Mercury Retrograde in Aquarius

And as if the Aquarian traffic jam hadn't slowed us down enough, we get to downshift to an even lower gear. Here we go. Just remember to signal before you change lanes.

Those of us who were born in a Mercury retrograde tend to fare better during these times than the rest of y'all. Granted it is in a sort of bending the time-space-continuum sort of way, but you've always got to focus on the positive, don't you?  For three weeks, three to four times a year the rest of the world turns at our speed.

Welcome to my world.

Mercury retrogrades are always a time of stepping out of the material realms - at least at teeny bit more than usual - and into the ethereal realms of creativity and spirituality. They are also a time of revisiting people, places and things from the past: both the recent past and the long, long ago. Ideally, any forays into the past should take the form of reviewing lessons learned and reinforcing best practices, though even the best of us will be haunted every now and then by the occasional ghostie. You can visit with them, but don't hang out for too long.

But as Aquarius rules the future, this Mercury Retrograde will be an exceptionally great one for enhancing the plans you have made for 2008. It is a good time for expanding your perceptions of what it possible, and for doing research on your options: what they are, how much they cost, how much time to they take to actualize, and who's help do you need.

This is where the devil is in the details. Seriously. You can't skip any steps here. The biggest, most common flaw I see in people's annual planning (aside from the complete failure to do any) is to be heavy on the visioning and light on the fact-producing research. I cannot emphasize this enough. You have an absolutely magical window of opportunity here if you will let yourself take it. And don't say you don't need to, you can always go deeper and be more thorough (ask the Virgos, they know).

Arrogance - the Achilles Heel of Aquarius energy - reigns supreme in the sort of Aquarian traffic jam and Mercury Retrograde we have got going on now. It can be particularly problematic these days if you are not careful. And if you are not very careful - or perhaps observant - it will be elevated to the level of a spectator sport and you could end up looking sort of like the Stupidity Patrol from Zippy the Pinhead. Or that passage in the Bible (Matthew 7:1-5) about hypocrisy.

The beauty of Mercury Retrograde in Aquarius is that it will show you the chinks in your armor. While all the retrogrades of Mercury are a bit of a hall of mirrors, Mercury Retrograde in Aquarius is so more than any other. It will show you where you are overeducated, underemployed, undersexed and underactualized. It will show you where you are over-promising and under-delivering, (don't ever forget your Drucker). But it does more than that, it shows you your excuses, too. Mercury Retrograde in Aquarius will also show you where you are defending, rationalizing, and justifying the places where you are continuing to shoot yourself in the foot. Not the most empowering place to stand. If you can stay awake and strong, it is an exquisite time to have major breakthroughs in your awareness and cognition about how you are showing up in the world, and how it is helping or not helping. And then you have choice.

So in the interim, don't forget that Aquarius rules technology. Back up your computers and run your Mr. Pink's Utilities. And if you haven't already, send in the warranty card on all the new electronics you got at the holidays.