Aether Madness

...On the Mercury/Neptune conjunction, an evening star & a growing beard

art by Nathalie Strassburg

Mercury has been missing from the sky for weeks. Somewhere, on the far side of our star, he races at impossible speeds for another glimpse of Earth, and we of him. When it happens, Mercury will be seen in the West.  It's in this phase of the cycle where we try to remember the themes from the beginning (end of 23'; Capricorn) and feel like we can't keep up.  There is a frenetic quality around the second cazimi of the cycle and a subterranean apotheosis with some of our ideas.  And this Friday, Mercury will also conjoin with Neptune in the final degrees of the zodiac to be offered shots of Lethe, Styx, or some other magical river water.

Tracking these cycles is challenging business.  They are swift and full of tricks.  Plus, there are other cycles to distract us—other planets to pay attention to.  Yet, if we put in the time, the payoff is enormous.

In some ways, we can think of Mercury's function within the idea that: energy goes where attention goes.  If we focus on FUD, we will manifest unfortunate results; If we hold benevolent deities in the center of our mind’s eye and focus on exalted thoughts, we will have fortunate results.  Now, I understand it's not this simple, but it illustrates a mercurial point.  If we are paying attention to Mercury from cazimi to cazmi, getting claimed by a living Idea, tending to it, learning from it, and allowing it to take us where we need to go, then something meaningful will always take form.  In this cycle, the Rx cazimi happened nearly the Winter Solstice at the beginning of Capricorn, now it's in late Pisces splashing around in dark waters reaching for the light of the evening's sky.  If we were paying attention, we could see not just the evolution of an idea, but a fundamental transfiguration within our minds as well.

I've told the story in previous pieces around how it was the red heifer for me—or, to speak to it in a broader sense: I was missing the fundamentalist angle on what is happening in the world at the moment and Mercury dropped a book in my lap.  With the cazimi my car broke down and had me sitting in Michael Baigent's library during a continuous wet sneeze of a weather pattern as we waited for help, to begin reading his last book, Racing Toward Armageddon.  From it, my entire perspective changed around our current events, and I have also become more educated than I have ever been before on the region. It led me to many important inquiries, into other books as well. For instance,  I'm rereading the Bible.  Next in line: the Koran.  This is how these cycles function.  They bring us into surprising places without a clue of where the trail is taking us.  It's exciting!

Now, I understand most of the world has no awareness of a Mercury cycle.  In fact, most astrologers don't track them either.  But when we decide to do so, not only is our education enriched, but we begin to understand the nature of astrology better as well.

---

There are many terms for the sentient substrate connecting all life in the Universe, like the Akashic records or the A-field or plasma or Indra's net, and I’ve always preferred Aether.  Plato used it when describing this invisible landscape behind it all.  It can teach us a lot and we can also interact with it.  It's the "secret" in the Secret. It's in the How of magic...and astrology.  And if energy really does go where attention goes, it is absolutely essential we understand how it works.

Take the news, for example.  If our mental diet consists of NPR, Apple News, and the New York Times we will lean left; If it is filled up with Fox News, Truth Social, and Tucker Carlson, we will lean right. Simple, yet not obvious to some.  Both are starved of an unhealthy nutrient from the other side, thus it creates a blurry, out-of-focus perspective.  The way then in which we interact with Aether is tainted and biased and we will experience frustrating results—both in reality and algorithmically online.  Now, if our mental diet consists of a well-curated feed from all sides and we do our best to come to our opinions carefully on our own, yes, our perspective will be different, but also in how we interact with Aether.  In other words, when we take control of our attention, the world changes.  It may not be the best analogy, yet it's important to remember there is a balance to the universe; if we aren't seeing as much light as we are dark, our feed is off, and likely out of balance.

The conjunction on Friday plays with some of these ideas.  We often correlate Neptune with the collective mind.  It has an immense power over our thinking.  The assumptions we make about reality can be seen backstroking in the river Lethe, post shots. We think we see clearly, yet we may be forgetting instead. The illusions can have leverage and are strongest around status and the pressure of our peers.  It’s when collectivism swallows individualism if we aren't careful.  So when we talk about "waking up" it's fundamentally a Mercury/Neptune consideration.  If our mind isn't open, it is closed; if we can’t articulate clearly an opposing side, we don’t understand it. Straw man, steel man, no man at all. Neptune can have this kind of neurotoxic effect.  

The dangers are many in the final decan of Pisces, where there exists some of that frenetic energy from before, but also martyrdom. It's the end of the zodiac, so there is a, "screw it, what do we have to lose" approach here.  It's not hard to imagine how this could play out. Not one person alive has experienced Neptune at this degree of Pisces.  So when Mercury draws near, we should pay attention.  There is something for all of us to learn. To find the cure to any strain of mass formation psychosis, we must not be taken by an assumption or any mandate.

Considering the Chandra Symbol is revealing as always:

PISCES 28

A hoard of monkeys chattering.

...one of the greatest things about social media is it allows everyone to have a voice; one of the worst things about it is that it allows everyone to have a voice.  It's important to focus on gifts though..  Thanks to podcasts and all the platforms, ideas can travel at the speed of light.  Corporate media is no longer relevant.  Yet the dangers here are immense.  Taking on opinions from smooth-talking Youtuber's or seeing a viral tweet that immediately becomes truth is not wise behavior, yet we do it—oftentimes, completely unaware of it.  Discernment isn't natural, it's a skill and must be sharpened constantly.  Not everyone has it.  And again, in complete Neptunian fashion, we have the algo's to consider which we can't see (if you don't know what I mean, just think about the last time something showed up on your feed after you were just talking about it; that's not magic, that's information harvesting and a grave encroachment on our privacy; it is then used to curate your feed, creating an echo chamber as a result).  So, the monkeys are entertaining, but we must be careful out there.  We must see what we can come to ourselves—with a little help from Mercury, of course.

All in all, it's a subtle transit we are moving into, yet it points at enormous ideas.  It dares us to learn more about Aether.  As Mercury becomes an evening star over the coming weeks, there is a maturation set to take place in our Psyche.  It will have much to do with our attention and how discerning we can be.  There is also the mental health component.  There are many people who can help.  It's how some astrologers can be useful.  And so, the prayer is to find sanctuary instead of a madhouse.  The two will offer us a glimpse of just how powerful the mind really is. Also, it is said, that when Mercury is spotted in the West, it is always with a wizardly beard.  What does it take to carry such a symbol of wisdom with us? Not that we need a beard, but we do need to know the ancient art of how to ferment knowledge into wisdom. It has something to do with experience I’m told.

Facts:

Mercury/Neptune conjunction: March 8th, 24'; 27º 01' Pisces

Eudaimonia,

Adam

to work with me:

...to adventure deeper into kosmos, mythos, and psyche

to learn Astrology:

....to support the creation of my writings/podcasts and be showered with gifts as well