Mercury in Pisces: Letting Go of How

Pisces

On February 5, Mercury began a two-and-a-half-month sojourn in the sign of Pisces. During this journey Mercury will retrograde (appear to move backwards in the zodiac) and make three conjunctions with Neptune. Pisces is a mutable water sign that signifies our emotional and spiritual depths and where we leave our rational, physical experience behind. Dreams, visions, creativity, the non-rational, spiritual union, and flow states are Piscean phenomena.

Mercury a.k.a Hermes

Hermes, on the other hand, was the ancient Greek god responsible for path-finding, boundaries and gate-keeping, messages, and transport of goods, words, and souls. Hermes was a realm transgressor; he transported dreams, divine messages, and souls to and from the divine, human, and underworld realms. In contemporary astrological terms, we think of Mercury (Hermes) as the planet of communication, navigation, and negotiation. Reading contemporary astrology sites you’ll see a lot of hand-wringing about Mercury retrograde and how it’s not a good time to be productive, sign contracts, or update your technology. In general, I agree. But when you consider Hermes in the ancient mythological imagination, you realize that Hermes wasn’t just about productivity and details. He was the messenger of the gods and when he brought you a message, it was worth paying attention because likely it came from another realm.

Letting Go of How

Mercury in Pisces asks us to let go of specific, planned, and coordinated actions in favor of surrendering to intuited, sensed, and revealed guidance. This doesn't mean that you should abandon your goals in favor of sitting idly waiting for a message. Rather, hold the goal in your mind and trust that each day further information on how to proceed will come to you.

My friend Sarah Itkin, a psychic medium, posted a recent Facebook video called “Letting Go of How.” Sarah shares her own story of wondering how to accomplish goals that feel both ambitious and complicated. When Sarah asked, "how?" the answer came to let go of the how. Sarah realized that the spirit guides reveal one stone at a time on our individual paths and at the right moment we will be able to recognize both this stepping stone and the path. Sarah's advice feels desperately counter-intuitive in our masculine, detail, and goal-oriented society. We must have goals and check off the steps to reach them; moreover, there is no failure, only accomplishment. But what if the way we get there is by feeling into the steps, taking one step at a time and relying on inner knowing to determine whether it's the right step, rather than outer confirmation of accomplishment? This method relies on vision, trust, and faith.

The Terrain While Mercury is in Pisces

Sarah’s video is a perfect encapsulation of the astrology of the next two months: Mercury in Pisces is the pathfinder from the other worldly realms. Saturn and Pluto in Capricorn are using jackhammers to cut through the embedded layers of behavior and tradition that need to change so that further growth can occur. Mars in Taurus until the end of March will make it challenging to let go of control, but I encourage you to surrender and allow Saturn and Pluto to do the work of revealing one stone at a time on your path.

Moreover, Venus in Capricorn until the end of February reminds us how our ingrained patterns have shut out the possibility of love and connection, while Jupiter in Sagittarius is giving us our lessons in faith until November 2019.

Let’s relinquish our hold on the “how” and open to the possibility that dreams and signs from intuitive realms will guide us to the next station on our personal journey. If you need help activating your intuition, schedule a reading to explore the terrain of your chart.