We had a new roof put on our house during a Mercury retrograde. I’d hoped the process would start before the trickster planet went nutty. But with the damage around here inflicted by Hurricane Irma last September, roofers were backed up and you take a number and get in line.
Our number came up less than a week after Mercury turned retrograde in Leo. Astrologers generally advise not to undertake stuff like this when this planet is retro. But over the years, we’ve ended up doing the other stuff you aren’t supposed to do under a retro – signing contracts, selling a house, making travel plans, buying a car, a computer. The results have been annoying, time-consuming, weird enough to make you scream. At times, though, the results have been strangely enlightening, comical, and have brought back old friends.
Astrology is a kind of divination system and, according to Carl Jung, divination falls in the domain of synchronicity. Every divination system operates on the same premise. In the moment when you ask your question and toss the I Ching coins, draw the tarot cards, erect a transit chart – or take your first breath as you come into the world – a moment in time is frozen. A pattern intrinsic to that moment is created. If you understand the language of that divination system, then you’re able to interpret the pattern. But like with any divination system, the correct interpretation depends on how well versed the interpreter is in the particular language and whether it holds meaning for you.
On November 7, 2000, Mercury had been retrograde since mid-October – first in Scorpio, then it slipped back into Libra and at 9:20 p.m. on that night, it turned direct in that sign. When Mercury stations – which means it’s about to turn retrograde or direct – the potential for miscommunication is strong. But for that date, the station caused bedlam because it was election day in the U.S.
Astrologers were predicting chaos and, sure enough, at 7:49 p.m., NBC decided they had enough data from exit polls in Florida and Tom Brokaw called the state for Al Gore. With Florida’s 25 electoral votes, it meant he had won the election.
However, shortly after 10 p.m. – less than an hour after Mercury had turned direct – Brokaw backtracked and said that George W. Bush had won the state and the election. We all know what ensued after that – the endless dispute over the chads on Palm Beach County’s ballot and the eventual decision by the Supreme Court that Bush was the 43rd president of the U.S.
That’s how Mercury retro can work on a global scale. On a personal scale, the stakes can also be high, the experiences just as weird. Some years ago or so during a Mercury retro, a vitriolic battle ensued on our blog between a skeptic of the James Randi ilk and some people who had experienced encounters with aliens and UFOs. That exchange ended with us filing a report with the FBI.
Other Mercury retro stories – you get laid off, travel snafus, your book is rejected, a neighbor calls the cops on your dog – are also common.We’re happy to report, though, that other than a few delays with the roof, things went smoothly. So did the repairs on the inside of our house.
The next retro is in November. Fortunately, it doesn’t start until after the mid-term elections – November 17 to December 6.
Oh, how well I remember that unrelenting “war” that took place here on the blog, and its extreme disruptions. It was indeed a WAR. (My email site is being checked out by Comcast at the moment, so I can’t send you this info via email)….but thought you might enjoy learning that one of the particular FBI agents who was involved in that nasty situation is no longer with the FBI. She was ‘stolen’ from them by her state’s Attorney, and now, at only age 54, she holds one of the highest ranking law enforcement positions in the U.S.A. She is Chief of Homicide Detectives for her entire state, not just for a county, but for the entire state. Looking at her, one would never suppose she’s a Cop, much less a “Top Cop”, because she is incredibly beautiful, and her natural beauty, in my opinion, is one of her assets, keeping her work and identity “invisible”. Although she is Cop through and through, she never presents the typical persona we usually associate with both the military and with law enforcement officials, and she never plays her hand outside the parameters of her astounding job. From time to time she asks about you Guys, and she is an avid reader of your books. Just thought you’d like to know that!
Shifting gears…..these retro planets this year have wreaked major havoc in our lives with all three vehicles and other important stuff; had to purchase an entire central air conditioning system during the hottest season on record; ouch to the budget but thank the gods for the person who invented AC; other significant boo-boos. It’s been one of those woe-filled years and I’ll be glad to see it gone! BTW, 2018 is a universal 11 frequency.
One final comment…you know I rarely put my energy into the political arena, but am quite interested in watching how this current investigation regarding the potential judge ends.
My thinking about the “ME TOO MOVEMENT” isn’t supportive, because I truly sense that at least a FEW of these females suddenly coming out of the woodwork and shadows are being paid and are liars, while just as many are being truthful. My problem with all of it is WHY the women (many of them) waited decades before reporting their alleged assaults. Most of it, we’ll never know for sure. As a female myself who had my virginity ripped from me on my 19th birthday by a vicious, brutal, savage rape that required two separate hospital stays and two separate surgical procedures, I can certainly speak to these circumstances with authority.
I was in nursing school but opted to temporarily live at home with my Mom rather than in the nurse’s dorm. She had just lost her Mother, her younger brother, and her husband within a very brief few months, and her emotional stability was fragile to the breaking point. I knew if she knew what had happened to me, we would lose her, so, being of age, I forbade the surgeon to give her a different diagnosis for my circumstances. He was HER physician, and agreed. At that time, I made a definitive decision that I was NOT going to allow the rapist to have victory over me by holding onto that memory and using it as an excuse for the rest of my life to consider myself a victim. Instead, to accept it as a horrific event that happened to me, a part of my personal history, accept it as such and move forward, leaving it there. I have done that, and I don’t regret my decision. I am able to read the energy of some of these women and am able to detect with some degree of certainty which ones are being honest and which are not. In any case, it’s a mess. Trish and Rob, please feel free to edit or even not post my comments on the blog. I’ll understand. They’re pretty personal, but nearly 77 now, I’ve reached the age where I am able to perceive that each of us has incidents in our lives that might help others cope with similar incidents, and privacy isn’t nearly as much a consideration as it once was.
My feeling about the ME Too movement is that it’s about time.Even now, in the second decade of the 21st century, there’s an undercurrent in this country that in sexual assault cases,the woman is at fault. Her skirt was too short, her top showed too much, she flirted, she seduced… I understand why women don’t come forward. Fear. Look at what happened to Ford – death threats, she and her family had to move out of their homes. Really? I found her testimony entirely credible. And I found Kavanaugh’s behavior reprehensible – angry white man, beating his chest, and lying under oath. The way he spoke to the democratic senators on that committee left me almost speechless. And his little crying jags…wow. I don’t buy his denials, not after his performance.
First – CJ, I’m sorry that happened to you.
As for Dr. Ford, in my opinion it’s the timing of the allegation that greatly reduces its credibility. Normally I would automatically discount any unsubstantiated allegation that comes out right before an election (or in this case, an important senate vote) without any evidence or witnesses to back it up – I’ve just seen it too many times. But I gave Dr. Ford the benefit of the doubt this time, because of the seriousness of the allegation, and because I found her testimony to be believable. Clearly something bad happened to her sometime in the past, maybe even at a party in high school that was also attended by Brett Kavanaugh. But for something that serious, I need more evidence that he was the one who did it to her. As it stands, all the people she says were there say it never happened, including her best friend. Add that to the fact that she can’t remember where or when the party took place, how she got there, how she got home, or really anything else about that night, and clearly her memory has some holes in it. The human mind is very adept at filling in holes like that, and maybe Brett happened to be the first person she saw after leaving the room and her mind filled in the memory hole with his face (that’s just one possible explanation. There are many others). Then throw in the fact that Senator Feinstein held onto the letter until two days before the committee was to vote, before it mysteriously leaked to the Washington Post. And during the two months that she had the letter, she helped Dr. Ford find an attorney, take a polygraph test, and prepare to go public with it – all without telling the other members of the committee that the letter even existed (or at least not the Republican members). That wreaks of the kind of dirty tricks politicians are famous for, so even if the allegation is true, I blame Senator Feinstein for casting it into doubt that way. It would have carried much more weight had the committee been informed of it immediately, and then it could have been explored thoroughly during the two months of hearings while preserving Dr. Ford’s desire for privacy.
In my mind, the presumption of innocence is paramount. It has to be. I don’t want to live in a society where anyone can accuse anyone of anything, and they must be believed simply by virtue of being a woman. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a criminal trial or not, I just can’t accept the notion that it’s okay to destroy someone’s life, career, and reputation with nothing more than an allegation. Assume for a moment that he didn’t do it, and put yourself in Judge Kavanaugh’s shoes. How much would it suck to be in a position of knowing you didn’t do it, and being expected to prove it?
I’m glad this retro period didn’t seem to affect the roof, since you had to get it done anyway. I believe in this stuff, enough to put off things when it’s happening. I did have to get my cataract surgery done during the retro period last December. Only one eye, the other had already been finished, and as you might expect, the retro eye is not as good as the other one. Thanks for keeping me informed about these times, Trish. I appreciate it. 🙂