Say it (a)loud

Mercury x Venus retrograde in Aries

🌟 This week’s golden opportunity is to reassert your right to tell the truth with retrograde Mercury in Aries 🌟

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Sometimes I forget that I’m allowed to be funny.

Yesterday I was looking through the categories I could label this writing with and I saw '“Humor” as an option. I was stunned to see it on the list, and then stunned that I hadn’t even considered joking to be a valid form of literary expression.

Perhaps because there’s so much going out there / in here that demands my full-time conscious attention, I don’t always remember to make space for those supremely soothing moments of comic relief. And these days I’m so intently focused on being kind and compassionate that I often leave my well-honed wit by the wayside. But now with all this sparky energy in the air, I’m feeling bored of being so serious. Because humor can be an awesomely refreshing vehicle for delivering kindness and compassion, and - as my friend

Penney Peirce

once told me - self-entertainment is a high vibrational value.

In particular, I’m finding co(s)mic inspiration for audacious banter with the impending Mercury retrograde in Aries. Our celestial communications controller always knows how best to serve deliciously devilish trickster energy, and in flamin’ hot Aries it likes to offer up a spicy side of “Fuck it.”¹ Aries has a gift for seamlessly connecting impulse with action, which makes Mercury far more likely to swear now and ask for permission never. Sometimes its obscenity-fueled blurting can lead to hurting, but - if we’re brave enough to handle a roast - this brand of confrontational honesty can also tickle us one step closer to the truth.

Mercury retrogrades ask us to revisit these patterns in our speech, and their inward-looking nature invites us to consider our self-talk. So you now have the chance to slow down the usual Aries speedway to appreciate what’s coming down the track before you say it, and you’ll also find that you can more readily pause to tease apart your thoughts before you land them in your head. As you do, you might notice yourself questioning whether you have the gumption it takes to admit what’s really on your mind.² So choose to see those moments of hesitation as a chance to (re)claim your courage, to feel the fear and say it anyway.

There is, as always, another layer (or two). This retrograde sees Mercury and Venus moving backwards hand-in-hand into the open-hearted ocean of Pisces. Venus retrogrades always want us to re-examine our relationships, and two weeks ago I wrote about how the Aries/Pisces see-saw can help us move from battling to blessing. Now that Mercury has arrived to give a voice and lend an ear, we’ll see these Venus themes amplified in our information exchanges. So as you’re revising your external and internal monologues, you would be wise to look for ways to make them sweeter.

I want to be clear that this is all up to you, because what I love most about Aries is its unabashed endorsement of personal agency. Yes, there might be consequences from what you say to yourself or others, but no, you do not need to ask for permission. And this Mercury retrograde may well poke you and prod you until you own the fact that you really do get to say and think whatever you want. So spurred on by the straightforward life insight currently available in the sky, I’m proud to announce that my fictitious self-help publishing house - Obvious Wisdom - is releasing a new title today:

It’s a fitting sequel to the imaginary book I published at the end of last year’s Mercury retrograde in Aries: I Know What I’m Doing… And I’m Doing it. And in the spirit of softening revisions, my original title “I Don’t Care What You Think” has given way to a more supportive permission slip for free expression. Because I might well end up caring about you and what you think - I hope I do - but it’s always true that you get to say whatever you want. It’s up to you to say it, and it’s up to me to be okay with it. It really can be that simple AND it also gets a lot easier for us all to live that way when say kind things. This, my friends, is the beauty of obvious wisdom.

Mercury will be in retrograde starting tomorrow until April 7, which gives us three magical weeks to watch our words. For my part, I’m going to get out the guns and curate an Obvious Wisdom pop-up. A new stupidly self-evident self-help book (title) every day! Follow along here on Substack Notes. And for your part, I hope this Mercury retrograde brings you the invigorating insight you deserve. Or if not, then fuck it. 🌶️🌶️🌶️

Love,

Patrick

PS: If you’re feeling all the eclipse season feels, there are plenty chances to join me online and in person in London this month. Details below!

PPS: If you enjoyed reading this, it would help me so much if you could like it, write a comment, repost it or share with a friend. My words for this year are Enriching Community, and it warms my heart to know you’re here with me. ❤️

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Eclipse Events

Online:

Join me and shamanic well-being expert Judy for live and online 1-hour energy sessions to ground and flow with this month’s eclipses:

• Book for TODAY at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 1pm UK / 2pm Europe

• Book for Thursday, March 27 at 1pm Pacific / 4pm Eastern / 8pm UK / 9pm Europe

• Book for Friday, March 28 at 6am Pacific / 9am Eastern / 1pm UK / 2pm Europe

In-Person:

Join me in London for movement and meditation workshops with my friend Mary to mark the Lunar / Solar eclipses:

• Sessions are TODAY and Friday, March 28 @ 7 pm in Hampstead

  You’ll learn to welcome big change with movement and meditation to recenter, ground and come home to yourself. These ritual classes will include Elemental yin yoga, breath work, moon ritual journaling, special eclipse movement practices, guided meditation, energy clearing, tarot and - of course - astrological wisdom from yours truly. Book here.

1. I wondered whether to write this word, and then the coffee shop soundtrack screamed FUCK and the barista screamed it even louder. So there you go. Fuck it!

2. OMG I literally just did this one paragraph ago! Fuck!