Take Me to Your Leader: Mercury Retrograde, Part I

 

Mercury Pre-shadow Period:  March 26 – April 8, 2017

Mercury Retrograde Official Start Date: April 9 – May 2, 2017

Mercury Direct:  May 3, 2017

Post Retrograde Shadow Period:  May 3 – May 21, 2017

2016 ended with Mercury retrograde and 2017 began with it. It seems waaaay to soon to be diving back into the slow downs and frustrations that are associated with this period.   But to be honest with you, I often wonder why we even bother to note the time between retrograde phases.  If you look at the pre- and post shadow phases of Mercury’s orbit around the sun, you start to realize that we spend just as much time under the challenging aspects of Mercury retrograde as under the presumably not-so-challenging aspects of Mercury direct.

Between January and now, we have enjoyed a glorious 57 days of a direct Mercury station.  We entered the current pre-retrograde “shadow” phase on March 26.  The last day of this period’s post-retrograde shadow phase falls on May 21st.  That’s 56 days of what we perceive as Mercury drama.  So it seems that every 55-60 days we fall into and out of Mercury drama.

On April 9^th, Mercury went retrograde. Astrologically speaking, Mercury primarily rules transportation, communication and our ability to think and analyze. Once a quarter, Mercury goes retrograde, which means that from our Earth-bound perspective, it feels like Mercury is moving backward in the sky. With any planet, when it ‘goes retrograde,’ we experience some kind of a breakdown in our normal way of being. So when Mercury goes retrograde, we can experience a breakdown in our ability to transport things (ie cars, public transport, information transport—as in internet and the worldwideweb) our ability to communicate (ie, to speak and to listen and hear… as in “Can you hear the words that are coming out of my mouth?”) and our ability to think and analyze. Astrologers always caution us to not sign contracts and to make large purchases during the Mercury retrograde period because our thinking ability is compromised. We aren’t taking in information as intelligently as we normally do.

Normally, people will react to Mercury retrograde with alarm because things feel sticky, unclear and all of this can be very fatiguing if you are resistant to what is going on. Personally, I’ve learned to relax, let go and let God. The key to mastering and making the most out of any retrograde period is to slow the fuck down. Let go. Let God. When you feel like you are up against a wall—stop pushing and be still. When you feel like you are not being heard—stop speaking and start listening.   When you feel like you are going to collapse under all the pressure—stop resisting and go take a nap. Disconnect.

This Mercury retrograde period is no different.

Right now, the Sun is still in Aries. The sign of Aries is ruled by Mars, so Aries is like a dominant, masculine, energetic warrior that knows what it wants and goes about getting it like a man. It’s symbol is a ram—a short-legged beast with big old furled horns that are meant to ram into things. Don’t feel—just do. When the Sun is in a sign, even those of us who are not born under that sign will still feel that influence. Right now, all of us are feeling a little more energized, zesty, sexy and focused… and maybe a little more ram-like… we’re trying to make shit happen. Fantastic! We should be taking great advantage of this renewed spring-like energy. Mercury retrograde, however, is going to throw a bit of a wrench in that. There are many opportunities that are going to come out of this retrograde period and one of them is about leadership and authority—another Aries quality. One of the beautiful things about Aries is its marriage to its own authority. Aries is a fire sign and like all its brothers, it is its own person. It knows what it wants and it knows how to get it.

Mercury’s retrograde motion, however, is going to make us slow down and rework this.

One of the things on my mind these days is leadership and authority. If you’ve been watching my videos and reading my blog, then you’ll know that for the last several months, I’ve been questioning what it means to have authority, to be under someone else’s authority, and to recover personal authority that was lost or never developed.

I was intuitively led to watch some old episodes of The Walking Dead. I don’t know if you’ve ever watched that show, but it’s about the zombie apocalypse and how community builds in times of trouble. I often wonder why my intuition leads me to things—especially gory, violent weird things like the zombie apocalypse. But last night when I was climbing into bed, it hit me—I was being questioned on my leadership.

In The Walking Dead, there are two men (best friends) who are struggling for dominance in this group that has come together, not by choice, but by ultimate survival. Both men are natural alpha males and seem to act from noble places, meaning, they are basing their actions on the love of other people—not just themselves. But their moral stances are different. Rick has what we value as the higher moral ground—he’s more inclusive, more forgiving, more trusting, more willing to be led by the guidance that comes from of a perspective of love rather than a place of fear. He is brave and willing to risk what he holds dear because of his faith in what is right. He seems to trust in a greater good and he puts things into its hands when he makes decisions. Shane is the darker leader. He is a survivor and he makes a priority of what he holds dear; and he will sacrifice everything around him in order to keep what he loves safe. Shane is not so inclusive—if you will slow down the tribe or bring threat to them in any way… you’re out.

I love stories, especially well-written ones, and this one seems really well done. Jesus taught using parables because he knew that people would be able to get great depths of meaning from stories, rather than just being told what to do. So fictional works of literature and film are fantastic tools to help me see the world and myself.

So when I got into bed last night, I was thinking about my role as leader. One of my thoughts was that I don’t really have the same kind of leadership roles that I used to have. Since turning 18-years-old, I had worked in management in some form or another. In my past, I’ve managed businesses, resources, and people. I’ve never had any formal education in management or business, nor have I intentionally strived for these roles. They were just handed to me because someone looked at me and saw, ‘leader.’ When I was in elementary school, I was elected class president on more than one occasion. I remember in one instance it was kind of just given to me—here, you do it. So yeah, I guess that I am a natural born leader in the three dimensional world. And of course, I’m a natural teacher of spiritual philosophy and a trained spiritual empowerment coach—I am in leadership capacity for those who come to me for guidance and insight.

My leadership style in business was always about knowing the goals, mission and rules of the business and serving that agenda. Easy-peasy. My leadership style as a teacher and coach is to embody the principles that I teach and to lead by example—I walk my talk. Easy-peasy. My videos and blog are about speaking from my natural place of truth.

But the way that I lead myself has been called into question this year. We are currently in a ‘10’ or ‘1’ year numerologically. The number one represents ‘authority.’ The number 10 is the number one with the amplification of zero, which means that this year is about authority on a rocket ship. In other words, this year the Universe has amped up its work to help us reassess outer authority and inner authority and to shift our paradigm of authority to a significantly higher form.

The Walking Dead does a fantastic job of showing me in gory illustrations the choices I have for myself.  Do I go forward in love– trusting that something greater than my limited mind is working through me?  Or do I go in fear– relying solely upon my perception and believing in only what I can see with my eyes?

My work as an energy worker makes me look at all phenomena from beyond the three-dimensional illusory veil. It’s my job to look at world events, not just as humans doing human thing, but rather as unlimited spirit doing things within human limitations.

In the U.S.A. we elected Donald Trump to office (and I say ‘we’ because part of the healing we need to do in the U.S.A. involves suturing the rift we have between the left and the right. Politically and socially, we forget that we are a collective consciousness and instead we deny parts of ourselves. As Americans we must start seeing ourselves as a whole rather than as ‘us’ and ‘them.’ And both liberals and conservatives must confront our collective Shadow that says, “I didn’t do that. That’s not me!”) In electing this president, we chose to put into the highest authority of the land, an agenda that is isolationist and fearful, as seen in those early moves to keep Muslims out of the country. When the election unfolded, I was shocked. And when the official appointees were being made, I was dismayed as I watched the fear-based spread their influence through the White House. Racism, homophobia, misogyny, and xenophobia are at the helm of our mighty ship.

I am a mystic. I see what is happening in the world outside of me as a reflection of what is going on inside of me. While the Universe is forcing us to question our outer world, it is also demanding that we look at the inner world.  My own inner leadership and authority are being called into question. Am I leading myself from the open-hearted optimism of Rick or the fear-for-my-survival Shane?

I know that I have a lot of exploring to do in this area.  This is the first opportunity that is being presented with this retrograde period. How are you leading yourself? Are you being led by your heart or your mind?  Are you led by love or fear?

Now, it just so happens that when Mercury went retrograde on April 9th, Saturn and Venus were also retrograde. Last week I an article titled Venus in Pisces: A Chance for Love, Creative Expression and Profit. Don’t skip it because it’s got some important information in it to help you smooth out your heart and to find the love within and thus love on the outside.   Venus went direct on April 15^th, but the effects of the retrograde motion are still happening and will be through the month of May. So read the article and take advantage of the opportunity that is present. I’ll probably write something about Saturn retrograde, but I have plenty of time to talk about that! Saturn will be retrograde until mid-August! YAY!

Feel free to share your comments. Let me know if you are following fear or heart or both!

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