by Robert Phoenix

for all signs…

Twelve years ago I was parked behind Rainbow Groceries in San Francisco with a friend. We were waiting for someone in my van when my friend asked me about “Mercury Retrograde.” Mercury was moving backwards in Gemini at the time and I shared with him how things can either go off or get back on track during Mercury’s backward dance with “the twins.” I also shared with him that unlike other Mercury Retrogrades, when it occurs in Gemini, impatience is heightened, especially on the road where accidents can occur as an outward manifestation of frustration and blocked energy. Just as my sentence trailed off, a car came flying by us, swerved around a parked cargo van, sideswiped a car making a turn and hit another parked car. Noting the strange yet delicious synchronicity that we were smack dab in the middle of, I finished my riff with, “just like that.” My normally loquacious friend did his best to utter, “I get it.”

That is Mercury Retrograde in Gemini in a nutshell. Expect the unexpected; especially if your life is stuck in some seemingly intractable reality, this retrograde has the power to break patterns as well as windshields and headlights. If you’re in a place of chaos already in your life, the next three weeks should provide you with all kinds of insight and strange amusements as you surf the waves of chaos like Laird Hamilton while the rest of humanity is picking their teeth off the floor.

This year, I jumped into Mercury Retrograde by time traveling. I stayed up late to watch Bernardo Bertolluci’s underrated desert epic, “The Sheltering Sky” starring Debra Winger and John Malkovich. The stunning cinematography was matched with an equally visceral soundtrack composed by Richard Horowitz. I had interviewed Horowitz and his partner, singer, Sussan Deyhim about ten years ago. The memories of our phone conversations and my time with Richard in New York flooded my brain. The interview was part of the lost issue of MONDO 2000. It had never been published but spurred on by my desire to return, retrace and re-integrate, I looked up the title of the piece online and sure enough, there it was, with the stunning, original layout intact. I decided to find Richard online, did, sent him an email and within 24 hours we were talking as if ten years had been ten days. That is the power of Mercury Retrograde. Use it as energy to retrace your footsteps and find the missing keys, both literally and figuratively in your life.

In addition to the speedy little planet so near the Sun, Pluto and Neptune, Uranus and Jupiter are all going backwards as well. All of this major movement represents massive acceleration of shared experience and learning. We are being asked to step up our individual and collective games as the universe is preparing to meet us.

The cosmic header for this chapter is, “Life Is Not A Linear Experience.”

Let’s look at all of the signs for June.

for your sign…

Aries
Taurus
Gemini
Cancer
Leo
Virgo
Libra
Scorpio
Sagittarius
Capricorn
Aquarius
Pisces