Mer­cury turns ret­ro­grade on July 26^th, at 23 degrees of Leo, and turns direct again on August 19^th at 11 degrees of Leo. I men­tioned this upcom­ing ret­ro­grade in my most recent radio show on Sat­ur­day July 21^st. Here is the link to that show: Radio Show. If you move the progress bar for the play­back to about 18 min­utes into the show, by click­ing in the play­er progress win­dow, you can hear my thoughts about this, (rough­ly 11 min­utes of com­men­tary). And, while you are there you might want to see what oth­er shows and top­ics might inter­est you too.

The expe­ri­ence you will have with Mer­cury ret­ro­grade depends upon your lev­el of spir­i­tu­al aware­ness. To the extent that you know your­self and equal­ly under­stand your world, well to that same extent you will expe­ri­ence a greater mea­sure of free will. You will choose how to meet each day, guid­ed by an open mind, a lov­ing heart and a cen­tered will.

If you are more awake and aware, your per­cep­tion and sen­si­tiv­i­ty to the shift­ing ener­gies formed by the plan­e­tary influ­ences will be held and under­stood as being nei­ther harm­ful or benef­ic for you or any­one else…these uni­ver­sal ener­gies “just are”. It is up to each of us, by rais­ing up our self-aware­ness to deter­mine whether we will live our lives as free or sub­servient to these Winds of the Spirit.

Many will com­plain over the next many weeks, that Mer­cury ret­ro­grade has brought them into a series of annoy­ances, dif­fi­cul­ties or even greater harm. But the fault lies not in Mer­cury at all, but in our own fail­ure to under­stand and make use of this change in the “Astro­log­i­cal Weather”.

When Mer­cury is ret­ro­grade we are offered an oppor­tu­ni­ty to shift our nor­mal men­tal dis­po­si­tions and con­sid­er­a­tions into a more reflec­tive, pen­sive and intro­spec­tive mode. We, like Mer­cury, need to turn back upon our­selves and re-exam­ine our minds, to be ever more self-reflec­tive and take this time to recon­sid­er our thoughts, to ques­tion our means and mech­a­nisms of per­cep­tion, and to revise and improve our avenues and tools of com­mu­ni­ca­tion too.

If we do this, we will use this ener­gy shift as it is meant to be expe­ri­enced, for self-exam­i­na­tion, repair and renewal.

Of course, we all live very busy lives, and though it would be nice to take a 3‑week break, to go on a retreat or to par­take in some form of a vision quest, our oblig­a­tions to fam­i­ly, com­mu­ni­ty and the larg­er world will usu­al­ly not allow us to do so.

But we can take time, every day, maybe as the day begins, and cer­tain­ly at the end of each day, (and per­haps we will find some time dur­ing the day too), to pause, turn around and con­sid­er why we are think­ing about some­thing in a cer­tain way, why we are writ­ing or speak­ing with that tone or atti­tude. And, maybe we will under­stand that we can and should try to refine, renew and rebuild our self-under­stand­ing. And when we have done this, we can turn out­wards and renew our sacred spaces with one anoth­er by forg­ing a bet­ter under­stand­ing of one anoth­er too.

For this ret­ro­grade, Mer­cury is mov­ing through the sign of Leo. It is focus­ing this oppor­tu­ni­ty to reset and renew upon our heart, upon how we might bet­ter under­stand and live with greater love, hon­or and respect for one anoth­er. Plant the seeds of bet­ter tomor­rows by treat­ing those before you as you wish to be treat­ed too.

The weath­er is chang­ing, and you would be wise to make use of this gift of the Spirit.

Be wise like the ser­pent, and gen­tle as a dove.

The path to wis­dom is forged in humil­i­ty and grace.

Bow down to Her­mes, the mes­sen­ger who brings gifts from above.

Open your heart, and you will be wise.