The Mercury/Venus Mutual Reception: Mercury is in Libra; Venus in Virgo.
NB: The following is an updated repost outlining some themes that will be relevant for the next week and a half while the mutual reception of Mercury and Venus continues to play out.
Just a head’s up that we have a mutual reception in play until October 14th – Mercury & Venus are currently playing the role of exchange students by occupying each other’s home signs! Mercury and Venus mix and mingle their energies; playing off each other for a total period of about 3 weeks – a period that began on September 29th when Mercury entered Libra. Here are some highlighted themes you may notice in play as a result of this combo:
Discrimination involving our choice of partners; combining work and love; saying nice things; the health of a Significant Other or biz partner; being conscious of our dietary sugar intake; talking about partnerships; sibling relationships; diplomatic conversations; discussions that involve fair give-and-take; kidney health; finding love in the workplace; tactful choice of words; mental equilibrium; love at the gym; getting along w/ your coworkers; appreciating your employees; criticism from a spouse or Significant Other; evaluating the health of a partnership; looking at relationship routines; the girl next door; married to your job; a balanced diet; relationships with neighbors; intestinal flora and the enteric balance; analyzing how we earn/spend money; assessing financial health; a job we love; lazy co-workers/employees; working on our relationship; making the everyday luxe; beauty routines; discriminating taste; relationships on the brain; making money with our hands or communication abilities; working with your Sweetie; relationship news; agreements in writing; a love of cleanliness & organization; helpful & pleasant; service with a smile; whistle while you work; the equal distribution of chores in a partnership; money made in service trades; picking lovely & perfect words; improving relationships by talking things out & via soft, kind criticisms; say it with flowers.
The Universe is absolutely amazing sometimes…! Tonight while at my yoga class just ahead of the impending Libra New Love Moon, my teacher happened to have this song on the playlist:
Lyrics:
“Remove all fear;
Come from where you are to here.
Let your eyes
Meet mine.
For a moment let your heart be mine.
Come to me, I will take away your sorrow. Come to me, I will open your tomorrow. Come to me, I will open up your heart. Come to me, we will never be apart.
May love mesmerize your soul. May the devas make you whole. Can you align yourself in constant devotion; Find your liberation?
The tears of kindness come When you love everyone. Your precious soul is finally found. Love, infinite love, brings you ‘round….
Come to me, I will take away your sorrow. Come to me, I will open your tomorrow. Come to me, I will open up your heart. Come to me, we will never be apart.”
What a lovely, sweet, and fitting message for the Libra New Moon now upon us…! If there had been any doubt in my mind about this correlation, it was promptly dispelled when I noted the name of the album this song came from – “Wings of Peace”! Peace is such a Libra theme, and perhaps with winged messenger Mercury also residing in this sign (on the fated North Node, no less..!) this message was meant to be shared tonight ❤
Mercury has been in close proximity to the Moon’s North Node for what seems like eons now – because this planet’s movement was slowed and then halted by its recent change of direction last Friday, it has virtually been kept right on top of the fated point that symbolizes where maximum soul-growth lies. I always associate the North Node with some of our greatest spiritual lessons of the moment, and when it falls in Libra this often has to do with relating to others. Mercury fusing itself to this point – as it has for roughly the last week – brings communication dynamics in relationships to the fore and asks us to consider a few key themes.
The first item brought to mind with Mercury in Libra joined to the North Node, is that it’s generally a good time to consider abiding by the old “If you don’t have anything nice to say…” axiom. With Mercury and Venus currently in mutual reception to one another we catch more flies with honey anyway, so before opening up our mouths to say something critical or rude we might want to take a time-out to reflect upon this. It takes an equal (if not lesser) expenditure of mental and verbal energy to verbalize something complimentary or to simply say nothing at all rather than voice something negative, and with Mercury and Saturn currently in also in contact with each other, when we’re feeling compelled to say something “not nice” it is often better to just hold our tongue.
Mercury on the Libra North Node is also a call to mind our manners – saying things like “pardon me”, “please”, and “thank you”, go a long way now and may actually facilitate agreeable conversations that have a hand in shaping our destiny. For example, under this energy it’s entirely possible to make polite conversation with someone while standing in line somewhere running routine errands, and then to later go to a job interview to find out the person you were chatting with is actually your would-be employer…! Aren’t you glad you were courteous and made pleasant small talk? Imagine if you hadn’t been quite so polite and charming…! My point is no dialog can really be considered insignificant when Mercury joins with the North Node, so why not make it a point to say things that are polite and agreeable as a general rule?
Third, Mercury hovering over this point also tends to bring up a lot of important conversations about relationships. The sweetness of Mercury in Libra can be used, for example, to let others know we like them – we could even go so far as to use this energy to tell someone we love them. Perhaps instead we find ourselves weighing some important decisions about a partnership and needing to have a crucial discussion with a Significant Other. We could also use the verbal finesse of this pairing to bring people together to facilitate harmonious agreements or negotiate some kind of metaphorical peace treaty.
Mercury remains within close proximity to the Libra North Node through Wednesday, so it’s good to keep all of this in mind at least for the next few days – if not for the entirety of Mercury’s remaining stay in Libra, which will last until November 2nd.
The Mercury/Venus Mutual Reception: Mercury will be in Libra; Venus in Virgo.
NB: This is actually an updated repost outlining themes that will be relevant for the next 3+ weeks – it’s totally appropriate to do a repost (or two!) while Mercury is stationing direct! Enjoy!
Just a head’s up that we have a mutual reception in play between October 8th – Nov 2nd, when Mercury and Venus play the role of exchange students by occupying one another’s home signs! Yes, Mercury & Venus will be mixing & mingling their energies and playing off each other for a period of about 3 1/2 weeks between October & November, so here are some highlighted themes you may notice in play as a result of this combination:
Discrimination involving our choice of partners; combining work and love; the health of a Significant Other or biz partner; being conscious of our dietary sugar intake; talking about partnerships; sibling relationships; diplomatic conversations; discussion that involves fair give-and-take; kidney health; finding love on the job; tactful choice of words; mental equilibrium; love at the gym; getting along w/ your coworkers; appreciating your employees; criticism from a spouse or Significant Other; evaluating the health of a partnership; looking at relationship routines; the girl next door; married to your job; a balanced diet; relationships with neighbors; intestinal flora and the enteric balance; analyzing how we earn/spend money & assessing financial health; a job we love; relationship health; lazy co-workers/employees; making the everyday luxe; beauty routines; discriminating taste; relationships on the brain; making money with our hands or communication abilities; relationship news; agreements in writing; a love of cleanliness & organization; helpful & pleasant; equal distribution of chores in a partnership; money made in service trades; picking lovely & perfect words; improving relationships by talking things out & via soft, kind criticisms.
Clever Crow caught something in his beak today – Mercury! Image courtesy BS Thurner Hof.
The raven sees; the raven saw; and in the corn he sayeth “cah”.
LOL, the crows are yammering in the background as I write, believe it or not…! Mercury is currently conjunct the star Alchita in the constellation of Covus; A.K.A. the Raven or Crow as known by its more common nomenclature. More precisely, this star is located in the vicinity of its beak – with that in mind, what has a little birdie told YOU lately? Now may be a time to listen intently, because we might even unearth a Word Of Power or two hidden in a conversation. What key things speak to us now? Perhaps with Mercury also square Pluto, minute, almost imperceptible things such as body language, tone, or phrasing may be the most telling. Perhaps it’s not words at all, but something symbolic that piques our interest and speaks deafeningly to us like some kind of ultrasonic call only our acutely attuned ears pick up; an omen or sign of some sort…crows are magical as they are often witches’ familiars, after all!
I find that I am prone to seeing portents all the time, especially from birds. I’m freakishly attuned to my avian friends and do have many wild stories about Cool Encounters of the Winged Kind. There’s the vultures, the whopping total of 10 feathers recently gifted to me by the doves during Venus Retrograde, the incident a few weeks back where I was walking under a stand of walnut trees and listening with delight to a buzzy little bluebird tittering in the boughs above me when he floated a beautiful azure feather down to me – it was quite magical! Finding feathers is also supposedly a sign of angelic presence, FWIW. So if you come across a random feather, look twice because there may be a message there for you! If you can, try to I.D. the species and then perform an internet search for the symbolism of that particular bird. I realize that not everyone is a nature nerd like Yours Truly, LOL, so if you’re not able to identify the genus it came from, no worries there – you can always look up just the symbolism of the color itself. But this is an example of how messages don’t always require words, and with a retrograde Mercury on Alchita, I think this is something certainly worth pondering.
From a more esoteric standpoint, one other thing I want to mention is Mercury on this particular star makes me think it could be a good time to connect to our throat chakra and do a little scan to see if this energy center is either blocked or, conversely, overactive.
Let’s speak our Truth…or just plain speak up, period! Do we have something to crow about? If so, let it fly!
On the opposite side of the coin, have we been jabbering on noisily? Do we need to moderate our loquacious ways by closing our bills a bit? Perhaps we would be better served by giving our beaks a more concerted focus! Mercury in Libra loves a mindset of “All things in moderation”, so perhaps Alchita’s cawing is just a reminder to keep the yin/yang balance….
With Mercury remaining in Libra until November 2nd due its current retrograde motion, it’s certainly as good a time as any for a thorough discussion of the pros and cons of this particular astrological placement! Libra is a sign known for its social graces and when Mercury travels here this brings a sense of refinement to the mind and mouth, resulting in conversational poise and finesse. I think of this energy as very European in a way; two airy kisses on the cheek coupled with a “Dahling, we simply *must* do lunch!” It’s the Libran way to be charming, polite, and agreeable – if occasionally a bit flowery – and when Mercury travels through this sign these qualities come through in how we communicate. Yet there are two sides to every coin, as every astrological energy has its strengths and drawbacks, and this one is certainly no exception…
Mercury in Libra: The Art Nouveau Mercury!
On one hand this placement blesses our words with a natural ease and elegance – Mercury is a smooth-as-silk, silver-tongued little imp when visiting Libra; one who may be fond of using honeyed words punctuated with terms of endearment like “sweetie”, “hon”, “sugar”, or “darlin’”. Mercury makes a good conversationalist when found in this sign because it seems to have a natural knack for being able to say things that put others at ease. Libra’s natural consideration for others allows this planet to find common ground quite easily in any discussion, while good manners, mindfulness of etiquette, and a preference for pleasantness help in gliding delicately away from verbal faux pas and tempestuous topics. When found here, Mercury can also make a skilled negotiator/mediator who knows how to reach agreements through compromise and thinking about the win/win scenario.
But for a balanced discussion (something Mercury in Libra *adores*, BTW) of this energy, we must also look to the other end of the spectrum. Lo-Fi Mercury in Libra is often …Read More…
“I’ve heard it all before…
I’ve heard it all before…
I’ve heard it all before…
I’ve heard it all before…
I’ve heard it all before…
I’ve heard it all before…
I’ve heard it all before…
I’ve heard it all before…
I don’t wanna hear I don’t wanna know Please don’t say you’re sorry I’ve heard it all before…”
Oh boy – what an apt song this is with Mercury about to station retrograde in Libra, LOL…!
Have you ever had the same discussion with a Significant Other over and over, like a broken record? Asked them nicely and repeatedly for the same point of consideration, only to have it fall on deaf ears? Squabbled with them over the same. damn. thing. time and time again? Gotten so sick of hearing the words “I’m sorry” that even years afterward these two words tend to either trigger A) nausea or B) some kind of post traumatic stress-induced response, LOL? True story: I once had a partner who would only bring me flowers when he screwed up. It got so bad that I eventually had to tell (read: yell at) him to stop giving me flowers, as the negative mental association I was beginning to form with cut and carefully arranged flora was proving a bit too much for me – I was essentially being conditioned by these repetitious experiences to associate a man giving me a bouquet with something bad. Like Pavlov’s dog, only more traumatic, LMAO!
So if you have answered “yes” to any of the above questions, you might want to strap in because there may be a lot of these kinds of things going around over the next several weeks with Mercury retrograding in Libra – especially given its contact to Pluto at the beginning of this timeframe. I foresee substantial potential for circular dialog occurring with this energy in play – this could manifest as repetitive discussion between partners and/or regarding the topic of partnership matters in general…couples will be hashing things out, others will be re-negotiating the terms of their agreements or re-thinking a particular union/alliance. So for all intents and purposes, we should be prepared for the distinct possibility of having the same conversation with someone more than once during this period. Not everyone will do this politely, either – at the outset of Mercury’s backtrack a loose opposition between Mercury and Uranus can ramp up the potential at that something shocking may be said if/when other, more polite methods of trying to get our message across fail. Some may even resort to calling a relationship off (or at least threatening to call it off) if the communication dynamic doesn’t change within a partnership. And change it must, with Uranus & Pluto involved!
Those of us who are single aren’t out of the woods, either – ever have that one ex who is prone to ringing you up every so often? Yup, Mercury retrograde in Libra can reconnect us to past partners just as easily as it can herald talks with a current one! In mythology, Mercury was the guide who shepherded souls to the Underworld, so he’s quite accustomed to having contact with Dead Things. You know what I mean, right – the ex who repeatedly apologizes, begs for forgiveness, and asks you to take them back? Or who uses a bunch of silver-tongued words in the hopes of ingratiating themselves to you (why hello Mercury in Libra in a SEXtile to Venus in Leo!) and luring you back into their boudoir? It’s a traaaaaaap, LOL! No, seriously – it just might be with Mercury stationing in a square to Pluto, so definitely don’t buy any lines someone tries to feed you about how they “think about you all the time” or “just want to talk to you to get some closure”! With Mercury retrograding in a square to Pluto even if you’re the one who thinks about them constantly or who is obsessively looking for “resolution”, you’re probably far better off just hanging up, letting the line go dead, then deleting them from your contacts (if you haven’t already done so). If all else fails, you can always change your number, LOL.
I realize sometimes this may be easier said than done when there are children involved and we share joint parenting responsibilities with a former partner. In this case, keep dialog as polite and civil as possible while maintaining a laser-focus upon the task at hand; i.e. your kids. If you/your ex have re-partnered with somebody else, dealing with step-parent issues can get particularly tricky and will need to be handled with tact and finesse. Friendly distance is generally best, as detachment it makes it that much easier to stay cool.
Mercury in Libra sends us this cordial little reminder as it chafes against the Uranus-Pluto square all week!
Mercury in Libra has now moved in to frictional contact with Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries, effective through Saturday September 13th. This T-square can make for some unpleasant communication weirdness to say the least – under normal circumstances, Mercury in Libra is polite and poised in conversations. However, due it grating against the status-quo busting duo of Pluto & Uranus, Mercury is having a bit of difficulty maintaining its equilibrium and as such its normal verbal politesse may be on the fritz. Under these astrological conditions, it can be easy to swing from saccharine-sweet faux niceties over to shockingly abrasive words that violate decorum and restraint. People may be disinclined to say things that placate under this energy, or if they do and have been slapping a smile over their displeasure, this is a time when the façade can abruptly drop without warning. Be particularly conscious of when somebody is either under pressure or acquiescing just for the sake of getting along, because these are the folks most likely to blow a gasket under this energy.
The short version of how to handle this T-square involves:
a) Minding good conversational etiquette and making a conscious choice not to play pot-stirrer or devil’s advocate just for the hell of it.
b) Being conscious of those who share your mindset and those who do not. For the time being, gravitate TOWARD those with interests and opinions similar to your own and AWAY from those who see things very differently or who would bait you into negative or upsetting “discourse” – this is doubly so for interactions on the internet, so please beware of trolls!
c) If you’re on the fence about an issue, keep yourself out of the potential conflict that can arise from consulting varying groups with differing opinions on the matter in question, as you’re more likely to either vacillate or else possibly get drawn into a dispute. This influence can put us at odds with the ideas and opinions our peer groups/social networks vs. those of influential (possibly older) figures we respect, such as parents, a teacher, a mentor figure, etc. You can see how it might potentially present a problem if we were to ask both sides for input, and get totally conflicting answers back in reply.
d) There is also an “agent provocateur” facet of this energy, so watch who you associate with now and don’t violate your internal ethics/boundaries even if pressured. Definitely don’t adopt a mentality of going along with popular opinion just to please others as well, or to fit in with a particular (alpha) social clique, because you might not realize what you’re being drawn into. I wrote a snippet back in my April 2014 newsletter about how it’s important to be wary of the power of the group and how it’s being used with the Pluto-Uranus square in effect through 2015 – I find this an especially relevant point this week because Mercury in Libra is naturally apt to just bob its head “yes” and go along with something/someone due Libra’s agreeable nature.
***Addendum: I should also mention specifically to try & be an alert, courteous driver while on the road. Mercury in its Commuter God facet has dominion over the day-to-day forms of transport we use to get from Point “A” to Point “B” (such as cars, trains, buses, & subways). When Uranus makes hard contact to this planet, accidents are possible – specifically the kind where we say “The other driver came from out of nowhere!” because it’s such a sudden, unanticipated energy. If you spot anyone driving erratically and aggressively, keep your distance and give them a very wide berth. The crazies may be out there!
All this said, this is a relatively short-duration influence and the energy will be on the upswing after it dissipates on Saturday, so it shouldn’t be too hard to avoid problem manifestations if we keep our eyes open and on the lookout. Remember that our words have power, and that “freedom (of speech) without (personal) responsibility is license, not liberty”.
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