If you’re wondering who the good looking man in the picture is, it’s none other than my esteemed colleague and fellow Hay House author Robert Ohotto.

Robert has become internationally recogized as a “pioneering new voice within the field of multi-sensory development and human consciousness” (www.ohotto.com).

As a Christmas/Yule treat, over the next four days, I’ll be posting Robert’s Mercury Retrograde Guide so you can welcome in the New Year with astrological knowledge that can help you in all areas of your life.

Warmest wishes for your holiday season!

Mercury Retrograde in Capricorn – From Ambition to Service

December 26^th, 2009 – January 15^th, 2010

Hello Everyone!

It’s Intuitive Life Strategist, Robert Ohotto! I’m back again to gift you with some insights using my favorite tool, Archetypal Astrology. What follows is a guide for the upcoming Mercury Retrograde which is just around the corner and will occur squarely in the Astrological Sign/Archetype of Capricorn. Here’s a brief generic refresher on this upcoming cosmic cycle of Mercury Retrograde which will then blend into a specific assessment of how to work with the energy this time around.

Mercury Retrograde Refresher

Essentially astrology is the art and science of intuiting and interpreting the energetic and archetypal cycles of life and your soul’s schedule of unfolding into the world via those cycles. All those planets out there in the heavens are mirrors for what’s happening in us……as above, so below. So any planetary cycle that we observe in the sky/Zodiac is also occurring within, because (as all mystics have said for ages) the ultimate reality is that there is no separation from what’s out there and what’s within.

The gift of astrology is born out of working with the cosmic/archetypal cycles of life consciously, as a co-creative act if you will. So if you can learn to understand the inherent function of a planetary astrological cycle, you can use that energy in a more consciously empowered manner, and bring your timing/efforts more in line with Universal Will; which means more in line with your soul.

On to Mercury Retrograde!

What is ‘Mercury Retrograde’ anyway? When Mercury is direct, which it is 80% of the year, we can look to the sky and see the planet’s motion going forward against the backdrop of the Zodiac in the heavens. However, about every 3 ½ months the planet appears to start going backward for about three weeks. I say “appears” because in reality it’s the orbit of the earth in tandem with the planetary orbit of Mercury that makes the planet appear to move backwards, though it is not really moving backwards. Nevertheless, this period of time is called Mercury Retrograde.

That being said, what does Mercury Retrograde symbolize as a process within each of us?

How does it point our ego toward our soul’s timing?

As a function of consciousness, Mercury represents our thinking and communicative processes, the ways we access and use information, make decisions, pay attention to details, and express ourselves. Perhaps most importantly, Mercury also symbolizes the way we perceive reality via the mind.

Much of this gets reexamined during a Mercury Retrograde cycle via the astrological sign’s themes it’s retrograde in (Capricorn this time!). We are asked to retreat within and reevaluate what serves our life with regards to this Mercurial function of consciousness, and what needs to be upgraded, reworked, rethought, refined, and/or let go of in the ways that we think about and experience things.

If we resist this, then we invoke the “Trickster” side of Mercury contained in Mercury’s function. You all know this too well: miscommunications, missed flights, accidents, computer and other tech breakdowns…need I go on?! All of these are designed to help you realize you’re not in control (big theme this time around) and that a deeper design is trying to emerge into your consciousness by putting your ego-mind in the back seat for a time.

When Mercury is moving direct, our minds tend to work on a more functional/forward level. Our energy is invested in more assertive decision-making and action with less retrospection and reflection. However, we are unconsciously picking up on intuitive information, which will come to call during the retrograde cycle for further integration. There needs to be a time of rest and assimilation of all the information that we perceive consciously and unconsciously – much like our need for sleep every day. And a time for our inner wisdom to come forth and guide us to re-organize, rethink, reevaluate, redo, and reboot.

This is part of the organic, natural flow of life.

Our culture, however, made up of schedules and deadlines, doesn’t often accommodate a cycle of introspective reflection and re-evaluation. This is why this cycle can be so brutal for some of us…..especially those of us, like me, with a thousand deadlines and agendas!

Even though Mercury is moving direct, it will eventually enter into its retrograde zone (the degrees of the astrological sign it will retrograde over) about two weeks before it goes retrograde. This set up phase began back on December 9^th for this current cycle. Around that time signals from the environment would have begun alerting you towards inner and outer situations that are in need of some reflection and reevaluation – which for this retrograde will be connected to themes of Capricorn.

Take a moment and reflect on what was happening in your life at the beginning of the month and how the themes have been shifting since then in your experience.