By Amanda Painter
Coming close on the heels of Tuesday’s equinox (the Sun’s entrance into Aries, beginning a new season and astrological year), tonight at 8:19 pm EDT (00:19 UTC Friday) Mercury stations retrograde in Aries. So, despite this being a natural time of year to want to take action in starting new things, you may be experiencing some hitches in executing your plans.
Is this what it looks like inside Aries? Maybe. The more important question is, what does it look like inside you? Photo of the “Man pavilion” at Burning Man 2012 by Amanda Painter.
If that’s the case, you have some options. Sure, you can insist on plowing ahead, damn the torpedoes. Chances are, however, that’s not going to be the most efficient or smooth approach.
Every Mercury retrograde is an opportunity for review and introspection. With Mercury in Aries, that inner consideration could well have to do with your sense of who you are (your identity), your relationship to what you want (desire), your relationship to anger and how you express it, or your sense of agency in your life (whether you feel like you can make your own choices and actions).
Now, while you could go the full-meditation route, I’m not sure that really meshes well with a Mercury retrograde in Aries, either. Particularly not this one.
I say that because the sky is currently dominated by planets in Aries making square aspects to planets in Capricorn. (I’ll touch on a couple of the specific squares in a moment.) These Aries-to-Capricorn relationships are calling the theme for the Mercury retrograde chart, which you can think of as a question:
Where are initiative and individuality running up against what is codified or institutional?
One illustration might be the March for Our Lives scheduled for March 24 in Washington, DC, with affiliated local events throughout the US. In this we see many individuals taking up a moral imperative to value students’ lives above the entrenched corporate-governmental-military system that has allowed (and encouraged) weapons of mass murder to be normalized and protected.
Likewise, in your personal life, you might notice tension between what you really want to do and some form of established structure or authority figure — such as your need to express yourself artistically clashing with the requirements of your job.
Another angle on this dynamic comes through Venus in Aries square Pluto in Capricorn (exact Friday). This is a reminder that relationships need to grow to stay healthy — and growth implies change. If you insist on clinging to how a person, or a relationship, ‘has always been’, you’re likely to experience difficulty. Trying to control someone by manipulating them is an especially bad idea.
On the other hand, if you can get excited about discovering what’s unfolding, and about letting yourself explore the changes, a much more emotionally satisfying experience could be in store. It’s easy to fear change, forgetting that what develops can be much healthier and feel better in the long run.
The other major square this weekend is between the Sun in Aries and Mars (ruler of Aries) in Capricorn. This is exact on Saturday, but is something to start working with now. You’ll want to ask yourself how aware of your motives you are. The more unconscious your motives, the more likely you are to run into ego conflicts with others.
Sun square Mars, especially with Aries involved, is also a reminder to find vigorous, physical outlets for your energy. If used constructively, the energy and tension associated with this square could be incredibly productive — particularly with Mars in Cap. That said, when it comes to interpersonal interactions, pay attention to when you truly need to be assertive versus when you can get good results with a softer approach, and choose accordingly.
As you tap into the fuel these squares offer, you’ll still need to be mindful of Mercury stationing retrograde. You don’t need to paralyze yourself to appease Mercury; you simply need to use your head — and, ideally, slow your mind down enough that you can spot any assumptions and gaps in focus before they trip you up.
In fact, Mercury’s retrograde in Aries could be quite beneficial for becoming more aware of your motives — and how those motives relate to your sense of self. To do so will likely spell the difference between getting tripped up by reactivity and staying in touch with a clearer sense of presence and purpose in your daily life.
We live in a world where more and more people invest increasing levels of their identity and self-worth in the number of Facebook ‘likes’, Instagram followers and online arguments they’re able to ‘win’. It’s easy to forget that a sense of self, self-esteem, and simple presence in the world can — and needs to — exist within, separate from online activity.
As you back up your computer, check your email spam folder for errant messages, double-check all instructions, find workarounds for major purchases, drive extra carefully — and the other general Mercury retrograde housekeeping tips — notice where you have quieter opportunities to learn from what crops up. Aries is not known for being quiet or still. Yet, Mercury is stationing retrograde in a degree with a symbol that, in one interpretation, carries the note, “the value of a dignified inward withdrawal.”
As contrary as that may seem to the energy of the season and the accompanying astrology, I do think there are plenty of ways to integrate it all. At the very least, you can use the Aries initiative to make a strong, spirited start to your inner accounting.
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So I have made sound arguments to our attorney last night and this morning, me with mercury, venus and mars in Aries and him an intellectual Sag. There really is a lot of wiggle room in every situation, just have to get the timing down to the moment you feel most self-assured. He needs to be confident in the approach I want to take; and, I need to protect my brothers and our assets.
On the other hand, I really like Facebook, the friends, the newsfeed, even the ads. Maybe doing away with the ‘like’ button would help, but we can always control what we DON’T want in newsfeed, and sign up for pages with one click. We just need to be more aware of whether a group is ethical or not, but on the whole, I still think “drain the swamp” was a fairly clever marketing campaign. What we need in reverse, is a ‘drain the swamp’ of bloggers and news that is unethical. It is a crime to lie during an investigation of most types, work or public. It is a crime to assault people, to use their sex or religion against them, and so on. Maybe it should also be the same on a public newsfeed. You don’t like Jesus? Fine, shut up about it, unlike or unfollow the page or person. I don’t like Atheism? Equally fine and I always unlike or block those pages too, not because I dislike so much, but because of the attached hate and belittling that go with the pages and their followers. We could use a little more of “love thy neighbor,” but I don’t think it will happen overnight. Heh – and I could try to practice what I preach, so I’m working on it.
Susan, good points raised. If you remove yourself from fb in thinking it will hurt the company, it won’t since they continue to expand their platform worldwide, think, India, China. As with all of us, we have to consider the known risks, and force regulatory protections and independent oversight, that would also allow any member of the public to sue for retribution and damages. I don’t have much faith in our Congress and no faith in our current dysfunctional administration to believe that such protections will occur, but it can and should be a leading platform in the 2018 elections. In the meantime, I expect European Countries will pick up the pace, their privacy protections are far more citizen friendly.
But there is so much more to this scandal than fb- a large part of what must become the bigger political debate is how Billionaires can buy influence through the internet and social media. It was the billionaire Mercer family that funded Cambridge Analytica to do its dirty work. It is time to put political power back into the hands of the voting populace vice the oligarchs who manipulate the system to our detriment.
I looked up Steel Mills a couple of weeks ago, since it will be a big deal in the Trade and Imports tax. Now I keep getting ads on Yahoo and everywhere else to purchase Steel. What I really want to know is how much it will cost me next year when I buy a new car. LOL. The software is getting better at reading our minds, and my son keeps warning us about AI taking over. Stephen Hawking put it high on the list of warnings. When I start perusing the new car info next year, it will be interesting (or not) to see what pops up in the ad space. I have an ad blocker, but it certainly doesn’t block what Google and Facebook want us to see. Maybe I’ll search new cars this week and see what happens. Ex. “Ok google, am I rich enough to buy steel, a steel mill, or just a used vehicle?”
Google search answer: “The one monthly payment killing your wealth” – a car payment!!!