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Forget the Hype — Mercury Retrograde is a Powerful Healing Tool

One of the problems in writing a blog is being concise enough to be informative, yet not overwhelming the reader with information overload. This is daunting, when dealing with a complex subject like Mercury Retrograde (now known as Mercury Rx). Regardless, on June 7, 2014 astrology websites across the internet will begin to echo the reminder that “the trickster planet” has gone retrograde. I’ve written volumes about the effects of Mercury Rx – what I intend to explore here is the natural process of reflection inherent in the configuration to provide deeper understanding of our natural rhythms of life.

What is Mercury? For those that do not have an astrological language, Mercury represents our understanding of life. He is the planet of education, communication, discussion, documents, papers, television, radio and the information you search for on the internet. In Greek Mythology, he is known as Hermes the swift footed communication God and the protector of commerce and industry. Unlike the other planets, Mercury is rather unique by appearing to move backwards 3-4X per year. The retrogradation process is notorious for causing problems with communication, technical problems, plan hassles, and it is not wise to begin anything new or make vast changes during this period.

The Greek Hermes was a two-fold deity as astrological Mercury rules the two signs of Gemini and Virgo. On one hand, Hermes (Mercury) is the messenger of the God’s and the God of crossroads (periods in our life, where we do not know what decisions to make?) and mental connections. He appears in our lives when we suddenly understand something with new clarity and new comprehension. However, Hermes was one of the few deities (along with Hecate and Persephone) that were allowed to traverse the boundaries between the upper world (consciousness) and the underworld (unconsciousness). In his underworld guise, he serves two primary functions. He ushers the souls of the dead down to their final resting place, and in a few instances used necromancy to bring the souls of the dead back to the land of the living. His role of the psycho-pomp, I believe gives us the deepest understanding of Mercury Rx.

In astrology, we can take Mercury’s passage through the zodiac as a cyclical period. Every so often, Mercury turns around and moves the other direction creating a more introverted tone to the mainly extroverted planet. Since I believe astrology is instructional, Mercury sends us a message that we need to turn “inward” and review the past period of direct motion. (To an extent, I believe all the planets when they go retrograde urge us to reflect on certain areas of our lives colored by the sign the planet goes retrograde in)

Activity 1: Get out a piece of paper. Write down the events and circumstances that you have found meaningful or distressful since Mercury turned direct on Feb 28, 2014 . Explore as many areas as you can. Take a look at the significant areas of your life – financial, professional, and relationships, and write down how you feel about these particular areas. What did you experience? Once you are done writing, fold up the paper and continue reading.

Another tool we can use to amplify Mercury Rx is through the tarot Major Arcana card of Judgement.One of the best decks that I have seen that conveys the deepest layers of the Judgement card is the Mythic Tarot.The card makes use of Hermes role as the psycho-pomp, at what appears to be the entrance to the underworld (unconscious).Beneath him are the sarcophagi with three mummified figures reaching up towards Hermes.Many astrologers consider Mercury Rx to be a time where unresolved issues from the past come back to be resolved.Likewise, I believe the Judgement card represents rewards for past efforts, and a deep understanding that we ourselves “create” our own future through the actions and decisions that we make in life.In many ways, we truly ‘reap what we sew’.

Taking ownership of our current circumstances is a powerful healing mechanism. It allows us to take control of our lives, and provides us with the opportunity to make better choices and decisions that create our future. Mercury Rx can provide us a cyclical period to examine our past actions, behaviors, upsets and joys and understand the deeper side of our personality. We may find parts of ourselves that may need improvement, parts we need to work on, and parts we really like. We can use this time to make great inner change! Looking at the Judgment card once again, we can visualize the mummified rags on the corpses as symbols for the parts of our lives we would like to change. Underneath those rags of the past, might be the butterflies for our future tomorrow.

Activity 2:

Take a look at the figure of the Judgement card for a few moments. Now close your eyes. Imagine yourself in the room with Hermes. Talk to him and ask him for assistance in helping you understand the aspects of your life that you would like to change. Take note of any feelings or messages that you may have received.

Activity 3:

Take out your piece of paper in Activity 1. Re-read it and make note of how you feel about the past few months. What do you believe you need to change? Print up the black and white version of the Judgement card. If you click on the image itself, a larger version will appear that you can print. Now, get out a pack of crayons or colored pencils and color in the figure of the Judgment card. Use any colors that you wish to reflect your current situation, and the events of the past few months. Use the three figures in the sarcophagi to reflect areas of your life that you have new insight about, or wish to change. Take a look at the figure you have created. Close your eyes. Imagine yourself in the room with Hermes. Talk to him and ask him for assistance in helping you make the changes that you need to make in your life. Ask Hermes to provide you with the information necessary or tools he can provide you with to assist you in your tasks. Take note of any feelings or messages that you may have received.

For your listening pleasure here is an audio companion to this blog post from the archives of Keep It Magic. It’s all about Mercury and his role in mythology, astrology, and magic.

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Storm Cestavani is the co-host of the top rated metaphysical show “Keep It Magic” and the co-creator of the “Tarot Magic” with Coventry Creations. Storm is available for consultations by setting up an appointment to speak with him. Simply click on Book A Reading with Storm at the top of the page.

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Finding Your Inner Gold — The Sun

Finding Your Inner Gold – The Sun

How often do you read your horoscope? If so, then you are familiar with where your Sun is located in the horoscope. You are either a Taurus, a Scorpio, an Aquarius, or one of the other 9 signs that make up the astrological heavens. But, what do you really know about the symbol of the Sun that we base all our sun sign descriptions on?

In this episode of ‘Keep It Magic’, Jacki Smith and I explore the astrological Sun beyond the sun sign columns and delve deeply into the works of Joseph Campbell, Carl Jung, and Erich Neumann. Since the symbolism of the Sun reflects the need and urge to become unique individuals, then there must be a universal map or plan that describes solar unfoldment. This is perfectly described by the “Heroes Journey”.

We encourage you to put away everything that you know about your Sun because the information provided in this episode will only amplify your understanding. Instead, it is perhaps more helpful to realize that the Sun is constantly unfolding and becoming itself and is always in a process of becoming. Unlike the Moon which develops through our experiences in early childhood, the Sun takes effort. It is up to you to decide if you are going to heed its call.

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Lunar Cookbook: The Placement of the Moon in the Horoscope

In the last episode of Keep It Magic, Jacki and I explored the Moon from the psychological and mythological perspective. It is one of the episodes I am the most proud of because I feel that understanding yourself on a deeper level ultimately gives you the ability to make better choices as well as be more sympathetic to those around you. If you have not listened to the last episode, I have provided the widget at the end of this article as an audio companion.

Now here is your cheat sheet to help you with interpreting and understanding your personal moon placement which I did not have time to do on the show. If you need to find out where in the heavens your moon is, you can get a copy of your chart for free on my website. If you need help interpreting your chart, then I have provided this free tutorial to assist you.

Finding Your Inner Gold — The Moon

I’m excited about the next four episodes of Keep It Magic. Over the years, Jacki Smith and I have had numerous requests for more astrology content on the show. We have done a bit over the last 3 years (yes we are at the tail end of Season 3), but creating them can be rather tricky. Our challenge has always been how to create an inclusive content about astrology without focusing heavily on individual astrological positions. So we have decided to do shows on the planets meanings and mythologies in order to provide our listeners with a more rounded view of the individual planets and everything they encompass.

Our first episode is on the Astrological Moon. In my opinion, the Moon gets far less astrological press and attention than it should. Perhaps, the reason is that we live in a solar conscious society that place its importance on potential, possibility, goals, and the future. However, being bound to a body that needs warmth, nourishment, and security are all lunar consciousness necessities, and without this grounded reality our ability to manifest our solar desires and personal contentment are minimized.

In this episode, Jacki and I explore the different connections and meanings of the Moon that are beyond the traditional keywords of feelings and emotions. Plus, we explore the goddesses of the Moon and how amplifying their symbols help us to understand the Moon and any lunar dysfunctions that may occur if the Moon is not properly expressed in the horoscope.

Before you begin this episode, I do ask that you put any preconceived ideas, meanings, or associations you have with the Moon on a shelf. This will help you grasp the concepts discussed easier.

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Spring Cleaning

Spring is one of my favorite times of the year because I like things crisp – always have! I have no clue why, but when things get disorganized, too busy, and feels cluttered, I tend to feel uncomfortable and on edge. I suppose it could be my Mercury conjunct Pluto in Virgo in the 12^th house, but when things are not nice and tidy, I get urges to renovate and organize.

Since spring is fully upon us, I have decided to do a small bit of renovation on my blog. After all, this is my home on the web and I like feeling comfortable in my home. I have recently updated some of the photos and over the coming months I may decide to do a complete design change – although to be honest, l like the crisp blue.

The biggest change that I am going to make is moving the daily cosmic weather forecast (my term for my daily astrology musings) and put them on my Facebook page. Now, I will continue to do astrological blog posts on my blog, but I want to focus blog posts on the larger astrological picture and my successful free online astrology course Astro 101.

I am always curious about what the tarot has to say about certain topics. So I pulled a card from the tarot asking the question, “What is spring cleaning?” The card that I pulled is the King of Pentacles! In the Rider Waite Smith deck, the King of Pentacles shows a man sitting on his throne with the fruits of his abundance surrounding him. His robe is covered with plant life symbolizing growth and abundance and he holds a scepter in one hand and a pentacle in the other. He is in control of his domain and is the fertile force of his kingdom. In many ways, the card reflects our need to do spring cleaning in order to continue the harvest. After all, you have to pull out the old weeds in order for the plants to grow. Once everything is all nice and clean, we can sit on our throne like the King and really enjoy our accomplishments.

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Releasing Yourself From the Bondage of Inner Slavery

A few weeks ago, Jacki Smith called me and asked a rather simple question – “What is a miracle?” To be frank, it is a rather interesting question that has eluded the secular world for eons. In fact, pop culture has “dumbed down” miracles to the point that it’s a glamorous word that more closely resembles luck or fortunate happenstance than anything divine. Needless to say, the word is perplexing. I was plagued pondering the meaning to this for several days. Of course, I eventually pushed miracles aside and began to study Passover.

During the season of Passover we celebrate the Israeli liberation from the Egyptian Pharaoh and the story is found in the book of Exodus. It occurs on the 15^th day of the Hebrew month of Ares (Nissan) and always occurs during a full moon. According to the story in Exodus (Shemot in Hebrew), God inflicts ten plagues upon the Egyptians culminating with the worst of the ten plagues being the “death” of the Egyptian first born. In order to protect the Israelites, God instructed them to make their doorsteps with the blood of a slaughtered lamb so that the spirit of the Lord knew to “pass over” the Israeli first born – which is why the holiday is named Passover.