“Life is what happens when you’re making other plans.”John Lennon
There was a saying popularized in the sixties – when Uranus and Pluto were in close aspect as they are now. It was a revolutionary time and the revolution had a spiritual and intellectual side as well as a political one. The saying was “flow with it,” meaning that it was preferable to presume that there were higher forces at play when mundane plans went awry. This is a good philosophy to live by when Mercury is retrograde as it is now through Dec 14th EST.
Yesterday after Mercury had turned retrograde I was awaiting a call from a friend who was in town for the holiday. She had said she would call before she came by early in the morning so we would have time together before her departure at noon.
I had been planning to take drive up to the surrounding hills for a hike in the morning and decided to wait for her call to see if she wanted to go with me. I busied myself around the house until 11 or so and the call never came. I knew this kind of thing happens under Mercury retrograde – delays, miscommunications etc, and realized that it might be better to take a walk around my neighborhood instead while I was waiting for her. I left her a note and took off on foot down the street. Some neighbors were out in their yard stacking wood and I thought as I walked past them that I should turn around and introduce myself as I had wanted to meet them for some time. I speculated that they might be kindred spirits.
I turned around and as it turns out we had more in common than I had thought and made plans to visit again in the future. As our conversation wound down my phone rang and it was my friend saying she was on her way.
It’s best under Mercury retrograde to assume that delays or snafus happen for a purpose – rather than stoking the fires of anger, impatience or self righteousness. When we push too hard for our own individual agenda under these influences it is possible to miss windows of opportunity that can be present.