Astro-logical Forecast for Monday 11/5/2012: Mercury Retrograde & Election Day

The work week begins with the Moon still void of course, suggesting yet another day of slow starts and other twists in your efforts to move forward in a straight line. The same recommendations for handling voids still apply: if you are in an environment where you can allow  things to wander, then go with the creative flow. This does not suggest you are sitting around doing nothing! If you are in a situation where you have strict deadlines to meet, then patience is advised when dealing with delays and crises that will likely turn out to be much ado about nothing.

Moon officially changes gears at 2:39PM ET, when it moves into sunny, regal Leo. See if you notice a shift in energy in the hour or so afterward. Feeling more focused now? The usually playful Leo Moon may have a  serious edge as the afternoon progresses into evening, courtesy of a challenge from stern Saturn at 9:58PM ET. If you haven’t backed up your computer and other gizmos in preparation for Mercury’s retrograde on Tuesday, do it when the Moon is not void, ‘mmmkay?

Mercury, which refers to mind, communication and travel, turns retrograde at 6:04PM ET, meaning that it will appear to move backward in the sky 5 degrees into Sagittarius. It will continue backtracking until November 26th, before finally moving forward at 18 degrees of Scorpio. That’s the area of your horoscope that will be highlighted during this retrograde period; book an appointment for more info on how this will affect you personally.

While we perceive Mercury moving backward from our unique vantage point here on Planet Earth; in “reality”, it is doing no such thing. Here is a good visual explanation of retrograde motion. Please disregard the gobbledygook about Mercury retrograde bringing “bad luck”.

Mercury retrograde gets such a bad rap because we are geared, in this crazy modern age, to always be thinking, doing, moving forward. You know what that gets you? Burn out! We need our down times, and Mercury retrogrades are a perfect time to sloooooooow down.  We see this reflected in the curious increase in gizmo crashes (computers and phones), communication and transportation delays and other snafus (like power outages).  We may also find ourselves having to repeat what we’ve just said, running into people we haven’t seen in years and having to repeat what we’ve just said.

Getting through Mercury retrograde periods requires FOCUS and PATIENCE. In fact, most all of the snafus that do occur during a Mercury retrograde could be avoided if the parties involved heeded that one simple advisory. But because focus and patience are likely to be lacking, the general advisory is  to avoid signing contracts, double check details a zillion times, avoid making major purchases (especially mechanical ones) and don’t believe everything you see in the headlines. With Mercury retrograde, chances are high that there’s more to the story. Gossip is to be avoided, too.

Do plan on RElaxing, REviewing, REsearching, REorganizing, REgenerating, REconnecting and REcreating. Clean out those closets. Organize those files. Get back in touch with people you haven’t seen in years; chances are they will be getting in touch with you. Take a look at projects that didn’t get off the ground in the past; now is a great time to reassess their potential. Turn off your cell phone — or your computer — for a while. Take a trip — yes, really — or any break from your normal routine.  Is that why we so often see people going on strike during Mercury retrograde?

When in doubt,  practice the art of SILENCE.

Holding a national election during Mercury retrograde, especially on a day when it changes direction, is a colossally bad idea, and it has apparently only happened once before. When? Surely you remember the disastrous US election of 2000, which occurred on a day when Mercury was turning direct. At that time, Mercury (mind, communication) was also challenged by a square from nebulous Neptune, suggesting more confusion in any effort to process information, including correctly reading — and counting —  a ballot. Guess what? Nebulous Neptune is currently squaring Mercury right now; the square was exact on October 29th. Mercury and Neptune are changing direction within the next seven days; thus they will form another exact square on November 13th, which also happens to be the next New Moon & a potent solar eclipse. So we’ve got a pattern of potentials that include: visions, dreams,  rarefied spiritual/mental states, weirdness, confusion, delusion and deception, to name just a few — happening all month.

The 2000 election chart also had a square to the Sun from disruptive Uranus. This time we have the potential for surprise upheaval suggested by the square between rebel Uranus and ruthless Pluto. And — though this may not be reflected in anything related to tomorrow’s election —  just a heads up that aggressive Mars will once again engage that challenging Uranus-Pluto square as we get closer to the end of the month, with Thanksgiving weekend being strongly affected. Look back to the week of July 16th for a recap of the volatility we experienced then. If you don’t remember what you experienced in July, yesterday’s Doonesbury comic strip was written just for you.

My take on who will mostly likely be sitting in the White House on January 21, 2013 has not changed since I first looked at the patterns over a year ago. Barack Obama should be re-elected, and I remain reasonably convinced that he will be…UNLESS the election is compromised by the confusion, communication failure, theft and fraud suggested by the patterns outlined above. Communication failure and confusion obviously include the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Sandy. If your neighborhood was affected by Sandy, you will need extra timing to figure out if your polling place has been moved. Theft includes 1) voter disenfranchisement that prevents likely Obama supporters from voting (here’s an example — or just google “voter disenfranchisement 2012” for the latest and greatest); and 2) tampering with the ballots, as University of Michigan researchers easily demonstrated by getting a drunken cartoon robot elected to the school board in Washington DC. Don’t get me started on electronic voting machines. Most, if not all, are owned by private corporations, and the software that runs them is proprietary. We have them in New York, and every time I go to the polls, I leave with no confidence that my vote was tabulated correctly — but without a paper receipt or even an on-screen confirmation of the choice I made, who would really know?

That being said, cast your ballot in the morning to best avoid the increased confusion likely to creep in as we approach the Mercury retrograde at 6:04PM ET. Why bother, you say – if the outcome is already written in the stars? Because as my mentor, Noel Tyl, is fond of saying, astrology shows us what can be, not what will be. “Planets don’t do anything. People do.” Use your knowledge of astrology as a guide for understanding which way the wind is blowing. Then go do something.

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