- Image: “Seeking Answers in a Confused Space” by Gary Rosenberg
Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff
By
Sarah Varcas
Semi-sextiles often get overlooked. Tiny aspects of just thirty degrees, they disappear amidst mighty oppositions and expansive trines, cheeky sextiles and challenging squares. Which is a big shame because they always – without fail – provide handy advice about how to do life better, be more effective and generally make the most of the hand we’ve been dealt. Which is precisely what this one between Mars and Mercury does.
With Mercury still retrograde in Libra and the eclipse season on-going, how we relate and interact in our everyday lives is unavoidably impacted by powerful energies which influence our levels of self- and other- awareness. Emotions may still be running high, our minds occupied with all kinds of stuff that seems to blot out our more rational or reasoned self! It’s an intense time and many are feeling it, but in its midst comes some salient advice to help us all settle down and shut up (if necessary!), allowing to speak the calm and far wiser voice within.
As we already know, Mars in Virgo just loves detail. It thrives on it. Nothing is too miniscule for its attention and it can penetrate the most ‘insignificant’ things until their essential place in the abundant whole is fully revealed. Mercury in Libra, on the other hand, is inclined less towards discriminating attention and more towards identifying the point where things overlap, entering each others’ space to create something new. This, Mercury reminds us, is what a relationship is: the coincidence of individual beings who enter each others’ energy fields so deeply that a bond is forged and a third thing born, greater than the mere sum of its parts. Mars in Virgo remains singularly unimpressed with this theory, knowing only that everyone has their place and really needs to stay in it for the whole to work out! Verging on the control freak at times, this Mars can expend enormous energy on commanding the various components of its environment rather than actually getting to know them and building constructive alliances where once there was simply separation. Mercury in Libra, on the other hand, can overlook even the most glaring obstacle in the interests of accord. Not quite in the same ball park as each other, their current alliance helps them (and us) bridge the gap between these two disparate views.
Together, Mars and Mercury encourage us to attend to the details that matter and kindly overlook the ones that don’t. Yes, our partner may have been inconsiderate, our colleague rude, our children selfish, but we need to pause before reacting, to consider the pros and cons of addressing the issue in the moment or inviting space around it which allows for clarity and wisdom. Likewise we need to ease off of ourselves too, accepting our all too human traits of saying the wrong thing, not taking a hint and generally being a bit out of synch with our environment on account of stress. At such times, small and relatively inconsequential things can simply get out of hand because everyone’s a bit tender. Molehills become mountains and what could have been brushed off with a chuckle and a roll of the eyes, becomes the prelude to World War Three!
Right now we really don’t need anymore trouble. Healing is necessary and compassion vital. Mars and Mercury join hands to remind us not to sweat the small stuff, but instead discover the common ground of our humanity which can sustain us all through times of change. We won’t always say the right thing, give the best response or even be fair on others, and they won’t always be to us either. Such is life, populated by us lot all trying to get by! In the coming days, cutting us all some slack could make the difference between unnecessarily negative discord and life lived in a spirit of supportive and compassionate hope.
Sarah Varcas
{ 1 trackback }