It's not the eyes that generate illusion, but the mind - represented by trickster Mercury. Will you use your mind to project more illusions, or to align with Source?
Mercury has left the creative heart of the zodiac and moved into its home sign of Virgo. Both the planet and the sign are strongly linked with the use of the mind as a tool for spiritual advancement. The key is to remember the message of Mercury’s recent tour of Leo: that the heart needs to be the primary organ from which we do our thinking.
No sooner does Mercury land on Virgo’s soft terrain, than he makes an opposition (that’s a planetary alignment of 180 degrees) with Chiron and Neptune in Pisces. Mercury in Virgo opposite Chiron retrograde and Neptune retrograde in Pisces requires skillful (Virgo) navigation (Mercury) between two seemingly opposite processes – that of being overly focused on details and minutia (Virgo) versus spreading your focus too broadly on the big picture (Pisces). Mind you, Virgo and Pisces being mutable (adaptable) energies, the ability to dance in the middle of the opposition shouldn’t be too difficult.
This opposition can manifest as the sense of being blocked by another person who wants you to either focus in (Virgo) or let it go (Pisces). But in either case, Neptune – at one end of the opposition – acts as a symbol to remind us that the opposition you think you’re up against is an illusion or a projection – two words that carry a Neptunian charge. The inner conflict (opposition) is not really ‘out there,’ but in your mind (Mercury). Don’t fall for the Mercury trick of nitpicking (which is a shadow trait of Virgo); see the bigger picture and make an aware choice of whether it’s more important for you to be ‘right’ (Mercury in Virgo) or to practice forgiveness and compassion (Neptune in Pisces).
Chiron is also involved in this opposition to Mercury. Chiron in Pisces can be taken as a symbol that the appearance of being separate from the Greater Force of Life (which many people would call God or Spirit or Source) is just an illusion. That wound (Chiron) that comes with imagining (Pisces) that you are separated from Source is no more than a trick of the ego or personality’s mind (Mercury). And Neptune, which is beside Chiron in Pisces, reminds us that we are all one with the Creator, and that we never really left paradise, except for in our free-will minds and imaginations. Neptune’s presence at Chiron’s side is the call to wake up from the illusion of our wound of separation. Life here is but a dream, after all. As beings of Light we are One.
Visualize, if you will, Mercury holding hands with Chiron and Neptune from across a table. This is the symbolic meeting of Mind and Spirit. It’s the midpoint of the opposition. Perhaps, with this image, you can use your mind (Mercury) to unravel some of the illusions (Neptune) that the ego mind (Mercury) projects, and find your way back to wholeness.
Michelle Suzanne
Michelle Suzanne is the author of Starstruck. You can also read her weekly love scopes at Sasstrology, where she co-hosts the Astrology Rocks podcast with Jeffrey Kishner.