Re-think

As Mercury glides towards its home sign of Gemini, my Sun sign, entering it on Friday, 2nd May, and prepares to retrograde in Gemini from 26th May to 19th June, I am thinking of re-thinking the format of this blog. Very much a task for Mercury rx in Gemini, I’d say.

Having just moved jobs and cities less than a month ago, I am currently still half living out of boxes. At the same time, I am travelling for most of May, so I am not likely to see any stability in my routine until mid-June.

I will try and blog on and off while I am on the road, if the retrograde allows me access to the internet! However, I am still uncertain as to what form the new format should take. I may carry on as I have for the rest of the year, making small modifications as I go along, or I may try and post more often, giving each incident and entry its own post, instead of logging it onto one long post. Or try something else altogether. I don’t really know yet.

That last paragraph is an example of someone with Sun-Mercury in Gemini thinking aloud. I understand that its lack of certainty is frustrating to those who’d prefer to know, but I hope you will bear with me while I work it out. I’ve long learned to trust my instincts — it may seem like my thoughts are meandering, but each option is being simultaneously weighed out in my mind, and the answer will emerge out of the cogitation, like a card from a deck being shuffled.

In the meantime, enjoy the sociability and chattiness of Mercury in Gemini for most of May, and some of you may even find yourselves bursting with the desire to put your ideas into words, but also remember to back up all your data in anticipation of the retrograde in June!

 

Merc Rx in Aquarius, January/February 2008: UK and world events

Mercury retrogrades from 23° 52′ to 8° 19′ Aquarius, from 28 January to 18 February 2008.
The back-end shadow period lasts from 19 to 27 January 2008 and the front-end shadow period from 19 February to 9 March 2008.

This is a selected list of events that occurred during this period. It will be updated periodically until 9 March 2008.

 

Merc Rx and me, January/February 2008

Mercury retrogrades from 23° 52′ to 8° 19′ Aquarius, from 28 January to 18 February 2008.
The back-end shadow period lasts from 19 to 27 January 2008 and the front-end shadow period from 19 February to 9 March 2008.

I am discounting the usual glitches and disruptions to do with missed appointments, computer trouble and travel delays. This is a list of events that stood out.

 

The Internet and the oceans

On 31 January, it was announced that several undersea internet cables had been cut. This occurred shortly after Mercury went retrograde in Aquarius. Mercury is the planet of communications and Aquarius rules not just technology but also the egalitarian nature of the internet, Aquarius being the sign of the humanitarian.

This incident brings to light not only the connectedness of human society (ideally) embodied by the internet (it is clear that not everyone is connected and the question of uneven access is always contentious), but also calls attention to how fragile those connections might be. It also calls attention to the intimate connection between those networks and the raping of oceans we are experiencing as symptomatic of the central crisis of our times.

 

Merc rx in Aquarius — connecting the inner self with the outer world

In an earlier post, I summarised Eric Francis’ themes for Mercury retrograde in Aquarius as a reminder to ourselves ‘to get in touch with our own humanity that we may thus get in touch with the collective’. Robert Wilkinson expresses it in more grounded terms, but the main themes are there.