Tag: mercury

Brain Like A Jellyfish

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Sea Nettle jellyfish. Photo by Fred Hsu from Wikimedia Commons.I have just been attempting to write a post inspired by the following aphorism.”Madness is the exception in individuals; the rule in groups.”On the whole, I think Nietzsche had a point. Yet…

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Mercury in Cancer – Postcards From The Waters Edge

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Princess of Wales Diana Spencer has Mercury in Cancer
 Eliza Kewark was shunned by the father of her child and his family, referred to as the ‘housekeeper’, with the stigma of illegitimacy and being part-Indian with ‘coloured blood’ in 18th century British India.
Her child sent away to England, her DNA passed to Diana, BritainsDNA traced back 7 generations making
Eliza Kewark Diana’s great great great great grandmother. 
‘I just want someone to be there for me, to make me feel safe and secure’
 Lady Di’, ‘the Peoples Princess’ reflected some of these unresolved issues. Her firstborn, Prince William, also Sun in Cancer was born in the summer of 1982, her grandson Prince George born on the 22 July 2013. 

Mercury moved country on the 1st June 2013 from the varied and variable wind space of Gemini into the unfathomable and confusing water spaces of Cancer. Well, Cancer is a water sign but its symbol is the Crab, not just a water creature or just a land creature but  happily straddling both terrains. The Crab is certainly a strange looking creature with its eyes sticking out on stalks and its characteristic way of walking sideways! Consequently, hope you did not expect things to be straightforward, direct, clearly defined, uncomplicated or predictable with Cancer involved. In fact, during Mercury’s ‘stay’ there, if we can call it that, as it may have felt like quite some movement for Cancer. Well, Mercury did its own very strange, seemingly weird thing whilst ‘staying’ there it also appeared to go backwards on itself, it went Retrograde. Yes, Mercury Retrograde in the already perplexing sign of Cancer. Scribbles & Moonwalks – Mercury in Retrograde

Political Campaigner Mary Jo Kopechne has Mercury in Cancer
Mary Jo was one of the six ‘Boiler Room Girls’ call centre workers who campaigned for Robert Kennedy and were attending a party hosted by his brother Ted Kennedy, in their honour on the island. Kopechne died as a passenger in US Senator Edward ‘Ted’ Kennedy car as he drove off Dike Bridge, Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts and left her in a tidal pool on the 18th July 1969. Kennedy pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of the accident after causing injury. He swam away that night and did not report the accident until the next morning, the scandal led to him dropping out from two Presidential elections. 
‘It looked as if she were holding herself up to get a last breath of air. It was a consciously assumed position. …She didn’t drown. She died of suffocation in her own air void. It took her at least three or four hours to die. I could have had her out of that car twenty-five minutes after I got the call. But he, Ted Kennedy,
didn’t call.’ John Farrer, the diver who recovered Kopechne’s body believed that she would have lived long enough to be rescued from the submerged car.

Mercury’s retrograde period started on the 27th June 2013 and goes on until the 21st July 2013, but hold on, there was another spanner thrown into the works in this sign, which already specialises in serious spanner throwing anyway, there was also an accompanying period of time called the ‘Shadow Lands’.Mercury Shadowland In A HeatHaze
From the 10th June 2013 until the 26th June 2013 where many irregularities and unforeseen events may have occurred.
Mercury in Pisces Shadowland Smoke Signals
Basically during Shadow Lands time we have a need to be prepared for the unpreparable, trying hard to embrace the paradox or is that the parasol, trying not to forget our raincoats and any other form of protection. Mercury in Cancer can bring, carry or trade in information or bits and bobs that could be scavenged along the shore lines, even making a home from this and that, collecting discarded shells and leftovers from other inhabitants. A great deal of creativity is required during this period, as well as patience. Ahh, sweet, sweet patience, these traits will serve you well, trust me.

Camilla Duchess of Cornwall has Mercury in Cancer
The second wife of Prince Charles having known him and been romantically involved from 1971 and throughout his and her first marriages. Their affair became a scandal after ‘Camillagate’, intimate telephone conversation between them were recorded and made public knowledge in the tabloid press.
Diana in BBC Panaroma acknowledged ‘Well, there were three of us in this marriage, so it was a bit crowded’

The roads in this land may sometimes seem mysterious, poetic and indeed may require a fishing license, but turning off the logical left brain and entertaining the right side for a while may make the difference between winning and losing or getting what you want and getting what you need. You just need a hefty dose of trust and then let go of the rock you may have been clinging to to get carried by the currents of the ocean for a while. Whose knows where you may find yourself, in fact you may just do that exactly
Find yourself that is!

Monica Lewinsky has Mercury in Cancer
As an unpaid intern in the White House she admits to having 9 sexual encounters with President Bill Clinton. The repercussions of the affair led to Clinton’s impeachment. Lewinsky tried being a TV personality, face of a diet plan and selling her line of handbags. She finally ended up getting a Masters in Psychology from the London School of Economics.‘I don’t accept that he had to completely desecrate my character.’

This is the water zone and territory Cancer we will inhabit, as we do every year, and it is to this language we should became acclimatized. Whenever Mercury changes sign, we need to learn a whole new language and adapt to completely different customs to the ones we have become used and familiar. Mercury affects the way we process and deal with information. In other words: how we talk, think, chat, twitter, blog, text, write, read, listen and learn and Cancer is an acquisitive sign, and wants much to learn. When given the facts Mercury in Cancer will just drift off and devise its own unique world regardless of the one occupied by others. True it is intuitive and imaginative but at its worst also capricious and defensive. 

Superstar French Footballer Zinedine Zidane has Mercury in Cancer
Zidane was involved in a major controversy in the 2006 World Cup Final when he head-butted Italian player Marco Materazzi accusing him of insulting his sister and mother. Materazzi says that he was grabbing Zidane’s shirt and Zidane sarcastically said ‘If you want my shirt, I will give it to you afterwards’. Materazzi admitted that he then replied, ‘Preferisco la puttana di tua sorella’ – I would prefer your whore of a sister which brought on the head-butt. He retired in 2006, returned to Real Madrid 15th July 2013 as assistant manager. 

When Mercury passes through such a tenacious a sign we can expect to collect and save a plethora of information, after all who knows what use we can make of it some time in the future, but for now lets just scoop it up and nestle it and add it to our nest. Information will be sieved and savoured through a complex set of filters and the most seemingly unwanted, discarded or innocuous snippet can be creatively put to good use and nurtured by this gatherer of the cosmos. You may be surprised that information gathered from and through your unconscious, your imagination as well as your logical frontal lobe cortex will yield a ramshackled shelter of sorts.

Australian Activist, founder of Wikileaks Julian Assange has Mercury in Cancer

His Twitter page reads ‘Government censorship, protecting you from reality’

Mercury is travel, trade, exchange, communication and busy activity and here in ‘what can I make of this?’ Cancer it can appear to scoop out every piece of information that floats in front of its pincers. Everything is assessed for further usefulness and even if this is not evident a creative solution can probably be found to ensure its purposefulness in the future.

It is possible that whilst Mercury was in flighty and restless Gemini many of us noticed we had to be open and detached at the same time as we thought about a range of subjects for short spaces of time. However, just as we got halfway used to this style of speaking and thinking we will suddenly found ourselves in what appeared to be a foreign country where everyone will ask us to consider things much more deeply and emotionally.
You will notice the difference… you will notice the change from Mercury in Gemini to Mercury in Cancer, as you know the difference between earth and sky, night and day.
You and others around you seem to be that much more sensitive and emotional. We may notice the slightest changes in atmosphere and register the flimsiest of pressure shifts. Hyper attuned and highly perceptive, not much will escape our notice, even with our eyes closed. Our children, our friends, our partners, teachers, bosses, neighbours, all the sellers selling seashells along the seashore, will be a little more imaginative, nostalgic and more than a little ‘spooky’. With this Mercury, our communications are about to get much more personal, for good or bad, sometimes very bad.
Retired American Footballer/Broadcaster/Actor O.J. Simpson ‘The Juice’ has Mercury in Cancer
Acquitted of the brutal murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown and her gay friend Ronald Goldman in a frenzied high-profile media fuelled trial. He was immediately charged with the murders but failed to turn himself in to the police. His pursuit in a white Ford Bronco SUV interrupted the NBA Finals TV coverage with about 20 police cars following him. The People versus Simpson trial was seen in the US as ‘the trial of the century’ and the verdict was one of the most watched events in US TV history. Reactions to the not guilty verdict appeared in polls to show that African-Americans felt that justice had been served by finding him ‘not guilty’, whilst white Americans did not agree suggesting issues of race. Both the Brown & Goldman family sued him in a civil trail and won $33.5 million in penalties, still unpaid. Simpson has made several ‘confessions’ to the murders to friends since. In 2008 he was found guilty of numerous armed robberies/kidnappings and given 33 year imprisonment.Due to lack of physical activity extreme diabetes and weight issues in prison had been reported that Simpson had health problems 18th July 2013.
‘If she hadn’t opened that door with a knife in her hand…she’d still be alive’

Whilst we will all feel this change, this mental shift, how will it affect us specifically? The sign of Cancer sits somewhere in our birth chart, even if we do not have any planets in this sign. We will always have Cancerian County somewhere in our psyche. It is this Cancer zone which has Mercury as a house guest. This is where we will have to be more accommodating, where we have to to shake out the duvet and put out some fresh flowers to make this energy welcome and feel at home so it can do what it needs to do whilst tending to matters close to heart. It may even have bouts of homesickness as it yearns for communion and grieves separation from something.

If you know where your ‘Cancerian Reef’ is then be prepared for things to be inside out and outside in. It is here that you may be trying to exercise intuition and sensitivity. Take your time and respect the issues affected in this part of your chart. For instance, Cancer may be in your 2nd house of ‘Money & Resources’, Mercury here will probably prompt you to think about and plan changes which impact your bank balance. Or if Cancer covers your 7th house or zone of ‘Partnerships’ your plans could be in for a major overhaul concerning your significant other(s), contracts/partnerships/the public. Making the adjustments will now tend to go more smoothly. Or is Cancer pulling at your Venus, and if so, maybe these few weeks will get you thinking about deepening, or severing, your commitment to what you have previously placed a high value on or maybe re-value. 

Actress/Model Pamela Anderson has Mercury in Cancer
In the June 2013 edition of Vogue Brazil Mario Testino’s photos reminiscent of her famous Baywatch days.
Her personal life has been full of highly publicised scandals, including a couple of sex tapes. She is a hands on mother to two boys, a vegan and animal rights activist. She posed in a bikini for a PETA ad it was banned in Montreal, Canada on the grounds that it was sexist. ‘In a city that is known for its exotic dancing and for being progressive and edgy, how sad that a woman would be banned from using her own body in a political protest over the suffering of cows and chickens. In some parts of the world, women are forced to cover their whole bodies with burqas, is that next? I didn’t think that Canada would be so puritanical…Feels like I’ve been stuck in a time warp..Not able to let go of MY family picture … it’s been sad and lonely and frustrating … I’ve raised my kids alone in hope of a miracle’

Lets hope you were able to make the most of your facility to think things through deeply and intuitively and to utilise your impulse to nurture and protect and make connections previously ignored. Apply your mind to the realms which lie outside of logic, oh yes. Settle your minds eye in your driftwood home and watch the ceaselessly moving landscape but know that soon the tide will turn and all those pieces of driftwood will become a raft floating on the water, drifting out from the known into the unknown. Then just see if your eyes don’t come out on stalks as they scope out all the up and coming possibilities rushing by before you along your personal shoreline or unsureline.
                                             
credits: melvinsolkowsky & tajmahal.net &
posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs

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Mercury Goes Direct in Cancer

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  Mercury goes direct at 13 degrees Cancer on July 20th. This should be an end to delays or misunderstandings, especially involving emotional (Cancer) communication (Mercury). If you spent the Mercury retrograde period swimming through nostalgia o…

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Something about remembering when…

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Mercury Retrograde Mercury is still retrograde- it will be for another week or so. Today, as transiting Mercury trined my Ascendant, an old school friend posted a blast from the past. We moved around a lot when I was young-…Read more →

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Mercury in Gemini – Postcards From An All Court Mind

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British Tennis Champion Andy Murray has Mercury in Gemini
 Wimbledon Champion Men Singles 7th July 2013. 
Has he got it covered after 77 years waiting for a British Champion at Wimbledon?
Oh yes he has!!!

            
Mercury moved country on the 15th May 2013 from the sure and certain terrain of earthy Taurus in order to briefly flit on the airy and changeable winds of Gemini for a brief few weeks, moving out on the 1st of June 2013. Gemini and its ruler Mercury enjoys things brief, short and sweet and varied therefore a quick fling with this sign for a few weeks will have suited it admirably. After all why bother to labour a point if it can be made succinctly, despatch adroitly and then dispassionately leave behind in order to give air space for something new, perhaps. 

Spanish Tennis Champion Nadal has  Mercury in Gemini
French Open Mens Singles Champion 2013

Mercury in Gemini can bring in, carry around or trade directly in information. Sound bytes within bites, chunks and slices of data scrambled and mixed into a variety of and diversity. Evolution is achieved by minute adjustments and amendments, flexibility and adaptability giving the evolving entity the edge. To quickly shift direction, to catch the change before it catches up with you, to anticipate, premeditate and out maneuver what could potentially annihilate, are just some of the attributes that can ensure survival – or at least give a fighting chance so that progress progresses. We look for the upper hand, and indeed, Gemini and its ruler Mercury have the hands, arms and shoulders as part of its symbolism.

Serbian Tennis Champion Novak Djokovic has Mercury in Gemini
World No1, Runner up Wimbledon Mens Singles final 2013 & Runner up French Open Mens Singles 2013
‘Pressure is a privilege in a way and a big challenge for every professional athlete..It’s just a matter of understanding it, and maturing as a player and getting that necessary experience to use it at the right moments to cope…It’s a privilege because it means that you are doing something that counts. And all my life I have been dreaming to be the best in what I do and my dreams came true.’

The roads in this land may sometimes seem meandering, and may appear to go ‘off piste’, with many side roads to choose and with no one clear obvious path ahead but instead what faces us are multiple choices and varied options, all offering signs of attraction and fascination. We may have found that there was just not enough time to do all justice, some may have been only briefly explored and then discarded, some may have held us longer than we may have wanted, however all would have had us in their thrall and we would have been grateful for that no matter what the eventual outcome. 
This is a time that generates so many questions, quite a few answers, and all the wonderful variants in between. Communications, conversations and connections would have sped up and lit up many more branches of investigations, things could not have been ‘just as they are’ instead things would have been ‘more than what they are’. It would have been in our best interests to have kept our minds, hearts and palms open to even the slightest movements and changes constantly taking place. A butterfly is as light as a feather but holds up and opens out wings of saturated colours. The more we look the more we find and with Mercury in Gemini we most definitely want to look more, the list can be endless and so can the results. 

German Tennis Champion Steffi Graf has Mercury in Gemini
Graf retired in 1999 after 107 Singles titles, 11 Doubles, a Golden Slam – 1988 French Open,
1988 Australian Open, 1988 Wimbledon Championships, 1988 Olympic gold medal, & 1988 US Open
has been playing a role in supporting and sending good luck messages to German 2013 Wimbledon Ladies Finalist, Sabine Lisiki  ‘It’s not easy for anybody to come back and play the next day after such a big victory but Sabine Lisicki stayed focused, played smart and truly seemed to enjoy herself as she continued her winning streak at Wimbledon’ Graf wrote on Facebook after Lisiki beat Serena Williams on her way to the final. Lisiki responded with ‘I am overwhelmed….I am just so happy. I was just fighting for every single point. I fought my heart out. Becoming the first German in the final since her has not really sunk in yet and winning Wimbledon would be a dream coming true’ Unfortunately Lisiki’s nerves meant she was runner up to the 2013 Ladies Champion the beautiful, unique Marion Bartolli of France.

This is the air space and territory of Gemini in which we all occupied for a few weeks, as we do every year and it was to this language we became acclimatised. Whenever Mercury changes sign, we need to learn a whole new language and adapt to completely different customs to the ones we have become used and familiar. Mercury affects the way we process and deal with information. In other words, how we talk, think, chat, twitter, blog, text, write, read, listen and learn and Gemini is a curious sign. Much like Alice in Wonderland, we can get lost in the array of choice. True gemini is clever and dexterous but can also be seen as dispassionate and superficial, at worst. When given the facts Mercury in Gemini will just add more facts, more information, more pieces still and moving. It all becomes so jangled and dizzy the answers may simply be just stare at the centre employ our best peripheral vision and wonder at what appears next.
                                       
Swedish Tennis Champion Bjorn Borg has Mercury in Gemini
World No1, 11 Grand Slams singles, 5 consecutive Wimbledon singles & 6 french Open singles.
One of the Classic greatest matches pairing with great rival John McEnroe.
When Mercury passes through such a fliberty-jibberty sign we can expect a kaleidoscope of information, and this would have been exactly what we got, we may have needed a lie down in a darkened room as a result, but such dreams are made of these images gathered! Sleeping is not something Mercury in Gemini indulges in especially, after all how can you keep count of all those sheep and animals coming into the ark unless you are fully conscious? Sleep can come later when our counting is done, when Mercury moves into the waters of Cancer, maybe. In Cancer maybe can we allow the unconscious some more room.
Mercury is travel, trade, exchange, communication and busy activity and here in ‘what else is new?’ Gemini it can appear to send itself into a veritable spin. Gemini is an Air sign and as such flourishes in movement, freedom of expression, space and room. Stagnation is not an option. Breathing in and out is a highly complicated operation, which is done without a thought, generally and keeps us alive whether our minds are ‘on it’ or not. The more attention given to this precious process the deeper our awareness will travel on all levels but it is not necessary to be so acutely aware of it just to go about our daily business of living.
It is possible that whilst Mercury was previously in deliberate and stable Taurus many of us noticed that we became more sure and reliable in our thinking as we thought a bit more deeply about things. However, just as we got halfway used to this style of speaking and thinking we suddenly found ourselves in what appeared to be a foreign country where everyone asked us to speak quicker and try new things.You will have noticed the difference from Mercury in Taurus to Mercury in Gemini as you know the difference between the earth and the sky or mountain and meltemi whatever your tasks, vocation or habits.

US Tennis Champion Andrea Jaeger has Mercury in Gemini
She reached both the French Open & the Wimbledon singles final and was World No2 at 16, coached by her reportedly abusive father there were many teenage temper tantrums and she was known as ‘the brat’. Her career ended early due to shoulder injuries and she has complained subsequently of the competitive pressure she endured, the offers of steroids and cocaine and the attitude of the more mature players. She briefly became a nun, Sister Andrea but has since left her order.

 You and others around you, remember we all felt this Mercury’s shift, will have seemed to be that much more flighty and flirty. We may have become more light hearted and fancy free, open to trying different options and tasting unknown fruits. We could have got bored easily and craved that blade of grass outside our boundaries.
All of us, our children, our friends, on Twitter, or Facebook, our partners, teachers, bosses, neighbours, the person sitting next to us on the bus and the our leaders will have been a lot more chatty, or a lot more scatty, a lot more curious and inventive. With this Mercury in Gemini our communications will have got much more varied, for good or bad. Whatever symbols we use we will want to say or stand for something.
                                      
British Tennis Champion Fred Perry has Mercury in Gemini
He was the first player to win four Grand Slams singles titles and also won three consecutive Wimbledon Championships 1934/1936 and was World No1 for 4 years. He was the last British player to win the Wimbledon Mens Singles Championship,and was the last British player to win any Men’s singles Grand Slam title until Andy Murray won the US Open in 2012.
Whilst we all felt this change, this mental shift, how, you may ask, how did it affect me specifically? Well, the sign of Gemini sits somewhere in your birth chart, even if you do not have any planets in this sign. You always have Geminian County somewhere in your psyche. It is this Gemini zone which had Mercury as a house guest. This is where you would have had to be more accommodating, where you would have been wise to shake out the duvet and put out a vase of fresh flowers to make this energy welcome and feel at home so it can do what it needed to do whilst feeling excited about new prospectsIf you know where your ‘Geminian Country’ is then be prepared for the anti to be upped. It is here that you may be trying to exercise dexterity and versatility. Take your time and respect the issues affected in that part of your chart. For instance, Gemini may be in your 2nd house of ‘Money & Resources’, in which case Mercury here will probably prompt you to think about and plan changes which impact your bank balance. 

Belgian Tennis Champion Justine Henin has Mercury in Gemini
Known as JuJu she was known as the ‘Lioness of Liege’. Her mental toughness but also the variety of her all court game, her footspeed and footwork are all acknowledged as her talents, Her one-handed backhanded stroke has been described as ‘the best single-handed backhand in the women’s or men’s game’ by John McEnroe and ‘the player I most like to watch’ She has a tennis academy, Justine No1 pronounced like Henin in French.

Personal Issues including her failed marriage were cited as the reasons for her initial retirement.

Or if Gemini covers your 7th house or zone of ‘Partnerships’ your plans could be in for a major overhaul concerning your significant other. Making the adjustments will now probably go smoothly. Or is Gemini pulling at your Venus, if so maybe these few weeks will get you thinking about deepening, or severing, your commitment to what you have previously valued. Lets hope you were able to make the most of your facility to think things through rapidly, and make connections previously ignored. Apply your insights and experimentation with consideration. Take a few moments to breathe consciously in an out. From the 1st of June you are about to taken to some very different looking terrain, the Water space of Cancer, where things are will be very different, as quite literally you will be neither in nor out, water or air breather but amphibian between security on rock and the vast ocean so the cleaver thinking done when Mercury was in Gemini may just provide the occasional makeshift life raft.

Muse Singer Matt Bellamy has Mercury in Gemini

credits: marc aspland & the times & tennis.com & wikepedia
posted by pippa ponton & jphibbs

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