The Way of Beauty

With one week to go in the Venus ret­ro­grade cycle of forty days, Mer­cury chimes in by also “pass­ing Earth on the inside track” as it turns ret­ro­grade today until May 3^rd.

The gift of Venus ret­ro­grade is to encour­age a more intro­spec­tive, pen­sive con­sid­er­a­tion with regards to the hier­ar­chy of val­ues in your life. The source and sub­stance of every val­ue (and of your val­ue), the true means of mea­sure­ment and ruler of val­ue, is found in the spark of the Divine which resides with­in the heart of each par­ti­cle of Cre­ation. Your ines­timable val­ue is your birthright; your foun­da­tion-source of worth is the uncon­di­tion­al love that is forged and formed in your spir­i­tu­al heart by a lumi­nous spark of Divine Love.

It is more than wel­come that Mer­cury begins this ret­ro­grade in the very sign ruled by Venus, whose spir­i­tu­al inspi­ra­tions are cen­tered upon these med­i­ta­tions of val­ue, the sign of Tau­rus. Though many will note (and com­plain) that Mer­cury ret­ro­grade seems to be the source of so many mishaps and mis­un­der­stand­ings, the prob­lem lies with our lack of appre­ci­a­tion for what is indi­cat­ed (and required of us) when Mer­cury the Mes­sen­ger bends your aware­ness back upon yourself.

For this is the whole point of Mer­cury ret­ro­grade. You are to take the next three weeks and make them an oppor­tu­ni­ty for greater self-reflec­tion. You are being led into deep­er self-exam­i­na­tion (and self-crit­i­cism), so that you may ascer­tain the true val­ue or sub­stan­tial valid­i­ty of your thoughts and ideas. You are being giv­en anoth­er chance to sep­a­rate your thought-forms and dis­cern what are the sub­stan­tial “facts” or truths, and what are mere­ly your insub­stan­tial assump­tions or opinions.

This is hard work, and it requires focused inten­tion, patience and hon­esty. For­tu­nate­ly, Tau­rus is the sign of per­sis­tence and deter­mi­na­tion, with a rig­or­ous devo­tion to last­ing beau­ty and val­ue. It is help­ful to have some out­ward exam­ples of essen­tial val­ues to guide you, as you sep­a­rate your “wheat from chaff”, as you deter­mine your know­ing from some­one else’s opin­ion. For exam­ple, it is most use­ful to take more time to notice and appre­ci­ate the beau­ty in your world, (and so in your­self). As you con­tem­plate the val­ue of this or that in your life, immerse your­self in the beau­ty of nature, take a walk in the woods, or on the beach, watch the sun­rise or set, touch the earth and smell the scents of nature and so be remind­ed that there are many things which will always and for­ev­er be true, and you can build on that.

Like­wise, enjoy the beau­ties that have been fash­ioned by the artists of yes­ter­year and today, and make time to vis­it a gallery or muse­um, or attend a musi­cal con­cert, play or some oth­er per­for­mance. Cer­tain­ly, you should make some time and take up with your own hand, or voice or what­ev­er is your pre­ferred instru­ment of self-expres­sion and let the beau­ty with­in find a sub­stan­tial form through you.

Yes, as always, you must avoid the mishaps of Mer­cury ret­ro­grade too. Under­stand that every­one is more inward­ly atten­tive, though many may be unaware of this change in them­selves. So, that even if you are lis­ten­ing care­ful­ly as well as com­mu­ni­cat­ing clear­ly, oth­ers may not. Again, be patient with them as with your­self. Estab­lish clear­ly what are the “facts”, assump­tions or points of view that each of you is hold­ing. Firm up your com­mon­al­i­ties and build from there to restore, renew or build up your bridges of mutu­al under­stand­ing and love for one another.

Mer­cury is turning,
And so should you.
Time to ground your awareness,
In Ever­last­ing Beau­ty and Truth.

Lis­ten attentively,
Think Lovingly,
Act Kindly.

And may you Walk in Beau­ty every day.