From 6-28 february Mercury is in

retrograde

, as they say. This can occur three, sometimes four times a year and lasts for about three weeks. In exoteric astrology, Mercury retrograde phases are notorious for being particular spoilsports for the type of activities like signing contracts, making deals, working out details on agreements, legal stuff,

younameit

. As always, there is something «to» those superficial symptoms. The problem only is: if one only stares at the form (>symptoms), it´s a hard to really get an eye on the heart of the matter

Without boring myself or you with a full-fledged technical discusssion, let´s have a brief look at the essence the M- retrograde: In my not-fully-so-humble opinion, the retrograde points to what I´d call the Inner Mercury. During this phase one is challenged to rather consider internal movements, down-phasing of the external busy-bee, stilling the external and «forward-moving» (as opposed to retro, i.e. backward-moving) Mercury. The phase is asking the individual to shift focus towards the internal dialogue. We are talking quality time with your Self. How about playing introverted ping-pong with your own psyche (the personal part of your Soul) and getting in touch with some much wiser, deeper, smarter, and far-seeing perspectives on your Life and Projects. You don´t have to -but it´s an option. And a rather advisable one, if you ask me (I know, you haven´t. But maybe you have. One never knows in Inner Mercury Land). To top it all of,

if you chose to be really lucky

, you may take advantage of this phase by tapping into some of your more transpersonal dimension. You might become a better friends of your the higher Self in the course of those periods. The Self is a pretty cool friend to have, really, as it happens to be the part of you that is never-ever entangled in the swamps of your subjectivity. In its objective detachment it´s about the best source of uebersmart you can get.

Anyhow. You get the picture. Mercury retrogrades are about 3rd ear lingo. Soul communication. Sharpening of one´s IN-tuition.

That is why the cosmos from time to time is smart enough to enforce an external curfew and shut down the shop of the Wheeling & the Dealing.

PS: On Feb 19 th the moon nodes shift, after over 1 1/2 years of rather hard-core Taurus (descending)-Scorpio (ascending) work of getting the old roots- whatever they may be in an indivdual´s life- out of the soil and into the compost. Tough shit, often almost literally. But necessary, nonetheless.