Huna Article

Huna International

Help! Mercury is in Retrograde
by Graeme Kapono Urlich

I see this posted a lot in certain groups on Facebook. I'm not very knowledgeable about astrology so I'm not sure what that means in terms of charts but I do know that for many, many people it seems to be a scary time when they should close up the shutters, batten down the hatches and attempt absolutely nothing.

One website suggests “Don’t travel, Don’t sign contracts. Don’t marry. Don’t touch electrics!”. This website also suggests it feels like Mercury has descended into the underworld and that we become more right brain oriented during this period.

"Retrograde" is a term used in both astronomy and astrology. Astronomically it refers to the period when a planet appears to be moving backward through the sky, but is actually moving toward the earth in its orbit around the sun. Astrologers focus on the apparent backward movement as an actual reversed energy effect, and they usually interpret this in a negative way.

Mercury goes into retrograde three to four times a year for about three weeks at a time so it's in retrograde approximately 20% of the year. On top of that, people are dodging solar flares, getting all sorts of symptoms as a result of cosmic downloads and upgrades that make life difficult. However, they are ascending so it will be worth it, because they get to escape the earth plane.

It seems to me that there is pretty much no time, at all, during the year when it is auspicious to do anything, at all, when you add up all the negative influences that we could, if we chose to, pay attention to.

Mercury is just one planet that goes into retrograde, solar flares are happening more or less most of the time and the moon is going through its phases regularly. So how is it that some people seem to live a reasonably constant and calm life through all of this and yet others seem to feel constantly under attack by their physical and cosmic worlds to the point of complete helplessness?

In Huna we have a principle that says energy flows where attention goes. Paying close attention to these cycles gives them a lot of influence over us. We have the ability to choose whether the influence is useful or harmful because we also have a principle that says all power comes from within. Notice I said paying a lot of attention to them "gives" them the power to influence us strongly.

We are actually choosing to behave in the "expected" way under those conditions. Mostly this "choosing" happens out of habit, sometimes picked up from others around us unconsciously. How we feel, and the things that happen under these conditions, is coming from our reaction to the conditions; it is from inside us rather than as a direct result of the conditions themselves.

What this means is that we can choose to use the astrology cycles in a constructive way. We do this by paying close attention to when the planets are aligned in a favourable way for our purposes and choosing to ignore them, by paying more attention to other things that are more helpful to our purpose, when the planets are unfavourably aligned. We construct our own behaviours to follow under the varying conditions.

How do we do this? We have another principle that says effectiveness is the measure of truth. This means that there is always more than one way to do anything and more than one way to perceive any idea or event. The effect of exercising this flexibility is that by finding effective ways to do things and constructive ways of perceiving events and making that a habit, the more we influence future events in a constructive way.

When I do happen to notice in the news that there are solar flares occurring, rather than seeing solar flares as a disruptive influence, as many people seem to do, I choose to tune into the immense burst of energy and allow it to energize me and the projects I happen to be working on; to let it lift me rather than batter me about.

People who pay a lot of attention to solar flares and Mercury being in retrograde, with expectations that it will have a very negative influence over them will create those effects very intensely even before the event occurs because they will tense up with apprehension about what could go wrong when the event does occur. Some people even wind themselves up into a permanent state of anxiety even though it's not necessary.

People who pay little or no attention to such things will tend to experience little effect and possibly won't even be conscious of what they do experience. These people won''t be allowing the knowledge of the events or the events themselves to have any great affect on their normal focus of attention. When I feel out of sorts or stressed I take some action to relieve the stress and refocus my thoughts. I don't look for cosmic explanations for it and wait to ride it out.

We have the potential and the right to construct positive expectations. We can choose to pay closer attention to the positive planetary alignments, solar flares, moon cycles or any other pattern of natural events. We can also choose to pay attention to the many, many cycles created by mankind. Things like annual religious or work holidays, elections, tax time, birthdays and the like.

By actively, consciously, choosing what cycles we pay attention to and the meanings we assign to them, and which cycles we ignore, or by creating our own rituals and cycles to follow, either or a mixture of both is perfectly valid, we can build up tremendous positive momentum in our lives, no matter what is going on around us. Not only does this free us from adverse influence from "superior powers", we will be having a positive and constructive influence on the world around us.

It seems to me that there is pretty much any time, at all, during the year when it is auspicious to do anything, at all. when you add up all the positive influences that we could, if we chose to, pay attention to.

Graeme Kapono Urlich (Jan 2015)

Aloha New Zealand - School of Huna and Hawaiian Shamanism