Mercury in Libra

Mercury in Libra - Building Consensus

"If you want to lift yourself up, lift up someone else."

— Booker T. Washington

Mercury arrives in Libra at the beginning of this week. Mercury in Libra rules the Virgo Sun which the stage for next week's Virgo New Moon (September 6th 5:51 PM PDT 14° Virgo). We have an important window for building consensus and developing effective 'group effort'. However, the Moon's waning light and some tendency towards 'tunnel vision' may cause us to temporarily lose sight of the Big Picture, broader perspective, which would help us understand the Virgo message teaching the importance of being of service to others. Attempts to maintain independence are actually counter-productive to what is going on this week. Narrow focus and and obsession with perfection and details could have us 'straining at gnats', when we really need to look ahead and recognize that more can be done by working together and building consensus. Also significant is the fact that Mercury will retrograde in Libra (September 27 - October 18), entering 'retrograde territory' at next week's Virgo New Moon. The retrograde Mercury in Libra brings unique challenges to our ability to be decisive and may often favor charm and tact over hard truths and clear communication. The challenge for us this week is essentially to prepare ourselves for the upcoming communication challenges by working very hard at building clear and lasting consensus with others. The importance of initiating group efforts aimed at service of others is paramount to gaining the most effective position going forward. The challenge of slowing down and taking time to listen is what is most difficult to overcome. We are still dealing with the remnants of extremely strong imperatives coming out of last week's Leo Full Moon. However, we need to transition away from focusing on simply organizing our individual thoughts and ideas and understand the power of that comes from working with others. By working toward building alliances and consensus, we will develop a strong foundation of clear, common purpose that will serve us especially well when we find ourselves unsure and indecisive under the coming retrograde Mercury.

The potential for 'tunnel vision' is especially strong on Sunday. The focus on perfecting the details keeps us from seeing a bigger picture. We may deal with some chaos and impatience on Monday. We may also suddenly be working too hard at pleasing others rather than making the contribution of sharing our individual truth. Tuesday's sense of restriction is actually a helpful element to turn us towards focusing on the self-discipline needed to cooperate with others. The atmosphere is particularly challenging for 'show offs'. There is less and less room for independent action and, by Wednesday, the importance of building consensus is clear. The Cancer Moon reminds us of that 'we can do together what we cannot do alone'. There is a strong element of charm in the air on Thursday. However, some may be covering some individual disappointments or resentments stemming from the fact that they are not comfortable with the group consensus. Even though egos may be sensitive under Friday's Leo Moon, cooperation becomes the imperative. There is potential for reviving fading alliances and restoring trust. 'Common Sense' rules the day on Saturday. There is a dawning recognition that we will have to set aside our individual differences in order to join a larger effort.

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