Well Hello Mercury Retrograde! And Beltane is almost Here!

Happy, happy Magickal, Miraculous, Magnificent, Musical, Majestic, Mighty Monday! 

How are you most delicious, lovely?  How did the eclipse treat you?

Isn’t it just oh so much fun to have that intense of an eclipse and then flop into mercury retrograde?  Part of me has been hugely confused as if I’m coming or going to be honest!

Throw into the mix of eclipse and retrograde,  I welcomed a wee 8 week old English Labrador puppy into our pack on the eclipse, so sleep has become a delicious commodity!  

Thus, I am very thankful I booked off the last few days of work last week as it’s been like walking around in a very peculiar alternate universe.

Okay, let’s have a look at this first Mercury retrograde for 2023.  

On April 21st (so last Friday) in the sign of Taurus Mercury went retrograde, so this will be our “cosmic” energy for the next 3 weeks.   

Mercury retrogrades tend to cyclically happen in signs of the same element and during 2023, all mercury retrogrades are going to happen in Earth signs.

Earth is our connection, our foundation, our stability – so rather important wouldn’t you say?

This eclipse can be seen as an invitation to reflect on, renovate, and reset our relationship with Nature, with our physical body, with matter, with our resources and possessions, as well as with money, receptivity and abundance.

Taurus is the first Earth sign, a simple, grounded, and practical archetype. 

Taurus is concerned with creating conditions that allow life to continue, creating stable and steady foundations and creating space to fully savour the present moment through our bodies.  This sign correlates with our value system, with our self-worth and with survival themes.

So this current Mercury retrograde is inviting you to reflect on your values and how they have been changing.  It’s an invitation to explore different ways of perceiving wealth and abundance and to question your habitual way of thinking about your body and sensuality.  

Basically, we are being inspired to slow down and practice feeling more and speaking less.  

Then on May 1st we welcome in Beltane!  Whoot!

I love Beltane, I love it because it is fiery, passionate, intentional and produces results!  I especially love it as it’s the time when the veil between this Earth and the Fae is exceptionally thin.  So Magick abounds!

Beltane is thought to be one of the more important festivals of the Gaelic calendar.  Beltane is a Fire Festival. The word ‘Beltane’ originates from the Celtic God ‘Bel’, meaning ‘the bright one’ and the Gaelic word ‘teine’ meaning fire. Together they make ‘Bright Fire’, or ‘Goodly Fire’ and traditionally bonfires were lit to honour the Sun and encourage the support of Bel and the Sun’s light to nurture the emerging future harvest and protect the community.

Beltane is the halfway point between the Spring Equinox and Summer Solstice, making it easy to see why Beltane is typically associated with creativity, prosperity, hope, fertility, and sexuality.

The Beltane fires of yore were a time of revelry, pairing and celebrating fertility (there were lots of babies born 9 months after the celebrations!)  Also, cattle would be led between two fires for protection and to encourage a strong, fertile herd.  Holy wells were visited and feasts were had. 

Rowan was often used in Beltane festivals as it’s a tree of protection and healing. Branches of Rowan were placed as protection over the doors of houses and barns at Beltane to protect from increased Faery activity as they woke from their winter slumber.  (As they can be rather cheeky!)

Sprigs were worn for protection also. Rowan berries have a tiny five-pointed star on the bottom reminiscent of the pentagram.

So all in all a great time to celebrate, set intentions, fertilise either self or ideas and have a grand jolly time and invite the Fae to support you!  

So later this week, for all you glorious souls who are part of our email community, I will have a wee Beltane giftie for you to help you dance with the Fae and ignite your inner fire.

But for now, let’s crack on with the reading shall we?

When I went to the cards and asked who wanted to come play I laughed.  

The reason I laughed is these glorious guides are playful, but deep.  They think outside the box and invite you to do the same. 

 If you have never met these glorious guides, please let me introduce you.  “What is life if not a Divine Circus?  Life might seem ordinary at times, yet when we look more closely, it is bursting with creative diversity, constantly evolving, pulling rugs out from underneath our feet (usually just at the moment we think we have everything under control) and opening doors we couldn’t even see were right there before us  moments earlier.  Life is magical, thrilling, sometimes strange and even scary.  It can inspire you and touch your soul, inviting you to discover the unique magic within you, to dare to live it, to express it, to play with possibilities and embrace what sets you apart from the crowd. “

Ha!  Perfect for these delicious energetic times, wouldn’t you say?

Okay dear one, let’s get grounded and present.  Take a glorious deep breath and invite you to see in your mind’s eye abundance.  With Mercury retrograde in Taurus we are being invited to re envision what abundance means.  So what does abundance look like, feel like, smell like to you?  Allow whatever images float up to just swirl in a lovely vortex of colour.  Remember to keep breathing.  

If you need a deeper dive I have a lovely guided visualisation for you where we go on a little trip, don’t fret, you won’t have to pack much.

Then when you are ready, pick the card or cards that tug at your soul strings.

Did you remember to pick?

Let’s go have a look, shall we?

RA! RA! RA!

Have you had enough of the dark side of life?  Fear, doubt, uncertainty, anxiety, frustration and believing that you cannot manifest your dreams are signs you’ve been in the darkness for too long.  It’s your time to step out of the darkness and into the light.  

It takes a lot of courage to leave darkness behind and embrace the light.  To step into the light means that you give up attachment to drama, the stories of suffering and the pain of the past.  You don’t deny your struggles or your pain, but you know it is possible to let it go in favour of trust, reassurance, comfort and commitment to what holds meaning for you, again and again and again, for as often as needs be until you are free.

Sometimes the courage of stepping into the light means a willingness to set aside the mental anguish and say, “Today I just choose to trust that everything is going to work out according to a higher and unconditionally-loving divine plan that has my best interests at heart.”  It means that you acknowledge what you have gone through without needing to keep score.  It means that you are willing to pay more attention to what is happening in this moment, and to believe wholeheartedly that the universe is working with you and for you, not against you.  

Like the sun cracking through the night to bring the dawn of a new day, this is your divine wake-up call.  Your dark days are numbered and  your time in the divine spotlight is upon you.  Be willing to shine your light, even if no-one else around you seems to understand, acknowledge or recognise it at first, or even for a long time!  

You are brave enough to shine true with or without others holding your hand and encouraging you.  Maybe others need to find their way to you, so they can help you or be helped by your light.  For that to happen, you are going to need to stand in the dark and shine with trust, patience and courage.  

If you’ve been in the dark, so to speak, for a while, you might find it hard to trust in the light at first.  You might worry that the goodness won’t last and that it’s better to be pessimistic now than disappointed later.  Those are tricks of darkness.  Don’t believe in them.  

Trust in the power of light within you and don’t be afraid to let it shine bright.  

GYPSY COLOMBINE

The free spirit in you is rewilding itself, shedding social conditioning and past patterns of behaviour.  It is shaking off socialisation and emerging anew like a snake shedding a skin.  

The wild one within isn’t a save.  It is raw, yes, but also wise, authentic, beautiful and with a deep instinctive knowing as to what you must be. 

Can a bird ever be truly happy whilst trying to be a fish?  True freedom is to be truthfully yourself.

Politeness and people-pleasing, not out of respect but out of fear you will otherwise be rejected, is a form of social conditioning that dulls the wild one within.  

If you reject that conditioning in favour of rewilding, of getting in touch with your true instincts and nature, you will exchange lukewarm tolerance from others for their passionate admiration and love.  

And for those that cannot love you, that are afraid of how much life is in you, then let them be.  They do not belong in your world, nor you in theirs.  

The jungle of life is a vibrant, colourful and exciting place, but not everyone is ready to live there as yet.  That is just the way of things sometimes.

It’s now time to let yourself off the hook, to forgive and forget, to allow what’s been to have been and to start again.  No regrets.  No fear.  No doubt. 

 It’s time to heed the call of the wild and ask yourself, “What would set my spirit free?”

LADY LUCK

Lady Luck is on your side.  A change of fortune is in store for you, a twist of fate that is meant to be.  You’re a winner baby!  You are about to hit the jackpot.

Do you think that luck is something that only happens to other, luckier people?  Your attitude can attract luck to your side, no matter if you once thought you were the unluckiest person alive!

Luck is attracted to a certain type of consciousness, an attitude, a belief that life wants to help you, and has the infinite power and creative imagination to do that in endless ways.  Attracting luck means being open to the genius of life, which works itself out perfectly, bringing benefits to us again and again, even if we have no clue how, where or why it operates the way it does.  

You are being given a golden ticket, a lucky break, a change in fortune that was always meant to be for you, that was in your stars.  You can turn this lucky break into a lucky streak that stays with you for a long, long time, or even forever, with your attitude, your belief in the goodness of life and the generosity of your spirit.

Feel the thrill, the gratitude, the joy of being a winner, and thank the universe for it daily!  Luck will visit you soon and it will love being around you so much, it will decide to stay.

Woosah!  What delicious guides for the energies right now, yes?  So my glorious one, remember to slow it down a tad, re=envision what abundance and sensuality mean to you.  Be gentle with your wonderful self, and let’s get ready to welcome Beltane in!  Have a stupendous week and remember to stop and see the flowers (and smell them).  Big hugs and squeezes.