Having had a variety of close calls with Mercury Retrograde action while traveling to and from P-con, and having dodged any untoward effects in those encounters, it does not surprise me that the retrograde finally bit me in the ass this week. I arrived at my house-sit, about an hour and a half via transit south of where I live, and right as I slid the key into the door I could then suddenly recall with perfect clarity changing the key on the ring to not be the lake house anymore and instead be the park house. And there I was, at the lake house door, with a park house key. Expletive deleted, indeed!
So, I ditched my bags in the back yard, discretely watered a bush and got my tuchis back on transit to haul north again. I had a proper bio break, grabbed a key, put on another warmer layer and headed right back out into near-rush-hour transit. As with the previous run, everything with perfectly synchronized and I even beat the Google map estimates both ways by a bit. I did a run to the PCC this AM for a few things.
"You see by means of this diagram (which has been confirmed to be perfectly exact by J. Boucher, who received an identical one from his master Fulcanelli), that Cold and West generate Water, Wet and Hot generate Air, Hot and Dry generate Fire, and Dry and Cold generate Earth. In their turn, Earth and Air generate the Mercury Principle, Air and Fire generate the Sulfur Principle, and Fire and Earth generate the Salt Principle. At the second stage of The Work, the Mercury Principle and the Sulfur Principle generate Philosophical Silver, or Silver of the Wise, and the Sulfur Principle and the Salt Principle generate Philosophical Gold, or Gold of the Wise. The copulation of the two then gives the Chrysoprase."
From Spiritual Alchemy, Inner Alchemy - Ambelin, Translated by Piers A. Vaughan © May 2005.
So, my friend A is putting on a thing, a new thing, out at the Goddess Temple in late April. I've been contemplating going to it on and off since she told me about it after Illumination last August. I'd been feeling "on" again, and then my phone rang on Monday night. We got cut off twice, but clearly the third time was the charm or the Goddess really meant for the call to go on that long, but I'm energized even more to the idea of going, and making it an extended stay at the Temple. I'd be there for about a fortnight ahead of MayFire. A's triple fire idea really could use some more anchoring from people who seem to grasp her framework, and it would seem I'm one of those. Some of the work I'd like to visit this week while I've got myself in a retreat structure would be to divine out that situation and see if it locks down as a "go." If I find the right one airfare, that would take care of most of it. I should probably also contact Candace and talk with her. There are some projects she and I could take on during an extended stay.
Looking ahead to late March and the comiccon... it's clear I have to commit to going to the speed dating. Srsly. Randomized, public risks are good for trying to break or shake off old patterns. And the con environment certainly brings a truly new-to-my-experience level of novelty. I have to go find a soundbite of Chris Evans talking about how what's best for you is to do what you fear. I'm going to need the constant reassurance. My bigender sense spins in circles at the thought, trying to figure out myself for this sort of challenge is almost paralyzing. Clearly March is going to be interesting.
March 3rd is Girls Day in Shintoism, and Tokara will be having a special tohryanse (open house) this weekend for it. Traditionally dolls are displayed for the week ahead of the holiday. This makes me think about the pop culture magick class, and how I'm probably missing one or two necessary female action figures for such an occasion as that's where my dollish interests would lie these days.