*Eleditor’s note: Astrology isn’t a religion. We’re not sure it’s a science, either. It’s magic, maybe. But, as with feng shui, say, things affect things. So as long as we don’t go blaming our problems on the stars, as long as we assume responsibility for our own actions…well, hell, a little auspicious coincidence and applicable wisdom can’t hurt. And so, with that grain of salt…enjoy!

 

A Gateway to New Esteem and Financial Potential.

Yep, it’s that time again, the often dreaded cycle of Mercury retrograde is here.

This time Mercury retrograde occurs in the astrological sign Taurus, beginning on April 28, 2016 and lasting until May 22^nd. What might the synchronicity of Mercury moving backward in the sky for three weeks in Taurus mean for us? How might it be an opportunity to create new esteem and financial potential for our lives?

To answer these questions, we first must move beyond a superstitious understanding of Mercury retrograde that makes us hide under our beds (and I fully admit I do this) to avoid tech glitches, computer crashes, miscommunications and accidents. Instead we can see Mercury retrograde as the cycle of breakthroughs that it really is.

How can Mercury retrograde bring us to a break through that isn’t more of a breakdown?

Well, it’s actually a bit of both.

Astrology is an intuitive tool that shows us when our growth is scheduled to head into new potential through the synchronicity of planetary movements. Mercury retrograde indicates that sometimes new potential can only be activated by moving backward in our lives, not just forward.

Mercury’s backward movement is really more about bringing to our consciousness something that has been unconsciously blocking our values and patterning. (And who doesn’t need a good breakdown every so often for that to happen? Sign me up.)

This time the breakdown/breakthrough is scheduled to happen in Taurus which means we are asked to retreat within and reevaluate what needs to be upgraded, reworked, rethought, refined, disintegrated/reintegrated, and/or let go of in terms of the outmoded Taurus patterns blocking our new Taurus potential.

So what exactly is our Taurus potential about in this cycle?

Taurus is an Earth sign so one of the main themes that this Mercury Retrograde will bring up is the question of what Earthly materials we value and why.

This question has more dimensions to it than meets the eye, leading us right into our finances, assets and old ways of relating to what we possess as skills, talents and passions. This Mercury retrograde may have us connecting to the soulful part of ourselves that has unfortunately become a starving healer, starving teacher, starving writer or starving artist. 

Now is the time to finally turn all this around and become materially abundant using our soulful gifts.

In our culture we’re often taught to split heaven from Earth—in doing so we relate to our soul’s gifts as if they don’t have or shouldn’t have any financial value. I can’t count the number of times I’ve seen folks shamed for charging money as healers, myself included.

Many of us may have to look at this, or simply ask for a raise.

Taurus values heaven as Earth, and Earth as heaven—which means both are sacred and one in the same. Taurus wants us to place a spiritual value on the material world while at the same time give the soul currency too.

I like to think of each Mercury retrograde cycle as if it’s asking me to live in questions for the zodiac sign it’s in.

Try it out for yourself, as if this Retrograde in Taurus is asking you:

Do you want to attain the next level of your financial potential?

Are you willing to put more of a financial value on your soul skills, even though this culture suggests that spiritual skills aren’t worth money?

Do you value the inspirational, creative and spiritual side of life, financially?

How is that expressed in your choices, if at all?

Are you using your soul’s gifts to build resources and value in your life?

Do you stop yourself from paying the soul currency?

Conversely, do you give the material world any spiritual value? How or why not?

Hang out with these questions awhile, or any others that surface during this cycle.

This Mercury retrograde is summoning an inventory of what we value at the Earth level of our lives and how we express that.

Yet it also summons a moment of truth regarding our self-esteem—often the way we relate to our material life has a direct correlation to how we feel about ourselves. And how we feel about ourselves has a lot to do with how we manage our resources, especially money.

Mercury retrograde in Taurus asks us to remember that with more money comes more choice. And with more choice what would we choose—really? Often this question is answered by looking to our level of self-esteem. What would someone with a low-esteem and a million dollars choose vs. someone with high-esteem? What would you choose?

The resources of Taurus give us more choice.

With more choice we have more options to create from the compassionate truth that we are all connected. This will likely create a more nourishing experience of being alive. Yet, low-esteem often will lead us into the black hole of making choices that seem to get us to “enoughness” because we don’t feel we’re already enough.

Many of us may be doing a review of this dynamic of esteem, money and choice in our lives as we discern what we own and what might own us. (There’s no shame in this, it’s really just a technicality that we’ve all experienced.)

Taurus is about building solid Earthly foundations for our life.

So we can expect this retrograde to reveal cracks and fault lines—allowing us to expand into new esteem and financial potential.

If we resist this, in favor of collapsing the potential into our current status quo, then we may experience the synchronicity of the “trickster” side of Mercury retrograde. We all know this psychic phenomenon all too well: miscommunications, flights, accidents, computer and other technical breakdowns.

Should these things occur, they are designed to help us break free from our unconscious allegiance to a Taurus dimension—our potential that we are now ready to grow beyond. They are glitches put in play to get us out of our own way—not as punishment, but as a way to slow us down so we can hear the Mercury retrograde guidance loud and clear.

So, if they start fracking you up, I say get Zen with it. Mercury Retrograde is saying, “You are not your Taurus patterns, but believing you are has got you stuck in illusion. So I’m going to jam your mind in the Taurus area of your life for three weeks so you can grow beyond this Taurean stuckness to a new dimension of co-creative potential! And if it takes a computer crash to slow you down, I’m okay with that.”

Mercury retrograde reminds us that we are as holographic and multidimensional as the Universe itself.

Therefore, it can be nearsighted to read this Retrograde flatly, as if Taurus is the only influence at play. After all, Mercury was The Messenger of the Gods, which means each Mercury retrograde brings us a message on behalf of all the other currently activated Planetary Cycles and their evolutionary mandates for our lives—feeling holographic yet?

Want to find out more about how this Mercury Retrograde in Taurus is speaking on behalf of the evolutionary dynamics of Jupiter Retrograde in Virgo, Uranus in Aries, Neptune in Pisces, Pluto Retrograde in Capricorn, Saturn Retrograde in Sagittarius—but through the energy of Taurus the next few weeks?

Then I hope you’ll join me for my Webcast Event on both this Mercury Retrograde in Taurus and the current Mars Retrograde in Sagittarius/Scorpio where I will cover many more angles, outline with specificity how to use this timing on these cycles, and gift you to more transformational insights/coaching.

Here is my latest VLOG on this Mercury retrograde cycle where I discuss why you shouldn’t believe the superstitious hype about Mercury Retrogrades and how to get down to the real alchemy this one offers.

Relephant:

 

Mindful offering:

Antique Buddhist Prayer Wheel

 

 

Author: Robert Ohotto

Editor: Ashleigh Hitchcock

Photo: courtesy of Rain Hitchcock