Words Have Power
We all remember the children's rhyme: sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me. Though I understand the sentiment, if there was ever a statement that is incorrect, it would be that one. Words have power. They have the capacity to both separate us and to bring us together. They can enchant; they can dismember us.
In the Christian Bible, John 1:1 boldly states, “In the beginning was the word.” Throughout the day, just as I am doing as I write this, we search for the right words. They shape our world. Through the words we utter, we speak our lives into being. The stories we tell ourselves and share with others about ourselves create both the windows and the walls of our experience. We bring ourselves to life through our words.
Early Thursday morning on the East Coast or late Friday evening on the West Coast, that most infamous of transits begins: Mercury is stationing and begins moving retrograde in Pisces. This is happening in the middle of eclipse season; next Tuesday, March 3, in the wee hours of the morning, a lunar eclipse takes place in Virgo.
Eclipses, particularly lunar, are intense no matter what sign they fall in. They bring both unexpected beginnings and endings. They are often associated with someone in prominence falling from power. We have certainly been witness to this with the first eclipse: Andrew Mountbatten, formerly Prince Andrew, was arrested within 48 hours of the solar eclipse on February 17.
All month, I have been speaking about this time of immense change we are passing through. February’s astrological weather is indeed intense, and while we are witnessing change all around us, it is its seeds that are being sown at this time.
Mercury, the archetype of liminal space, is the ruler of Gemini and Virgo and, therefore, has an influence over this eclipse. He rules communication, the very words we use to navigate both our inner and outer world. In his Virgo guise, he takes things apart and puts them back together again. You could say, through this digestive process, he coordinates our thought processes, using both ideas and sensory information from conscious and unconscious sources that all need to be assimilated to be understood. Mercury plays a role in how we process everything. Words, the very building blocks of our stories, just like food, can either nourish us or make us ill.
Though the common reaction is to fear retrograde seasons, the truth is, this is the most fertile ground for manifestation. Mercury is pausing and shifting directions, symbolically inviting us to do the same. It’s a time to be deliberative. To slow down and allow the seeds you've already planted to take root in the dark. The things and people that return or perhaps are being eclipsed out of your life at this time are happening so you can close the loop, releasing what is stagnant, weighing you down, so that you can clear the path ahead.
This Eclipse, which could easily feel like a Full Moon on steroids, is shining a light on the words we use and the thoughts we think that shape our world. During the eclipse and for a few days following, Mercury is carrying the Sun’s creative light, its creative fire, forward to Venus, which is exalted in Pisces. This is an invitation to hold high hopes for our dreams and desires.
The sky is a tapestry; though I usually speak of a particular astrological constellation, it is always woven together. The kismet of this particular moment germinated at the end of January when Neptune moved into Aries. It has truly been a momentous month. Now, with this retrograde, we have an opportunity to slow down and reorient ourselves.
Mercury assists us in the navigation between spaces, between worlds. When we are in transition within our lives, it’s Mercury that comes a-calling. It’s to him that we send our prayers for guidance on these new roads. He is called the messenger of the Gods for a reason.
Synchronicity is connected to Mercury.
Signs are connected to Mercury.
We love the moments of serendipity that synchronicities bring. The universe is speaking to us all the time, yet we are often too busy to listen. Our lives move at light speed. Mercury retrograde is a time to slow down and tune in. It is a three-week reset.
Mercury, the Magician, helps point the way forward and moves us in the right direction, but to attune ourselves, we have to take the time to pay attention and listen to what “the Gods” are trying to communicate. He is known as the trickster and is not above using mischief to get your attention on their behalf.
All month, I have been speaking about where the universe is trying to get your attention, inviting you to contemplate where the momentum is in your life, the current is already flowing. I once heard astrologer Lynn Bell say that times of major transits are opportunities to break spells and curses. She wasn’t speaking literally; she was symbolically speaking to the places in our lives where we are, in effect, bespelled by a story of what is possible for ourselves. These are the places where we seem to be helplessly caught in a narrative: in essence, we don’t have a story; the story has us.
We hear that actions speak louder than words, but walking our talk begins with words, the stories we are telling ourselves. They can either motivate us or alarm us. My mother had many, many wonderful qualities, but was also a master of terrifying tales. I vividly remember her blithely telling me to be careful as I headed out to go skiing in my early-teens by sharing that my cousin Gerrie had apparently been on the chair lift when it had stopped abruptly, and she had fallen off and broken both legs. It was only the third time I had been skiing, and the first time we were going to use the chair lift rather than the rope pull. Needless to say, I was gripping the medal bar as though my life depended upon it. And though I now find it hilarious, it took at least another month for me to be able to approach the chair lift with anything other than suspicion.
This was one minor story told to me by someone else, yet its impact was profound. Imagine how the stories we stick to, that we tell ourselves over and over again, chanting them into being, amplify into mythic proportions over time. Tales of how or where we don’t belong, tales about what we can or can’t do, of what dreams are available to us.
The thing I want you to remember during this retrograde, during this eclipse, is that your words, both those you use with others and what you repeat to yourself, have power.
