Mercury, that tricksy little messenger of the mind, has gone retrograde again. It’s not necessarily a cause for alarm, though there are things to be careful of during these stretches. Double check your communications, edit thoroughly. Not necessarily a good time to bring forward sensitive topics for discussion with others, not necessarily a bad time either, if you are very careful and as open hearted as possible.

Trust matters when Mercury is retrograde. This is a time we have to have faith in each others’ good intentions, because it is so very easy to misconstrue. When Mercury is retrograde, our mental functioning effectively turns inside out, so that the words we say and hear actually travel along different pathways in their swift journey toward our grasp than they normally do. Meanings can be missed that way.

A good way to adapt to Mercury retrograde is by using the time to be with yourself, take stock, turn your attention inward, where it naturally wants to go now anyway. Re-read old writings, old poetry, remember the ones who have gone before.

Exploring your family’s genealogy is easier than it has ever been, online; websites like ancestry.ca make a fascinating retrograde Mercury pastime.

I found some poems I wrote almost exactly thirteen years ago and I’ll type in here. These poems are very retrograde Mercury discovery for me; they speak to me exactly what I need to hear now, and also what I am hearing from other sources. It’s a nice mental completion, a filling-in-of-the-blanks, or like shining a flashlight on the dark side of a globe to reveal its full round shape.

A Retrograde Mercury period can be a period of profound mental growth, if we are willing to allow that; of course, it is always a choice. We can use the time to endlessly fritter on facebook and twitter, or pick arguments or curse about defective technology or make dire predictions about what’s going to happen. Those are also easy pathways to take during this retrograde period. If that’s what you want.

Me, I’ll go the other way for a change, and see what happens. If the definition of insanity is to continue to do the same things and expect different results, then the definition of sanity is to continue to seek alternative ways to generate the results we want. Mercury is the messenger; it’s also the magician, if we create our reality with our thoughts and expectations (and we do, but perhaps not precisely in the way everybody thinks).

These untitled poems were a part of a daily practice I did for a year and a half or so when I channeled a little poem every day. 'Channeled' means that I listened for the words rather than thinking of them, and they came in a steady stream.

1.
Singing new and freshly born
weeping from your mother
Swimming from the waters warm
your sisters and your brothers

Let this be the brand-new day
you called for in the night
when lost and lonely was your way,
both past and future bright

A blink ‘tween wakings was the lull,
a break to cleanse your mind
a time to languish, briefly null
and, briefly, deaf and blind

Yourself you are again, as ever,
never more to lie a seed
in soil; wind and weather
have strengthened heart and eye.

2.
Shrieking echoes in the night
sobbing pain and soul’s delight
no difference is there, one from each
Though one would, high on soap-box, preach
its prescription for the world
to always laugh, be never hurled
from center into pain so deep
its only exit is through sleep.

Pain and joy are twinned like brothers
one cannot exist ‘thout other
to accentuate its state
What use ’tis to resist or hate?
There is no fate nor destiny
to overcome your need to wait

3.
This universe unfolds as planned
and none can hurry god or man
Your heart’s a rosebud, tender, growing
never shrinking, never owing
ought to others of its bliss

A heart’s an end, each in its own
self, and owes its duty only
to the children lost and lonely
waiting to be called to light
by heart’s desire shining bright

The unborn seek a home in thee
you can be more much more, you see
Those shining stars, these faerie sprites
shall live in thee, thy heart’s delight

4.
Faith is not forever lasting
sometimes feasting, sometimes fasting
when your smile from heartlight grows
then shall abundance freely flow

Cycles are a part of life, not free
can you be from all strife
until the day of earth ascending
planetary force transcending

But now is when you needs must live
and in this moment shall you give
a meaning to your rocky way
you stumble here and now, today
because you close your eyes and dream
of times not yet, of might-have-been