I'm still on His side!

In one of the "warm up" blog entries I wrote last December, I made a practical analogy for Mercury retrograde. Here is an updated version:

So this guy, who is in charge of several major departments and never gets a break, finally pushed away from his desk, stretched a bit, spun his chair around, maybe cricked his neck, maybe even went for coffee...

No work got done for a while, calls weren't returned, messages didn't get through, and in general, everything went wonky without his constant attention. Now, he's finally spun the chair back to the desk and papers are all out of place from the breeze kicked up. He takes a moment to sigh and get back to work. Constant work, except for maybe 3 or 4 times a year when he needs to slow down and catch his breath.

Mercury haz a sad thanks to your bullshit. Nice Going.

I have better analogies, but that's not the point. The point is: Mercury is not deliberately fucking with you! It's not malicious or malevolent on His part. He is doing His job, or at most, taking a break from it. You are feeling the lack of His influence. He is not there taking care of things and that's when shit goes wrong.

So what do many people do? Make offerings to Him? Sing His praises until he returns to right things? No, they complain and talk smack! You want Him to set things right but you trash talk? Are you going to help the people who talk smack about you? Didn't think so.

Yes, Mercury has a reputation as a trickster. He also has the reputation for wisdom and in addition to being called Trickster, He is also called Father.

The next time there's a retrograde and your cell phone goes awry or the important email you're waiting on went into your spam folder, don't whine about or curse Mercury. Stop laying blame and start asking for His help. You'll get much further!

On a related note: Just because Mercury went direct today doesn't mean things are back to normal. When you get home from a vacation, do you jump right back into life right after your plane lands or your car pulls into the parking spot? Not so much. Jet lag, or car lag, or you're generally travel-weary, then you have to unpack and do laundry. It takes a few days to get back into the swing! So back off!

Another Mercury Storm

Yep, retrograde is a few days away- on Thanksgiving, no less! The three most traveled days of the year (day before, of and after Thanksgiving), not to mention "black Friday," the busiest shopping day of the year, will be under the auspices of a Mercury storm and a new moon solar eclipse! And a near exact square between Uranus and Pluto. Wow. Yeah, I won't be traveling or shopping at all.  I had been planning to decorate on Thanksgiving, but maybe I should do that tomorrow!

The Loyal Horde knows I appreciate this time as Mercury slows down, but especially the stormy time when He once again turns direct. Those of us born under this energy signature get a boost from it! As do endeavors started under these energetic circumstances. I have many projects calling for my attention, am rethinking old ways, have way too many new ideas to implement on my own and am going mad in that fun mad scientist kinda way when you're on the edge of discovery!

I posted a mini reading list last night and today... Bam! I have discovered two dozen books that I HAVE TO read! It's a fun but frustrating feeling. I've been dancing around Mesopotamia for months now and haven't forgotten that I promised a proper post on the region. It's just not time yet. I find that as I go further in my meditations and dig deeper into my research that it feels familiar. Most Pagans (or whichever word you choose to identify with) understand the feeling  of "coming home," of realizing that you aren't crazy that what you've felt in your heart and known to be true is also believed by others to be true. I've avoided the Sumerians, Babylonians, Assyrians, etc because it made my head ache- I'm not the best with names and when the same stories have different names for the same deities, well, it makes me cranky!

Tonight I have been drawn to reading about Sumerian astrology, planetary assignments, the concept of Mercury as a ruler of water, which moves everything, the Sumerian origins of the Caduceus, and the whole pantheon in general. Earlier tonight, when looking at a cuneiform tablet, something nearly clicked- something like the feeling I mentioned above. My studies are making my head hurt, and I don't mind. I'm never happy brain dumping here, but I feel the need to share where I am right now; It's a strange feeling (I feel exposed!) and I'm breathing through it lol My charge from Mercury has been to discover all of Him, in all of His forms. I have embarked on an adventure that I barely understand and am starting to enjoy the journey of discovery rather than the hectic rush to get to the discovery itself.

Thank You, my Patron, for posing the question, and pointing me towards the answer. And for burying it in  dozen more books ;) Thank You especially for bringing people into my life to guide and support me on my quest.

I'm off to burn incense for my Patron, sit in meditation, and gratitude.

Won't somebody please think of the children!

We went to our Spiral Scouts meeting today. It was fun! No, this isn't a rantastic post on building Pagan community and support for our children. Another time. I'm actually feeling pretty chill tonight (uh oh, someone knock on wood before I go off on something!).

In pondering this fun group, and thinking about the upcoming Mercury retrograde (Please don't cry. Yet. I haven't mentioned that Mercury goes retrograde during a Solar eclipse. Hmmm, now you can cry!) , I came across one of the fables attributed to Aesop.

Aesop's Fables or the Aesopica are a collection of fables credited to Aesop, a slave and story-teller believed to have lived in ancient Greece between 620 and 560 BCE. The fables remain a popular choice for moral education of children today. Many of the stories, such as The Fox and the Grapes (from which the idiom "sour grapes" derives), The Tortoise and the Hare, The North Wind and the Sun, The Boy Who Cried Wolf and The Ant and the Grasshopper are well-known throughout the world.

Tonight's tale which brings this all together: Mercury and the Woodcutter.

A woodcutter accidentally dropped his old, battered ax, dull and chipped by wear, in a river. The ax sank straight to the bottom, depriving the poor man of the one tool of his trade. With his livelihood lost, the woodcutter sat on the riverbank and began to cry. At that moment, the god Mercury broke through the surface of the water, holding up a splendid golden ax. "Could this be yours, old man?" "Oh, I wish that it were," sighed the woodcutter. Mercury dove back into the icy-cold water and this time brought up a magnificent silver ax. "So this is yours," said the god, offering the man the wonderful ax. "If only it were," lamented the woodcutter. "But my ax is old, and rusted, and chipped on the head." Mercury, pleased with the man's honesty, plunged into the river a third time and surfaced with the woodsman's used ax. "You are an honest man. I want you to take the golden ax and the silver ax as rewards for telling the truth." Thanking his benefactor, the woodsman ran home to tell his wife of his good fortune. As the story spread, a neighbor, who was also a woodcutter, rushed to the same spot on the riverbank and tossed his only ax into the deep water. Suddenly Mercury broke through the water's surface bearing a golden ax. "Is this the ax you lost, my friend?"

"Yes, yes, it is," lied the man, greedily reaching for the magnificent tool. Mercury tossed the golden ax into the water. "I deny you that one," said the god, "and your own ax." "Please, just get me my old ax," pleaded the man. "I won't be able to support my wife and children."

Mercury departed, and the woodsman cried to himself, "Honesty is the best policy."

In other versions, many others in the town do the same deceitful thing. In yet other versions the ones who are dishonest have their head cut off. Interesting. I mostly agree that honesty is the best policy. Am I being honest about that? ;) heh heh heh I find it interesting that in this tale The Trickster Himself is punishing dishonesty. Wouldn't he reward a clever thief? Maybe that's what it is... He didn't mind the dishonesty, he just didn't like that their trick lacked wit and cleverness. Maybe you just can't bullshit a bullshitter! Maybe He tells the truth, just in a way to make it imply what He wants you to believe? Ah, more meditations!

Greased Lightning!

The planet Jupiter is now retrograde. Astrologically speaking, it's not considered that big of a deal because Jupiter is retrograde for half the year, every year. However, there is a shakeup around the 5 days or so it takes for it to slow down and turn retrograde and later turn direct once again. This Jupiter storm coincided almost perfectly with the storm of Mercury going direct. In the days it took Mercury to stabilize into direct motion, Jupiter was slowing. So many people complained that it felt like Mercury was still retrograde!

In astrology, the planet Jupiter rules many things, including luck: It's the difference between the football hitting the goal post and going in, or hitting the post and bouncing off. What do you think is more likely to happen when Jupiter is retrograde? Yeah. No goal.

Last night we had a storm which inspired this post. The lightning was amazing- the likes of which I haven't seen since I was in the Berkshires at Mount Greylock and the lightning danced with the top of the mountain. Wow!

Lightning striking the top of the Washington Monument

Here's more info on the Iuppiter, aka Jupiter, aka Dies Pater.... lots of akas.... "Iuppiter originated as a vocative compound of the archaic Latin vocative *Iou and pater..." Our Father much? ;) The link is to the Nova Roma entry for Jupiter. I respect their research and typical attention to detail. There's also a great list of epithets!

Best Jupiter quote ever, unintentional tho it might be:

"Now if the Attendants be bright as the Sun, quick as Lightning, and powerful as Thunder; what is He that is their Lord?" -Thomas Comber, 1676

Let's leave off tonight with His Orphic hymn, which is thought to have been, in it's original language, used as an invocation during the Mysteries of Eleusis.

The Orphic Hymn to Jupiter
Thomas Taylor 1824

Fumigation from Storax
O Jove, much-honour'd, Jove supremely great,
To thee our holy rites we consecrate,
Our pray'rs and expiations, king divine,
For all things to produce with ease thro' mind is thine.
Hence mother Earth and mountains swelling high
Proceed from thee, the deep and all within the sky.
Saturnian king, descending from above,
Magnanimous, commanding, sceptred Jove;
All-parent, principle and end of all,
Whose pow'r almighty shakes this earthly ball;
Ev'n Nature trembles at thy mighty nod,
Loud-sounding, arm'd with light'ning, thund'ring God.
Source of abundance, purifying king,
O various-form'd, from whom all natures spring;
Propitious hear my pray'r, give blameless health,
With peace divine, and necessary wealth.

Hail Mercury!

We're back in that special time of year when Mercury turns retrograde. I've posted about this previously, in last December's warm-up to daily blogging. Someone I know created a fb page for people to post Mercury retrograde horror stories! :-o Therefore, tonight's blog entry is dedicated to the many wonderful aspects of Mercury retrograde and I invite you to add to the happy!

Many months ago, I was contacted by a few of my dearly departed relatives, one of whom told me to call my cousin, her granddaughter. My cousin and I had been out of touch for years. No one I knew had her number. I had her email address, or so I thought, and sent her an email. No response. What happens today? She calls me out of the blue. She spoke with another cousin who had been out with my mother just the day before and was able to get my phone number. I told her about the contact immediately and that I was told to get in touch with her. I feel like a new door has opened, or rather, a door I thought I lost the key to.

How did this happen? Mercury Retrograde. Talk about old business! He can provide new opportunities, new insight, new points of view and new energy. I'm energized!

Yes, of course crazy stuff can happen during this time too, but I'm tired of too many complaining and not enough praising the opportunities. Call me a fuffy white-lighter if you must. I think I'm Opposite-Dame: If everyone is complaining, there must be something good ;)

Are you willing to look for the (quick)silver lining in this retrograde?

Detail of The Festival of Psyche, tapestry by Giulio Romano