Mer­cury turns ret­ro­grade once more on March 22^nd and returns to direct motion again on April 15^th. As I not­ed in my lat­est radio show, Mer­cury and all the oth­er plan­ets nev­er reverse direc­tion at all. (You can lis­ten to my pod­cast on Mer­cury ret­ro­grade. It begins at about 11:30 min­utes into the pod­cast, which you can get to by just click­ing in the progress bar until you reach that time in the show). Here is the link to the show: Radio Show on Mer­cury Ret­ro­grade and the Equinox.

All the plan­ets mere­ly appear to move back­wards for a time, three weeks in the case of Mer­cury, about three times a year, and upwards of six months for an out­er plan­et like Sat­urn or Uranus, once per year. When­ev­er Mer­cury is ret­ro­grade, you are asked to bend your thoughts inward, to re-con­sid­er what and how you know, to tru­ly make a bet­ter effort to fol­low the path of Spir­it where there is but one cer­tain truth, that the way to Wis­dom is “to know thyself”.

Though many will com­plain that Mer­cury ret­ro­grade is the root cause of many mis­takes, errors and mis­un­der­stand­ings, that is not the fault of Mer­cury. As the bard Shake­speare so elo­quent­ly put it, “The fault, dear Bru­tus, is not in our stars, but in our­selves, that we are under­lings.” The plan­ets and stars cre­ate mod­u­la­tions of the twelve-fold ener­gy-forms of this uni­verse. But what we make of those gifts of the spir­it, well that depends upon our spir­i­tu­al devel­op­ment, it depends upon our degree of intel­li­gence, wis­dom and love.

As we grow into our greater aware­ness, we will become as wise as a ser­pent, and equal­ly gen­tle as a dove. All great souls pos­sess these traits, and each of us will come into this state of grace some­day. Mean­while, it is best for us all to be hum­ble, to under­stand that our progress is cer­tain but slow, and it depends upon each of us being awake, alert and self-reflective.

The oppor­tu­ni­ty offered to you in this ret­ro­grade can be ascer­tained in two ways. One is by under­stand­ing what sign is involved in the ret­ro­grade. The sec­ond way, is by know­ing through what part of your own chart the ret­ro­grade is tak­ing place. Since the lat­ter qual­i­ty is a very indi­vid­ual fac­tor, let us con­sid­er what the ret­ro­grade in Aries can do for you.

The expe­ri­ence of Aries is to bring you into the realm of what I call your “pres­ence”. No mat­ter what, the most impor­tant thing to be con­scious of, in each and every moment, is to be com­plete­ly focused upon how you meet with what is right before you now. For this is the only space in which you can expe­ri­ence your free­dom to be and become ful­ly human one day. Yes, you must look back at all your pri­or expe­ri­ences and con­sid­er what you have learned; and yes, you must equal­ly look for­ward to the bet­ter you and world you wish to cre­ate. But the only thing that counts in each and every step, the most crit­i­cal moment of all, is how you meet this moment right here, right now.

To that end, Mer­cury ret­ro­grade in Aries can be an instru­ment for guid­ing you to be that much more aware of your­self, to con­sid­er the impor­tance of your pres­ence. By tru­ly under­stand­ing how you appear, and of how you affect those around you, you will be able to more cre­ative­ly and con­scious­ly make the most of every poten­tial held in each of these “pre­cious pearls of the now” in your life.

Mer­cury will turn you back on your­self so that you can see that if you enter a space, or greet some­one with a cer­tain atti­tude and inten­tion, that you will inevitably shape this expe­ri­ence one way or anoth­er. What you must know is that this is the only place you have con­trol to bring about a bet­ter out­come for your­self or oth­ers. Your first step, your first ges­tures and words, they are the means to advance your sto­ry or repeat the errors of your past.

By keep­ing your self-aware­ness focused on the now, through a deep­er self-reex­am­i­na­tion of past mis­takes or mis­steps, you can learn to present your­self in a man­ner that is more appro­pri­ate to every sit­u­a­tion. You can pos­i­tive­ly influ­ence and forge a bet­ter out­come, by break­ing a chain of cau­sa­tion that may have cir­cum­scribed your life (and the life of one or many oth­ers), by just choos­ing to be a bet­ter, more enlight­ened and self-aware actor in the now.

Of course, every­thing mat­ters in this encounter with the now, how you are dressed, how you hold your­self, how you move, but the most impor­tant con­sid­er­a­tion is the state of your self-aware­ness, your pres­ence of mind is the key.

As you turn every cor­ner, as you enter each room, con­sid­er care­ful­ly what you are bring­ing into that space as much as what you encounter in it.

Often­times, I will “remind myself” of this. I will, quite lit­er­al­ly gen­tly slap myself in the face as I come to the turn in “the path”, and I will say to myself, “Now stay alert, be prepared…your future is just around the bend!”

May you be as wise as a ser­pent, and gen­tle as a dove.

May you walk the path of Wisdom.

May you choose to stand in the Light.