This Mercury Retrograde delivers all kinds of chaos in relationships. Eris and Pluto are still squared off to make sure we don’t ignore those feelings that were discarded or tamped down in order to belong. Over the next six months, relationships get a reset from the inside out, with help from this Moon Cycle. If you disown what you really feel, your connections suffer. How you bring those emotions out wisely is the real work. Can you learn to honor your needs and include the needs of those around you?
Can you see where you make large and small compromises to fit in and belong. Not many of them serve you or your connections. Pay particular attention to where you have gone numb to the distress you see around you. The news can be overwhelming and comments about others struggles seem to lack any compassion. This is easiest to see it on social media, the cruel comments served up as humor. These are not terrible people, they just have a brutal coping skill.
Because we cannot go numb to others to cope without already being numb to our own pain. This frozen state is like a circuit breaker that cuts off power to the region on overload. There’s no power flowing to feel what you feel. Small steps where you tend to your own denied feelings is a good place to start. Anger at others can be an unmanaged flip of the switch that has everything powering back up at once. Instead of using rage, identify what overloaded the circuit in the first place. Then and only then do you reset the circuit. Anger can help you consolidate your strength to know how to hold a boundary. Use it with care…
Notice where your critical inner voice is loudest about others. As Brene Brown said, “we judge those who struggle with the same thing we do, but we are doing better at it then they are in the moment”. Judgement can be a distancing tool from your own feelings of overwhelm or helplessness. If you can’t get it right yourself, you can offset some of that frustration by calling it out in someone else.
It helps if you give yourself and others space to just be human and make mistakes. Know we capable of learning from those errors. Either judgement and numbness are spots to begin a good emotional housecleaning. This Moon cycle holds some unique aspects to help locate the debris of discarded emotions and the coping skills that affect you now. Tempting as it may be to focus on the error of others, it’s too easy to provoke a flare up.
With Mercury Retrograde, Mars and the Sun all together in Libra, their combined fire and light burns off the mistakes in past and current relationship. Those human moments can offer us a lot of wisdom to do it better. Or we can just turn up the heat on those around us and all go down in flames together.
Better to use the combined force of our communication, action and ego (Mercury, Mars, Sun) to clear away unhealthy attachment/indifference to the opinions of others. The Cards and Stars will help.
Thank you,
Lisa Greenfield
October 6th new moon prince of pentacles
This New Moon Cycle, so spectacularly LIbran, has an Earth sign as it’s representative. The Prince of Pentacles corresponds with a 12 year Jupiter cycle and since Jupiter is in Aquarius, there is a strong message about relationship change. We are being asked to remember that when we fight with another, we are mostly fighting with our ghosts. What we see is much more of a reflection of our past wounds and how we’ve worked to protect ourselves from further pain than it is an accurate view of what’s happening now. Pay attention to the story you work up about anyone who gets you worked up.
There is where your excavation begins on disowned feelings. If you want them to see you, acknowledge you, validate you, value you, find where that pattern stem from originally. You can go back and mentally stand with the younger wounded you and be your own ally against what happened. Tell a different story than the one you’ve carried. See it with kinder eyes. Don’t abandon yourself now by pinning the past on your current partners. Instead see them as the perfect trigger for the old story and know it will happen. You are responsible for doing the inside job rather than battling outside.
When you commit to seeing your history as a rich place for self discovery instead of a catalogue of past pain, miracles can happen. These pains become low notes in a symphony instead of the whole song. Remember this is a slow process over the next six months. The better you become at getting to know you, the more all your relationships thrive, because you are seeing yourself more accurately (and kindly please, too). Learn how to pause before you jump to a story about what’s happening. Be present with yourself, go so far as to picture yourself standing like a guardian angel with the younger you. Slowly and surely your connections improve and so does the life you live with them.
October 7th Ace of pentacles
We have to do this deep dive on unclaimed feelings a step at a time. It is going down a ways, after all. You can expect an emotional poke or two today. How you handle it is key. When you know it’s coming you can be prepared. Start with a good deep inhale and exhale. Notice what the story is in your head about what’s happening and why you believe it is. If you get a good story worked about about the person who provoked it, watch for righteous indignation or miserable trapped stories. Both are a sign you are not in the present and seeing the truth of what’s in front of you. Instead you are in the past and afraid it’s repeating. Hint, it’s NOT.
This is, as my colleague Acyuta Bhava called it, the chop wood/carry water time. One thought, one situation at a time rebuild your stories. Today watch for defensiveness and overprotection. You cannot create and protect at the same time. One is expansion, one is contraction. Now is the time to build something mindfully that has safe guards in it. Notice how the energy feels in being solidly structural versus being defensive. Find the edge of those two energies. You can feel the difference between contracting versus expanding on solid structural ground. Let the next few days help you refine that difference so you can navigate wisely in anything you do.
october 8th The wheel of fortune
This Wheel is the reminder to accept responsibility for what you create. No matter what the outside provocation, how you handle it is your creativity point. Today’s theme is sudden reactions and impulsiveness. No matter how tempting old patterns may be, they are a closed loop that leads nowhere productive. Rushing to act is likely to pull out old reaction patterns that don’t work. You’ll keep hearing that because it is on ongoing theme through to 2022.
Instead you can flesh out new space with a more authentic approach when you slow down and see what’s in front of you. Not much beyond a simple task at hand is going to work. Big plans, grand gestures, structured agendas are more likely to fail. What’s needed is your attention to details. Those details are the landscape of your mind and are worth your time. You have more ability to shape your world than you are currently using. Watch for judgement and indifference. Stalk those places in your mind and know them. Be curious about who you are now so you can redo what happens in a manner you find beautiful and welcoming.
october 9th The world
The Moon moves into Sagittarius and out of the dark realms of Scorpio to help lighten the mood a bit. The Sun and Mercury meet up with Mars in Libra and there is a fork in the road that requires your attention. We are in a theme of letting the individual be more present. This way you interact with the world as more of the real you and less of the conditioned you. So your desires are an important part of what makes you unique.
However, how you fulfill and meet those desires is that fork in the road. With the Moon in Sagittarius, the possibility from learning from past mistakes is present. Rather than giving in to an impulsive desire now, pause, consider all the consequences of that desire. Be willing to see where getting immediate needs met now can remove other options for you down the road. Do you want it enough, is it beneficial enough to justify what you give up to get it? That dividing line is woven throughout this Moon Cycle. Will you choose wisely or will you grab what you want and devil take the consequences? You decide.
october 10th knight of cups
This heart-first knight has a promise and a caution. The promise is that when you commit to what you love and stand on that platform, there is structure and stability enough to build a life upon – with commitment. The caution is the immaturity of making promises you don’t keep as a bargaining tool to get what you want in the moment. There is a reality check from stationing Saturn that makes it almost impossible to keep up appearances when you’ve been false or misleading.
You form your present position from an honest assessment of what you want enough to show up and invest effort into it. Let the ‘information’ that presents itself to guide you in shaping more of what is real, satisfying and long lasting instead of being stuck with a bill you don’t want to pay long after the pleasure is over.
october 11th the tower
The Moon moves into Capricorn today where Pluto waits to shake loose all the rotting old structures of our lives. The collapse of what’s decayed is more fully displayed over the next ten or so days. The truth will come out, so you best start by facing it yourself. The worst betrayals are the places we betray ourselves. Here’s the good news. You are human, you are imperfect, others already know that about you. So now it’s time to lovingly see ourselves, our faults, be willing to be responsible for doing better without collapsing in guilt or raging in defense.
Both dark and the light have equally important jobs to do. A healthy balance is helpful, so the shadow doesn’t run your life. Let those selfish, greedy, judgmentally compulsive thoughts be acknowledged. Once you own them, they don’t own you. Now create something better than the lowest expression of each. Let greed be a healthy ability to take care of ones own needs without sacrificing another’s well being to do it. Let judgement show you where you are struggling with your version of that and choose to learn from what you see.
Once you get in this habit, you can generate so much more creation when you aren’t wasting energy hiding the truth from yourself and others. You are human. We know… Do well with it.
october 12th five of wands
Ah, here comes desire again. This five card is like a chick that has to peck its way out of the shell. The old way of meeting desires (or repressing them) is like a shell that once protected but now confines. Bit by bit you have to remove defensive patterns and rest long enough to recover and decide how you want to play on this great big field opening up. Conflict can become a tool to build strength while it shows you the limits of where you have operated up until now. Be curious, be patient. By evening some lightning bolts of insight may make it all so much more understandable.
october 13th The Sun
Pay attention to your dreams last night when you wake today, if you can. Today is a chance to get a fresh take on where old unmet needs drove some of the unhealthy desires and fulfillment. As adults it can be habit to continue to deny ourselves or a habit to indulge ourselves as part of the conditioned belonging. The promise of today is that you belong. First and foremost you belong to yourself. This is why seeing the real truth of you isn’t so frightening when you look at the whole picture, not just the uncomfortable bits.
Kindly, gently tell yourself a better story about the real you from light to shadow. When you start with that it’s amazing what comes from this and who wants to play there with you. As this adult, with wisdom, strength, courage and abilities you can handle the ups and downs with more grace and even add some humor. You don’t have to grip a moment or a disagreement so tightly. You can circle whatever is happening with your mind’s eye and let your heart and intuition help you see when to jump in and where. Whatever is in front of you becomes more of a playground and less of a battlefield.
October 14th the star
Oh what a day we have before us. This Star card is the promise that when you keep your feet on the ground and reach for the stars you meet with success! Today is one for discernment about what is worth committing to and fresh perspective on how to do that. Or you can pull back and thumb through old stories of lack and victimhood if you prefer. Right, me neither. It’s time to realize that pleasure delayed is not necessarily pleasure denied. What can you invest in right now, here today, to make that delayed moment even better when it does arrive. Place your effort and energy there instead of too much energy on what you lack in at the present and your dreams will come true.
October 15th Queen of swords
The aspects today bring out the best of this Airy Queen. The Sun trines Jupiter and the Moon meets up with her to bring all sorts of clever detail management into play. Your mind is at it’s best when it figures out HOW to make what you want more possible, reachable, livable. When you use it to structure what’s at hand instead of asking it to decide what to do you have the winning combination. The mind is third in the pyramid of our gifts. First we let intuition inform us of what lies beyond the scope of our lived experience. Then those tantalizing clues as to what’s out there need to make our heart beat faster. Third and only third, does the mind get to work its magic. Today is just such a day. Be strategic and far sighted. Your mind will help.
October 16th Lovers
The connection is there, the feelings are sweet. Still, there is a choice to be made. Secrets have come out into the light and you have to decide how you want to shape what they reveal. Watch out for self righteous indignation, black and white thinking. This is an adaptive child response and doesn’t work with the whole picture. Investigate where you are molded by fear of what others will think. What is really going on; don’t settle for just what it looks like. In relationships, illusions are where you imagine the perfect outcome or result. What do you do when the reality is not the picture you want? Can you work with the raw material or is it a desire that is lessened by all that comes along with it? The choice helps you define yourself. These decisions then form your interactions from a place of power. You choose.
october 17th Seven of swords
This is the card of lies. The first lie is always the one we tell ourselves. When we don’t dig deeper, when we refuse to listen to our heart and instead rely on what ‘others’ say and think. Only you know what is true for you. When you let an outside authority decide right and wrong, good or bad, you’ve abandoned yourself. The person or situation may be seeing things accurately and telling you their version of what they see and interpret. You still have to determine what rings true for you. Those unclaimed feelings want their turn in the light and they will not be denied, no matter how unpleasant that is.
We have so much confusion right now because we’ve lost the ability to trust our own inner compass in a balanced way. What’s true for you will always feel open and expansive in your body, even if it’s a hard truth. While a lie feels like a contraction and/or tension held in the shoulders or belly. Lies that had you abandon what aspects of you that didn’t ‘fit in’ well. Feel your way forward today. Find your truth and learn how to tell them from the lies you’ve been taught. Be respectful that while a story isn’t true for you, it may well be so for the person speaking. Respectfully find a way to disagree.
October 18th nine of swords
Ah, the needless worry card arrives just on time. Mercury goes direct today and starts its path forward through partnership land of Libra and our filter we have on relating to one another. This third square to Pluto is ahead during the next Moon cycle and it tests how well you’ve shown up for individuality that can more safely and sweetly interact with others.
It isn’t about removing all conflict from your life, it is about how you view it and move through it. This nine is the card of mental mastery. When you can see it and interpret your surroundings from the big picture instead of a trauma wound, you are no longer at the mercy of events. Now that is a sigh of relief.
october 19th the chariot
The Moon, Mars and Jupiter line up today to give us a push into adulthood with a slight cautionary note on impatience. The Chariot signals big gains and it may well be worth an inventory to check how far you’ve come this Mercury Retrograde. Take note, tally up your risks. Don’t let the mistakes be anything but a ‘good to know’ experience.
When armed with this solid take on who you are and what you can do, obstacles suddenly appear smaller. You can leap over them and in the rear view mirror, they take on the proper size. Unpleasant truths are something you can hear and handle. Don’t worry if it wasn’t great yet, trust you can improve with practice. Give yourself credit for the win and welcome to the big kids table.
