Shadows, Shadow Play

Toying with a simple pen and ink depiction, I was trying to convey the messages of Mercury in its apparent retrograde pattern, and what that means, how it plays out, and what the future holds by way of looking at the past.

The timing is what interests me. The messages have largely been familiar, and while my earliest teachers talked about how “Mercury in retrograde is bad,” I’ve grown to understand it is a natural time, and can be useful.

The image, I started with a simple line drawing of the alchemical glyph for Mercury, the symbol I associate with the planet. It looks like a Venus — or female — symbol with a little set of horns sprouting from the head. It is supposed to be a winged helmet, associated with Hermes, the messenger of the gods, later known as Mercury. Although somewhat distanced, Loki is similar in form and function. Personally, I like the character Puck from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream as a mercurial fellow. That symbol, though, a simple line drawing, small circles, stick coming out the bottom, a cross bar, then, the little ears on the top, again symbolic of Hermes’ winged helmet. Mercury had wings on his sandals.

“Fly monkeys, fly!”

Sorry, wrong mythos. Anyway, the glyph? Venus with little antenna, for communications.

Shadows, Shadow Play

June 13, Mercury arrived at 16° Cancer. Mercury crawls up to 26° Cancer, turning retrograde on 6/29. Mercury retrogrades back to 16° Cancer on 7/23, staying at 16° until 7/28. Mercury doesn’t arrive back at 26° Cancer until 8/24 (coincidental with the Sun going into Virgo).

Shadows, Shadow Play

I’ve got a pepper plant thriving with my abuse, overwatering, drought, too much attention, no care, and similar inconsistent behaviors. It’s about two feet tall, and the shade in the direct sun is negligible, but as the afternoon light dips lower on the horizon? That plant can cast a shadow up to a few feet long if only for a short time. The shadow is ephemeral yet still exists. It can appear longer, taller than the object causing the shadow itself. The shadow of Mercury can extend well beyond the known limits of the actual, observed retrograde. This Mercury in Retrograde?

the Portable Mercury Retrograde

Philippa Flynn’s Year of Panic and Piracy

It was a pre-release reading copy on Amazon, Coming Soon section, found the title, added it to the “read soon” stack, and I promptly forgot about it until, late one night, after I finished one novel, I looked for something else to read, preferably lightweight — a palate cleanser.

“A woman having more impressive accomplishments than her date pretty much guarantees a “no spark” text.” Page 58.

No, cf., It’s really him, “A man’s grasp must exceed…”

“I know they try, but they don’t understand a lifestyle that doesn’t prioritize achieving the standard benchmarks of success.” Page 136.

The life of a writer, or, in the story, an academic. A lifestyle that doesn’t prioritize a certain benchmark for success.

Philippa Flynn’s Year of Panic and Piracy

In part, there’s a bit of grief, and dredges up my own questions of mortality, and what we leave behind. Then, too, I know a thing or two about being the black sheep in a family. All plays into the story, which, loosely, should be styled as a romance. But grief is palpable, and the story in a story is fun. Tightly plotted, breezy novel style, a romance wrapped in a romance. I mean, I knew what was going to happen, with bodice-ripper backdrop laid over an academic setting. Sure. As something different, I enjoyed it, a perfect escape.

Philippa Flynn’s Year of Panic and Piracy

(Author’s site)