how to show love to mercury retrograde people

how to show love to mercury retrograde people: white text on red roses

babies don’t stop being born during Mercury retrograde! that means about three times a year people are being born during Mercury’s underground process. while I’m not here for increasing any hype of frustration (boring!) about retrograde planets, there are distinctions between a planet that’s direct and one that’s not. so how do we honor those living in that distinction?

here are some ways to show love to the Mercury retrograde people in your life:

• wait for response. give them more time than you think one should need to process, make up their own mind, and participate. Mercury retrograde operates on the juiciness of retrospection, introspection, and room for readjustments. rushing isn’t cool anymore and never has been for them.

• support their backlines, sidelines, and behind the scenes vantage points. not everybody’s brightest contribution comes from being IN the main-streams of communities, projects, work, etc. Mercury retrograde people are so fucking good at absorbing information and circling back later with things everyone else missed.

• don’t press them for information, responses, or formulaic forms of engagement. just like transiting Mercury retrograde, loving someone with natal Mercury retrograde is an opportunity to reconfigure our attachments to linearity, manage our expectations of speed, and drop the one-dimensional assumptions.

• be willing to feel a little out of their loop sometimes. generosity of time and space allows them to locate themselves and emerge able to inform you. this builds trust. dissonance can happen when they’re expected to proactively assess their every move or operate “ahead of time”.

• Mercury retrograde people are skilled at what we’re all invited to practice during these times:  reviewing, reflecting, recalibrating, and reorienting. let them be. this may cause more “delays” aka periods of deep integration before forward movement than we’re conditioned to be comfortable with. but are we nonlinear, multidimensional, uncontainable beings or nah?

sending time-warping love to all my fellow babes born during Mercury retrograde! Mercury is currently retrograde in aquarius (January 30-February 20) so send this to your lovers & friends, let them know how to be in new paradigm praxis with you! oxo

to find out if you have Mercury retro in your natal chart look for a little RX symbol next to Mercury on your fave chart generator app/site. you can also book an email reading just to ask me about your Mercury placement and how you can show & receive love there.

retrieval + ancestors + glimpses

this Mercury retrograde, I was digging through a blue bin of old journals & albums to get a photo of my recently passed grandmother for the ancestor altar. I found this photo of me & was struck to see myself so young but with that tired look in my eyes. it was probably actual tiredness but I’ve been thinking about the weight of intergenerational trauma, grief, and joy. I started carrying it consciously so early.

I am fortunate to have had a personal spiritual practice since I was 8. it’s not until this year I realize how I’ve been in communion with my benevolent ancestors long before I knew that’s what those feelings/voices were. intentionality amplifies everything though. I’m increasing it by understanding in new ways that I already am my ancestors & they are me. these are concepts I’ve known & claimed but the recent passing of my grandmother makes it so much more clear within me. any restoration I do for myself goes forward AND back. it must.

I spend a lot of time going 1 step forward, 2 steps back in my processes. not because I miss things but because repetition & reflection reinforces whatever I’m learning/healing/creating. this might be reflected by my natal mercury retrograde, but more-so I like to think of it as being humble enough to go back where most might keep forward & lose depth for the sake of width.

I do it to retrieve myself from origins that are informing what I think is possible for me now. it is my dream-work, my mercury retro work, my birth right. it is ancestral communication, decolonial education, soul restoration.

this is all that’s at the surface willing to be shared right now. maybe take it as a reminder that this is not the only dimension or reality, that who you are is not only what can be seen, & that the acute awareness of our interconnection right now is a glimpse of what’s always present in more realms than this one.

join me for retrieval: a workshop for natal mercury retrograde. basically, a pop-up emoceanal support group for people with natal mercury retrograde. details & registration here.

oxo
Ari

bochinchando as the medicine of storytelling

I’ve been thinking about how certain types of bochinche (gossip) are actually sharing the medicine of: “whats happening to me is real and important. my experiences matter to someone.” the world runs on bochinchando. back and forth, who said what, telling stories, circulating information that isn’t about logistics but lived experience. in so many ways, bochinche is about communal accountability or validation. “somebody did some shit (supportive or unsupportive) and everybody needs to know now!”

I grew up listening to mi mama talking with her friends for hours about EVERYTHING, learning from each other & telling stories about harm, repair, & hope. of course, at the time these emotion/experienced based tellings were classified as drama or caring too much. deep care work often happened in these exchanges. I grew up at a dining room table listening to family bochincherxs who probably could’ve used more discernment but also taught me through osmosis how to think critically about people, relationships, & motives. it has cons but it’s often through bochinche that we learn relating, ethics, & cultural codes of conduct.

because of this, the emphasis on “minding our business” when people are going through shit/abuse is happening is suspect to me. it reeks of the hyper individualism that whiteness colonizes us with. what is our business? rest assured, if my people are being hurt that is my motherfucking business. we have been each others business, shared business, been in the business of each others business since time beyond living memory.

I was born when Mercury was retrograde in scorpio which I think reflects the fact that high quality bochinche is my fave. by high quality I mean storytelling with the intent of assessing or validating harm, disseminating wisdom that can’t be taught any other way than by word of mouth, & encouraging critical relational thinking. reflective analysis through communication, intimate retelling, & reminiscing is my shit. remembering what happened & why is often how we shortcut through the same bullshit the next time.

I don’t have a conclusion—I wanna hear your thoughts, especially if you grew up with bochinche! did you grow up with a respect for it? was it taboo? do you have Mercury retrograde natally? what’s up?

oxo
ARI

Mercury RX in Pisces: horoscopes & Ritualistic Protocol for tender times

February 2: Mercury entered shadow zone (warm up)
February 16: Mercury stations retrograde
March 9: Mercury stations direct
March 9-30: Mercury shadow zone (cool down)

Mercury retrograde in pisces is a time to reimagine possibility, surrender, & sovereignty. when Mercury entered the shadow zone, I shared some of how I am supporting myself in navigating this specific retrograde. I thought I would offer horoscopes to support you in navigating these tender times, too. they include tips for what to reimagine & what themes you can shape your ritualistic protocol around. more pro-tips at the bottom.

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pisces rising
reimagine yourself as an ocean only you know. create pockets of empty time where possibilities & epiphanies can float to the surface. consider space, quiet, & intentionality the filters that keep your waters sovereign. if you feel a current pulling you away, surrender to its guidance or use it to resist directions/movements that don’t resonate anymore.

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aquarius rising
reimagine where your money & resources are leaking. this may be about spending/giving too much or where your relationship to those things leaks power. to begin to plug the leak, you may need to consider different possibilities than you were given. surrender to time revealing the origin point & the medicine.

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capricorn rising
reimagine the art of minding your business. this time period is full of possibilities to show mastery in it. when the business is yours to mind, be extra deliberate about honoring your sovereignty in communication. surrender isn’t just boundary work, it is also response-ability.

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sagittarius rising
reimagine your ancestors in the way you reach your roots down, in the way you react when they’re disturbed. contemplate the medicine of your origins. experiment with the possibilities of just being. surround yourself with those who recognize your sovereignty. think about “enough” as a matter of surrender to your inherent lovability.

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scorpio rising
reimagine creativity as operating within a nonlinear timeline. the clearer you can be about why you’re showing up, the easier it is to maintain your sovereignty amidst plot twists. use play (another word for surrender) to clear your channels for input about possibilities.

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libra rising
reimagine a functionality that does not determine your sacredness. caring for your health & well-being is simply one possibility of loving yourself, not for proving your sovereignty to the world. give yourself as many breaks as necessary to catch your breath. there is no shame in using floaties so you don’t drown.

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virgo rising
reimagine relationships, people as mirrors, functional boundaries. the slippery slope of taking responsibility for other people is more slippery than usual right now. possibility: ever so gently practice redirecting attention to yourself in small doses until you become more comfy in your sovereignty.

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leo rising
reimagine tending to your mental health, grief processes, or discomfort within collaborations/shared resources. embrace possibilities to slow down & make necessary adjustments. containers of solitude help sift through what does/doesn’t belong to you. you are sovereign here & now, you were sovereign a long-time ago.

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cancer rising
reimagine what it means to live in an ethic of curiosity. you may need to surrender versions of yourself to do so. yet the truth might be more generative than constricting your sovereignty. what is possible is not only about the questions you ask, but the answers you allow yourself to receive.

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gemini rising
reimagine your life-direction. is it nuanced, complex, flexible enough for you? sovereignty isn’t sitting on a throne that never moves, it is being on your throne no matter where you are. possibilities of surrender are everywhere: the trick is to know which align & which distract. get quiet inside-out to know which.

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taurus rising
reimagine community as shared wealth, health, & resources. what you can contribute with ease then becomes a benefit, rather than overextending from your own deficits. this is how you honor everyone’s sovereignty. there are more possibilities than you could ever surrender to at once so choose the one that brings calm right now.

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aries rising
reimagine your emotional & spiritual well-being as an ongoing learning curve. you don’t need to know everything or be everything to survive. surrendering to what’s true for you right now opens up possibility in ways not visible before. your sovereignty is not dependent on your submission. carve space for yourself within.

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pro-tips: what’s your ritualistic protocol for Mercury rx? take a moment to use your horoscope to shape a strategy of more space, surrender, & self-support. I use the word shape because it will be most effective if it is flexible, adaptable, & gentle. if you use tarot/oracles, expand on it by choosing one for this time period. make reminders/make it visible.

if this is your Mercury return, you have significant mutable (gemini, sag, virgo, pisces) placements, or you are gemini/virgo rising you may experience this retrograde more than most. if you share your ritualistic protocol for Mercury rx on social media, you can tag Saltwater Stars or use the hashtag #ritualisticprotocol.

for further astrology & emoceanal support, book a reading or become a member for access to full length monthly horoscopes.

OXO
ARI