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.

Peace on Earth,
Chuck