Heavy snow, travel chaos and school closures all courtesey of Mercury Retrograde!

Weather and travel chaos courtesy of mercury retrograde!

We can blame the government or the local council for all the travel chaos, gritting shortages and school closures the snow has brought, however, the other fly in the ointment is the planet Mercury.  In astrology, Mercury is the winged messenger and governs everything to do with communication, transport, travel, weather, schools and our daily routines. Every four months or so, this planet decides to take a step backwards and go into retrograde motion for around three weeks.  Its effects are mainly annoying and irritating, causing disruption during these periods to all forms of communication, transport, travel and our daily routines.  When Mercury decides to go retrograde, the effects begin at least a week before the official date - this is when the planetary motion begins to slow down. On the 27 Dec 2009 Mercury went retrograde in the sign of Capricorn, but its effect were felt prior to this, particularly with the cold snap and travel chaos just before Christmas, the proposed BA strike and foiled airline terrorist attack. With Mercury moving backwards in the business sign of Capricorn, no wonder the impact has hit business performance hard. Capricorn is the coldest of all the signs and remarkably rules snow and salt. It also presides over the government, the public sector and big institutions. Perhaps Gordon B, Lord Adonis, BA, British Rail and the Met office would do well to procure the services of an astrologer in the future! The continuing bad weather and travel chaos has plagued most of us throughout much of December and January, but you’ll be relieved to know Mercury ends it retrograde cycle on Friday 15th Jan 2010. It will take a few days to get up to speed, but business should start moving again w/c 18th January 2010. You can now relax as Mercury won’t go backwards again until April, this time in the money sign of Taurus. Checkout my blog in March 2010 to see its likely impact.

Look out for my next blog about what happens when Mercury goes retrograde and for hot tips on how to handle the planets annoying U turn.

www.astrologyliving.com

2010 astrology, men vs women and the Sunday Times

Astrology thinking back-up business forecasts for women

Trying to read the Sunday Times is always a challenge with my 7 and 4 year old competing  for my attention. However, without fail I always manage to peruse the Style Magazine for any juicy features and see what Shelley’s astrological musings reveal for the next week. The first edition for the new year had an article entitled “Meet the lipstick entrepreneurs” written by Fleur Britten, forecasting huge gains for women in business over the next decade. Mm, I thought that resonates with some of my astro thinking! Apparently “Femterprise” is on the rise, partly due to the “mancession”. Well then how do we explain that astrologically? A series of eclipses during 2010 and 2011 will be focussing their attention on the signs of Capricorn and Cancer, the traditional rulers of men and women, father and mother, home and career! Eclipses bring certain matters to our attention and is likely to serve as a catalyst for change in this domain. A report by Avon cosmetics claims that in the last year there has been a significant growth of female start ups and women entering the workforce for the first time due to the recession. So anticipate the rise of the homeworking “mumpreneur” (of which I am one) who can manage her home, child and work committments around her own schedule. Now in addition to the eclipses, Saturn, Uranus and Pluto are all squaring up to each other in 2010 and 2011, all instigators of change in one form or another. Uranus in the mix requires a change from the norm, Saturn in Libra will require greater fairness and equality in business and Pluto in Capricorn will ensure that transformational changes will occur particularly for women as the karmic degree of the T square points to the sign of Cancer (ruler of women). So we may start to see more women in top jobs and on the board of directors. The Future Laboratory argues that female methods make a lot more sense now as companies are beginning to value feminine skills of intuition, communication and caring. Perhaps the whole astrological picture is really just about valuing the feminine approach to business and adopting some of those skills and attributes. Nevertheless, here come the girls!

www.astrologyliving.com