Mercury Goes Retrograde & Venus Goes Direct

 The laughs keep coming as the Universe sits back and watches us fumble through yet another energetic shift that will have most of us playing the star role in our very own comedic film. The planetary shifts keep coming, and we keep struggling to keep our head above water until 2019 shows up to throw us a floatation device.Today, we have two major shifts taking place that will set us off in yet another tailspin of truth. Mercury, the planet of communication, information, transportation and technology, goes retrograde in Sagittarius early morning, while later in the day, Venus, the planet of love, beauty, and self-worth, comes out of her retrograde path that she's been travelling since October 5th.Before we get into what each of those transit means to us, and how they will effect us moving forward, let's just take a quick look at how the storyline has been building. In writing this article, I had a very long pause as I tried to determine how far back to go to recap the events leading up until today.The truth is, 2018 has been a pure shitshow! Our foundations of our home and career got rocked and reorganized, our energy for future goals has been up and down, our relationships, how we feel about ourselves, how we feel about love, how we need love, give love, receive love, all of it has been over-analyzed and many romantic boats have been rocked so hard, that the water (emotions) that crept into our love boats caused them to sink entirely.Our self-worth, and what we actually value in life, has been scrutinized, our spiritual beliefs have been tossed in the trashed, recovered, tossed out again, and then dug out of the trash to re-evaluate what it is we're actually doing with ourselves on our spiritual path. We've had crisis points in our homes and in our careers, forced to re-evaluate and balance the roles and responsibilities pertaining to each area. We've been forced to balance out our lives making sure each area has the attention it deserves, even if it meant setting a specific area on fire to get it.To summarize, we have been put through the ringers here in 2018, and although we are all pretty much done and waving the white flag to the Universe, the show must go on.Venus started her retrograde phase on October 5th. She, the planet of love, beauty, pleasure, and all things surrounding self-worth and personal finances, took a little trip back into the past causing us to analyze the shit out of ourselves in relation to how we feel about our current relationships with those we love, those we want to love, and how we love ourselves. Venus took us back in time to a place where we were able to see ourselves in a different light to evaluate whether or not we were living in alignment with our Soul's true desires, and whether the relationships we had established were actually the healthy, supportive relationships we wanted and needed.Once Venus took a dip into the underworld (when she moved through Scorpio) the rose-coloured glasses were essentially slapped off of our faces which allowed us to see ourselves (and those we choose to surround ourselves with) from a whole new perspective.Many of us seen people for who they actually were and not who we wanted them to be. You can't unknow things like this! We had feelings of anger, guilt, displeasure, discomfort, and  the hard reality overwhelm us as the Scorpio energy unearthed details about ourselves and those we love. Many breakdowns took place, relationships suffered under conflict and tension as the shadow side of ourselves came out to play.Once Venus moved from Scorpio back into Libra, we had the opportunity to see the light again. And even though things appeared to us in a different way after seeing the masks fall off, we had an opportunity to strengthen the connections we saw value in, while we had the power of Scorpio assisting us in cutting certain people off to never return to our lives. Libra's energy was the perfect tool for us to communicate better, adding an element of peacefulness, fairness, and harmony to our words all in efforts to smooth things over, but because Venus was still retrograde, the energy tended to stay within us, internalized, versus being expressed outwardly.With Venus now gong direct in Libra, her natural house of comfort, we will see the aftermath of her retrograde journey come full circle bringing justice to all areas that were most recently out of balance. If this particular transit was the only thing happening in the cosmos, I'd say we were in for some really positive changes and blessing as far as burying the hatchet with a few people, especially being under the influence of the north node having moved into Cancer, helping us nurture ourselves and our families in ways that we realized weren't happening under the retrograde forces.

 With Venus going direct in her house of comfort under Jupiter's influence of moving into Sagittarius - his house of comfort, I would have expected big, expansive, explorations into positive resolutions in all the areas of life that got disrupted, but, because of Mars moving into Pisces yesterday, and Mercury going retrograde today, Venus going direct in Libra isn't as wonderfully positive and optimistic as I was hoping it could be.If you haven't read my latest post about Mars moving into Pisces, you should definitely check it out. To summarize, the action filled, assertive ways of Mars is being dulled down by its placement in Pisces. The forward energy of Mars has been slowed down my the current of Pisces waters, and the physical action energy of Mars has been funnelled into spiritual and emotionally charged areas within. It's a great time to be expressive, but not such a great time to get those tough conversations addressed.We've been left with a list of things to clean up from Venus's trip through Scorpio, but the Pisces energy of escaping confrontation is strong, and because of that, we no longer have the drive or clarity to provide resolution or closure to the conflicts that arose while Venus was in Scorpio. Misunderstandings are very likely as our thoughts and feelings get blurry, and procrastinations and all around laziness could lead us through this transit until it ends on December 31st.So with that layer of fun already masking the light of Venus moving into Libra, the layer of confusion and misunderstandings will only be amplified once Mercury goes retrograde.Anytime we are in a Mercury retrograde things get a bit sticky. The planet of communication, information, how we interact with others, and what we seem to understand, is under a dramatic pressure. This particular retrograde may just be the toughest retrograde yet this year, as it is layered and compounded with other aspects that make it that much more difficult to navigate.Mercury will be retrograding in Sagittarius. Sagittarius is the zodiac of future forward thinking, optimistic planning, and higher learning. With Jupiter stationed in Sagittarius, its natural placement, we are experiencing a big, huge, expansion (Jupiter) in how we see our spiritual selves, our paths forward, and how to level up our current soul levels to reach the next level of awesomeness.With Mercury retrograding in Sagittarius, and the Sun soon moving into Sagittarius, we are now looking at an energy that is littered with exaggeration. Mercury retrograde slows things down for us and usually takes us back into the past to revisit some issues that finally need to be address. Mercury retrograding in Sagittarius will have us overanalyzing the details of the past, to help us understand the bigger picture moving forward. Sagittarius is the philosopher of the zodiac with an optimism that just cannot be met by any other sign.Mercury is the messenger, and the details it reveals for us will truly be pieces of the puzzle to our future vision. It's truly a time where going backwards to revisit topics can catapult us further along in our path then we ever expected. This isn't a time to be a negative Nancy. Everything we experience and learn during this retrograde will be a positive thing for us if we can handle the information properly. It is not a time to start new things, but rather a great time to pick up where you left off on certain projects and endeavours that you might have gotten away from. Travel plans always have the potential to go awry during Mercury retrogrades so please double, and triple check your itineraries. Technology is often effected by this transit, whether it be disappearing emails, cell phones malfunctioning, and over all, just technology blips that no one ever has time for.The main focus of this particular retrograde phase is to be open to having smaller details be revealed that will help you with your grander, big picture vision. Don't let the negativity get to you if plans don't unfold the way you wanted them to. Instead, try to focus on the big picture of what you're being redirected away from.These very important planetary shifts are all happening to prepare us for what is going to be a hyper focused new year. We will spend 2019 rooting our foundations, our feelings, careers, and relationships into our lives as fixed elements to grow upon. This past year could be summed up as an unearthing stage, a time where the land was being prepped for the new seeds to be planted. Although most of our seeds have already found their way into the soil, we have the last stage of planting to go.By the time the new year rolls around, we will be sitting back (exhausted) patiently awaiting the arrival of our new crop. We have had lesson after lesson this year on how to make sure that this crop is long lasting and stable enough for us to harvest from in the years to come. Until we are finished planting our seeds, we have to continue the job before of us, which is to take care of the land, the soil, and the energy surrounding our seeds of intentions being planted.Once the last pieces of the puzzle are revealed to us in the final months of 2018, we can enter into 2019 knowing we did our absolute best to ensure our crop will grow, providing us with the foundation of abundance for years to come.If you require any assistance or guidance navigating the energies throughout these transits, please book a session online.Many blessings to you during these time! Marlee HenryResident Reader & Psychic AdvisorEast Coast Energy Boutique