Mercury Retrograde Watch

Three times a year, Mercury goes retrograde, or appears to be moving backwards, for 20 days or so. (It’s an optical illusion from a change in the relative orbital speeds of Mercury and earth). During this time everything ruled by Mercury tends to go flooey:  communication, the mail, phone lines, electronics, cars, traffic, travel. The fun begins a couple of days before the retrograde begins, when Mercury’s speed slows noticeably.

The current retrograde officially began on Wednesday, Sept 24. Won’t you join me in cataloging all that goes awry?

Sept. 23:  My sister’s Facebook account is terminated without notice. The FB FAQ says this is done for something “egregious” on the page, like pornography or pretending to be someone you’re not. We can’t think of anything that even had a glimmer in its eye of vaguely thinking of wandering anywhere near the universe next door to “egregious.” [The FAQ gives no way to contact FB about a take-down. I send a request from my own account inquiring into an appeals process. More than 36 hours later, there’s still no response.]

Sept. 24. And we’re off!

• My phone line can not send outgoing faxes.
• Each time I “wake up” my laptop, it shuts itself down.
• Although my DVR is set to record “Sordid Lives” and shows “Sordid Lives” in the list of recorded programs, what my DVR plays when I select “Sordid Lives” is … “Cartoon Planet.” Which hasn’t aired for about 3 years. And is not in the listings at TV Guide.

Sept. 25:

• I am told that the code is showing in my Election blog post.  Of course it doesn’t display in my preview pane. But when I switch to HTML editing mode, why, there it is! Or was.
• My fax machines work if I unplug the splitter they’re in from the wall jack. I tell this to someone and she says I’m not making sense. I can not explain how the fax machine dials out if the splitter it’s plugged into is out of the jack. But it does.
• A neighbor’s phone, Internet and cable go out. My first two do, too, but only because…I’ve unplugged the modem while untangling a nest of cords.
• WordPress automatically generates “ideas” below this post, all of which link to electronic products for sale. There appears to be no way to delete this feature.
• My mother asks if I got any of the 12 photos she emailed me. Guess the answer.

Sept. 26:

• I learn that someone tried to post a comment to this yesterday and the site wouldn’t take it. When I report this to WordPress, someone responds quickly and posts a test comment…which shows up.
• Every time I wake my computer up it…shuts down.
• Someone asks why I didn’t respond to an email message she sent. The reason would be what now?
• My insurance co. sends email at 10 PM stating that my payment will be posted on September 25. As in yesterday. After sending a confirmation message at 3 PM stating that the payment will be posted on September 26.

Sept 27:  My computer goes to sleep. I wake it up. It … shuts…down.

Sept. 28: I learn that one of the invitees to a brunch never responded because she didn’t get any of the group email messages about it.

Sept. 29:

• The NYSE bell fails to ring when the exchange opens for business. Does no one get the metaphor???
• Another neighbor has calls in the cable guy because her phone, cable and Internet are going out intermittently.

Sept. 30:

• FB restores my sister’s page without explanation (but with an apology).
• I phone a few minutes early into a lecture conference call. Other participants are talking on the line; this is not supposed to be possible. A man strikes up a conversation with a woman and asks for her phone number. A song starts playing, “Guantanamera,” with the volume going up and down and drowning out his action each time it goes up. Someone from the moderator’s office comes onto the line and explains that she’s testing it. The call doesn’t start for another hour.
• I call in 10 minutes before the correct time. After I enter the passcode, there’s no hold music on the line, only the sound of two women talking as if they’re trying to get something to work. I call another number. Once I dial in, there’s no sound. I call a third number. This one doesn’t even ring. So I call a fourth and get hold music. Four minutes before the call is to start, the line goes silent for a good 30 seconds. The call does start on time and continues without problem for more than 30 minutes. As one of the speakers is making the final descent into answering the last and really important question, a young female voice interrupts to apologize for technical difficulties and cuts off the call.
• I try to save a document as a PDF and get an error message that a required .dll file is missing. The program worked fine a few weeks ago. I uninstall the program, download the latest version, install it, and try again. Windows Installer launches and asks for the Dell Resource CD. The request is unprecedented. I cancel the request box. PDF Creator launches and works just fine.  I try to save a second document as a PDF. Windows Installer launches and asks for the Dell Resource CD….
• After yesterday’s repairs, Neighbor #2’s cable and Internet return to going out intermittently.

Oct. 1:

• One of the fax machines that worked last week loses its ability to send.
• My DVR resets scheduled recordings to 30 minutes, shaving off the extra minutes that had been programmed at each end for early starts and overruns.

Oct. 3:

• I learn of more e-mail with attachments that had been sent to me but never received.
• I watch my e-mail program download two messages and disappear them.

Oct 7: I watch my e-mail program download two messages and disappear them. From the same person. When I write her back, her response comes through.

Oct. 10:

• Two dozen messages download with dates from a week to two weeks ago. All missing messages are now accounted for.
• My fax machine has no dial tone. The phone line is fine. The cords are plugged in. No tone.

Election 2008 and Beyond: Your Power As An Individual

Originally published on TheCosmicPath.com on September 15, 2008.
With Pluto now direct for his final two-plus months in Sagittarius, prejudices and religious extremism are finding shrill and insistent voices. I have been besieged multiple times daily by patronizing, sniping, gloating and bullying from one end of the political spectrum, outrage and panic from the other, and an appalling flood of recklessly incorrect information from both sides. Deep and profound terror is surfacing about what may be in store for us. I’ve had some myself, including phenomenally disconcerting surveillance and home invasion dreams when Pluto stationed before going direct on September 8. Predictions abound that nobody would have dreamed up a few years ago:  We’re in for a repeat of the Great Depression; the election will be stolen; the election will be called off and martial law imposed. Maybe. Maybe not. Nothing is written in stone. Multiple possible realities are before us, and we are collectively choosing which one we will experience.With Venus, Mars and Mercury traveling together in Libra – the sign of relationships, harmony and justice – I implore you to strive for a conscious choice based on those values, rather than a subconscious fear frenzy that fuels nightmares into realities.

Remember: Thoughts and words carry energy. If you pour a lot of energy into something, you are underscoring its existence and importance. If you’re constantly fighting against something, you’re empowering it just as much as if you constantly ran around singing its praises – maybe more, actually, because you’re probably more passionate about your dislikes than your likes, and the intensity of passion works as rocket fuel. Start being mindful of what you are thinking and saying about the economy and the election and especially the candidates. Furious, hateful and terrified energy can’t create anything but fury, hate and terror. If nasty energy is coming at you and you meet it on its own terms, you end up validating it, embracing it and becoming one with it. You feel physically and emotionally awful as a result, and you’re participating in the spread of the pathogen. Also, when you argue vehemently against someone’s position, you are handing power to that person and letting him/her define the conversation. And you are dignifying that person and position attention – which is just what they want.

So take control. Shore up your perimeters and reclaim your intactness; it’s the imperative of September’s Pisces Full Moon. If you really can’t stand a candidate, stop talking about him or her so much. If you are furious and feel powerless about a claim, lie, proposal, whatever, transmute your emotion – which is powerful – into something else. Stomp it off; weed your garden; get it out of your body and your energy field. Then, if you still feel compelled to speak out or act, do it from a position of calm, centeredness and integrity. Act; don’t react. Turn your focus, attention and energy toward what you do want. Talk about the candidates and positions you do support. Work for them, rather than against their opponents. (If you can’t muster enthusiasm about anyone on the national level, look for something in a state race. Or a local one.)

Above all, think and speak in terms of the world you want to be living in a few months down the line, rather than the possible one you fear will be imposed on you.  Nurture that vision. Bring it back to mind every time you’re knocked off-center by a news item or e-mail forward or bit of conversation. Make that vision your starting point and your homing point.

What’s going to happen in the election is all up in the air. Astrologers are working themselves into fits trying to make sense of the candidates’ charts and the transits on election day and inauguration day. Predictions are wildly varying. The clouds of Neptune are all over the election. Yes, there could be confusion, fraud, deceit, thievery, another delayed outcome…but Neptune’s other octave could just as easily color everything. And that would be the higher expression, of divine love. Not “love” from the “My God can beat up your God” school of divinity, but the enlightened awareness of and link to the consciousness that flows through and interconnects all beings. Harness that connection and work it. Talk, act, live, envision and vote from a platform of love, not of fear. Do that and you will be fine, no matter how mundane events play out.

The more people do this, the more the individual intentions will amplify each other, and the better off all the participants will be.  It’s as if 1 + 1 will not equal 2 or even 3, but 100. Or 1000.  And the more love is poured into our fractious world just now (or ever), the less food there will be for fear-based scenarios to evolve from possibility to reality.

Please pass this on to every person you know voicing fears about what’s coming – and anyone else who could use a reminder of the power of the individual.

When you’ve achieved one impossible, the other impossibles come together to be with their brother. Sun Ra