MERCURY IS RETROGRADE!
Run for the hills! Escape into your bomb shelters! Put on your hazmat suit and arm yourself with a flamethrower! Prepare your army of skunks and tell them to spray on contact with the Mercurial trickster in the hopes of saving your technology, your sole source of amusement from the machinations of the devious Mercury in retrograde motion!
In case you can’t tell, those suggestions are just a joke and Mercury does not have it in mind to destroy your technological paradise. But he will be in retrograde motion from June 18th to July 12th in the sign Cancer – and if you’ve been feeling touchy or sensitive, you definitely want to read on to find out more about how he is impacting your energy field and the effect that has on your communication.
Reminders about Mercury Retrograde:
I always liken the planets to a teacher with us being its students. Whenever a planet is moving forward in its normal course, we are in class with the teacher supporting our learning and helping us out along the way. But during retrograde periods, it’s test time. The teacher goes quiet and it’s up to us to see how much of the material we have absorbed and mastered.
Mercury is the planet of the mind, intellect, and communication. When he moves into retrograde motion, we get tested on our mastery of these very areas. Each test is different according to the sign Mercury is retrograde in and according to how he interacts with your individual chart. In general, Mercury gives us 3 or 4 testing (retrograde) periods every year, more than any other planet.
Since communication and exchange are so deeply ingrained into our ways of being, we need to be tested to keep growing. Every retrograde period is about 3 weeks long which gives us time to observe and integrate the lessons that he bestows on us every time.
So, as we’re close to entering another testing period, let’s look at what lessons Mercury Retrograde in Cancer brings us.
Too sensitive for conversation?
Cancer is a water sign, connected to emotions, empathy, and sensitivity. Communication is a function of the air element. When you bring sensitivity, emotions, and empathy into your communication, it can take your skills to the next level, or it can leave you hurt and confused. Here are some of the things that Mercury Retrograde will highlight or emphasize if these watery tendencies are impacting your communication in a negative way:
· Taking offense or being hurt by what others say (even if its not about you)
· Sudden swings or swellings of emotion when engaging with another person
· Frequently misunderstanding or getting the opposite impression of what someone tells you
· Being misunderstood by others when you think you’ve been clear
· Finding yourself incapable of putting feelings into words
Some of the points above are “stereotypical” traits of those who have Cancer prominent in their natal (birth charts). We like to think of communication being logical and easy to interpret. But when we are communicating, what is being conveyed (the “air” that is passed between 2 people) must pass through barriers that are subjective. Those barriers are the aura and sensory perception of both parties!
What you say → your aura → their aura → their mind
Why have I bolded and underlined the auras in the infographic above? What is being communicated must pass through 2 energy fields before it can be understood! That means that what you say can be distorted twice before understanding occurs.
When Mercury is retrograde in Cancer, he wants you to look at the state of your aura and how that affects what you communicate to others and how you receive it in return.
Clearing your aura for better communication
When it comes to communication, you can’t do anything about the other party, but this retrograde period is reminding you that you can do something about the state of your own aura.
In esoteric astrology, Cancer governs over the vehicle we get at birth. We call it the physical body. The aura is an extension of the physical body and falls under the responsibility of Cancer in the chart too. The aura has 7 layers and is internally impacted by our thoughts, emotions, memories, and physical health. External forces on the aura include the impact of environments and the people, objects and energies occupying that environment.
When Mercury is retrograde in Cancer, he turns up the sensitivity of the aura. For some, you may be more empathetic, for others you may feel a bit overwhelmed, depending on your general disposition. This means that whatever is communicated can pass easier through the aura, but if you have things to be sensitive about, then they’ll sting more. Therefore, you want to cleanse the aura!
Every old emotion, pain, and memory can act like a trigger point or button that gets activated when someone says just the “right” thing. As I mentioned above, what someone says doesn’t even have to be personal for you to take offense. Anything vaguely related to those pain points in the aura can be enough to hurt without the intention ever being there. This retrograde period is highlighting that those pain points in the aura don’t need to be there, and if you clear them out, you’ll have less to be sensitive about. The clearer your aura is, the better you will get the real message!
Also, when you speak, your words pass through all the emotions hanging around in your aura. Those emotions can distort what you say, making it sound like something other than what you’re trying to convey. You inadvertently give mixed messages. These mixed messages create confusion and conflict at times. You don’t need that and it’s totally preventable!
Like I mentioned above, you can’t do anything about what’s happening on the other party’s end, but if you clear your own aura and wash away those old emotions and pain points, you will speak and understand with greater accuracy and you won’t have to go through the frustration of being confused hurt, common outcomes that happen with poor communication.
Methods to Clear the Aura for better communication
I want to give you a few methods here, depending on how much clearing you need/want to do. Sometimes you need a light clearing, and sometimes you need deeper work. That is up to your discernment, but here are a few methods that can help:
Light Clearing: Smudging with Sage or Palo Santo
In the spiritual community, this is a common practice and you may be familiar with using Sage or Palo Santo, but I want to give you a gentle reminder of its effectiveness. Both methods work using the help of the plant kingdom, and they clear extraneous emotions and energies from the surface. If you’ve had a bad day or feel strange after talking to someone or being somewhere, these are great methods to use to clean those energies away so that you don’t have to hold on to them.
How to do it: Have a heat-proof bowl or smudge shell ready and light the Sage or Palo Santo. Once the ends glow red, blow the flame out and let it continue to smoke. You can either pass the smudge stick around your body clockwise or, you can place it in the bowl/shell and stand over it, letting the smoke rise and cleanse you. If you happen to have someone available, they can work clockwise around your body and do the smudging for you.
Medium Clearing: Salt Bath
Many of you already do this! And I bet you have no idea why it’s so relaxing beyond the obvious point of it being quiet time in a warm setting. Salt baths cleanse the emotional layer of the aura. This is where some of the deeper, clingier emotional gunk hangs out. You can use sea salt or Epsom salt, they both work!
How to do it: I don’t think you need much explanation, but I do have a few suggestions. Stay in the bath for at least 10 minutes. For some of you that’s not a problem, but if you’re not a fan of baths, 10 minutes is sufficient to get the cleansing you need. Also, you can add essential oils that are clearing in nature: sage, juniper berry, frankincense, eucalyptus. If you don’t have them in oil form, the herb forms work too. Lastly, shower afterwards and just rinse away the last of the energies and you’re good to go.
On a side note, don’t take salt baths too often. They can be hard on the skin. Once a week is good enough for cleansing without taxing your skin.
Deep Cleansing: Shamanic Aura Clearing
This is an in-person session that I offer here in Toronto but is also available from many of my fellow Healers from the Modern Mystery School worldwide. When it comes to clearing deeper emotional energies, trigger points and traumas, sometimes you just need someone else to do it for you so that you can focus on receiving the healing energies without being distracted by your own pain.
The Shamanic Aura clearing clears away negative thoughts and emotions so that you feel lighter, more joyful, and less burdened by the negativity your mind creates. Your thoughts become cleaner and more positive and that leads to better relationships and state of being. If you’ve been feeling sensitive, catching yourself in negative mental or emotional loops or experiencing mood swings, this technique is effective in restoring you to balance, peace and tranquility.
In the session, the practitioner will work with the magick of a powerful Tibetan mantra to clear negative energy away from different trigger points so that you can release that energetic steam and pressure. To finish off the session, they soothe the energy body so that you leave feeling radiant and relaxed.
If this is something that you resonate with, please feel free to contact me and book your session, or if you’re located somewhere else in this beautiful world, you can check out a list of practitioners that you can get in contact with!
It’s totally up to you to discern what is going to help you and what you need. But you have a few methods here that you can use to clear the aura so that you can communicate more effectively.
Closing Reminders on Mercury Retrograde in Cancer
Don’t forget that this retrograde period happens from June 18th to July 12th! And if you’re feeling touchy, sensitive, misunderstood, or confused – then you know that you have some clearing work to do. Mercury’s retrograde journey through Cancer is trying to empower all of us to be balanced in how we work with the element of water in communication. If you work with it, the blended addition of water to your communication can have great results like:
· Understanding others on a deeper level
· Having more empathy for others
· Being able to speak in ways that reach the heart
· Speaking words of great power, wisdom, and healing
That’s what potentially lies on the other side of this retrograde period. And if you look at the list above, who wouldn’t want that? So, whenever you’re feeling that tug of emotion or sensitivity during the retrograde timing, use these methods to restore yourself back to balance.
And don’t be afraid to use these clearing methods after the retrograde too! They’re a part of my own personal practice and I highly recommend keeping your energy clear all the time, not just when Mercury is in retrograde motion!
Wishing you all clarity of mind, words, and auras!
Aleks