Reset yourself throughout the day to remembering that you are more than your thoughts. You are more than the person you see in the mirror. You are more than the voice that speaks from your mouth. Reset your spirit self, acknowledging this eternal self who accompanies you throughout life, always has and always will. Anchor more frequently in memories of this spirit self who knows and loves you deeply, who wishes only for you to be fulfilled. Accept that this is your true self and you will be more than well on your way to fulfillment.
The shadow of Mercury in retrograde hovers over this current holiday season, between December 13, 2023 and January 1, 2024. Mercury is the planet of communication, hence miscommunications, poor communications, confused messages and misunderstandings in relationships are likely.
These events can cause frustration, anxiety and brain fog that can also disrupt communications within the self. On the first day of this current Mercury retrograde, I had three clients oversleep and nearly miss their appointments! Don’t take it personally, it’s in the stars!
During a Mercury retrograde, the technological instruments of communication, like cell phones, computers and printers, can also experience disruptions and breakdowns. In fact, all technological instruments and physical objects are vulnerable to breakdown.
The trickster quality of Mercury in retrograde counsels one to exercise caution and prudence when making important decisions, or entering into contracts, during this period. In effect, Mercury retrograde disrupts the homeostasis of habitual or planned life with objective occurrences that can, on a dime, create a traffic jam that precludes a coveted gathering.
The best guidance is to recognize the objective nature of the energetic impact of this astrological event; meaning, don’t be so quick to blame or take things personally, and surrender with patience to all things. They will ultimately pass.
If it’s not the time to greatly accomplish things outwardly, or in relationship, it is however the perfect opportunity to go inward and examine the thoughts, feelings and memories that are triggered by association to outer mishaps.
The other morning, I pulled the Tarot card of Ruin, the 10 of Swords. This card highlights mental states of despair, helplessness and hopelessness. It easily projects itself into matter and can generate first chakra fears of financial or relational collapse.
Guidance is to reflect upon old fears of ruin lurking in the shadow, which may be associatively activated by this current Mercury retrograde. From this reflective place of recapitulation, the opportunity presents itself to fully release and deactivate the energetic impact of old fears. This is the growth opportunity offered in a time of Mercury retrograde, which is particularly well-timed, as we clean house and prepare for New Life in the New Year.
New life is indeed the chaos of creation. Chaos is creative energy taking form in a new pattern of life. The I Ching represents this birthing process as the third hexagram, Difficulty at the Beginning. Amidst thunder and rain, the air is filled with teeming, chaotic profusion, as new life struggles to break through the earth’s surface.
Old life, where we’ve lived, has been dominated by repetitive, habitual patterns of behavior. When people set intentions for the New Year they conceive the intent for change in new, uncharted patterns of living.
The time of Mercury retrograde disrupts the trance of familiar life, as the ground is prepared to nurture new life. Creative energy is freed from stuck places during Mercury retrograde, as it gathers around and prepares to serve new creative intentions.
Many a myth depicts this struggle for new life. The Titan god of time, Cronus, ate his children at birth to secure his continued rule. The subconscious mind is like Cronus, as it rules our lifetime with established archetypal patterns of behavior that can snuff out the spark of our new, conscious intentions.
It was the trickery of Rhea, Cronus’ wife, who gave her husband a rock wrapped in swaddling clothes to eat, instead of baby Zeus, that brought the change that gave birth to the rule of the Olympian gods.
For humans, the employment of trickery that will break through to new life consists in maintaining the faith of unbending intent, as suggestions are repeated to the subconscious mind that will eventually supplant the rule of habitual patterns.
When we light a candle on New Year’s Eve, we ignite the light of consciousness and affirm our intentions to expand beyond the dominance of purely instinctive reactions to life.
With the support of Mercury retrograde energy this year, already jarring us from the trance of the predictable, we are empowered to take life creatively in a whole new direction. May that be a direction that serves the greater good of all.
Own your life, the unfolding of it, the wonder of it, the horror of it, the mundanity of it, the beauty of it, the sadness of it, the joy of it. Every aspect of life is meaningful, teaching you the lessons you need to learn, leading you onward to another lesson, for as long as you need them. At any age look back in wonder, for all lives have had profound moments and all lives have been a trial. Lessons abound. Then look forward again and keep going, for there is more wonder to come if you look at the unfolding of life with an eye that is open, expectant, aware, and always looking for the meaning and the wonder of it all.
Charge yourself with being responsible for yourself, for how you live your life and how you act in the world. To be in charge of your own life is to take full responsibility for it, to make choices that benefit the whole, and to find the way to live each day from a place that is heart centered and right. Your own choices do matter. So get right within yourself and you will get everything else right as well. As within, so without.
The question arises: “Who is the You, that never disappoints your Soul?” That you is your personality. And what is the personality?
The personality is a combination of the ego self, which is largely identified with life in the physical body; the subconscious mind, which stores the wisdom of many lives lived; and the High Self, which supports the intention for growth in this life.
The Soul itself is the subtle body that has spawned many lives and many personalities. Each of these has collectively gathered experience and knowledge that contributes to the Soul’s growth. Those prior lives are all connected to the subconscious mind and are reflected, as well, in various ego states and characteristics of the physical body.
The personality’s life in a physical body is the Soul’s investing of its energy in the quest for growth. For growth to happen, the personality must have the free will to set up its own experiments and make its own discoveries in the life it is in, all of which ultimately contribute to the growth of the Soul.
The Soul grows through life experience, not through a personality seeking refuge in simply being good, whereby suppressing into its shadow the fuller spectrum of life’s desires. Although, even such an attempt at a virtuous life is a life of experience that benefits the Soul.
In this case, the Soul discovers that such a one-sided life creates the karmic necessity of another life that can more fully experience the shadow held in abeyance. The Soul does not judge any life to have been a wasted or failed life. All experience is golden and treated with equanimity by the Soul.
Critical judgment issues from the personality. Perhaps its value is to create a restlessness that spurs the personality to stay on point with its core mission in this life.
The ego, however, with its limited knowledge of, and limited connection to, the subtler dimensions of its being, as well as its reason for being in this life, tends to overly judge itself in the context of its achievements and failures in this life. It lacks the richer perspective of its Soul, which appreciates equally all experiences in life.
Growth for the personality requires the maturation of its judging function. The shamans of ancient Mexico were particularly helpful in this respect, in their dictum to suspend judgment. They discovered that self-criticism had the effect of immobilizing one’s vital energy, which is essential to achieve expanded awareness.
It’s not that shamans don’t face the truth of their actions and their consequences; they are in fact ruthlessly insistent upon facing the truth. However, shamans do not define themselves as failures, or as good or bad people. They acknowledge their faults and mistakes and make adjustments in their life to avoid repetition. Or they continue to repeat the same behaviors, accepting the need to finish with a “bad” behavior so that they can then be freed to move on.
Shamans laugh at themselves and are in awe of their blind spots and sheer stupidity. Shamanic wisdom knows that the key to spiritual advancement is complete acceptance of self in every action, thought, and feeling experienced through an entire life. How can we advance to new life if we cannot fully accept ourselves and our entire lives lived?
That acceptance must equally extend to every person who has harmed us in our life. Refusal to accept anything that has happened to us will automatically generate a seed of karma that will attempt acceptance again in another life. Refusal to accept freezes our energy and blocks our advance.
To advance we must free ourselves of any notion of victimhood. Although we may have been victimized, the key is not to freeze ourselves in the self-definition of victim. Acceptance requires full mastery of every fact of our life, however tragic. The Soul does not judge. The Soul values every experience equally. May the personality be guided by this wisdom.
Carl Jung established that there are two ego functions that judge in order to navigate this life: thinking and feeling. Thinking employs the rational mind, and logic, to determine the truth. Feeling uses feelings to actively determine the worth of something. Both of these functions support the ego’s understanding and valuing of life experience.
To exercise these evaluative functions is necessary to navigate life with objectivity. But the emphasis in these functions is to understand and make decisions, not to condemn and define the self with judgments of inferiority, inadequacy, and unworthiness.
The Soul is never disappointed with us. Can we internalize this insinuation from above, and rise to the level of never being disappointed in ourselves and others? This erases no facts or responsibility but does advance us fully in love, through total acceptance of everything.
