A jester found his masters fair
Yet always frowned when they were there
"Why so sad?" asked a princely voice
The jester had no other choice
But to answer the regent prince:
"I feel bad I cannot convince
My soul that I am truly free
From existential agony!"
"Lighten up, and have an ale!,"
Called the prince in full regale
"Time is up for this sadness,
End this melancholy madness!"
The jester smiled, for he saw the key:
His sadness riled his soul free!
Then came this wisdom from within,
No famous prince could claim from him:
Those who wrap their face in smiles
Forget the trap of cunning styles
Lost in the ploy of their folly
See not the joy in melancholy!

What a year it's been so far. We've survived not only a Capricorn New Moon to start the year, giving us the year-long commandment to take the initiative to emotionally mature (given buoyancy by Jupiter in Cancer for most of the year), but an early Spring Grand Cross put most of us through some serious paces, delaying our enjoyment of the new seasonal year until we cleaned up some inner and outer detritus. Our survival of the Grand Cross was rewarded with a Grand Water Trine, which finally allowed us a breather, some time to relax a little as we gather strength for the next round of rapid change.

While the Grand Trine continues to flow into June, we will be entering a Mercury Retrograde phase on June 7th that will last through the month, ending on the 30th. This retrograde will span two signs, Cancer and Gemini, giving two kinds of focus to Mercury's review process. First the focus will be on how well we communicate our emotions and how closely we listen to the emotions of others. Mercury in Cancer correlates with the concept of "emotional intelligence," allowing your emotions to speak their wisdom to and through you, guiding your choices at a level deeper than reason. As Mercury moves retrograde, we're being asked to review how we speak and listen to emotions (ours and others') and any unconscious patterns will be outed to highlight where we need work. If we're too emotionally clingy, distant, chatty or silent, problems will emerge in our face that reflect that.

Mercury, and it's ruled sign Gemini, represent the trickster, or jester. Often appearances are not what they seem and Mercury wants us to shift our hardened perspectives and see things from an opposing point of view. Can sadness make us happy? Can anger make us peaceful? Our jester above has seen the Mercurial light: We cannot know happiness if we do not allow ourselves to feel sad, and that can be said of any duality. As Mercury retrogrades through Cancer, we're specifically being asked to find the richness in all emotional experience, no matter how we may judge it at first. Look deeper — there's treasure in every human emotion.

When Mercury retrogrades into Gemini on June 17th, the focus shifts from emotional communication to the realm of the mind itself. Here we are made aware of how our thoughts align, or misalign, with reality. Stagnant thought structures that repeat in our heads can appear as physical manifestation. Always clashing with people in your mind? Maybe you need a fender bender to wake you up to the consequences. Continuing to cycle that thought that you're inferior to others? Maybe you need to experience a chain of minor misfortunes that convert your victimization into anger, generating the energy to take back your power.

The Virgo side of Mercury wants us to take stock of our experiences and self examine our way to a solution. Problems during a Mercury Retrograde don't "just happen". They happen for a purpose, to encourage us to examine how our thoughts and subsequent communication and listening effect our reality. They happen because on some level, consciously or not, we help create them. Mercury wants us to develop the conscious awareness of our contribution to our problems so we can make adjustments that improve our life experience.

As always with Mercury Retrograde, there's a period prior that gives us flashes of the issues to come and a period after where we are given the chance to finalize their resolution. Currently we are at the start of the actual retrograde period and the post-retrograde period will last well into July. At that point (July 16th) Jupiter crosses into Leo, where we can find ourselves launching rockets of creative inspiration. It'll be a hot, active summer with all the fire coming our way, and Mercury is our guide to cleaning up our mental space so we can paint on a clean canvas. So do your Mercury Retrograde work this month with humility and commitment, and you'll have more freedom to play come July and August.

Please share your thoughts...