Hey Hartlist,
Here’s the thing. I don’t want to believe in Mercury Retrograde.
…but I also don’t want to say that I don’t, at least not too loudly, in case it makes it worse.
JUST THE DATES PLEASE:
new gigs added!Monday May 23 - The Civilians Anniversary Gala @City Winery1
Sunday May 29 - THE CHRYSALIS 62: IN JUNE - livestream show
Wed June 15 - Irish Arts Center Cafe uptown, time TBD, intimate trio show
Saturday June 18 1PM- “Porch Stomp” on Governor’s Island!! - acoustic band gig
Saturday July 9 7PM -My Birthday Show @Rockwood Music Hall Stage 2
Tickets avail now for Rockwood! Subscribe on Youtube to get reminders of The Chrysalis shows, which will stream on insta & FB as well. Replays included here the following week.
FROM THE CHRYSALIS
If you’re unfamiliar, ‘Mercury Retrograde’ is an astrological term (I’m just reporting here) that refers to a brief period, a few times a year, wherein the planet Mercury appears to be traveling backwards in its orbit. In these little hiccups of time, it is said, everything governed by the planet Mercury (I’m just reporting here!!) takes a bit of a step backwards as well. Or, stops completely. Or, implodes.
Items on Mercury’s hit list include: scheduling, travel, transportation, technology, organization, and everything to do with communication. Under Mercury Retro, it is said, do not attempt to do things like plan vacations, sign contracts, move house, start new projects, or have important conversations.
So, of course, today finds me writing my weekly newsletter while simultaneously trying to plan a vacation and get a contract signed.
How’s it going? All requested (mild, technical, some previously-agreed upon) changes rejected; welcome email informs me cheerily that you will each be sharing a room with another girl! (Deposit has been paid.)
In band rehearsal recently, I was explaining Mercury Retro (because someone asked!) When I paused, Matt looked at me across the violin and asked “Did you just hear yourself and realize it’s all bullshit?”
Oh, how I wish.
Seriously. You guys. I am hardly the least Woo Woo person you know. After I write this I’m going to a Sound Healing/Mantra class and my other job is reading Tarot cards over zoom. But!! I consider myself a Rational Mystic the way Eddie Izzard used to describe himself as an ‘Executive Transvestite’ (I’m just reporting.) There are things I don’t buy, and there are things I’m open to but not 100% about, and one of those things happens to be Astrology! I do not want to believe in Mercury Retrograde!
And so, three times a year, when some blog or instagram post reminds me that our fiery friend in the sky is about to do a 180, I have the same conversation with myself.
Oh no.
Ok, Rebecca, it doesn’t HAVE to be bad. It’s probably only always bad BECAUSE you believe in it. And you don’t even know if you believe in it!
Right. Ok, I will just not believe in it. Mind over malfunction.
Good one.
Thanks, I’m a lyricist.
So just ignore it.
Right. Good plan. I am strong. I am in control. I am an Executive Mystic.
Good plan. Now go ahead, send that vitriolic text message about your workplace directly to your boss instead of to your friend.
Ok, I will. HEY WAIT A MI-
Every time, EVERY SINGLE TIME, Mercury Retrograde finds me reduced to a quivering husk of my former self, staring weakly at my phone/computer/receipt and whispering But how did this happen??? in awestruck despair.
Sometimes it’s big and dramatic. One MR Hall of Fame story is the time a Valentine’s Day voicemail from a boyfriend turned out to be an accidentally recorded conversation between him and his friend about his plans to break up with me.
Still good.
Sometimes it’s small and manageable; the trains aren’t running, but I get there anyway. The misunderstanding (or two, or twelve) over email gets cleared up in a chat. The newsletter that I really wanted to write gets shelved for a rumination on some astrological hoo-ha.
But I think the hoo-ha has actually brought me around to what I wanted to say.
If you google (and I’m not saying I’ve done this, but so what if I have) “how do I handle Mercury retrograde”), the going wisdom seems to be that you must lean into it. Unlike me in my above conversation with myself, you must on no account try to pretend it isn’t happening and forge bravely on. That’s when it bites you in the ass. You have to Accept it first. Only then can you take effective action.
More than once this week, I’ve had conversations with people about , you know, Everything That’s Going On. And I’ve noticed that there’s usually a point where we talk about feeling powerless and frightened. And maybe I say (because I’m thinking about this a lot) that this feels like a time where my sense of what I can and cannot change/control is really being tested, and feels really important to keep an eye on.
Which is when the other person will say something like “Yeah, but we can’t just, like, give up and do nothing.”
Which is when I wonder when I said anything about giving up or doing nothing.
I get it though. I mean, for one thing, why try to communicate at all during mercury retro. :) But I also get how we’re kind of conditioned to think that any kind of acceptance is admitting defeat. Especially when fear is high, entertaining the idea that there’s even PART Of something we can’t win or move is pretty threatening. But if we don’t accept it we’re turning a blind eye toward the whole thing, and thus to any possible solutions.
I’d say “know what I mean?” here, but, you know.
Sigh.
See you on the other side,
RBeca
(That was on puropse)
you can support the Civilians, honor the brilliant Les Waters and Mia Katigbak, AND hear me play this ol’ comedy chestnut from the Hart songbook