While I am far from being an astrologer in any form, over my years as a shamanic practitioner I have seen how the movement of the planets and stars affects us in mass.  I have noted currents moving through all my clients as well as myself. When I mention these trends to one of my friends that is more savvy in the astrological department they will say, "Oh yes, that is because so and so is such and such."

Shamanically speaking, (which by the way is my department) healing and evolution do not take place in a straight line but rather along the sacred spiral following the same cycle but hopefully from a higher perspective each pass.  This fits right in with all the movements of our solar system through the universe and its effect upon us, i.e. astrology.

Over the years I have noticed that poor ol' Mercury has a bad reputation, or at least a mixed one.  When it is direct it is mostly forgotten but when it goes retrograde deals go awry, electronics act as if they are possessed or quit working all together and communications go south.  We survived another of these periods from July 22 through August 15.

It occurred to me, that because it seems Mercury is always going retrograde, we might as well learn to work with it and take advantage of what it offers rather than grit our teeth and just try and endure its effects avoiding any deal making, contract signing or communicating until it is over.

During Mercury retrograde, we are going backwards. Because of this we are given an opportunity to go to back, dredge along the bottom of our psyche and unearth the things that we left behind on the last pass.

We have fallen into the trap of viewing going backwards as an undesirable thing.  In our society where forward movement and progress is so revered, the benefits of going backwards and under the surface of things is mostly forgotten or at least overlooked.  As a result, most people think of it as a bad time, everything is going backwards, nothing is going forwards, a time when we have to put everything on hold.

Yet, if we just put everything on hold until after the dreaded Mercury retrograde we're missing a wonderful opportunity to go deeper into our process. If we use the time to go inward and back into unprocessed areas of ourselves, we have much less baggage dragging us down and our forward movement is greatly enhanced on the other side of the retrograde.

If we chose to cooperate with Mercury in retrograde, we find ourselves digging deeper into past issues, unearthing a lot of unprocessed stuff.  Then there is this time just as the retrograde is starting to come into direct again when there's this pause because it's changing directions. Any time you change directions there is a point when there is a pause in movement.  You are neither going forward or backward.  It is a still point if you will.  In that still point what we have is this soup of our past, unprocessed issues, Fomorian energy, that we're breaking apart and pulling forward, mixed with what's going on in the present, plus what we've intended for the future.  This soup is briefly suspended there in time and we are sitting in it. (Far from my favorite stage of the process) At this time we can feel totally blinded and stuck.   

Then, thankfully, it starts to move again, go direct and we start to thrust forward.  The extent we were willing to go deep and dig up unprocessed things to be cleared dictates the quality, speed and the power of the thrust forward. 

If we have done a lot of dredging, when we thrust forward we have additional freed up energy released by the clearing of old issues. By letting go of things that no longer serve we have more personal power on deck to power our future. During this time, things are falling away and it can be quite chaotic. We can feel like we are in a time of great loss. This is part of why Mercury retrograde has a bad name. Even as we are coming out of retrograde it can be a wild ride.

Yet, it's very, very important to reframe our view. This isn't a bad disintegration, this is freeing up of the energies that we need in order to manifest our future.  All the work that we have done, digging around in the past things during the retrograde is now paying us off by sorting out what needs to drop away and transmuting the energy for our future.

Then, as we move forward with this huge thrust, (preferably we've done a lot of deep work and have a lot of power behind us), things can feel out of control. We can be moving so fast that we have trouble containing it all. This is time to let go and let God.  Trust this power is taking us to the future we have chosen to experience. It is like the Hopi Elders describe as "going down a river moving very fast", there is a strong current created by our intended creations and the flow of life itself.  It is, however, our responsibility to keep our heads above water, follow our promptings in each moment, and navigate around the rocks.

The rocks would be things that still haven't been processed, where we run the risk of running into other people's issues.  We never just totally arrive. There are always more things of the past that are needing to fall away in their time but are still present in our lives, so we have to take note of them, not put them into denial but rather navigate around them.  It is important to acknowledge our issues but not identify with them.  Put them on the list to address the next opportunity to clear them cycles around.  

Also, as we navigate our river and unexpected blocks or incidents come up it is time to ask ourselves, how does this serve what I've intended. And if it doesn't, we go around it, because Mercury retrograde will come back and if it's a big issue you will be able to deal with it again in the future.

Some issues that come up are still debris from our last dredging process that we need to deal with, particularly if they create a huge block between us and where we're intending to go. It is good to look at all blocks that come up and ask: does this serve my future in some way that I'm not seeing, does this need to be processed outright now before I move forward or is this something that I need to negotiate around right now and come back and deal with later.  It may even be something we will just rise above on the next pass. It is a mixed bag and only in consistent communion with ourselves and with Spirit can we find safe and efficient passage. It takes work yet it is the passage that leads us to our manifestation and freedom from the system. Our path home is found by working with these currents that are so generously provided by our solar system and by the Earth herself.

In Friendship,

Gwilda Wiyaka

 

Journey Questions are designed for individuals that have taken Path Home Shamanic Arts School's Lower or Upper world Journey Class.  These classes are designed to instruct a person on the successful access use and interpretation of the shamanic trance.

In preparation for the next time Mercury goes retrograde:

Given my bottom line,

1. How can I best prepare myself in order to take advantage of the next time Mercury goes retrograde?
2. Given my intentions for my life, what are the next issues I have an opportunity to clear?
3. How can I best use this time to do so?