“When they are dreaming, human beings wish to go to the heart of things, into the very matter of things, even though philosophers forbid this”.1
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Is eclipse season perhaps the perfect time to get into “The Leftovers,” a show about the sudden disappearance of 2% of the population and the stories of the grieving people they left behind?
It may be so. But I’m not interested in the contents of the show for the time being but its opening theme. After an overly serious Season 1 opener, they initiated a new title sequence soundtracked by Iris Dement’s “Let the Mystery Be”. There’s a full version of the song off her first album, 1992’s “Infamous Angel,” but the show uses a more polished version from a later television performance; the guitars are brighter and her southern lilt cuts through the air like the sharp taste of lemonade coating the tongue.
The lyrics are concerned with beliefs — “Some say once you're gone you're gone forever/And some say you're gonna come back”— with Dement’s own opinion acting as the refrain: “Think I’ll just let the mystery be”. But even if I ignore the lyrics, I can’t help but hear the smile on her face while she sings. It’s a jarring beginning to a show largely concerned with the suffering of those left with grief, loss and few answers.
It’s the sound of staring into that same void and seeing some sort of peace.
It’s the same reason I feel connected to this emoji: 🥲 happy and sad at the same time.
I can’t say why this song sticks with me other than that it tells me something about my soul— capable of refracting into the smallest holes.
Mercury and the Soul
But what to do with the part of me that finds this information silly to share, or signifying nothing?
How to bridge the rigors of the mind and the mushiness of the heart? More and more, I’ve been turning around the idea of “soul” as what unites body and mind, heart and spirit.
For a long while, we’ve seen these spheres are doing separate things, just as we have seen Mercury primarily through a “practical” lens: merchant, accountant, writer, messenger. But throughout history the texts are very clear: Mercury was the ruler of “divinity and the oracles of prophets,” (Abu Ma’shar), “temple builders…musicians, prophets, diviners, augurs, dream interpreters” (Valens) and “signifies philosophy, and augury, and writing, and proverbs” (Bonatti). What do we lose when we forget mystery at the core of the planet of the mind?
Though I often enjoyed academic spaces, I always felt my great heart was neglected there. There was little talk about what our feelings for a text meant or what it would mean to turn these words into praxis. At one point, my thesis advisor told me that I was drawn between the philosopher and the mystic, though he advised I choose the former.
But why would I choose “philosopher” when mysticism lets me keep both my heart and mind?
For a long while, our brain was seen as the “nexus between the body and the spirit” as Lee Lehman puts it, or “the place where spirit interacts with physical matter”.
Self Trust
It seems that nowadays, intellect has been disconnected from the body and spirit but occupying some imaginary remove where the sullying affects of embodiment and magical thinking cannot touch it; but where does the mind exist, really? What is it if not composes of matter and spirit?
One of the reasons Mercury rejoices in the 1st house, place of the self, is that they are the planet of the in-between; here they meet the horizon and allow spirit and matter to mingle.
Unfortunately, it’s much easier for me to see value in mental work as opposed to the work of the soul— that which unites the embodied and unseen. When I sit down and write these newsletters, I always want to give you concrete facts with a purpose. I write to give something useful or uplifting in your own process. There are times when I have doubted the importance of the receptive: rituals, meditations before writing, scrying, visioning and various ways to connect with the divine.
So I write my weird thoughts and visions out for all those who have been taught to ignore the juice of their life; the poetry, spells, feelings, rituals, that bring the divine a bit closer and open our heart to the useless and fine. I coined the term “rigorous woo” to answer this crossroad upon which I find myself walking.
But it’s what keeps me breaking up my emails, writing, computer work with stretching, tea breaks, rituals, channeling sessions.
Though I can’t say much of it has produced usable “content,” it has made my mood brighter and my content juicy.
I don’t have to have all the answers because I can go outside, light some frankincense, and talk to the Pleiades.
So I wanted to share a channeled scene I saw when spending time with the 18th Lunar station yesterday, Al Qalb, or “the Heart,” whose indicator star is Antares, my heliacal rising star:
At the end of the crack is the beginning of an ice world- all sloping bluish sheets of it and bits of frost. I use some of the snow to wash the black gunk off my arm so it is wet and clean. As I keep walking, I stumble on the ice and start falling down the long slope to the right of the path. I pull a small knife out of my bag and shove it into the ice to stop my fall and haul me back up. I go back to the grass, take the heart-jar out of the bag. You can’t even see the heart because it has spurted this dark, thick liquid. I dip my hand in it and drag the substance over my face, and let out a primal scream.
Beyond what you can recite in a book about Venus or Algol or the 3rd house, what do you see or experience when you let the spirit lead the way? Does intelligence always have to lead us back to our own authority or can it include making room for other entities to lead the way?
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Part of the reason I offer readings is to help align people with these higher orders, which is just another way of leading them back to themselves. Mercury, one of the indicators of the soul, shows our job is to be both— neither wholly earthly nor wholly of spirit. Mercury says you can always be both.
On a more mundane levels, my astrology readings help you understand the shape and meaning of your life— your future, your eternal self, your soul. Being in alignment with the rest of the world helps you see where you’re meant to go next— which, more likely than not, is where you were already heading, requiring what you already are.
Getting your chart read usually does not negate your own experience but gives you a language for feelings, spirits, experiences, that have been following you for a long time.
They tell us Halloween is the time of year where the unseen world gets a little closer, or perhaps us humans are more capable of seeing. If you want to take a peek, take 15% off any reading with me when you book by the 31st. Use code “spooky” when you click the link below for a hand along the way.
In parting I leave you with this thread by Héloïse on the Fifth house, place of pleasure, and its reltionship to spirituality and devotion:
And sorry for the delay on my latest Tuesday essay! My research on Mercury and the Soul took me a lot of places but I’ really excited to share what I’ve found with you. I intend to write about the Moon and the Soul afterwards, which is the other planet besides Mercury that Ptolemy tells us serves as the indicator of the soul. Together, these two essays will explore why these planets serve as our inner connections to the numinous as well as indictors of our personality, temperament and character, which, Heraclitus tells us, is our destiny.
Stay tuned and become a paid subscriber to read!
Until Next Week,
Chloe 🍨
Source unknown. If you recognize it, please let me know so I can properly attribute.
"Mercury was the ruler of “divinity and the oracles of prophets,” (Abu Ma’shar), “temple builders…musicians, prophets, diviners, augurs, dream interpreters” (Valens) and “signifies philosophy, and augury, and writing, and proverbs” (Bonatti)."
And psychopomp ⚕, escort to the land of the dead. (Although I wonder how much should be assigned to Iris - not a named planet, but a named asteroid.)
"Beyond what you can recite in a book about Venus or Algol or the 3rd house, what do you see or experience when you let the spirit lead the way?"
Hrmm. That's a hard question to answer. I have Mercury in the first, about 5 degrees from my (not in the Greek style) ascendant. The eclipse landed two degrees away from Mercury (but exact on my ☿️/Asc midpoint). I've always thought of the mystical side of my personality coming from Venus in the 12th and Sun conjunct Neptune. (Not a planet you use, obviously.) Maybe the effects of the big new moon will make sense in a month or two.
That's my Mercury not committing to anything, yet.
You got me curious though: my helical rising star is Spica, I've got Mercury conjunct Syrma, and Sun conjunct Agena. Those are nice enough, I think, but my helical setting star is Hamal, which explains my childhood, amoung other things. Sigh.
"I coined the term “rigorous woo” to answer this crossroad upon which I find myself walking. "
I have the astrology and the tarot firmly fire-walled from the intellectual pursuits - I hop back and forth over the wall as needed. I'm always amazed that anybody cares, really, but they do. It's a signifier, of course, but my Mercury doesn't see it that way. 😋
"It’s the sound of staring into that same void and seeing some sort of peace. "
Well, maybe this will get to the heart of the matter; the best TV show use of a song I ever saw was this episode from Person of Interest using the Cash version of 'Hurt': https://youtu.be/uGTvNKNguWo
elm
hopefully it's not a gloomy halloween for you