By Cal Garrison, a.k.a. Mother of the Skye
This week’s horoscopes are coming out under the light of a Libra Moon, with aspects that include Mercury’s entrance into Gemini, and the planet Neptune going retrograde, in the sign of the Fishes. This is interesting enough to take a look at in more depth, for a number of reasons.
First of all: Mercury rules Gemini. When a planet enters the sign that it rules, its energy gets amplified, or doubled, in the realm of its governing archetype. The planet Mercury relates to our mental patterns, our communication issues, our networks, our traffic patterns, our neighbors, our siblings, our teachers, our motor dexterity, our immediate environment, and a host of other things. Its energy moves quickly, sometimes faster than the Sun. It behaves much like quicksilver. Mercury is a 100 percent linear, logical influence, and its attributes are on the loudspeaker right now.
As far as Neptune goes? Neptune is opposite to Mercury, in every possible way; they are like night and day. If Mercury governs the left brain, Neptune rules the right brain: intuitive, instinctive, creative, psychic, musical, and artistic aspects of human consciousness. As such, it also governs any activity that takes us into realms where there are no boundaries, no rules, and no locks on the doors of perception.
Addiction and lunacy live behind some of those doors: so does the music of the spheres — so do spiritual healing and divine inspiration. Neptune is where we walk the line between this world and the next, between reality and illusion, between the sacred and the profane. It has no clear definition. When it is in direct motion the forces it rules express themselves outwardly, one way or another. When Neptune is in retrograde motion, the forces it rules express themselves negatively or positively, depending on the extent to which we have been deluding ourselves inwardly.
If the inside story is what gets refined under a retrograde Neptune, we will be working on that piece for the next six months, until it goes direct on Nov. 20. Between now and then I suspect that we will be looking at whether or not our beliefs and the faith that we have in people and things have anything to do with the way things really are.
Fortunately, Neptune is as strong in Pisces as Mercury is in Gemini — so the impulse to get right with God and straighten out our spiritual motives clearly enough to express every aspiration from a point of integrity is equal to whatever it takes to stand up under the harsh light of Mercury’s linear process. Between the two, we will be able to get real enough to see whether we are walking our talk or living a lie. In a perfect world this would be about coming to terms with the truth and using it to transform and redeem whatever it is in us that is out of integrity.
If you’re feeling the heat that comes from getting your feet put to the fire, join the club. All of us are going through the ringer. At this point it comes down to letting go and tuning in to things that restore your soul. Whatever that means to you, I hope that this week’s ‘scopes will inspire you to go within and connect with it.
