This Sat, April 23, 2011 mercury stops, turns around and returns to forward motion. In other words the planet of the mind will have finished its passage between us on earth and the sun. Normally these periods are only noticed for a few dropped bits of communication that are remedied with little inconvenience. No real harm done by the distraction of watching this 'train passing' in our solar neighborhood.
It may seem silly that we are so drawn to an event that after all occurs a few times every year; but if we see this solar system as our home, and the planets as our neighbors, and our friendship with them as dating back to the first generations of ancestors who followed their movements and wrote about them, the attraction to them when they pass between us and the bright kahuna becomes more understandable. When we, as a society, recognize the passing of our hot footed friend, we honor the urge among sky worshipers to take a break from daily tasks and observe the great mind of the universe.
Regardless of whether we as a society recognize tracking the movements of our celestial neighbors as a worthwhile pastime, (our slavish devotion to clock and calendar are evidence that we do not), the current unfolding of planetary events is not conducive to meditation on our sheltering sky. With an abundance of planets in the high energy sign of the spring equinox, events which demand attention for our survival are unfolding so quickly that we have no choice but to turn our gaze from the planets and apply our minds to the emergencies at hand.
So this passage of mercury flies by in a swirl of activity, for once not imposed by a society that ignores the real heavenly sphere, but by a series of natural emergencies generated by the movements of the solar system and our planet.
