Mercury Retrograde & the Goddess Bagalamukhi

Mercury Retrograde from January 30th-February 20th & the goddess Bagalamukhi Mercury began his Retrograde cycle at 2:20 degrees Aquarius today, January 30th. He will be in this perceived state of backward motion until February 20th, at which point he’ll be at 16:52 degrees sidereal Capricorn. This means we are running back over old themes, both in communication and in the lessons we need to learn around it. His short step into Aquarius right before the Full Moon gave us a shift in mindset from the work to the innovation. He”ll be back in Capricorn, Feb 4th, so don’t get used to it! We are going through the period we have a few times a year, where we are being called upon to listen.

The specific star he is in right now is Dhanistha, which borders Capricorn and Aquarius, linking their energetic shift from Earth to Air. In this case, we are going backwards. Making our thoughts concrete by bringing them into the world, and now, reversing that process. Unraveling what we've thought for sure was true. Dhanistha is the "steady sound" and is depicted as a drum. It is ruled by the 8 Vasus, Earth, Water, Air, Space/Sky, Sun, Moon, and the Stars. Since Capricorn holds so many planets right now, Mercury is also backing up our thoughts in relationship to our power, beliefs and fears, and will enter back into the star of Shravana on February 10th. There, we are again, being asked to listen. Vishnu's own star, here is where we hear what lies beneath the surface of words and sound. Mantra practices are key right now!

In mythology, the goddess Bagalamuki takes hold of the tongue of the demon Madan. He is rendered speechless, after wreaking havoc on the world with a special power he was given, Vak siddhi. With this everything he spoke became true and he was running a rampage on the world with his tongue. So Vishnu prayed at the lake of turmeric and from it rose Bagalamuki, the one who stops us in our tracks if our speech is not aligned with our spirit, and also the one who can bestow such incredible grace with our words if we are using them in the power of love. The demon asked to remain with her and she agreed, thus they are always pictured together. Bagalamukhi is one of the Das Mahavidyas, the 10 Tantric Wisdom Goddesses. They bring us beyond the material world to the spiritual plane. With her we can transcend speech, words and make manifest from our declarations, as long as they are raising our consciousness. When we get stuck in mundane, or negative patterns of communication, she halts us, and grabs our tongue.

This is like Mercury Retrograde; we are stunted, delayed and missed in our communication efforts, so we feel as though our tongue is being held. In Aquarius this can be quite frustrating, as we desperately want to move forward. Aquarius already possesses enough hesitation and questioning where the added pause is unhelpful to our genius. When he goes back into Capricorn, we will be forced over some very recent, old ground. This can be challenging because here we really want to see physical progress, and this can bring delays, but overall the grounded, practical nature of Capricorn does want everything to be checked twice and safe before going forward. The due diligence that has been prominent since the planetary pile-up in Capricorn first began in November. See if you can take this time to listen. When you are with others, try listening to what they are saying instead of assuming you know and tuning out. When you are alone, do the same for yourself. We often “talk over” our own thoughts and true feelings. Allow yourself to really gather your thoughts.