Recently I threw down a sentence on my Facebook profile that seemed arbitrary. I pointed out without comment that Mercury was currently retrograde.
And then I looked to see what reactions it got. As always on Facebook, there was everything from professional to “complete idiot” (anyone who knows Facebook understands that).
The sense
But there was a point to this comment. There is a message behind it, a very important message.
First of all, I am not an astrology expert. In fact, I have about zero idea about it. But I have people I can ask. Very important when you have zero idea about a subject. More about that below.
The Mercury retrograde is an issue for me as a Gemini, though. Not one that always has to be in the foreground, sometimes I only analyze the effect of this phenomenon afterwards. And then I bite myself in the ass. Because it would have made more sense to do it before.
Roughly speaking, Mercury retrograde makes business things run much more slowly than usual. In such phases, contracts are canceled, bookings are canceled, new bookings are made more difficult and overall business is more sluggish than usual.
When such a phase hits you without warning, it is enormously annoying and draining. Especially if you plan marketing campaigns or larger business transactions during this time. More things go wrong than usual and you have to invest a lot more energy, time and nerves.
Now, of course, you can dismiss this as a crackpot idea and just get on with it. You don’t have to be like that, life isn’t a pony farm after all, and if you’ve set yourself goals, then you’ll push them through. With violence if necessary.
Sure, it works, but it’s really exhausting. It has to be easier somehow.
An example
Imagine you had to cross a stretch of land. A very wild stretch of land, somewhere in the outback. You are a hiker and are traveling in an area where not many people live, far away from civilization.
There are no real paths, only tracks. They are quite winding and never quite visible, there seem to be no signposts. Between you and your destination there are several rivers, lots of forest, gorges, mountains and swamps.
It’s the kind of wilderness you find as a lonely hiker far from civilization. There you are at your starting point and you have to get through. You can already see your destination in the distance, but you can’t yet make out the way there. The forest is too dense for that.
Then you start walking, because it doesn’t help, you have to go through anyway. So you take the direct route and strike out into the wilderness. A machete in your hand, you make your way through the forest, wade through the first swamp, which is really exhausting, you know that if you’ve ever waded through a swamp.
Then comes the first river, phew, quite a lot of current. But you conquer it and arrive on the other bank. Proud of your achievement, but wet to the skin and completely out of breath. After a short rest you continue, now there are some mountains and gorges, quite a slog, but you get through them too.
And so it goes on, one or the other river comes along, all with a lot of water and a lot of current. A few swamps and forests everywhere. Lots of forest. But you make it, you reach your destination. You’re at the end of your tether, but you made it, that’s what counts!
Is that all that matters? Shortly after you, another hiker arrives and he’s not out of breath at all. He looks as if he has just gone for a short walk, he smiles at you and wonders why you are so exhausted.
What did the second hiker do differently? He came from the same starting point, is he in better shape? No, he has a map. Simple solution, he has a map of the area and not only a spatial one, but also a temporal one.
What you didn’t know was where you could cross the rivers most easily and where the paths were in the forest and through the swamps. And also when the water level would be high and when low. The second hiker knew when it was easiest to cross and where.
It is as simple as that. The example is far-fetched? No, it isn’t. Have you ever been to Costa Rica by car? No, then do it. It can happen that you follow the Google navigation and suddenly find yourself in front of a river that you have to drive through because there is no bridge. That’s not rare in Costa Rica, in some areas it’s even the rule.
If you don’t have any idea whether it’s the dry season or the rainy season, you might look pretty stupid and have to turn around. Or you sink your car in the river. And yes, that happens every now and then. Especially those who don’t know the difference between dry and rainy seasons or want to bang their heads against the wall.
Mercury retrograde
And it’s just as simple in life, because that too knows such cards.
Mercury is such a card, or a part of it. And a time one at that. When it’s declining, you know the river is flooding ahead of you. Sure, you can still get through, but you’re extremely out of breath afterwards and you’re risking your life.
You could also just wait until the water level is normal again and then wade through in a relaxed manner. You can use the time until then for other things. You can rest, make new plans, go fishing or just stare holes in the air.
And that’s exactly what I’m talking about with this example. Having goals, defining them and then pursuing them is one thing. A very important one, of course, without clear goals and a clear decision to want to achieve them, you end up not going anywhere.
The cards of life
But it is equally important to have a map. And there are a lot of maps. Western astrology is only one of them. There is also the Asian counterpart and even a strategy technique called Quimen Dunjia. I studied this many years ago. Extremely enlightening. And there are lots of other ways to analyze and refine your personality, your strengths, your strategies and the appropriate time windows.
The annual cycle festivals, or the stations in the annual cycle, are also such a map. Incidentally, one for which I offer active guidance, see the year circle.
But there are also geographical maps in life, because some projects are easier to realise in other places. Which is why I left Germany, for example, and why many other people also change their place of residence to fit their goals. That’s not “running away”, that’s following a geographical map to find the best conditions.
There are political maps, for some projects it makes sense to turn one’s back on a burgeoning socialism or to avoid drastic social rules or too much surveillance and control. Or a society that is not optimal for your own growth, because it pursues different goals than you do. Or because it no longer pursues any goals at all and gets angry when you do.
Besides the cards, there are even guides you can hire to help you get where you want to go. People like me, for example, shamans and coaches. But also all kinds of advisors you can ask. For example, I have people I can ask about astrology. Or people who can give me legal advice or know where I can stay and for how long in order to stay tax-free.
So what to do?
Use the maps! Use all the maps you can get. And there is one very important map in addition, namely your gut feeling. Or your heart, however you want to define it. This is another map that works well in combination with the other maps. The important dash word is “in combination”. Gut feeling without maps is just as stupid as maps without gut feeling. You can learn that too, a lot of my work revolves around just that.
Don’t discard half the maps just because you think they’re rubbish. No map is, really none at all. A map is a map and the maps of life are all correct. The only decision you have to make is whether to use them or not.
Then you will realize that for everything, really everything in your life, there are times, places and ways of doing it that are more favorable than others. And then you can use your life energy more efficiently than before. Nobody is forcing you to do it, you can also do it like the first wanderer in the example and conquer everything by force. You can also squat. Not all maps are always suitable for all of us. Finding that out requires a bit of detective work and, again, the use of maps and helpers. You can do all that, try it or leave it.
You always bear the consequences yourself anyway.
What should you never do?
Squatting. In the example above, both hikers reached their destination. One with effort, the other seemingly effortlessly, but they both arrived because they both set off.
If you want to lose no matter what, then squat on your couch and wait. Could be that the target is approaching on its own or someone is feeding you. It’s never worked before, but who knows?
You can always say afterwards: “I spent a lot of time on the couch”. Maybe there are extenuating circumstances when you realize you’ve wasted your life. It doesn’t help if you tell yourself that you’re fine and that the universe always takes care of you.
Sure, it does. By giving you the opportunity to act!
act now!
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