Mercury Retrograde in Virgo: The Virgin separates the wheat from the chaff

The sky is falling!  Oh way, nope, it’s just Mercury in retrograde!

If you have a rudimentary understanding of horoscopes, you know that retrogrades are usually dreaded.  In the world of astrology, a retrograde means that a planet appears to be going backwards – it really isn’t, but its movement gives that look – because it is in said position, energies of said planet tend to get a little on the wonky side.  In this case the offending planet is Mercury which governs, among other things, communication.  Unlike the Saturn retro, which laid the wood to our thought patterns, habits, and lifestyles in an effort to get us to take a long, hard look at life and Pluto; which likes to makes us get our act together from the ground up (and in some cases, force us to dig a hole to lay a new foundation), Mercury’s four retrogrades a year affect mostly mundane things which, left unattended or to chance, can blow up into huge headaches.  All the stones, cleansing, Epsom salts and oils won’t stop Mercury from doing its job.

With all that doom and gloom spoken, it’s easy to get seriously down on this little guy near the Sun.  After all, Mercury retros are the time when data breaches happen, comm failures with cell phones and the internet are widespread, contracts and agreements are either incomplete or broken, and people simply say cross or errant things they otherwise wouldn’t.  The question we must ask ourselves is this – what is Merc really trying to achieve during a retrograde?  I have an idea based on what my guides are telling me this evening, and it may surprise you.  Of course, bear in mind an idea IS an opinion, and not always what suits you - follow your own heart and soul as needed.

The idea is quite simple – slow the hell down and be mindful.

In our rush-rush, round the clock, on-demand world, Mercury’s retrograde is a quasi-forced vacation for our conscious mind.  We can’t stop Merc from doing the backstep, so let’s look at what we can do to minimize the low-vibe stuff and amp up the high-vibe:

Don’t fight it.  A Mercury retrograde is actually one of the best times of the year to take a step back and really assess.  If you are in the midst of a contract negotiation, this is the time to take a break, look over the numbers and clauses and check, recheck, and check one more time.  Mercury forces accountability in all communication, and a retrograde is when rushed communication often results in mixed messages or foul ups.  If you are about to get on your lover for a poorly worded message, take a step back and ask yourself how you would feel if they did the same to you.  Anything Mercury governs take a deep breath, slow down, and pay special attention to.

Breathe.  Yes, everyone says “deep breath, deep breath” to the point we want to take these apparent Jupiter-infused wannabe Sagittarians, pulled them on their own bowstring, and launch them up Capricorn’s hiney.  (Please forgive the astrological humor...chances are it was way off). This is the problem – they have a point.  A  Mercury retrograde is the chance needed to catch our breath, step back, look at what’s going on with what we say, how we say, and what our intended-versus-received meaning is.  This is “the time” to practice thinking before speaking.  If your motto is “hashtag zero filter,” rent one.

Ground out.  Grounding during any retrograde is important, but Mercury’s retros can get pretty annoying, especially when it’s in either Gemini or Virgo.  These particular retrogrades make an ordinary Mercury backstep feel like your falling a proverbial cliff.  Anything which ordinarily happens is amplified a bit more than normal based on what that sign governs, but there’s an endgame.  By grounding out, you connect with the Earth and, since Mercury is going through an earth sign at the moment (Virgo), the effects and lessons learned will be more intense in a beneficial way.

Exercise Patience:  This is the time where you need to be diligent, careful, cautious and, above all, bite your damned tongues!  You want to get a good job, take someone’s advice and follow it to the letter.  You want to figure out a solution to your problems, sit back and let the solution come to you.  Barreling ahead during a Mercury retrograde, especially one in a sign it rules, is like driving a new car on an unpaved road at 70 miles an hour.  Sure, you’ll get it done and have fun doing it, but you’re gonna bang shit up and void your warranty.  Patience, young padawan, patience.

Now, onto the subject of how Mercury is going to affect relationships (because who isn’t caring about if they can have the person of their dreams?)  This is the time for reconnection, but not necessarily romance.  Don’t break out the Adele songs or the sappy love notes during this time – odds are they will not be received very well, if at all.  This is a time to look at practical matters – supporting an old friend in a job interview, providing advice for a family member who you haven’t talked to in ages, or revisiting a project you put on hold for whatever reason.  This is the time where revisiting, reassessment and reconnection is good, mostly because it allows us to measure where we’ve come from and where we are going.  Above all, avoid major contract decisions with a loved one, such as a lease, home or major purchase – contracts get FUBARed during this time.

Now, a word about Virgo here.  The Virgin tends to get a bum rap as it is – prudish, cautious, and plodding.  What most people don’t know about Virgo is that, being the female sign in the zodiac, she’s got a bit of “bitch” to her.  This comes out during a retrograde, and Mercury’s retrograde takes that bitch and adds about ten tons of “slap” to it.  Here’s the funny party – this is a good thing!  Think about it; if Virgo is the sign of order, neatness, and service, then a Mars retrograde in Virgo means we are going to make sure everything is in order in our lives, all our communication is nice and neat, and we are serving ourselves better in order to serve others.  Otherwise, Virgo is gonna break out her wheat stalks and start flailing at us in a serious way and, anyone who’s ever been slapped with wheat knows, that stuff can leave a serious welt!  Virgo knows what she’s doing, so let her do her job with Mercury’s retrograde.   You might be surprised how much you learn.

Now that that’s out of the way, a quick word about the retrograde as far as love goes and, of course, the soulmate search for many.  This is the time to look at yourself, and who you are.  Holding yourself to a higher standard, not allowing anyone to walk all over you, and what you are willing to accept is part of this retrograde’s mission.  This isn’t just about performance, it’s about standards.  Are we holding ourselves to too high a standard, not high enough, or just right.  Mercury’s retro into Virgo forces a serious fine tune of our relationships so we are looking past our ego, our hurts and slights, and realize that, in the end, everyone teaches us a lesson, no matter how painful it is.  Unrequited love teaches us to see what equal love is; abusive patterns teach us what we must refuse to accept; and communication snafus teach us how to be tender and forgiving for the most mundane foul ups.  That’s the beauty of Virgo – she points out the flaws in the plan, but also serves to show the way to fix it and prevent future occurrences.  She finds the narrow way out.

That’s all for now.  Have a great week, be mindful and keep the faith and discernment flowing.

A word about parasitic behaviors

Social media has been a hotbed for groups and activity dedicated to lightworkers, introverts, intuitives, empaths and those who consider themselves "awakened."  It has also attracted scores of individuals who are using such claims to take advantage of those seeking answers, and acting with parasitic intent.  Many wish to brand these individuals with labels such as "borderline," "narcissists," and "dark."  This has created a de facto civil war within said groups, and are leading genuine lightworkers and teachers to leave in droves.

The rise of energy parasites preying on these communities have turned them from safe zones for empaths and lightworkers to collaborate and practice their craft into a hunting ground.  So many newly awakened empaths are confused by their abilities, their sudden sensitivity and desire to find who they really are, they are now vulnerable to those who see them as easy targets for feeding on high-vibrational energy.  Bear in mind a few things; low-vibration individuals with good intent are not a drag on high-vibration individuals but, rather, present an opportunity to mutual education and vibration raising.  Those who are of low vibration but choose to stay there, and simply "feed" off the energy of higher vibration individuals, those are the ones who must be avoided by fledgling empaths and lightworkers, as well as those who have chosen to cede the duty of astral combat to others,  and remanded to the ability of those who have experience in confronting such darkness.

Placing labels on others is exactly what is desired by those in darkness - it marginalizes those who may not be of low vibration, but simply struggling to awaken, refusing to accept their destiny, or afraid of what they can do.  Many individuals in low vibrational fields such as Western Medicine, politics, banking, and the like who would otherwise be high vibrational individuals are afraid of being marginalized, isolated, or worse.  These are people who we must support and protect, and we must continue to facilitate their advancement.  We are, truly, all in this together.  Calling one a "narcissist" or similar merely serves to divide, when we must all begin uniting.

Please, be well, and continue to keep the light spreading.

A word about Twins and it's not what you think

During meditation we often get signals, messages from a variety of sources.  I've received messages during a meditation from everything ranging from an angel to what looked like an oversized loaf of bread.  Still, I take each message seriously enough to think about it.  Today I received a messages from someone in my meditation which can best be described as "clarifying."

My guides have been a bit annoyed at me of late.  I haven't been listening to them.  Now I am, and what they have to say is quite interesting.

The notion of Twin Flames, Twin Souls, etc is not a con-artist ranting, but instead the attempt by our own minds to put in a 3D box that which cannot be.  People who say that twins are "bullshit" or "don't exist" miss the bigger picture.   It's not that they don't exist, it's that those who did the "buy in" (myself included)  missed the essential message.  That message is that we are all, in the end, merely looking for answers and our own individual truth.  We can't rely on one person to bring that to us.  We can't rely on one person to be the "cure all" for the problems which ail our soul.  When we do that, we open ourselves up for manipulation by those who really are con-artists and manipulators.  Some would even argue go so far as to call these folks narcissists but, as narcissists serve no purpose but to ingratiate themselves for their own self serving purpose, that argument is a bit heavy handed.  Still to put all our eggs in one basket is both hubris and risking our own development.

So if we meet someone who meets the "checklist" criteria of a twin, what do we do?  Do we push them away, do we engage that?  The answer is that we treat them as we would anyone else in our lives - case by case.  Everyone who comes into our lives has something to teach us, and the lesson isn't always pleasant.  Sometimes it's the ecstasy of learning what we love in the bedroom, sometimes it's the need to hold ourselves accountable because of a lost job.  Sometimes we even get to see what about us we don't like, and see our own hypocrisy in action when we complain about the actions of another towards us when we behave the same exact way.  There is no set formula; the universe decides who to present to us at the appropriate moment.  It is up to both parties to choose if they are right for each other as a friend or lover.  Often the parties are in agreement but, many times, they are not.  Some of us cling to a notion which is false by justifying it as something other than what it is.  

Let me be clear - anyone who is supposedly your "sacred" will NOT mentally, emotionally, or physically abuse you.  They will NOT take you for granted.  Instead they will CHERISH you for what you are, warts and all.  You could be an adulterer, depressed, angry or broke. If you treat them as a cherished person and they return that love, they are sacred.  That's it, that's enough.  If they aren't, move on.

It doesn't matter if they aren't ready or you aren't ready.  If the two are TRULY meant to be together, the universe and Divine WILL conspire to unify the pair when the time is right and choices are made.  Otherwise, forgive yourself for being blinded by the kitten and unicorn thinking, and get back to the gritty and HIGHLY REWARDING work of you that is at hand.

The paradox of manifestation and creation

When we judge ourselves unworthy, we send out the message to the universe, to the Divine that we do not deserve to be whole within ourselves.  That is the message conveyed to ourselves by so many people who claim to be lightworkers and preachers and healers.  This truth...it is also a lie.

Human life requires we learn.  It requires patience and discipline.  We have been conditioned to believe that will get things on the basis of cause and effect.  This is a fallacy as well.  So the question we all ask is what is the way it works?  Is it a Law of Attraction thing?  Is it a manifestation thing?  It is the universe saying "no" or the world being cruel and giving those who are fittest the tools to survive?

No, no, and absolutely not.

What truly is comes down to what we were put on this planet to achieve.  What we agree to do, and what we agree to learn.  Our bodies and souls are often at odds with each other, and there's a good reason for that.  Matter and energy are different on a fundamental level - energy can neither be created nor destroyed, according to the laws of physics.  Matter can be destroyed in the form it takes, but the energy which creates the matter cannot.  A contradiction?  Of course.  Life is full of paradoxes, and understanding the soul and life lessons are part of that.

An idea for consideration - we meet those in our lives we are supposed to meet to either resolve karma, or because we are intended to learn something from them.  We all meet for a reason - randomness does not truly exist.  Even chaos has some degree of order to it, so if someone says something truly random, is it so?  No.  The paradox of ordered chaos is based on the perception of disorder, a perception created out of our experiences, predilections and programming.  Chaos doesn't truly exist except in our minds.  We order what we are able to.  Walt Disney once said "it's fun doing the impossible," only he wasn't doing the impossible.  He was merely bringing order to seeming randomness - the creativity within him was a magnet to attract the pieces into place.  He allowed the creativity to energize and, once fully charged, it all came into place.  He merely needed like-minded creative people (the legendary "nine old men") to help bring it to life.  Once the impossible was achieved, it became possible.  That is the paradox; the impossible becoming the possible because chaos doesn't exist in the true sense.

When we look at ourselves as energy beings, we are able to understand the universe like never before.  Rather than creating, we manifest.  Much like ball bearings in child's game which feature magnets.  We are using our efforts to collect all the ball bearings we can to "win."  Rather than doing this, allow the ball bearings which are meant to be attracted to us to do so.  Every in the this universe operates on a frequency - negative and positive emotions and thoughts have their unique frequency to our own personal energy.  Negative thoughts can be a lower vibration - though sometimes negative thoughts cleanse the excess leftovers, more on that in another post - but positive thoughts are always a higher vibration.  Loving, caring, compassionate thoughts of cleansing, teaching, healing and creating are always positive as long as those thoughts are for betterment.  Creativity is highest, and being creative allow vibrations to reach a zenith.  When we are at the maximum vibration, we attract all sorts of people to our lives, and not just high vibration oriented.  They are like moths to a flame, and we must set boundaries in order to filter those not meant for us.

Those who respect the boundaries will endear themselves to us, and those boundaries will progressively lower and become unnecessary.  Just as those who refuse to respect those boundaries will ultimately be blocked by us.  Again, a paradox.

Let us become magnetic and attract what we should be attracting.  Manifestation is not about creating from nothing, but bringing order to perceived chaos.  It is about taking the wood, nails, glue, shingles, pipes, etc, which are in a messy pile, sorting them, deciding their best use, and assembling their ultimate form.  Be it a house, desk, platform, shack or furniture, that is the essence of manifestation; finding the end result, seeing it much as a sculptor sees a lump of clay or slab of stone, and molding that seeming randomness into its end result.

Let's manifest, everyone!

Visions and revelations: a rough go for many, and rougher times ahead with hope possible.

This past week has been a serious, pardon my language, shitstorm of energetic issues.  Twins are getting their asses kicked left and right, and the world itself went through a vibrational shift.  If you know someone who hasn't gone through the much-dreaded (though entirely valuable to experience) "Dark Night of the Soul" yet, don't bother telling them to buckle up, because the ride is beginning in the coming months.  Nobody is getting out of this one - sooner or later, everyone will be in a Dark Night.

If you have survived your Dark Night, be grateful - seriously, not everyone does.  Suicides often happen during Dark Nights as the body craves to be relieved on the torturous burdens of life, and the soul is in conflict with the ego.  These are the worst of the night, and are when blood is let, and the mind finally releases itself.  Karmic lessons go unlearned and contracts are prematurely broken, leading souls to reincarnate into other bodies with even more profound lessons to learn.  Those of us who chose to face our karmic lessons and focus on our learning are no better or worse than those who choose to leave prematurely - we simply choose to address the issues in a different way.  It was to our benefit.

That being said, with everything which has gone on, seeing through the veil has become easier for me than ever before.  I would like to roll out some things which I have sensed which I feel may come to pass in the coming months ahead:

- More devastating nights in cities around the world from terrorism and unrest created by economic iniquity.
- Revelations of political machinations which will harm all life if left unchecked.
- American voters reject the billionaire picks en masse and a challenger rises to awaken both candidates and those in power from their slumber.
- A new technology allows people to create an economy more secure than Bitcoin, more equal than the fractional banking system, and essentially eliminates the current notion of credit scoring.
- Student loan debt becomes so unbearable the government must design a system based on either neo-feudalism, or full socialist policies towards forgiveness.  No inbetween is possible.
- Modern western medicine will fully fuse with eastern medicine and energy-based healing to create a new genre of healthcare, one which challenges the current system and frightens to the ego-directed world of modern medicine.
- Traditional notions of relationship unions will continue to be challenged until the backlash is faced by a counter-backlash which demand equal rights but also demonstrates equal compassion.
- Religious wars will continue to spiral out of control, with corporate interests exposed as having funded much of the fighting and bloodshed.
- Wealthy one percent families will be exposed for having blood on their hands and go into full hiding.
- Atomic weapons will not be used for at least 12 years, but when they are it will destroy several major cities before finally ceasing due to the horrific carnage being viewed by all.  At this point, war will cease and people will find a new way.  The war, however, will last 15 years.

I pray many of these predictions do not come true, but I feel they may.  If you wish to have a personal reading on your life done, please contact me.  I'll be happy to help you in any way I can.

The Dark Horse Returns

After an extended absence, I have decided to return to weekly posting.  This will be a weekly posting and otherwise on an "as available" basis.  I have been dealing with many personal issues and realizing what my place in this world is and it is to provide special guidance and lessons to this world.  I shall remain under the pseudonym "The Dark Horse" because this world is not entirely ready for the lessons and ideas I will be offering and I must protect my identity as a result.  Those of you who wish to get to know me personally may do so.  That said, allow me to offer some thoughts about the ethers and what's going on around us.

There has been a great deal of negative energy in our world, and it can be argued astrologically, numerologically and in all sorts of other ways.  The fact is, we are in a cycle of renewal and rebirth and, like all cycles of this nature, pain is involved.  We are shedding our skin, much as a snake or a lizard, but this shedding also involves the washing away of much of the gunk and darkness which has created our world into what it is.  Our collective consciousness is no longer orienting towards the acquisition of material wealth and objects, the "things" and "stuff" which we become enslaved to.  The proverb of being "a slave to one's possessions" is more accurate than ever.  Our current political and socio-economic climate is proving the truth of this more each day.  More than ever, "burnout" is a word being used by many, and is a signal that our entire consciousness is badly out of alignment.

The rise of ISIS is no more fated than Donald Trump being named for the Republican nominee for the American presidency.  They are both the outcropping of our desire as humans to control the outcome of so much in our lives, but the paradox of ceding responsibility for our actions to a higher source.  Rather than looking to the heavens, Divine power and Source for answers, we choose our course of actions blindly, then say we are doing "God's work."  This is the height of arrogance, it completely rejects the teachings of those masters who came to our world hundreds and thousands of years ago and, instead, twists them into a knotted mass of misinformation and cherrypicked dogma.  We are better, and must do better in order to raise our vibration.

Many are embracing their empathic abilities and gifts.  Those who can "see", "hear," and "feel" are ostracized by some, embraced by others.  They are either ignored or decried, or are beloved and believed.  There is no in between, nor should there be.  There is no room for ambiguity when dealing with matters of the soul, the ethers, the veil of what is beyond.  The pop culture concept of Twin Flames and Soulmates are another outcropping of this situation, and has been taken to extremes by many as a solution to their three dimensional problems (myself included).  These "brass rings" are not solutions at all - they are seen as a panacea to our daily problems, but are actually the very source which we should learn all we can about ourselves from.  Rather than blame them for what we perceive they cannot provide, we must focus on what they are mirroring in us and ask ourselves if this is something we are willing to address and heal.  Often, the answer is "no," but only because we are afraid to actually tackle the difficult task of facing our own selves.

Allow me an example of how this works - a science fiction series featured a line:  You are the hand.  It made no sense at first.  Then, one of the characters explained it perfectly - we have two hands, do we not, both equal and opposite.  Our Twin Flame is our equal and opposite, and they know where to kick us where it hurts.  Our Soulmate is our equal as well in many ways, but not our opposite.  Rather than complement, as the Twin does, the Soulmate is seen as one who "completes."  Yet, it is not a true "Completion" (only our union with ourselves in source can truly achieve that), but a romantic attachment which provides the sort of happiness and joy which brings us more into alignment with who we really are.  Twins are, more often than not, unprepared for final union and it hurts like hell to know that, but the essence of the lesson (which not everyone is able to fully comprehend because of worldly notions of love and romance) is release and surrender.  Once we recognize that our Twin mirrors our best and worst in ourselves, then we can begin to focus on ourselves.  On a related note, a sign someone is likely a Twin to another is when, after knowing each other a while, they go into separation with one saying "focus on you."  That is Twinspeak for "we need to work on ourselves before we can reunite, but reunion can happen in this life.  Just relax and release."

I wish you all light and love, and please heal well.  Learn all you can, experience, release what doesn't serve and learn to be authentic in yourselves.  It is a process, often painful, and requires mistakes to be made.  Sometimes we learn that our own souls are not what we think they are, and sometimes we learn that what we loved years ago is what we need to be doing now, even if just as a "hobby."  A calling is a calling is a calling, regardless of if it is a "career" or a passion which is pursued as a hobby.  I invite you all to engage me whenever you wish, and I will answer questions you have.  My next post will involve my feelings and readings of the current ethereal situation in our world, and my hopes for our future.

My love to you all, and be well.