Mercury Direct/Pallas in Virgo

 A park lantern in Enghein

(Matgorzata Kaczor, July 2008)

This is going to sound a bit like a recitation from ‘the house that Jack built,’ but as we move through the eclipse, as Venus shifts into Capricorn and after Jupiter goes retrograde, then Mercury goes direct.

Or rather, first Pallas moves into Virgo. THEN Mercury goes direct.

The Pallas ingress is at 11:13 p.m. (UT/+0) time with Pallas in Virgo representing the optimal of gaining the greater perspective, from which comes wisdom.

Or, of course, Pallas in Virgo can represent matters which require us to gain an optimal perspective in order to manage the situation and make wise choices.

It all rather depends on how you come to this time and whether (principally) your eclipse was about changing, not hiding and getting closer to how your emotionality really works (with an active regard for what you could/should do about various matters) or whether you arrive at the end of this first full week of November overrun with psychic footprints. (Some of which are your own…fancy that!)

Then there’s the juxtapositions suggested by Mercury’s turn to direct against Jupiter’s reflective turn into retrograde motion. That’s a divider between those who are simply ‘moving on’ and those who need to move into a ‘repair or rebuilding’ mode which starts about now.

But let’s not assume anything is going to be moving any too quickly. Yes, as Venus moved into Capricorn on the 5th we all will have felt a subtle collective exhalation on the societal level and most of us – instinctively – will have taken that as a sign the pour our efforts into ‘goal oriented activities.’ And for a lot of us, that is going to become our “sanctuary” of sorts. Every year we get into holiday season and a substantial portion of the world gets into ‘I’m so busy’ mode. It’s a popular thing to be, so busy – indeed for many, that business seems to validate their worth. If they’re busy with holiday plans and work and trying to get the shopping done – well, life must be okay, right? We must all be okay, right?

Not really. Jupiter’s turn to retrograde against Mercury going direct on the 10th, to be followed on the 13th by Neptune going direct at 2 Pisces is an invitation to lie.

Most of all, to ourselves. With Mercury in Scorpio and Neptune in Pisces our compromises are likely to be with anything which ‘doesn’t work’ for us – especially in the sense of our reputation or how others see us.

At least that’s the easy way to go. The harder way is to think through what you stand for (…really). And what it means if someone doesn’t like who you are (…really). Their not liking you – is that about you or about their inability to tolerate anyone who is even a little bit different? This matter of value - and what matters - what’s ‘worth’ our sacrifices mental, emotional, financial or on any other level are what we’re all about.

And the stickiest of all the wickets is this: what we think others think of us may not be what they think of us at all.

This is part of the curious, nebulous, disheartening, headache producing qualities of this period – and when I say ‘this period,’ what I’m referring to is a span of days when begins on October 8th (maybe even on the 7th) and which extends on to/through October 15th. Because this period includes an ‘overlap’ between the stations of Mercury and Neptune, there is a quality of permeability which is likely to turn up in many things – not the least of which is our (Mercury) thinking, travel plans, attention to detail and qualities of communication and whatever vulnerabilities (real or imagined) we bring to any given topic.

Or (imagined) lack of vulnerabilities. I don’t talk about that much, but it couldn’t be truer that Neptune’s famously potent power to imagine would include imagining you can do what you can’t do…as easily as it would include the ability to do that which we are afraid or doubtful about doing.

In other words, that which we ‘never imagined’ ourselves capable of, which for good or problematic, we find we’re entirely capable of.

(To say nothing of the fact that this post is going up in the lee of Jupiter’s station, meaning we may well touch in this discussion on things which have already happened, but which for whatever reason, you’re having to deal with the lingering ‘energetics’ of still…(or)….now…(or)… on an ongoing basis.)

Hopefully for some of us, seeing as how we are now in a solar eclipse ebbing/reconstructive phase, we will be able to let a few things go and try again. Or look towards renewing our spirit, our hopes, our willingness to try. What we thought we knew, maybe we knew very well…and maybe we knew not at all.

Can we let go of any of it? In particular, can we let go of how we feel about any of it?

One of the greatest barriers to human relationship has got to be how, in the middle of wanting to resolve some relationship crisis, we all get defensive. With the combination of Jupiter, Mercury and Neptune coloring an expanse of days, perhaps we can let go of our own fears and needs to be thought of one very confined and special way in order to hear others out…in the hearing of how we are appreciated, but in a slightly different way than as we thought. How we may be loved, if for things other than those we thought of as lovable.

How we got it wrong…the rules, the boundaries, the idea of the thing…and how we are willing to open our minds wide and far enough to hear the entrusted thoughts of someone else who does want to connect with us – with the person we really are.

Do we dare let anyone in?

Many of us are so upset, unhappy, disappointed…so underwhelmed by who we think we are that we turn away from anyone who simply accepts us along the way. It’s almost as if we think we have to be ‘perfect,’ we have to have achieved all our goals to be worthy of cherish and support.

It just doesn’t work that way. We are all of us human and all of us as magnificently flawed as we are distressingly talented.

So often it is not the thing we want…or expect to be respected or loved for…which proves our finest draws and the perfume which draws others to become intoxicated with our being.

That the Sabian Symbol for Mercury going direct at 2 Scorpio is A HOUSE-RAISING PARTY IN A SMALL VILLAGE ENLISTS THE NEIGHBOR’S COOPERATION plainly embodies the interactive concept which is so Scorpio. It tells us that the mental points upon which things currently ‘turn’ involve enlisting others –and people drawn from a “small” group at that, in the erecting of something we all believe in…the value of having a home here on Earth.

You may be tempted to think that this population you have to call on is all about your peers. But if we believe this image, it like as not isn’t. Villages are a conglomerate of individuals who often have nothing in common with each other but some reasons to live where they live. So don’t think that those you call on should be from your personal ‘walk of life.’ The Scorpio nuance here may be very much in fact all about the idea that you are, in essence, creating for yourself a new ‘place in the world’ through calling on people you don’t know particularly well to help you build something they will then feel some regard for.

Enlisting others in your cause would seem attractive now – which is very much a whole other side of Neptune/Mercury. At its best, this combination evokes a very ‘we’re all in this together’ sort of vibe where we accept each other on the face of our humanity; where we delight in finding out how we’re different so that we can be of help to one another.

Sometimes that just means we enjoy each other’s company. Sometimes that means we experience our own humanity and strength of human caring by standing with someone through their struggles. And sometimes we need to feel cared about even though we may not feel worthy of being cared about as we admit our flaws, our gaffs and our failed good intentions.

2 Scorpio is about the process of learning who we are and what we are capable of. It isn’t all good, it isn’t all bad, either. This is a degree which plainly states that life is what we make it…but that we have to take on making it and also remember to clean up after our mistakes.

To err is human…to learn from errors, divine.

Pallas entering Virgo on the 9th (a day prior to Mercury going direct on the 10th) gives us time and space and represents an opportunity to be pragmatic. No, you may not like everything you see, but yes, you can survive it, you can deal with it, you can make it into something better, if that’s what you so desire.

You just have to be willing to work through your process.

There has been a lot of talk of evil in my life of late. I tend to think evil is not in the act, but in the being unwilling to think through why you undertook to do that act, the unwillingness to talk about what works and what doesn’t work and why that would be.

We may all go through this time trying to deflect, ignore, reorient, rebuild and figure out. Some of us will keep ourselves good company, and some of us will seek out the company of those who accept us in any given moment whether we are being grace itself or a raging Cyclops, driven by instincts not yet understood.

Swindlers will abound now.

Tales will get told.

Not one of us will know what is going on for this next little while…not in finite terms. Not for real.

If you can afford to enjoy what you’re doing, do it well. If you can afford to be a dispassionate observer on that which must get done, insights will happen.

If you can be brave enough to let go of your own fears and trust that you can be accepted for who you are, have been, and have the potential to become, the very energies of utopia are there for you to walk into.

Just don’t try to hold onto anything just yet. Some things you see ‘in the light’ now will eventually solidify into tangibles. Some will not. Hold your hand out and if you are met in kind, don’t grasp…trust.
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