Mercury is the planet that governs communication, short trips. Mercury is the messenger. When Mercury went Retrograde (November 6–26), it is a time to review and double-check all of your communications, appointments and short-travel plans. If anything mechanical or technical was about to break down, finally does break down – feel free to blame it on Mercury Retrograde. Yet there is more. Mercury rules telephone calls, letters, messages, emails, communication between persons. Mercury Retrograde does not mean you need to stop communicating – it does mean, you need to exam and ask yourself what you are communicating on many levels.
Astrologers consider Mercury Retrograde has a shadow of two weeks prior to going Retrograde and two weeks after turning direct. My own experience with this particular Mercury Retrograde has been a mixed-bag of blessings and Murphy’s Law (If anything can go wrong, it will!).
I had two vacuums, one Oreck (light-weight) and a Hoover Breathe Easy, I had both reconditioned a few years ago and they worked great. Until a couple of days into Mercury Rx ‘shadow’, the Oreck vacuum’s handle broke off. Was I upset? No, I was grateful I had not cut my hands on the sharp metal where the handle had broken off.
I simply took out my Hoover vacuum and began vacuuming all the same areas I had with the Oreck, and was almost finished vacuuming the carpeted hallway. When I smelled something burning. Suddenly, the entire hallway was filled with smoke and I could see flames erupting from the Hoover vacuum motor. I turned it off and quickly raced to unplug it. I immediately took it out on my ceramic tiled patio in case it continued to burn.
I was dog sitting, too, so I loaded the dog in my car and raced to a retailer and purchased a new vacuum. I returned to try the new vacuum, and I was stunned by the amount of debris in the clear-bagless container – because I was vacuuming with the new vacuum in exactly the same areas I had vacuumed with the other two vacuums!
I am caring for two newborn kittens – well, I have for several weeks now. They were so tiny and precious, two little clowns that kept me laughing all of the time. I keep them in their EXPEN (Exercise Pen) when it is time for them to eat their wet food, to use the litter box and to take a nap. The two kittens were out of their pen playing – racing around my condo at the speed of light, chasing one another, running up and down furniture and my ottoman. I returned them to their Expen and fed them their every 4-hour wet food. I sighed, grateful to be able to sit down and rest for a few minutes. I walked around their pen, walked toward my over-stuffed chair and stepped on something hard, “Ouch!” I yelled to no one, whatever I had stepped on, had really hurt the bottom of my foot.
I looked down trying to find what piece of metal I had stepped on. It was the frame of my fairly new super-deluxe eyeglasses. I said aloud, “Oh, no, the kittens knocked my eyeglasses off of my ottoman!” I picked them up and the lenses were okay. I took them in the bathroom and used the special liquid cleaner for the lenses. I put them on – and to my surprise and delight? My eyeglasses fit better than ever – my stepping on my eyeglasses had somehow ‘adjusted’ the frames so they no longer felt a bit too tight!
I returned from buying groceries and was in a hurry (a no-no during Mercury Rx), tugged hard on the refrigerator door to put the cold food items in the refrigerator. Not one, but TWO of the door trays fell down and all the contents – most of them glass, fell out on the floor and some into the refrigerator. Heh, I thought, “that will teach me to be in a hurry!” It took me an hour and a-half to clean the door trays, the items that fell on the floor, and then Mercury Rx urged me to continue not only cleaning the refrigerator, but the freezer compartment.
Yup, blessings do come with Mercury Retrograde. Beware though, once you begin cleaning anything, you will be compelled to clean everything! Warning! It is not a time to sign leases or contracts, nor make any large purchases, such as furniture, a new car – why, you ask? Because, the items never fulfill their purpose as intended. The furniture will not be comfortable or last. That new car will end up being a lemon. That new computer will keep crashing. So be warned, because Mercury goes Retrograde three times a year.
Another blessing, was that I had delayed going to the recycle yard. One day, my intuition was screaming at me to go to the recycle yard – even though I felt I did not have the time, I followed my intuition. I loaded up my SUV, drove the short distance, filled up three barrels of recyclables and received my money. As I got into my car, another extremely large SUV pulled in next to my car. The woman and her son got out of their car and opened the back. I took one look at their ‘stuff’, rolled down my window as I backed out and asked the woman if she was recycling those items. She replied, “Yes, I am finally cleaning out our garage.” I asked her if I could have the large birdcage I could see in the back of her SUV. She responded, “Sure, you can have it all as far as I am concerned.”
In order to get the large parrot birdcage out, she and her son began pulling on a large, expensive, patio table. I gasped, I asked her, “I would LOVE to have that patio table!” She did not think it would fit in my much smaller SUV. I insisted I could tie up the back gate – just then, the recycler attendant came over and helped, saying, “You don’t live that far from here, just leave the gate open. I was given a very long metal patio table with the matching umbrella stand, a suede covered folding camper chair, one very large parrot cage and another very large parrot perch. My car was stuffed, and, of course, the table hung out the back of my SUV with the two parrot items hanging from the upside down legs. I put on the flashers and drove home very slowly. My neighbor, Dawn, helped me unload all of it. It all fit perfectly on my patio – I simply folded up my plastic patio table and put it in the garage. I intend to use the parrot items to make planters out of them.
There are great things to do during Mercury Retrograde – to review past ideas or plans and revise them or let them go, coming up with an even better idea or a new plan. It is an excellent time to clean out drawers and closets – oh, and garages.
As I am LATE submitting this article to Bellesprit Magazine (how VERY Mercury Retrograde), the two kittens that were securely locked in their EXPEN have both broken out, escaped and for the first time, gotten into the kitchen and dining room. I am distracted by the thunder of 8 paws racing around, snagging my upholstered furniture, oh and the dog I am pet sitting is crying to go out to potty.
There truly are blessings, albeit, hidden blessings in everything. As for my two broken vacuums – apparently, they only pretended to be picking up debris on and in my carpets. I wish they had broken or burned-up sooner, but then, I would be robbing Mercury Retrograde of the perfect job, and divine timing!
Blessings Be upon us all. Jussta
© 2012 Jussta All Rights Reserved
Photograph Courtesy of NASA: Copyright Nasa.gov All Rights Reserved
