June 18 – July 12
To have a Mercury retrograde smack in the middle of eclipse season is quite something, and this one’s message is loud, even if it is also nebulous and indirect. We have a total of six planets retrograde in late June. Mercury Rx joins Jupiter, Saturn, Pluto and Venus who are all already retrograde. And days after Mercury goes retrograde, Neptune also becomes retrograde.
That leaves ONLY Mars and Uranus in forward motion.
This suits our collective atmosphere all too clearly. Mars wants action, to take a stand, to fight for something. And Uranus espouses rebellion and freedom.
All of the DETAILS of the RE-visions are still up in the air- hence the REtrogrades.
And “up in the air” is actually all too apt a phrase considering the massive dominance of AIR energy at the moment, thanks the North Node in Gemini, Venus Rx in Gemini and Saturn in Aquarius playing staring roles.
Air is the element connected to thoughts and ideas, and everyone seems to have something to say about everyone and everything right now. Some of the messages are nuanced, relevant, pertinent, urgent even. Much of it is malicious, mean-spirited, judgmental and in some cases factually inaccurate or deliberately misleading. This is the energetic spectrum of Gemini. And we see Gemini’s impulse to speak and share information and opinions everywhere these days.
The tool of Gemini, the messenger of Gemini, is of course- Gemini’s ruling planet, Mercury. So this Mercury retrograde has added importance given the dominance of Gemini energy at the moment.
WHAT are we sharing? HOW are we communicating it? We have to be honest with ourselves as we ask those questions now.
Are we being effective at getting our point or our feelings across? Or are we just engaging in an emotional release exercise that we are masquerading as some other cause or concern?
Cancer, unlike bookish and data-driven Gemini, is all about subjective feelings and emotions. It is undeniably important that we have the language and tools (Mercury) to express our inner feelings and experiences (Cancer) clearly.
However, the challenge comes when we are so deep in our own subjective experience that we cannot see beyond it. And then we can easily fall into the lower-vibrational Cancerian expressions of victimhood, martyrdom, passive aggression, manipulation, and withholding. It is possible now to amplify these messages loudly (and mistakenly) during Mercury retrograde to ill effect. We can cause damage in our personal lives, and in our contribution to the collective, by clinging to what “our tribe” (Cancer) says is true (Mercury), and judging and blaming others who see the world differently.
The higher vibrational possibilities of Mercury Rx in Cancer encourage empathetic listening (Cancer) to those we may previously have dismissed (Mercury Rx). As an experiment, I would encourage everyone now to read from a news source they may not normally attend to. Or have a genuinely open-minded conversation with a friend, neighbor or family member who we know holds different opinions that might normally trigger us. In reality, we may be afraid of those we consider to be at odds with us ideologically – Cancer is, after all, first and foremost concerned with personal safety and security.
Mercury Rx in Cancer can be highly reactive and emotional, so challenging ourselves to NOT be reactive while exploring different ideas and points of view, could be one of the most difficult yet rewarding things we can take on right now. If we are able to train ourselves to maintain any kind of balance or equilibrium in the midst of the mud-slinging, then we will have mastered (or at least strengthened) a skill that will be deeply valuable to us in the upcoming months and years.
*image courtesy of ladyscorpio101.com
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