Panic on the streets of London
Panic on the streets of Birmingham
On March 22nd, 2018 Mercury will commence his first retrograde journey of the year, projecting mental clarity and focus into the underworld of memory and mystery.
I wonder to myself
Could life ever be sane again?
As the great symbol of human intellect, Mercury retrograde periods enhance the flexibility and dynamic flow of information. In his time in the Underworld, Mercury wants you to think about more than jargon, data, and currency.
During these times, he whispers an evocation of the Chaos that preceded all form: a vision of your origins in the Protogenoi.
Mercury stations retrograde in the cardinal fire sign of Aries only a couple days after the equinox. A new season has arrived and this retrograde will begin to percolate the warring spirit that conquest and victory demands. Under these conditions, some of your repressed drives towards aggression will rise to the surface for examination.
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Mercury’s retrograde period will last three weeks, from March 22nd to April 15th. In the sign of Aries, Mercury is gifted with an effusion of independence and raw brilliance that may erupt in passionate speech, bold visions and heated debates.
The only downside is that many words will erupt from the subconscious, totally unpolished and unpracticed. This can seem quite brash and charming in some scenarios, while totally uncouth in others. Watch out for fatal Freudian slips.
The Leeds side-streets that you slip down
I wonder to myself
Despite the rumors that Mercury retrogrades are horrible times for communication, in Aries you can hold a torch high and light an important message on fire for the whole world to see! The benefit is that you can make a big impression at this time, making your independent thoughts and opinions seem quite influential and attractive.
Let the quality of time matter much more than the apparent speed of development. Meditate on metamorphosis, finding that you are both the light and darkness; the emptiness and the form.
Enjoy this Mercury Retrograde for what it is: a passionate dance with the primal forces of creation!
Because the music they constantly play
says nothing to me about my life…
If nothing else, Mercury retrogrades teach you that time is subject to dilation, meaning that the experience of time speeds up or slows down relative to your observation.
The strange warble of Mercury retrogrades can be quite inspiring for anyone who loves allowing music to shift your mood. This is a chance to distill the present time through memory, letting a new richness of color emerge from your life story.
You will be called to reflect upon your history with asserting independent thoughts and actions! Thus, a rebellious streak will likely emerge, one that chafes at many of the expectations and standards that continually burden you.
It was a spirit of rebellion that inspired the song Panic, written and recorded by The Smiths in 1988.
Because the music that they constantly play
It says nothing to me about my life
The legend of the song is that is was written after the band members heard news about the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, followed immediately by a radio DJ putting on Wham!’s “I’m Your Man”.
This jarring juxtaposition of media messages is all too familiar to the modern world. Who has not witnessed an announcement of rape, murder, violence, or disaster succeeded by a lively commercial break? Who has not cringed at the lack of humanity in the news?
The Smiths observed that radio pop music, something meant to bring people together, had become dehumanizing and devoid of meaning.
To feel disenchanted by music is to be abandoned by the gods, robbed of the power of magic itself. So, in true Arian fashion, ‘Panic on the streets of London’, champions the cause of the individual standing up against the indolence and cruelty of mainstream culture.
Burn down the disco
Hang the blessed DJ
Just like a radio DJ chooses the songs you will hear, propagandists choose what beliefs you will adopt. If other people’s thoughts, sayings, slogans, and opinions have had full reign over your mind for too long, now is the time to feel indignant and free yourself.
On April 1st, Mercury will find his closest position to the Earth as he merges with the Sun upon the same degree of Aries. This phenomenon is termed Mercury’s inferior conjunction and it marks a moment for Mercurial energies to be refreshed, reset, and reborn.
Ask yourself at this time, “What do I really think?”
“What song do I really want to hear?”
Full of the desire to break free, an eruption of anger may arise fueled by the fires of Aries. Since Mercury retrogrades offer pause for reflection, you can learn a lot about your relationship to anger.
With a wide angle lens on the past, you may untangle many knots of unconscious repression. Anger is not inherently wrong. But anger does not make your righteous either. Consider what Aristotle once said:
“Anybody can become angry, that is easy; but to be angry with the right person, and to the right degree, and at the right time, and for the right purpose, and in the right way, that is not within everybody’s power, that is not easy.”
To work with Arian energies is to learn to handle the heat of anger and use that energy wisely. With the ruler of Aries, Mars, currently transiting his sign of exaltation in Capricorn, much progress can be made.
So you run down
To the safety of the town
But the emotion that destroys more joy and vitality than anger is fear.
Many readers of astrology love to fear Mercury retrograde periods. Truthfully, there is nothing to fear except that these periods ask you to face the shadow of your society’s great technological progress, where the human soul has been lost in an echo chamber.
Burn down the disco
Hang the blessed DJ
Because the music that they constantly play
It says nothing to me about my life
No matter what society may seem to demand, you can not always be thrusting forward in a maniacal rush, lest you lose the gifts of self-reflection and remembrance. You must learn to gracefully shift as Mercury shifts directions, so that you never become too tone-deaf to discern the lack of humanity in media messages.
Mercury retrogrades do NOT cause breakdowns in travel and telecommunications. But these periods do allow subconscious fears surrounding your fragile state of dependency on technology to emerge.
Since Aries is a sign that fights fiercely for independence, use the spirit of this Mercury retrograde to carve some space between you and the status quo, creating neural pathways that use the natural flexibility and plasticity of your mind!
Let this Mercury retrograde become a time to free yourself from the robotic behaviors of repetitive motion. Stop checking your phone constantly. Take notes by hand. Read a book letting imagination play. And go for a walk, letting your mind and body wander freely.
I wonder to myself
Could life ever be sane again?
The ultimate act of rebellion against the modern world’s flood of non-stop noise is to just be alone with your own thoughts!
Think of this Mercury Retrograde in Aries as a yet another golden opportunity to remember yourself.
In case you have lost touch with the power of remembrance, consider that the opposite of re-member is dis-member. Therefore, to remember yourself is to embody the mythical story of Isis, who resurrected Osiris from the dead by re-membering his dismembered body parts.
Hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ
To remember yourself is to search for lost parts and pieces, putting them all back together for resurrection.
With Mercury traveling through the underworld, the realm of memory, seek out lost parts of yourself by asking:
What music do I really want to hear? What was my mind like before it was dismembered by mass media?
Hang the DJ, hang the DJ, hang the DJ
Quench the thirst that you have for the future by drinking deeply from the wells of memory and stand up for your right to think for yourself and question authority.
And if you have the rare gift of being able to use art and humor to respond to the evil in the world, then you have a power much louder than bombs….
Much Love,
Rachel
P.S. Want to incorporate Mercury Retrogrades into your magical practice? Sign up for my free video lecture, Astrological Magic 101!