.)
Don't start anything new -- no relationships, no jobs, no splashy career moves -- because according to lore, they won't last.
This moment is all about ordering your inner world. (Sounds like a spa visit is in order.)
'Tis the season to trim the fat from your life in every way imaginable, whatever that means. Let go of excess. Tie up loose ends. Finish whatever you started -- whatever it is.
This is a good time to clear the decks -- edit your closets, clear out that pesky junk room, get organized.
It's also a good time to deal with anything that's lingering, whether it's spiritual (forgive that idiot), emotional (the ex you're still in love with), work-related (finish that frackin' project) or physical (drop that last 10 lbs already)
Rewrites are favored -- so, there's my silver lining.
And I thought I was having a spring cleaning fit.
This nice white robot lady explains Mercury in retrograde in fairly clear terms. Enjoy!
i tried to stay home all month, like an urban hermit that's taken a vow of antipeople: just me, my guitar and my bright ideas. i have no idea why. something instinctively compelled me to close the door upon myself. in retrospect, it wasn't a bad notion -- not this august, anyway. it was oppressively hot, dangerously hot. so hot, it felt as though the sun pummeled me about the head and shoulders with a bright yellow sledgehammer whenever i went outside. running around at night was no fun, either. the heat was still on and on and on, muted yet insolent enough to sass me, with the kind of sweat that made my entire backside sticky mere minutes after i stepped into it.
navigating the city on the weekends was unthinkable. there's just too many drunken idiots out there, trying desperately to dress like they're in new york city and pushing hard to make sure they have some kind of new york city fun. it's exhausting, just being around them. in the end, they're the epitome of the generic and the average and the ordinary that they're attempting to escape. why? because there is no escaping who or what you really are. to paraphrase the great john lee hooker, it's in you -- whatever it is -- and it's gots to come out. especially if it's your culturally condoned incompetence.
as if all of that weren't enough -- and you know it is -- there's more: mercury was in retrograde for practically the entire month. it seems that everything is crawling out from under that introspective boulder right about now. not that i co-sign astrology but when i read it from my comfy bunker in harlem, it seemed to explain a lot. and yes -- if you're enough of a hippie enough to know what any of that means, you probably wanted to stay home and avoid the world, too.
yes, of course there's the stuff that's absolutely necessary. church. boxing. foraging for victuals at the dominican grocery store up the street. the rest was extra and although there were some things that couldn't be avoided -- a weekend getaway, perhaps or a get together with friends -- i zipped home as fast as my well-toned legs would carry me.
yet and still, i felt compelled to hibernate. this special month of record breaking heat waves, golf ball-sized hail and water main break flooding, topped off by a hurricane found me at home, growing things -- working on the libretto for the billie holiday project (it goes up in september at dixon place), practicing guitar, vocalizing with my slightly out of tune piano, making several submission deadlines for all kinds of stuff and writing more songs and lyrics.
hurricane irene turned out to be the icing on my summer cake.
i can't even tell you how many southern relatives called me, laughing at the yankees they saw on the news who were frolicking on the beach under such ominous skies, and ignoring warnings from the police and fire department. my aunt in charleston south carolina told me one supergenius somewhere on the jersey shore remarked that he lived on the second floor of his building, so he would be fine. hilarious!
for everyone in her neck of the woods, hurricane season is just starting. they've got another two months or so to live through -- bracing themselves the same way some yankees did: shopping for food, taping up windows, filling the tub with water, unplugging everything, burrowing themselves in shelters or leaving the state entirely, well into the month of november. they do it every year during hurricane season. it's a way of life.
how well i remember the many hurricanes of my southern childhood, when we would turn off all the lights and throw open all the windows and unplug everything and gather in the den and pray. even a summer storm could turn violent and deadly. all of us -- cousins and uncles and aunts and my grandparents -- huddled together in the darkness. we were so collectively solemn and profoundly unshaken for the most part, even when the lightning would streak across the sky and a powerful clap of thunder would follow, and shake the ground itself.
listen, my grandfather would say, after an especially loud jolt would rattle me all the way down to my little girl bones, and i would shudder involunarily. it was almost as though my body knew to be scared, even if i didn't. listen, he murmured softly, holding his pipe between his thumb and first finger, the ashes glowing in the darkness. he would lean forward and point at me and give me a knowing look. listen, he would say. God is talking.
apropos of nothing, i leave you with one of my favorite neil young songs, like a hurricane. what a beautiful love song.
as of today, mercury is in retrograde until september 12th. this means that means the planet mercury slows down and looks as though it's going backwards, even though it isn't -- kind of the way the local subway train is neck and neck with the express line and seems to go backwards when it nears its next station as the faster train zips by.
i should say that although i sound like a massive hippie that reeks of pachouli and b.o. and good vibes, i'm actually a penny-pinching, health-conscious, meat-eating vegetarian that makes every attempt to become more and more aware of *sigh* the circle of life *pause* and how so much in the world affects all of us. so, no -- i don't follow astrology, per se. but i'm aware of how the planets and stars can enrich our lives, if we're paying attention. i still clip my plants and cut my hair according to the pull of the moon, the way my great-grandmother taught me. (the farmer's almanac is a friend of mine!) more on that little tidbit some other time.
mercury is in retrograde four times this year -- quite unusual. what kind of a ride you get depends on what sign mercury is in retrograde within. this time around, it's virgo. critical, critical virgo. intellectual, yes. but critical. and whaddya know? virgo is also ruled by mercury, so this should make things especially sticky. and interesting.
everyone i know is dreading the next few weeks, for all the funk that's coming down the pike. there's always havoc in the air, stuff always goes screwy. but i've decided to look for the silver lining this time around. because this time around, i'm not going to freak out when things break down, when the subway never comes, when my phone won't work, when i miss opportunities because of missed calls or when my computer slows to a crawl. i'm not going to lose it if something out of my past rears its ugly head, no matter who or what it is. i'm going to rise above all this stuff and -- you guessed it! -- go with the flow.
i'm also going to clean and reorganize this apartment, clear out that junk room, throw out a lot of stuff and edit my closets. get my piano tuned. find a good seamstress and get some vintage clothes altered for the fall -- especially those wiggle dresses. work on my left hook and my right cross. do a little bit everyday to get stronger, get healthier and get my body back.
that's it for now, my fellow hippies. now, get back on your grind.
