Mercury in Pisces……bringing messages from the far distant shores of the dreamworlds, of spirit, seeing the scintillating light of eternity in the ordinary, its inner world both here and not here, more than here, communicating through the archetypes, words carried on the winds of imagination, speaking the language of the clouds and ocean currents, a traveller with no destination, in the world but mysteriously not of it…..

The great poet and itinerant zen monk Basho had something of this….

“The rough sea – stretching out towards Sado – the Milky Way”

…but, when Mercury is retrograde in Pisces, as he is for the moment, the journey is turned inwards, an invertion that pulls us into moods and feelings of longing, a search for our own meaning and the solid ground of knowing…..

At best of times Mercury can put us in touch with the Gods, deliver the kiss from the Goddess….and not telling us of the consequences, leave us laughing  on the edge of the pool, until we twig and, leaping in, follow him…..

“an ancient pond – a frog jumps in – the splash of water”

…but, which comes first?

The predominant astrological interpretation of Mercury retrograde is a story of disruptive interventions and flat tyres on our urgent and important journeys…..miscommunications rather than insights. But, in Pisces we are more likely to end up questioning our motives for setting out in the first place and finding they were never written in stone, were the work of other powers greater than ourselves, and, with this, vapourising our perspectives……talking to ourselves and hearing an echo in the fog…..

“falling sick on a journey – my dream goes wandering – over a field of dried grass”

Depth psychology and spiritual healing, ennui and melancholy, the old memory carried by the youthful soul, the Orphic search for the beloved, Psyche’s dream of the embrace in the dark…….all carry the signature of a compassion that floods the heart with longing for restoration, and here, Mercury can take us there, but, blindfolded and, not yet….

….trust must be found to undertake the great endeavour, a release from illusions that do not serve our soul, an apprehension of spirit, and a self depricating sense of humour – before we can fly we must retrace our steps and remember, long and deep into our past, until we find the doorway to the future…..and we will, if we trust ourselves to the mysterious traveller……

Haiku poems by Matsuo Basho