Soul Food-Mercury Retrograde Survival Guide
We have a Mercury Retrograde coming up on December 13th at 8* degrees Capricorn at 2:09 am EST, which will be moving backward into Sagittarius on 12-23-23, starting the FIRE sign retrograde, which will be the focus of 2024. To start the New Year off, Mercury will station direct on Jan 1st, 2024, Alleluia, and then will continue with the fire signs throughout 2024 in April, August & December.
Mercury is how we think, communicate, relay our thoughts to one another, go into our think tanks, and dissect our intellects. It also rules computers, trains, planes & automobiles.
Let me try to explain this metaphorically so the non-astrologer may be able to understand. Envision alchemy, the mystical magic of the Celestial Heavens, where Mercury acts as the Messenger (think your mailman). As he runs his route throughout the year, there are times throughout the year when he takes vacations and his substitute has to step in. Hence, your mail gets dropped off at the wrong house, some days it doesn’t come at all, and then there are the times Amazon leaves your packages in the rain or the snow.
The Sun is the “star” of the show, the center of our Solar System. Three times a year, when the mailman takes his vacation, he rendezvous with the Sun, and each year, he chooses a different neighborhood to meet up with his illustrious star. Some years, he likes to hang out in the stable, solid, financial neighborhoods or hangs out on the industrial parkway with Taureans, Virgoans, & the Wall Street Capricorns. This is where our thought processes evolve around our budgets, organizing our portfolio, and keeping a slow and steady eye on our finances.
When the mailman (Mercury) meets up with the star (Sun) three times a year, our thought processes and communication change. These times of years, when Mercury goes Retrograde, allow us the opportunity to reassess, rethink, revisit our previous way of thinking, and go with the Planetary flow, so to speak. When we align with the planetary alignments in the celestial heavens, we learn how to navigate our route, allowing the magic and mystical alchemical changes needed for our self-actualization and spiritual growth.
2024 brings us the opportunity to navigate Mercury Retrograde in the FIRE signs (Aries, Leo, Sagittarius). This energy will feel quite different from the Mercury Retrograde Earth signs of 2023. We will transition from a slow, determined motion to a start your engines, get ready, set GO! Creativity, high energy, and the impulsive, spontaneous, jump first, think later will be the modus operandi.
Our task at hand will be to strike a balance between being the lead car in the Andy 500 and sitting under the Bodhi tree on the top of a mountain in Bandipur, Nepal. The danger lies in falling prey to our impulsive actions. Fire is quick and has a hot tongue. Watching your words so they don’t burn when they shoot out of your mouth during the Fire retrogrades in 2024 is critical to making it through the verbal forest fire unscathed. (I still would carry a tin of calendula balm with you.).
During your quiet moments of performing your balancing act, take another read of Don Miguel’s The Four Agreements and underline #2: Don’t Take Anything Personally. If you’ve got any secret tips up your sleeve on that one, let me know (I’ve been working on the #2 agreement for a decade now).
More on the Fire sign Mercury Retrogrades of 2024 and how Lady Venus & Wounded Chiron come into play next Spring.
Here’s your Mercury Retrograde Survival Guide:
DON’TS: (Let’s get these out of the way)
- Don’t install new software or decide to overhaul your computer completely (you’re not the Geek Squad) & even if you are, this is NOT the time to do it
- Watch your words; this is the time when people tend to “open mouth, insert foot or whole leg,” and for God’s sake, don’t drunk text or FB after doing shots of Tequila; it’s bad enough when we do it without the
Retrograde - Double-check, triple-check all documents, emails, posts, and appointments; you don’t want to end up in Tijuana when your friend said Topanga, or if you’re in Ohio, the same thing you don’t want to end up stranded in Kinsman when you’re friend is waiting for you in Kirkland
- Don’t sign any important contracts or start a new job
- Hold off signing on the dotted line for that new house or your new Lincoln
- Planes, trains, & automobiles; if at all possible, hold off travel; if you must, triple-check everything; be extra careful with keys, batteries, tires
- HOLD OFF on trying new daring adventures at this time; if you’ve never climbed Mt. Everest, this isn’t the time to decide you’re going to make a name for yourself, (unless you want the headlines to read “first-time climber found missing in an avalanche)…also don’t throw yourself in front of a train just to prove it’s not your “time” to go, (that’s just called ‘dumb-ass’)
DO’S:
- Reassess, redo, relax, rejuvenate, redesign, rethink, reapply, reflect,
- Reconnect with old friends from the past, and don’t be surprised if an ex-lover shows up at your door. This is meant for a reason so healing can happen, and then the two of you can move forward (or get back together). However, I feel it’s the former
- Reorganize your closets, your files
- Rewrite that novel you started months ago
- Revisit that project you abandoned (I have a few of those)
- Something hidden is revealed; be open and aware
THE EXCEPTION:
- If you have a “history” with something, then it’s OK to sign the deal on a house you have a history with (you bid on it months ago, babysat the neighbor kids in that house, etc.).
- If your old boss (whom you liked) is at a new company & offers you a job
- If you’re in sales, cars, real estate, etc., look up former clients you have an established “history” with
- You started building a website & put quite a bit of work into it, then let it sit for months
Is Your Holiday Backpack Too Heavy?
How Mercury Retrograde Affects YOUR Sign
Rosie & I wish you a Blessed Retrograde,
