Mom's mid-life crisis OR Mercury is retrograde

Mercury is retrograde right now. My appointment book has been out of sync, and I'm having trouble arriving at the right places at the proper time.*

This one concept may be used as an explanation of many things, an excuse not to do something or a key to the ignition of a discussion with my son Andrew that could take three hours. Andrew is a scientist, a physicist, a militant atheist and compulsive master of debate. If you would like to have a vigorous, dynamic conversation with him, this would be a good way to start it.

The entire topic of astrology is something that I have studied for over thirty years, and one that he is dedicated to saving me from, using tactics like "the scientific method" and "critical thinking." He is one of the very few people I know who actually has a higher IQ than I do. (The world abounds with people who are more intelligent, but I limit my observation to people I actually know.) To have an effective conversation with Andrew one must bring data to the table, and possibly site one or more studies that have been done by scientists and other brain-people.

I'm an Aquarian, I can deal with this. He's a Leo, and we almost match each other in the drive to score points in any conversation. My Big Daddy taught me the art of debate when I still needed a booster-seat to sit comfortably at the dinner table. I have shared Andrew's drive to present a counter-opinion to any statement since I was a child. We have some good times.

He lives for physics, and is fully immersed in learning to write equations

to explain what he knows already and is currently learning. I am a hands-on Empath, who sees pictures and colors around people sometimes, and I have a greater than average working knowledge of astrology, numerology and Tarot. He thinks in graphs and equations, I live in the realm of image, feeling, analogy and archetype. We are almost polar opposites of each other in the way we arrive at conclusion, and yet we often find common ground. Mostly we have a blast, I love to listen to him in action and he swears I'll never get Alzheimer's if I continue to work my brain and never stop learning new things.

Andrew is taking a "Philosophy of Religion" class right now, and "Anthropology of Linguistics." Both are necessary for the basic degree he needs to go on to university, then grad-school and finally the doctorate he is headed for. I find both of these classes to be very interesting, although I am not taking them myself. We discuss.

As a "Militant Atheist" (a term coined by Richard Dawkins, eagerly adopted for his own) he is having an interesting time in the religion class. The teacher has a master's degreein Women's Spirituality, something he thinks should not even make it into the curriculum of higher education. Being a physicist AND a comedian he can entertain me for hours with his observations on what he describes as the female mid-life crisis.

"Women hit their forties and realize that they will die some day and they're not hot any more and they become experts on Spirit. Everything becomes about energy, auras, and intuition-which is all bullshit." I trust he will forgive me if this is paraphrase rather than a correct quote from him. I think he would be robbing humanity if he did not experiment with some stand-up comedy on this and other topics he's so passionate about. The teacher has written a book that is a mandatory text for the class "And it's not even on Amazon. It's not a real book, it's a scam to make young people think all her crazy shit is real."

He feels it's his responsibility to point out the flaws in her assertions lest any other young person in his class take away a single thing she says as fact. He does this with logic, and I have no idea if she enjoys having him in her class or hates it. I am certain that they both believe their own positions in their entirety. She already has her degrees and he does not, my guess is that she tolerates him and thinks his aura is red and very tight to his body, with bright blue streaming out in random directions. I think I would love this teacher.

I have studied several topics for decades now, that he will not accept as science. I concede, they are not. He does, however, prove me right in my own conclusions constantly, although I don't point that out. Our conversations are like fencing, like log-rolling, like pillow-fighting. He keeps me at the top of my game, and is my very favorite conversational partner. He will never actually rescue my intellect from astrology, Tarot, energy, auras, intuition, vision or dream knowledge. I'm one of those women over forty who has become an expert on Spirit. I do cherish his attempts though. I think I may be getting better insight to what it was like for my Big Daddy to have a child with above-average mental process, and then watch them use it.

Well, now that I've said all that, Mercury is retrograde. I have promised a friend that I would make sure he gets to Santa Rosa by one-thirty, even though he will be in a meeting that is very important until noon or twelve-thirty. On a good day (meaning that it's mid-day and traffic is usually flowing the opposite direction and Mercury is direct) it takes one hour plus a little to travel that far. I have an appointment for a large and very lucrative tattoo at noon, and am awaiting a delivery from FedEx that I must have today or I will die. Seriously, if I don't get this item today and have to wait till Monday it will kill me. People do die from being impatient and over-dramatic, it's a fact.

I need to be two or three places at the same time, an have not yet mastered teleporting or the alteration of time. If I don't pull this off somehow, either by re-booking this client or having a miracle (assistance from someone else) intervene I will know exactly what happened.

Mercury was retrograde. Simple as that.

*"Mercury goes retrograde about three times a year. It is common to hear people speak of this period with trepidation!

What is actually happening in the world of planets and motion is that Mercury appears to move backwards from the perspective of the Earth. In actual fact Mercury is not moving backwards! If this upsets you don't worry. All astrology is based on the appearance of things. The Sun doesn't actually rise, The Earth turns. You knew that.

So the meaning in Mercury retrograde is found in the symbolic interpretation of this apparent backward motion. It can help us to understand and navigate our world with greater ease.

Mercury represents the power of the mind. It is the trickster god because the mind is the slayer of the real! You know how hard it is to keep your mind on one thing. That is Mercury at work. Mercury likes to flip the channels so to speak! When this planet goes retrograde it's as if someone is pulling the plug at random moments; stealing the remote and demanding that you unplug! Of course we don't like to unplug. We like to keep on keeping on and get where we are going.

The general Mercury retrograde story goes like this: When Mercury is retrograde it's easy to miss the details; to misunderstand what was said; to misread what was written; to get the dates wrong or to forget to show up. This is why the common advise is to refrain from signing contracts, making major commitments or undertaking major new endeavors " -Julie Simmons