by Veronica Smith
Today as the energy slows down to prepare for tonight’s Mercury Retrograde cycle, I feel a sign of relief as I start feeling the call to purge all those excess to-dos and mental expectations.
I always look forward to Mercury Retrogrades as they never fail to be mental ‘clean up’ periods that I always emerge from feeling clear headed, refocused and refreshed.
This upcoming Mercury Retrograde cycle, while promising all of the usual ‘mental clean up’ potentials, has another, deeper, level of clarity as a potential gift to give, if, and this is a big if, we are open-minded enough to see it.
This deep gift of clarity comes from July’s main attraction, Friday’s Lunar Eclipse conjunct Mars Retrograde in Aquarius.
The powerful potential in all this is so awesome it makes me almost giddy.
But, like I said before, it will take quite a bit of courage to go against the current flow and be SUPER open-minded to be able to take advantage of this opportunity.
And that opportunity?
To slow down and rethink how we collectively are giving our power away (Mars Retrograde) to those ‘others’ (fill in the blank with whoever is your personal ‘them’ as in ‘us versus them’) when we think we can’t create change until everyone’s on the same page (Aquarius).
In truth, the monster you’ve created of the ‘other’ only gets its strength from you handing your power over to it.
Another way to put this is to say this Eclipse will be asking us to take a look at the shadow side of ‘group progress’.
To learn how to own that your reality is yours and yours alone, and no group has the power to rule you unless you let them.
The main ‘power over’ drama we’re being asked to take a deeper look at during this time is rethinking how we collectively view (Aquarius) masculinity (Mars) which often shows up as the belief that women and feminine bodied souls are endlessly suppressed by the old heavy hand of a ‘Man’s World.’
This belief creates a mentality that feminine souls need to ‘free themselves’ from the shackles of the ‘male dominated world’ and any manner they choose to do this can be justified because of this oppression they’re forced to live under.
I’ve always been a strong believer in the whole ‘an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind’ mentality, and during this entire South Node in Aquarius time period I’ve seen this ‘men are dumb’ or even flat out ‘men are evil’ message get more and more blatant and socially acceptable.
This is not good for anyone, especially women.
And these Mars Retrograde months we’re in right now, blown up by Friday’s Lunar Eclipse joining the party, are massively highlighting just how divisive and hurtful this thinking really is.
Let me give you an example.
I went to see the Incredibles 2 last weekend and that movie summed up this particular ‘shadow side of progress’ quite nicely.
The main theme was almost brainwashing heavy handed, and the message went something like this: ‘men are dumb, in the way and no longer needed,’ which honestly I found kind of insulting.
Are we women really so insecure as to need to patronize men into submission?
Isn’t that exactly what the women’s groups of old fought against to not have done to them?
This is where that whole ‘if open-minded enough to see it’ potential comes in, because this Lunar Eclipse is asking us to take a HARD look at the shadow side of ‘group progress’ and deeply, humbly, learn to accept and see the group may not be as bright and shiny as we’d like to think it is.
Then and only then can we move forward in our evolution.
I can feel your eyes twitching and the justifications start bubbling up into your throat “You don’t understand,” “You’ve haven’t experienced what I have” etc.
But the thing is, I do. And I have.
This ‘men oppress women’ struggle is very personal for me as it’s the path I’ve journeyed down the longest.
A few years ago I was right there with you all on the whole ‘men are pathetic and babies and when they don’t get their way are straight up vicious.’
I had my feminist sounding board friends who would tell me their horror stories, and I’d share mine right back, almost like a badge of honor.
My experiences with men scarred me so much I, up till only very recently, had a straight up fear of sex and unwanted attention that I hid my beautiful body from the world, so as to stay safe.
I know you have stories too.
And believe me, they are valid.
But I’m going to ask you take a leap of faith and follow me down a rabbit hole that, if you’ll let it, has the potential to set you free.
Trust me.
What if, just maybe, possibly, all of that fear and oppression is not the fault of men?
What if men, as a whole, as in like 90% of them, are actually biologically wired to want to protect you, to honor your feminine creativity, and want nothing more than for you to simply find them useful and needed?
What if men are just as oppressed by the whole ‘men are predators and need to step aside so as to not cause any more trouble’ message?
What if the story of male oppression keeps women and men BOTH stuck in shame and victimhood?
What if TRUE progress is to realize that both feminine and masculine, chaos and structure, flow and container energy is needed for us to achieve true peace and achieve that ultimate goal of equality – complete healing of the divine feminine AND the divine masculine?
If open-minded enough to see it.
So there you go, that’s what this Aquarian Lunar Eclipse conjunct Mars Retrograde during a Mercury Retrograde cycle transit is asking us to ponder. (Yep! We’re still talking Astrology, amazing isn’t it?)
IN CONCLUSION
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