Beginners Mind
Art: The Fool Card, By Rider Waite Tarot.
Mercury finally stationed direct over the weekend. For me, the beauty of the Mercury cycle is that he forces us to come back to “beginners mind” by playing the role of the cosmic trickster.
In addition to the role he plays as magician, I feel a lot of Mercurial energy in the archetype of the “Fool”. In the description of the Fool Card in the Major Arcana of the Rider Waite Tarot Deck, Rachel Pollack says “Imagine yourself entering a strange landscape. A world of magicians, people hanging upside down, and dancers in the bright air. You can enter through a leap from a height, through a dark cave, a labyrinth, or even by climbing down a rabbit hole. Whichever way you choose, you are a fool to do it. Why look into the deep world of the mind when you can stay safely in the ordinary landscape of job, home, and family.?”
The Mercury cycle, his retrograde period especially, invites us to peek behind the curtain, exposes the Wizard, and opens us to wonderland. Calls us beyond the confines of safety and structures, pushes the rigid limitations we are accustomed too. Shows us the great cosmic joke, that we have so much less control than we think we do. In fact, it might be apt to say, safety and control are illusions. Which we, of course, invite in, because this is the realm of magic. Where belief is suspended in mid-air.
His retrograde will push, jab, and jest at us whenever we turn away from the world of inner truth. Just to get us back in alignment with the magic we are here to seed in the world.
With the retrograde serving as wonderland, Mercury stationing direct has wiped the slate clean. Armed with fresh vision, it is time to get to work on what new insight came through during his backwards sojourn.
With retrograde periods, most especially Mercury, the experiences, the frustrations, the delays, the upending of the systems that pin our lives in place, IS THE TEACHER. It is our relationship to the unexpected happenings that brings us directly to the practice mat of life. What was revealed when nothing went our way? Did we persevere, stay open to the lessons? Or did we collapse?
Whatever we learned on the carnival cruise of retrograde is now medicine in our bag. We’ve expanded, we have new skills to employ, we’ve been given insight into our relationship with chaos, so the next time we are confronted with the situation, we will be more adept at navigating it.
Mercury direct will allow a period of inventory then integration. The seas will stop raging, and you can finally rest in the come up. That is until next time.
