The Vision of Metamorphosis
"Keep some room in your heart for the unimaginable." – Mary Oliver
I remember the precise moment that I fell in love with the wild.
It was a warm day in the backcountry of Idaho’s Sawtooth National Forest and I was on a trail.
I was about to experience my first real taste of mountain hiking and in my belly, I felt a swirling mixture of excitement and nerves.
I had never done anything like this before…
…hike deep into the wilderness with only one other person; everything that we would need on our backs.
It was an adventure.
A taste of something different.
The first portion of the trail led us through a forest of pine, fir and spruce trees. We moved in wide arcs, allowing the gradient of the land to take us high and low, as we followed the soft curves of a meandering stream.
Every so often, the sun would break through the canopy of pine needles and a pillar of light would shine down onto the forest floor beneath our feet.
Slowly, the trees began to thin and then, what felt like all at once, they stopped.
It was as if Gaia herself drew a line in the dirt, marking the separation between density and expansiveness.
Behind us was the thick forest we had just moved through. Before us was a wide open field with tall grasses, wildflowers, a towering mountain and an endless blue sky.
My first step out into that wide open meadow felt like passing through a portal and for the first time in my life, the immensity of the wild truly dawned on me.
It is one thing to have an understanding that the world is a big place.
It is quite another to feel it.
To look around and see the absence of any manmade structure. No buildings, no cars, no telephone wires… no other people.
To stand on Earth in her purest form; untouched and whole.
In that moment, there was no separation between myself and the nature that surrounded me.
I was a part of it.
It was this exact point in time, when I fell deeply, madly, in love with the wild.
~
On March 22nd Mercury goes retrograde in the sign of Aries and will stay on this seemingly backward path until April 15th.
Retrogrades occur when a planet is moving past the farthest point from the sun on its orbital trajectory, which is either slower or faster than Earth’s orbit.
The difference of orbital speed between planets creates an optical illusion, that the planet is seemingly moving backward in space.
All planets go through a retrograde phase at some point, but Mercury’s retrograde phase is known for causing disarray; primarily in the realms of communication and self-expression.
During this time, we will have the opportunity to move out of the dense energy that we’ve been experiencing and into a space of transmutation.
Two days before Mercury begins its backwards transit, is the mark of the astrological new year; the spring equinox.
Spring represents new beginnings, a new seasonal cycle and is filled with the vigor of new life.
We, as humans are not separated from the rhythms of nature and this new rotation marks the start of a new cycle for many people as well.
We have moved out of the emotional energy of the past few weeks and we are stepping into an energy that’s primarily focused on action.
There is a lot of forward momentum building that is backed with fiery, enthusiastic passion. This will ignite a drive deep within us to make progress on our goals, dreams and all of our creative endeavors.
Just as the Earth reawakens from the long winter, our inspiration and vision is reawakening as well.
Mercury retrograde is going to reign us back in.
Now, that might sound like a less than agreeable situation, but this retrograde cycle is actually working in our favor.
Too much enthusiastic passion can easily turn into egotistical aggression.
Mercury is the planet that governs communication and intellect and during this time, the communication of our passions can be easily misinterpreted by others, due to their own insecurities.
This retrograde cycle will be pulling that passionate energy inward, instead of bursting it out into the world prematurely. This will allow us the space to focus on the strategic step by step, practical planning of how to make those passions a reality.
It doesn’t matter what you’ve been personally working on…be it emotional or physical healing, progress in business or finance…Mercury is going help us manifest our desired outcome through structure and drive.
The key for the next few weeks is to not over think what lays before you and to not look too far in the future. Deal with today, the now, the present moment with love, kindness and generosity.
We are all beginning something new.
A new cycle, a new adventure.
Soon, we will all find ourselves out of the dense energy that we moved through and standing on the verge of something much grander.
Just as I stood on the edge of that meadow in the Sawtooth National Forest.
Step into this new space and feel what it has to offer you.
Allow it to help you transform.
To evolve.
Feel the changes that are stirring deep within your spirit and fall in love with what you find there.