I’ve been practicing the art and sport of flying trapeze for over 20 years, and trampoline for over 15.
In my long journey, I’ve reached major milestones on skills then lost those skills. I have taken tricks out of safety lines only to put them back in safety lines.
To an outsider, those periods when I’ve had to put a trick back in safety lines might look like a “regression.” In fact, sometimes I’ve used that word to describe the phase I’m in.
But the truth is that this is the nature of the sport.
When I meet people who are newer to the sport I tell them that the path of progress in trapeze is one step forward followed by three steps back.
Changes don’t happen in isolation. Each time you make a change in a trick, it changes everything else in that trick, requiring adjustment.
Once I accepted that this is the pattern, it became easier to be where I am in my journey.
Rather than seeing it as “moving backward” I realized that the nature of progress is that it’s a constant process of revisiting, refining, and reworking.
Part of my “life practice” is to take this lesson to my life off the rig.
It’s especially relevant as Mercury stations retrograde in Capricorn from December 13 through January 13.
What is Mercury Retrograde?
The planet Mercury is the fastest moving planet in our solar system.
Approximately 3–4 times per year it appears — from our perspective on Earth — to slow down before moving backward. This is called a Mercury Retrograde. The planet isn’t actually moving backward; it just appears that way from our perspective on Earth.
Mercury is the planet of communications, travel, planning, learning, and technology. When it is retrograde we might be more aware of glitches in our communication, traffic jams, delays, and trouble planning.
The internet is filled with warnings and fear about what might happen during a Mercury retrograde.
But Mercury retrograde is nothing to fear.
In fact, Mercury appears to be moving backward for approximately 12 weeks out of every year in total. So you’re not going to put your life on hold.
Mercury in Capricorn
Capricorn is a sign that likes a plan and structure to create a path to progress. This sign is symbolized by the sea goat, which is all about the persistent and steady climb to the top of the mountain.
In Capricorn we want to plan and take action. This is a cardinal sign: it initiates a season.
As Mercury stations retrograde it slows down and stops, an energy that goes against the initiatory energy of Capricorn.
Perhaps you want to plan your 2024 and get a jump on your climb to your next goals. Mercury retrograde forces a pause.
The energy of stopping and appearing to move backward can feel frustrating when we want to move forward.
The Path to Progress
Mercury retrograde in Capricorn reminds me that this “backward” movement is part of the path to progress.
Like a retrograde itself, we can view the “backward” movement as purely an illusion. What appears from one perspective to be a regression is really just a refinement.
We’re not actually going backwards, even if it doesn’t necessarily feel like we’re moving forward.
This is the nature of nature.
Progress isn’t linear. Everything moves in cycles.
One of the symbols of nature is the spiral. It represents that even as we return to the same place, we are not the same.
Ultimately, Mercury retrogrades offer us a built-in structure in the year for revisiting parts of our lives and issues that may arise in those areas.
They are ideal pockets of time for reviewing what’s not working, with the purpose of reworking, refining, and restructuring so that we can make progress.
A Mercury retrograde is actually an ideal way to end the year as it facilitates a year-end-review.
This one can be especially fruitful, because it is a bookend to how we started the year.
Revisiting Familiar Issues
We started this year with Mercury retrograde in Capricorn, so the themes of this retrograde might be familiar.
And it will also be different.
This time Mercury will also retrograde back into Sagittarius.
It’s also configured to different planets this time — bringing different support, in the form of a sextile to Venus and a trine to Jupiter — and different challenges, in the form of a square to Neptune and conjunction with Mars.
Mostly, this Mercury retrograde will be different because we are different.
Even if we revisit the same issues as in Mercury’s previous retrograde in Capricorn, we will do so with the benefit of new perspective gleaned from the experiences we have had over the last several months.
Over the course of the past year, we’ve gleaned new insights. We now have the benefit of hindsight. Our experiences have given us new resources and skills to address those issues in ways we might not have been able to do last time.
Even if we don’t yet have all the solutions, we might look at the challenges through a new lens.
Ultimately, that’s the sign of growth and progress.
Backward is just an illusion.
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