What a bitch of a month it’s been. Not to sound like a pick-me girlie, but I normally really enjoy a Mercury retrograde. Our lives are thrown into chaos and when it’s done, we get to see where the pieces lie. It’s kind of like trying to untangle a necklace by furiously twisting it between your fingers — it never works, but the very process of it usually helps undo a knot or two.
This Mercury was something else. I have cried on the bus, in a hotel room while on holiday, in the cinema and in my own bed. I nearly shouted at a baby. I actively shouted at an adult man; he was trying to steal my phone, but still. This kind of behaviour actually isn’t out of the ordinary for me on an average month but it all happened within the span of three days, so I finally had to admit that something was up. Retrograde is twisting us between its fingers and the knots just won’t come out.
It’s not all Mercury’s fault, either. As well as entering retrograde on the first of the month (scary, foreboding, eerily punctual), there has also been a total solar eclipse, which promised to bring forth huge personal breakthroughs and intense healing (read: crying on the bus). Then, on 19 April, Mercury and Venus were in conjunction with Aries, giving our words new heat and prompting opportunities for projectile word vomit and immediate regret. It’s like we’ve all been drunk for a month, crying on the side of pavements and setting things into motion that we’ll wake up to remember in horror. I’m not saying I plan to be physically sober for any of May — viva la Aperol Spritz! — but an astrological detox is much-needed as we’ve just reached the end of retrograde.
Coming out of the other side is not going to be easy, but at least May is looking lighter.
Plus, it’s been a turbulent month all over — a daunting new financial year has begun, the weather has felt like a biblical curse of plagues and the world is crumbling all around us (it won’t surprise you that the cinema trip that prompted my tears was for Alex Garland’s Civil War). Weird misfortune has been flying about everywhere. Socially it hasn’t been bad, but it hasn’t been clean. This became clear to me last Tuesday, when I and all of my housemates came home from separate messy nights out, with separate plus ones in tow, at 3am. I reiterate: it was a Tuesday. Coming out of the other side is not going to be easy, but at least May is looking lighter.
All we have to do is *deep breath* survive Venus in Taurus squared with Pluto in Aquarius, which fuels obsession and toxicity, on the 30th. So basically, I should just pop my Airpods in and not start any fights with members of my landlord’s extremely loud family when I’m probably going to be feeling very Zen and peaceful within a handful of days. Plus, there’s playful energy for the end of the month with Jupiter entering Gemini right before the bank holiday: maybe there’ll be cosmic justice on its way.
Things are looking better already, and believe me — I am never underestimating a Mercury retrograde again.
