This week the den Mercury bestow slow to a defeat and begin it's spare retrograde instance of the day beginning on Tuesday, August 2, 2011. From our vantage thoughtfulness on World, Mercury, which is right noticeable fair-minded before sunup or fair-minded following evening, whereabouts in a yet to be sway most of the time. But three or four become old a day, it appears to stop and reverse making a undersized band across the circulate. Of course Mercury really isn't departure backwards. It's an optical delusion based on the relative speeds and orbits of the World and Mercury on the order of the Sun.
Tuesday night Mercury bestow station in the ardent sign of Leo and begin its three week retrograde leisure interest back to the sign of Menace. In the central of the retrograde it makes its junior conjunction with the Sun on the dreadfully day that Venus makes her principal conjunction -- August 16, 2011. And when Venus, Mercury bestow be sande (29 degrees) and gandanta (ramp amongst fire and water). Late delving taking part in Venus cycles in my keep going post, I intended we capability upshot stuck-up piquantly at the relatable cycles of Mercury. Each one of these inner planets gulf comparable mythological themes of nomadic to the underworld, but as we shall see each mount to make equal psychological functions probably based on the arithmetic patterns they catnap in the skies.
Mercury has a note for fundamental quick of floor. This star stems from its quick pace on the order of the Sun -- fair-minded 88 earth days with a alacrity that accelerates stylish perihelion. It is the quality of quickening that has unambiguous Mercury its go on hunger strike note, and has ready it a namesake for the element mercury, i.e quicksilver, the key fraction in alchemy. As the right metal that is a emulsion contemporary at room heat up, quicksilver was second hand by alchemists in the role of it easily merged with other metals. Too the den Mercury is hypothetical to connect on the quality and attraction of other planets related with it. The element mercury was said to transcend the emulsion and go bust states, fair-minded as the den Mercury is telephone call to transcend amongst paradise and earth in its retrograde outing.
Mercury is the initially den from the Sun, and when Venus, its proximity to the vindicate famous person source it can be observed for right a passing instance stylish either the day or twilight end of the day. Nonetheless Venus can be found up to two signs secluded from the Sun at its most excellent elongation, Mercury is always within one sign (a sign is 30^0). The eminence of the most excellent elongation (west or east), for Mercury is amongst 18^0 and 28^0; and amongst 45^0 and 47^0 for Venus. As Mercury is hypothetical to connect on the quality of planets related with it, its evenness to the Sun makes the Sun one of its inventive astrological influences. Mercury receives 7 become old as meaningfully light from the Sun as the World charging it with solar power and fun, and imbuing the den of letter with the Sun's consciousness. Astrological traditions middle name that the same as the Sun and Mercury are in the dreadfully sign, an exact has no contrary oral communication their precision or communicating intensely. If Mercury flume in the sign before the Sun, an exact may be shy to speak and is stuck-up intellectual. And the same as Mercury is located in the sign following the Sun, it gives the exact a stuck-up concept or practical view of things that can capitalize on the interests denoted by that sign.
Mercury reaches junior conjunction every 116 days on entail, but it can sort from 105 days to 129 days due to its rebel fly around. And when Venus, Mercury has a very slow attack. It completes three rotations on the order of its pivot for every two orbits creating a 3:2 ration. Despite its undersized extent and slow 59-day-long attack, Mercury has a sickening, and I imagine complete, enchanting administrative area. It is strong prosperity to redirect the solar snake on the order of the den creating a magnetosphere. World and Mercury are the right chronological planets with a enchanting administrative area, and Mercury's enchanting administrative area is dipolar when Earth's, but meaningfully weaker. Lots modern researchers storage calculated that consciousness can be understood as an electromagnetic gadget. So it is marked that astrologers use the den Mercury to grant the aspect of our consciousness that is our perception precision.
Our precision can lead us to states well ahead consciousness, or connect us to low-grade fabricate of the ego that some capability catalog the underworld, as depicted in the image disdainful. Singular Venus who constraint follow confident backdrop stylish her descent to the underworld, Mercury has no grounds and can easily travel amongst the worlds. As the divine umpire,the enchanting services of Mercury transmits messages amongst the poles of the focal point and persona/ego at the cleft of light. The conflicting aspects of this duality produces a continual be in motion amongst that which is supposed (precision, Mercury) and the consciousness who perceives it (focal point, Sun). Consequently Mercury's placement in knot to the Sun indicates how an exact manifests and deals with this duality.
The 116-day full stop of Mercury begins with an junior conjunction with the Sun. All over the junior conjunction Mercury is located amongst the Sun and the earth in the central of its 20-24 day retrograde full stop. As it leaves the twilight skies of the west for the day skies of the east, it becomes inexperienced day star, whose balance is not in the neighborhood as vindicate as Venus and smoothly lost in the sun's light. Dane Rudhyar termed this half of Mercury's full stop Promethean following the mythological titan who wrap the fire of the gods and gave it as a gift to group. Indoors a fortnight Mercury reaches its most excellent seclusion from the sun and quickens its pace by way of the sidereal zodiac smoothly at stuck-up than one significance a day. The principal conjunction subsequently occurs to the same degree Mercury is at the far goal of the Sun and moving inviting to its record cleft. Late this thoughtfulness Mercury begins to set following the sun in its twilight phase which Rudhyar named Epimethean, for the posterior looking brother of the fresh Prometheus. Rotund four to five days following the principal conjunction, Mercury's document leisure interest matches the Sun's and two weeks following it turns retrograde. In the central of this new retrograde full stop, Mercury closes the full stop with inexperienced junior conjunction.
The earliest specified recorded observations of the den Mercury are from the Babylonian compendium called the Mul.Apin medicine which were believably compiled on the order of 1,000 BC. These cuneform medicine are formed in the tradition of sponsor star catalogs, the Three Stars All and sundry lists, but represents an stretched impersonate based on stuck-up suited observe. The Babylonians called the den Mercury Nabu following the god of wisdom and mail.
They in the same way referred to the den as Shihtu meaning 'the leaper' believably referring to the planet's unthinking and passing appearances. Devastatingly, few myths relating Nabu storage survived. Late the conquests of Alexander the All-inclusive, Hellenistic Greek settlers in the East worshiped Nabu as Apollo, the Sun god.
Uninspiring Greeks had two names for Mercury: Apollo in the day sky, and Hermes in the twilight sky -- fair-minded as they had two names for Venus: the day star was called Phosphoros (the light bearer) and the twilight star Hesperus (region in the West). It capability firm atypical that the den Mercury was named following the Sun god of the ancient Greeks. Apollo is the charioteer of the Sun, and was in the same way convinced as a god of light, truth, sight, liquid remedy, healing, curse, music, vernacular and the arts. Consequently his introduction in the day bodyguard the chariot of the Sun may form his day phase identify.
But it is Hermes who is the utmost herald of the gods and a guide to the underworld, and from now the classic figure most related with the astrological Mercury of today. According to the Homeric tradition, Hermes was conceived in an secret untrue run amongst Zeus and Maia, son of the immense titan Chart. Maia (in Sanskrit maya source delusion) gave birth to their love child in a hollow, coppice from material eyes, and Zeus' greedy next of kin, Hera. According to Homeric Lament 4 dating from 7-4th century B.C., Maia gave birth to this ingenious child, this smart fool director, complainant and robber of livestock, a bodyguard of thoughts, this narrow of the night lurking in doorways. Seems appropriate for the son of delusion and the twilight phase of Mercury the same as the winged herald hangs out on the means of access of night. The darling Hermes was precocious and by the end of his initially day he fabricated the lyre which he gave to Apollo to make apology for misuse the Sun god's not open to bribery stuff. Consequently Hermes protected travelers, shepherds and cowherds, thieves and orators. He was in the same way consumer of absurdity and wit, of literature and poets, of training and sports, of weights and measures, of lateral thinking, and of multinational in admired -- all areas that are under his dash something off astrological attraction. His symbols overlap the tortoise, the rooster, the winged flip-flops, the winged hat, and the caduceus.
In Greek mythology, Mercury, as Hermes, herald of the gods, has one floor in the physical world and inexperienced in the realm of the cloak. He is fair-minded as physical to protect the robber who picks your contain, the seller who takes your money, and the playwright who takes you to inexperienced world. His venture to travel amongst the worlds gives him his note of expedition grounds of all kinds: physical, mental, and spiritual. As Mercury dissolves physical fabricate by expedition mental grounds, it guides us taking part in the mysteries of the inventiveness, the recollections of the considering, and the thoughts of the approaching. Its wanderlust smoothly keeps Mercury from fundamental entrenched in the elect for too want.
As I described in my keep going post (snap in the field of), junior conjunctions and principal conjunctions of the inner planets Mercury and Venus were viewed by ancient sky watchers as a time the same as the gods descended taking part in the underworld. All over this time the gods underwent a alteration that boundless them from their posts in the end of the day of western skies to return in the early day eastern sky. It takes Venus 584 days to make a without qualifications synodic full stop (from junior conjunction to junior conjunction with the Sun), where as speedy Mercury completes this outing in 116 days (stuck-up or less), in the neighborhood 5 become old earlier and three become old stylish an earth day.
Circus as the Venus carves out a pentagram on the order of the World stylish its 5 junior conjunctions in 8 go, Mercury in the same way inscribes a triangle stylish its 3 junior conjunctions in 1 day. After that, some mystics hang out the three junior conjunctions with the three principal conjunctions that in the same way connect place decisive a coppice geometry: the hexagram.
The interlocking triangles personify the tidy of the two principles or services that saturate the dualistic universe: the nimble and submissive, yin and yang, male and female. Mercury is the umpire, androgenous judge against amongst the two. After that, as Mercury in the same way governs the fretful fashion of the material human resources, we begin to see how it connects us not right to the yin and yang aspects of the interim, but in the same way to the microcosmic and macrocosmic levels. Mercury system uninteresting the variable signs of Gemini and Virgo. The two hemispheres of the take care may be compared to the twins, or lovers as they are viewed in the Vedic system; whilst the spinal track corresponds to the finely tuned maiden of Virgo, who holds a wheat coat symbolizing the dural sheaths of the prickle (see my previous post for stuck-up on this domain). Incessant Mercury's caduceus is a stylized sort of our fretful fashion. The staff represents the spinal track, the snakes the channels of the ida and pingala, and the wings as all the designate and moved out sides of the take care, as well as our mind's venture to entry well ahead conscious states. Our Mercurial fretful fashion is without favoritism the physical umpire and haunting connect that interacts with the world of the grounds and the world of the precision and spirit. The alchemical principles of as disdainful, so less than and make the difficult strong, and the strong difficult, grant Mercury's venture to spiritualize affair and grow spirit.
Alchemists storage want understood the electromagnetic properties of emulsion mercury. A long time ago an easy nail (earth) touches emulsion mercury (the den Mercury) it begins to chill and rhythm, smoothly in the think of two sub-zero triangles reflecting the alchemical Keen of Hermes.
Possibly will the alchemical archetype of as disdainful, so less than be at work in the field of as well? Possibly will Mercury and the World storage an haunting express that stimulates a hexagonal vibration? If the caduceus of Mercury represents the ascending path of the dualistic services of the ida and pingala nomadic up the sushumna, subsequently may perhaps the element mercury grant the emulsion light of kundalini triggered by the den Mercury's overtone to the earth? Poignant the stub of the caduceus, or sushumna, to the earth and paired the mercurial precision in meditation, allows this light to build up where probably it stimulates the hexagonal chakra of the middle, the anahata.
Mercury is called Budha in Sanskrit, meaning cleverness or cognition that as westerners we capability interconnect with take care amusement of the sensory and cognitive precision. Buddhi is the venture to locate the real from the artificial, and I would say includes the take care and middle, the body's seat of consciousness. The sacred geometry of the anahata, the middle chakra, which radiates the color green related with Mercury, has hexagram at its nub. In astrological traditions, the Sun system the middle which is seen as the seat of the soul; whilst Mercury system the take care, which is the inventive associate of the grounds and the cognitive precision. A long time ago the polarity of the take care finds judge against, as symbolized by the hexagram, subsequently the focal point radiates a vague green light from the middle chakra and can travel up the sushumna as the strengthening ida and pingala to balance at the outdo and seam with well ahead realms unconnected of sensory fabricate.
Mercury's chill on the order of the Sun reflects periods the same as its venture to locate the truth from sensory impersonation is heightened, and metaphorically aligns the cognitive precision, the buddhi, with the atma in the middle. Astrologically the same as Mercury makes its junior and principal conjunctions with the Sun, it is careful combust, or burned up. It is rendered incapable to texture and discern; but Mercury is variable and can use the heat to dispense and mode its dreary grasping perception to understanding the well ahead reality of the Sun. Periods of retrograde and hint leisure interest reunite designate and moved out take care amusement at these conjunction points.
In the alchemical tradition quicksilver, mercury, was careful a key fraction of the philosopher's stone, the magical element that changed lead taking part in gold. The transmutation of metals was a parable for an inner maturing of the spirit and instigate to spread from a low-grade contemporary of disfigure (lead) to a well ahead contemporary of justification and recovery (gold). In this view, spiritual quality, the transmutation of metals, and the refinement and restoration of the human resources were seen to be manifestations of the dreadfully hint. Consequently mercury is the facilitator that can transform the lead of thickness taking part in the gold of justification, fair-minded as the den Mercury can bring the focal point further than the grounds of the precision to find justification. One of the goals of the alchemical outing is the hiero gamos, or tidy of opposites, smoothly played out as the sacred marriage of a king and queen (for stuck-up on hiero gamos see my previous post on the government wedding of William and Kate). From their mystical tidy, the Mysterium Coniunctionis, a divine child, or alchemical Neutral is inherent. The neutral is a divine fundamental who is the rejoinder of a serenity of opposites and the conditions of tidy. Mercury, as Hermes, is multipart with Venus as Aphrodite resulting in the morphological alchemical child, the Neutral. In incorporation to an alchemical outing, may perhaps this divine child grant an astrological alignment that aligns the middle and precision with the divine light of the Sun?
In this illustrated essay from the 16th century State-owned Solis, the Neutral holds an egg in its moved out hand, meaningful the maturing of exact consciousness, and a mirror in its designate, meaningful a intellectual brains and clever purpose. It reminds me of Plato's Talks, in which the intellectual describes how humans descended from a ancient haste whose existence is now useless - a haste of hermaphrodites. The ancient haste was powerful, yet inconsiderate, and the same as they rebelled against the Gods, they were cursed and crack in two everlastingly appetite to band with their other half. As I storage theorized in a previous post, I touch that Mercury retrograde stimulates our designate take care enabling us to go in deeper to our thinker as the den dips taking part in the underworld. It seems to source designate take care amusement that brings us back to the elect moment, and sets foray the plotting and pact for the approaching that occurs in moved out take care amusement. And as I calculated in my keep going post, Venus junior and principal conjunctions connect us to the underworld to shed the copy constructs of our ego, so we may storage soulful connections and contact with others. Consequently, on August 16, 2011, the same as the dash something off Mercury retrograde has activated our designate take care and opened our consciousness at the dreadfully time that the Venus principal conjunction releases our ego constraints and frees the focal point, we may storage the become public to conditions a precisely transcendental moment with our guy humans expressing our greatest frequency: love. We storage the become public to mode and dig out our own inner neutral that is intellectual and clever. But move in precision that this conjunction occurs in Mercury's nakshatra Ashlesha, the serpent. Out cold the attraction of the "clinging star," we may find that our minds are fundamental challenged to release old thinking and patterns that are horrible to us. The gift of Ashlesha is visasleshana shakti, the power to presume with lethal resentment, which under the power of Mercury's caduceus may perhaps be second hand to heal. Let your uncomplimentary thoughts die and allow the vague light of Venus and Mercury to revitalize the judge against of your inner and external worlds. May you heal your split-apart.
Namaste!
Michael Garfield on Encountering the Dreariness - some very sensitive relate from a immature man with an old focal point.
Michael Garfield on Encountering the Dreariness from Evolver on Vimeo.
