Mercury is moving more swiftly backwards and away from the heat and noise of Mars and Uranus. Added to the weird time tunnel that is current the eclipse season, everything seems turned on it’s head, inside out and slightly blurry. How to cope? Turning our focus inwards to be with our internal landscape. Think of a wheel, it could be a bicycle wheel or a Ferris wheel. On the outside, it’s all friction, noise and heat. But when you look at the spoke, the inner part of the wheel, it hardly moves and there’s none of the external noise and friction. Even the eye of a cyclone is quiet. This is the same in our core, and here is a place of quiet retreat.
Our human complex is a beautiful gift when used well, and time listening to our inner lives is best practice in this. The tension comes when we are out of alignment when some inner parts are striving for one thing, while another part wants something else. Think of those times when your body says rest but your mind is alert and racing. Or when your heart says one thing and your head another. It’s uncomfortable as we are pulled in two directions at once and finding clarity and a forward path seems almost impossible. However, in our core, all is still, as this is the part that listens to all the voices, that is, essentially, YOU. And this you is a neutral party who doesn’t have to be pulled into the drama and conflict between the other parts.
I see Mercury’s backwards tours as times of peace and try to schedule less to allow myself more space to just “be”. To try whatever brings me off transmit, onto receive and into alignment. These ideas below may help bring you into your inner space:
- Contemplation/Meditation
Not of the kind where you are trying to still the mind though. This is a time where you are a neutral bystander, listening in, like an adult listening to children’s conversations to keep an eye on them while staying out of their play. Sitting comfortably like this, without effort or agenda, can bring a whole new light on the inner world.
- Journalling
Free flow writing of our thoughts without censure if often a good way to understand more of what is going on inside of us. 15 – 20 mins each day for a week, or month, can bring clarity to confusion and understanding to uncertainty.
- Walking out loud to yourself
Not into writing or meditation? Just talking to yourself out loud can get those thoughts in your brain out so the rest of you can hear it, and get to know those mental critics for what they are. I have been known to do this while out on my morning walk (you do get crazy looks but hey, whatever works!) or you could try “Grace and Frankie” by recording it on your phone.
- Sharing to a close friend
This is a version of the above, but with a trusted friend who can offer the safe, reflective surface of a mirror that holds the best of you. Sometimes it simply speaking it out loud that helps, other times it’s a kind yet honest reflection from a loved one that gives us the insight we need.
And there’s a BUT with all of this… as Mercury slides back into Cancer on July 19 there may be a sense of diving too deep that we can see the light of reason. If emotions are overwhelming, then coming into the natural external world can help. Walking beside water or in nature and focusing on what you see, listening to the sounds around you, feeling sunlight on your face – all ways to come back to your body and into the present moment.