RETRO. GRADE.
I'd say this will offend some of you but that's probably not entirely accurate. I am way over selling the value you place on these, the internet words. This statement used to be "the printed word" but almost nobody prints anything any more. I mean I peruse the New York Times on a 2 x 6 glass screen in the mornings. I've begun to worry that one day I won't have newspapers with which to start my barbecue pit. Not to worry. We have a lot of old books.
I don't know about the rest of you but for the last, oh, 3-4 years or so, things have felt...out of sorts. Specifically since September or so. The summer, spinning away, accelerating towards fall like heading towards a brick wall. A mute fog of despair hanging over things.
And then. It was gone. Well, maybe the wall just got moved back. The acceleration is accelerating.
Perhaps it was just Mercury in retrograde. I mean probably not. But none of us really know.
Astrology is as foreign to me as the Japanese Monarchy. I know it exists. People believe in it wholeheartedly, but for the life of me I can't tell you anything more about it other than I bet they have great outfits.
So as a child of the Information Age, I did what any of us should do. I put away my assumptions that retrograders are just like Oath Keepers for the soul and got out my trusty googler.
I limited my research to the first article in the Google search as everyone knows that's where absolute truth exists. Within the first three paragraphs I found all I needed to know.
"Mercury stops moving forward through the degrees of the zodiac and begins moving backward, or at least only appears to! Mercury is not actually moving backward in space, only in the ephemerides of astrologers.” The term “retrograde” refers to the appearance of the planet moving backward in the sky."
I have questions.
So it's not really moving so it can't really be affecting things?
What are the degrees of the zodiac?
Can I trust anyone who's saying things like "ephemerides of astrologers"? (It's fancy words for "the stars positions in space")
As 2022 was once proclaimed "new year, new me" by someone, I continued on, mostly closed minded but forward nonetheless. Gobsmacked, I gave pause as the litany of advertisements for the things that could solve my retrograde anxieties and issues scrolled on and on. Bath soaking materials, weighted blankets, and finally a record player and 40th Anniversary Blondie Vinyl Box set. I shit you negative. I can't understand why people are skeptical of astrology.
//
All jokes and offenses aside, retrograders and astrologist practitioners are no different than Buddhists, Methodists or Muslims. We all want a little bit of hope and want ways to explain our world and our trials and tribulations. I know I do. Truly, whatever works to give you some hope and peace is fine by me. I don't understand any of it.
I do know that a deep breath outside in the quiet of morning always helps me center for a bit. If you see me standing in the street, it can appear that I'm moving backwards.
PF in retrograde...
#hugsandhi5s
