Louis-Adolphe Tessier “Tourbillons”

Mercury is now retrograde, for the third and final time this year. The social butterfly is changing course, blown backwards on the wind, and pulled, unseeing, into the overpowering rays of the Sun. Our white-robed lady of justice trades her scales for two crossed swords, but retains her blindfold, and, for a time, we must see with something other than our eyes; must make our choices, and answer our questions, from somewhere deep within. We find ourselves, via Mercury, in a kind of purgatory, held in the liminal place of weighing, waiting and wanting. Mercury, in dialogue with the majestic, albeit stygian, evening star Venus, and influenced by Mars, Pluto and Jupiter, is bringing our most subterranean desires and urges up for review. Double meanings and polarities abound. Which way lies the faux pas? We say the Libran prayer: “Oh Lord, please don’t let me be misunderstood.” And tell the Libran shadow story: “People are strange, when you’re a stranger. People are ugly, when you’re alone.” Eros, logos, and Thanatos, besting each other in turn, like a three-week game of rock, paper, scissors. 

As is the case with retrograde periods, they can be both confusing and enlightening. And as is the case with Mercury, they always carry a message. During this time, there is a conversation playing out within ourselves, inside our heads, as we rethink our ideas of taste and etiquette, review our relationship to conflict and opposition, and reorient our thoughts on beauty and attraction. The mind responds readily to song lyrics, movie scenes, drawings or pictures, as they speak to us in both personal and universal truths. And we pore over a scrapbook of memories, of past looks, and loves, revisiting former versions of ourselves.

Mercury retrograde in Libra is an opportunity to query our hidden motivations and our deepest drives. What do you want and why do you want it? What do you like and why do you like it? What do you hate and why do you hate it? What turns you on and what turns you off? We are each of us a strange attractor, chaos incarnate, seeking its ideals, finding its patterns, and pulled toward and away from The Other in a mysterious do-si-do. Mercury retrograde is the caller in this cosmic contra dance. Mind the music and the steps, and then let them take you where they will, as you spin freely, into the crowd.