STARFIRE

May 2009

May 2009- AND THANK GOODNESS FOR MERCURY RETROGRADE
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AND THANK GOODNESS FOR MERCURY RETROGRADE

Ordinarily, if you offered me a choice between Mercury retrograde and a box of chocolates, I’d do for the chocolate. Or a good book. Lots of small pleasures rank higher on my list than Mercury retrograde.

But this year I can hardly wait for Mercury retrograde.

First, of course, I’m celebrating the end of Venus retrograde. And wasn’t that a bizarre few weeks in March and April? Connecting with old friends was fun, and I even met a few people who could have been my friends years ago if we’d been in the same town at the same time.

Venus retrograde is a great time for astrologers and psychics because people show up for relationship readings. And sometimes for financial astrology, a subject I currently find more intriguing than relationship work. The season didn’t disappoint me – but the questions and issues that came up this year surprised me, surprised other professionals. And I had the privilege of watching some dedicated people work on their relationships with themselves and make huge spiritual gains. By the end of Venus retrograde, we were all tired.

We are, clients and astrologers alike, ready to go shop and play until Mercury goes direct on May 6th. I took possession of my new netbook computer within minutes after Venus went direct, so now I too can travel without giving up my internet addictions. And I’m clothes shopping. Traveling. I’m not alone. My friends and the spring daffodils are all bursting out of the isolation of winter and inner growth.

With all that sudden hustle and bustle, Mercury retrograde may be soothing. It will certainly give everyone a chance to ease feelings and soothe tempers Venus retrograde disturbed. Where old patterns were damaged, new ones can be negotiated.

Mercury goes retrograde 1:01 AM EDT May 7th , and stays retrograde until 9:22 PM EDT May 30th, so we have three good weeks for repairing and renewing old friendships and renewing our business networks.

Mercury will go retrograde in Gemini, one of its own signs, then backtrack into Taurus. Venus rules Taurus, so Mercury retrograding back into Taurus will complete some of the situations created while Venus was retrograde.

While Mercury retrogrades in Gemini, Saturn is moving slowly through Virgo, the other sign ruled by Mercury. A ruler is a little like a landlord; the ruler is a powerful influence in a sign no matter where the ruler travels through the zodiac. Saturn’s influence in Virgo will focus attention on the economy, on the remaining problems but also on the conditions that are improving. By the end of May, we’ll all be able to assess economic recovery more accurately.

As Jupiter conjuncts Neptune in Aquarius, we’ll all have renewed dreams, and the country (and the bankers) will have a renewed vision of the future. The good news is that Aquarian visions come with just a touch of discipline (from co-ruling Saturn) and enough understanding of the digital age (from ruling Uranus) to be just crazy enough to work. The bad news is that Neptune is still in mutual reception with Uranus, and even the best ideas sometimes just float off into the ethers. By the Summer Solstice in June, we’ll be able to tell which visions have traction and meaning and which are just clouds floating away.

Environmental controls for greenhouse gases do seem to be part of a working vision, with Jupiter lending the support of law to the scientific vision and public concerns of Neptune (which does, after all, rule all kinds of gases and invisible, airy substances). Jupiter’s influence often gets the public on board. We’re used to thinking of Jupiter as media and public relations, and now I’m intrigued about new meanings for Jupiter as the blogosphere takes over more and more of the functions of traditional media. Sure, some blogging is pure Uranian zaniness, but public opinion is being formed by blogs and marketing is happening on blogs–and that meeting of the minds is pure Jupiter. Uranus tends to be one mind showing off. Jupiter is a whole group of minds sorting out differing understandings and coming to agreement. So watch the blogs to see what’s really going to happen in the environmental future.

But I digress. It’s easy to do with all those planets moving around in a rapidly changing universe.

Pluto continues to change the economy and make it harder for any one national government to function alone. Expect changes to reverberate right down to your individual computers over the next decade. My friend Diana and I sponsor workshops for writers at Writers Online Classes and even our tiny business draws students from at least three continents and depends on PayPal for international money exchanges. Some of my friends and clients sell internationally on ebay, easily doing what you could only do through major big-city banks a generation ago.

So Mercury retrograde, a quiet time when we quit shopping and quit starting new things and just focus on completions, will be welcome at my house this month. I’ll return the library books, finish some short stories that got lost in the rush of Venusian problems, see if my collected notes for another story hold up as a synopsis. I’ll send belated family birthday gifts and put on some old favorite music and catch up with old friends.

I know, of course, that Mercury retrograde is not always serene and placid. But I have high hopes for a serene Mercury retrograde this year, and I wish its quiet joys for all of you, too.

Mary O’Gara, Ph.D.