Reflection, Retooling, Recalibration
At the start of every calendar yr, I attempt to plot my main tasks and obligations for the approaching twelve months. However I all the time neglect to issue Mercury’s retrograde durations (the present one begins Nov. 25, 2024, 6:42 pm PST, and lasts by Dec.15) into the equation.
It’s not that we have to shut down and cease doing every thing whereas Mercury seems to maneuver backward in his orbit. However overscheduling and transferring at a busy tempo just isn’t even near being the most effective use of Mercury’s retrograde instances. Ideally, we’d schedule retreats throughout these three weeks, three or 4 instances every year, the higher to do Mercury’s greatest retrograde work: reflection, retooling, recalibration.
Possibly Mercury retrograde is greatest imagined as naptime. It’s when our brains thumb by all of the bits of knowledge we’ve been cramming into them for the previous few months, categorize what’s helpful, and delete what isn’t. Ideally, we’d decelerate throughout these instances and let our brains do their work. It does take some planning forward, although, so put the subsequent Mercury retrograde interval (March 14-April 7, 2025) in your calendar now, and be sure you schedule your retreat – or least a lighter schedule – for then.
Out of Context
Let’s say you fantasize about transferring to a dusty little adobe hut in the course of New Mexico, organising your personal little dwelling, and residing alone in a spot the place no one is aware of you and also you’re free to be whomever you please. In your creativeness, this model of your self could be courageous, blunt, and unapologetic, embracing journey and new frontiers.
The issue with that fantasy is that you simply most likely like your life and your self sufficient that you simply don’t actually need to run away from dwelling. However perhaps you can take a few days for a retreat, and even simply take a protracted prepare trip by your self. Out of your standard context, who is aware of what you may find out about who you might be and what you need?
Because the Solar in Sagittarius trines the North Node in Aries (Nov. 26, 2024, 10:32 am PST, 4º59′ Sagittarius-Aries), an journey, nevertheless modest, gives probably the most heartfelt and artistic approach to transfer within the course of your greatest new frontier.
Cricket
The Solar trines Mars this week (Nov. 27, 2024, 12:06 am PST at 5°34’ Sagittarius and Leo). Put this one on the calendar, as a result of it’s an amazing facet for selling your self and something you try this’s inventive.
The mixture of the Solar and Mars brings confidence and creativity collectively in a burst of power; we need to tackle the world. The trine facet that connects the 2 is one thing of a combined blessing, suggesting that issues move so simply that we could grow to be complacent. However Mars – all the time working, striving, decided – counteracts this tendency, making this an particularly rewarding day for sharing your self and your presents.
Nevertheless, the Solar’s Sabian image diploma brings a message of friendship and sharing: 6 Sagittarius, A recreation of cricket. Get pleasure from this second, with Mars standing by to assist and encourage (actually, “fill with coronary heart”) you – the actual you. Gratefully welcome the great concepts that pour in effortlessly, and the power and braveness it takes to make one thing of them.
Winter Birds
Within the Northern Hemisphere, December tends to be one of many coldest months of the yr. For many of us, its climate is healthier suited to bundling up in entrance of the fireplace with cocoa, secure and heat, than for taking off into the unknown. Even our winter holidays shine with a barely determined brightness, their songs and events a form of religious CPR meant to coax us into staying alive by the lengthy, chilly season.
Maybe it’s the faint karmic reminiscence of some latest Scorpio lifetime, however Sagittarius is healthier outfitted than most to deal with December’s chilly, darkish solitude. He doesn’t scare simply. He’s exhilarated and dizzied by the lengthy, darkish nights; their stars are proxies for the faraway lands he could by no means see, silent and twinkling assurances that regardless of how a lot of the world he explores, there’ll all the time be new lands ready to be found.
On the Winter Solstice in late December, the Solar enters Capricorn and falls to its lowest level within the noon sky. There’s, we really feel, nowhere to go however up. The calendar yr is sort of completed, and we start to plot our resolutions for the brand new one which lies forward.
However on the Sagittarius New Moon (Nov. 30, 2024, 10:21 pm PST, 9º32′ Sagittarius), we’re not but prepared for resolutions; we’re nonetheless exploring potentialities. We stand beside a frozen lake within the flat, white winter mild, sporting a shawl knitted for us by some tender, Cancerian form of particular person, pondering questions massive and small. What occurs after we die? What occurs if we neglect to dwell? Overhead, a couple of straggling winter birds fly in formation; we marvel the place they’ll find yourself, and whether or not it may be value following them on their journey.
Writing and pictures © 2017-24 by April Elliott Kent
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