Cosmic News November 9, 2012
As the cosmic
energies reach dynamic heights this month due to Mercury's retrograde, Neptune's
station direct and the total solar eclipse on November 13, it’s helpful to
cultivate a "big-picture" perspective as we navigate through life's happenings.
The big picture? Life is a process of atoms flowing through time and space. We
inhabit a planet floating in empty space, spinning in a galaxy that exists in a
universe that goes on forever. Things happen all the time that are absolutely
outside our control. That’s just a fact of human existence and one we must
allow for. This month we are cultivating the talent to ride the waves and not
resist the natural ebbing inherent to the journey. This month's planetary
configurations are supporting us in gaining increased skill at choosing
consciously how to respond to whatever life puts before us. With awareness, we
are poised to make the best out of whatever shows up and better yet, to
cultivate the awe to be found in the journey of life expressing itself in so
many diverse, unique and often surprising ways.
We are deepening the integration of our spiritual self with our human self. As
human beings, we are not immune to normal human responses to human
experiences. We may feel we should be "above" those darker emotions once we take
the spiritual journey but it doesn't work that way. Part of the experience of
being human is having challenging emotions. As a spiritual being we just
remember that when we do, we admit that to ourselves and allow our divine self
to guide us in managing them. The problem is not that we have negative
emotions--the problem is that most of us have been conditioned to repress or
deny that we do or to feel bad about ourselves because we do. We are learning
how to accept all facets of our humanness, including all the darker traits that
emerge, and learning that when we admit to feeling what we are feeling that
spirit will guide us to new responses to those shadow facets of human nature.
Our job this month is to consciously establish a partnership with our spirit,
our Divine Self and to ask for help in managing fear, shame, guilt, anger,
worries, anger and all facets of our human experience.
At the total solar eclipse at 21 degrees of Scorpio on Tuesday, Mercury and
Neptune are in 90 degree angle to one another and activating the May 20 solar
eclipse in Gemini that initiated the process of laying new neural pathway in our
human brain--pathways that support the integration of our divine and human
self. The major theme this month? We
must go beyond the universe the ego has created.
Neptune
symbolizes the process of our re-membering that we are both divine beings as
well as human beings. In perfect cosmic timing, Mercury's retrograde cycle
supports this same process--it is designed to open the lines of communication
between our conscious and unconscious or in other words, our spiritual being and
our human being. In essence, what all this equates to in practice is that we'll
find it impossible (agonizing!) to ignore the voice of our spirit or Divine
Self.
Neptune's influence, symbolizing "oneness consciousness," is often experienced
by the ego as disorientation, confusion, spaciness, free-floating anxiety and
mental, physical and/or emotional fatigue. So, if you've been experiencing any
of those symptoms, it's just your spirit trying to get your ego to let go of the
reins. Neptune's influence is ego-transcending and it weakens the barrier the
ego puts up to spirit. Neptune also symbolizes that part of us that refuses to
accept the limitations of the formed world because deep inside each and every
one of us is the knowing that it was only in our forgetting of our Divinity that
we created the illusion of separation and all the horrors and insanity that are
an outgrowth of that. Neptune's influence reminds us of our unity and oneness
and it speaks to us through dreams and extrasensory and meditative experiences.
Under Neptune's influence we are encouraged to relieve ourselves of narrow
self-interests and to trust our sixth sense (intuition) more than we trust the
five physical senses.
I feel it very important here to state again that something in each and every
one of us understands this evolutionary impetus perfectly. And that something in
us has been patiently slipping through the cracks in the ego's armor for quite
some time now. That something in us is our eternal self, and it's eager to drop
all the ego's pretenses, judgments, worries, fears, and self-importance. We are
primed for metamorphosis but like the caterpillar before it is transformed
into the butterfly, we can feel like "mush"--no solid ground beneath our feet,
no certainties about what tomorrow might bring. Indeed, the unknown is certainly
terrifying to the ego! The good news is that we are all going through this
together. We can support each other. Additionally, having an awareness and
understanding of the energetic processes taking place this month will also make
it a lot less scary.
The Mercury Retrograde Process
Mercury symbolizes our mind's logical and linear functions. It's function is to
perceive, think, reason and process information that we receive through our five
physical senses. And when Mercury is direct in motion, mind is oriented to orbit
the ego. Not true when Mercury slips into reverse. Mercury's retrograde cycle is
oriented toward the integration of the conscious and unconscious mind. That's
why when Mercury is retrograde every four months, a mental time-out is demanded.
These mental "time-outs" provided by Mercury's retrograde are as necessary to
our sanity and wellbeing as sleep is to waking.
When Mercury is retrograde our Higher Self or Divine Self has important
information for us and we want to ensure we are open to receiving that
information. And that's really the purpose of Mercury's retrograde cycle in
general--to support us in opening the lines of communication between our
conscious and unconscious or in other words, our spiritual self and our human
self.
The entire retrograde cycle involves a transitional process and ever more so
when Mercury's retrograde cycle involves the regenerating and transformational
sign Scorpio, as it does this cycle. Additionally, when Mercury's retrograde
involves a water sign, the mind is diving into deep emotional waters and
identifying habits and patterns that interfere with a high quality life
experience. To emphasize the significance of this current Mercury retrograde
process, it will activate three different solar eclipse degrees: The solar
eclipse last Thanksgiving at 2 degrees Sagittarius, the May 20 solar eclipse at
0 degrees Gemini and the total solar eclipse occurring next Tuesday (November
13) at 21 degrees of Scorpio. The exact degree of a solar eclipse remains a
sensitized point for at least a year and often even longer. That means that
every time the eclipse degrees are transited by one of the cosmic bodies, it's
reactivated. The eclipse itself puts a spotlight on the house in your birth
chart where it falls--that's the arena of life that needs attention--you need a
breath of fresh air there, it needs to grow in order for you to remain true to
yourself. Mercury's current retrograde corresponds to the same degrees of the
zodiac occupied by these solar eclipses, so it will be further spotlighting the
house involved. Therefore it's very important to identify this house in your
birth chart!
On October 18, Mercury entered its pre-retrograde shadow (that is, it entered
the degree of the zodiac where it will make its station direct.) At that
time, you were put on notice to begin to curtail direct action and just allow
things to unfold of their own accord. During the three weeks leading up to
Mercury's station retrograde on November 6, your inner guide was already
encouraging you to be more the witness and observer of life's happenings and to
put a halt to the ego's planning. This is the time period for you to be a
neutral observer, just witnessing and allowing things to unfold as they do on
their own. You
began receiving signs (intuitive insights) that intended to bring to your
awareness the inner conditions that require reflection while Mercury is
retrograde.
These
conditions will be related to the houses in your birth chart that Mercury:
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