Heart's Desire―Mercury Direct―July 12th

The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place where we can go as we are and not be questioned - Maya Angelou

 

Frank Baum’s “There’s no place like home,” and the clichéd “Home Sweet Home,” reflect our heart’s longing for safety and belonging as we pause in the dreamy haze of mid-summer heat or close the curtains against the raw chill of mid-winter.

 

At the end point of Mercury’s Retrograde period in Moon-ruled Cancer, many of us may be considering moving home, or acutely sensitive to the plight of those who sleep rough under bridges or on park benches. During lock-down, Home has never been more important and now as Mercury stations direct, we may find that negotiations on a property deal begin to move forward, a safe haven materialises, (with some down-sizing of expectations—Saturn/Jupiter and Pluto are still in Capricorn) or that we find a sense of belonging and safety, in a place, in a community, in a relationship. Home is a notion that only nations of the homeless fully appreciate and only the uprooted comprehend,” wrote Wallace Stegner.

The symbol of the crab who carries her shell on her back to protect her soft body from the elements is poignantly enacted each day as homeless men and women pack up their belongings to seek shelter, to find a place of belonging. Today, as millions of men, women and children confront redundancy and homelessness, Mercury in Moon-ruled Cancer reaches the end point of a Retrograde period that has lasted from June 18th to July 12th.

 

The main aspect this week has been stationary Mercury square Mars on July 8th, a confrontational aspect that repeat again on July 27th, though the energy of this edgy square will be in effect for the next few weeks; playing out as impulsive and rash decision-making, or speaking out as relationships crash and burn. This kind of aspect is also associated with erratic financial markets and belligerent political rhetoric that can spark conflict and division.

 

Mercury in emotive and sensitive Cancer can be secretive and self-protective. A defensive shell may be avoidant or simply unable or unwilling to have that uncomfortable conversation, to reveal that inconvenient truth. The last weeks of July (31st ―August 4th) may be important if you are wrestling with a weighty decision as Mercury splashes through the final degrees of Cancer to confront the giants, Jupiter, Pluto and Saturn, all Retrograde, with pincers poised and a renewed sense of focus. The Sun and Mercury are both in Cancer, highlighting our ancient human need for safety and for belonging. The Sun will be in Cancer till July 22nd and Mercury will be in Cancer until August 5th.

T.S Eliot wrote, “home is where one starts from.” As we give thanks for our place of belonging today, may we be at home within ourselves.