Last week, I was putting the final touches on a sigil working. I’d created multiple sigils, all keyed to a particular goal, and I’d chosen a day, planetary hour, and mansion of the moon that supported my aim.
Only trouble was, Mercury was about to station retrograde, and its energy figured heavily into this working.
Not one to scrap magical plans without at least considering detours, I went to my Inner Sanctuary on the astral to meet with my guides. (Want to visit your own Sanctuary? Check out this free guide.)
What they shared was super-duper useful, and I wanted to pass it along in case you find yourself itching to work magic during Mercury Rx, too.
My guides explained what I’m now calling the Slingshot Effect.
Essentially, as Mercury goes retrograde the energy of my spell is being drawn “back.” But far from being deleterious, this is like loading a slingshot: potential energy builds and builds, poised to be released. When Mercury stations direct–whoosh! That energy will fly to its target with accelerated gusto.
Now, of course, I can imagine scenarios where this might not be ideal. If you’re doing something that might benefit from more of a slow burn vibe, this sudden explosion of energy might not be what you want.
For instance, maybe your goal is to enhance your ability to make new friends, but in the past you’ve gotten intensely involved before you really knew someone (trauma bonding is one form of this that I’ve done many, many…many times before), and things crashed and burned. Adding more concentrated fervor to the mix is, perhaps, unwise.
But if you’re aiming for something that, one, you don’t absolutely need right away, and two, can withstand the rapid increase, the Slingshot Effect is handy, indeed.
This sort of magic is also useful when you, yourself, need a bit of time to prepare the soil for your desired outcome, but you nonetheless want to get the ball rolling now. You can use the drawing-back period (just look up how long Mercury is retrograde–currently, until May 14) to get yourself and your environment ready to welcome the change.
For example, maybe you’re casting a spell to increase your income, which comes from one-on-one client sessions. You could use the interim to make sure you have solid systems in place and room in your schedule to accommodate more client bookings.
In truth, I love the process of Tetrising possible combinations in magic.
When an original plan falls through, there’s something satisfyingly scrappy about finding alternatives, and IMO, this only makes the magic stronger because we’re opening up to previously unconsidered possibilities and challenging ourselves to loosen a too-tight grip on “how things ought to be.”
This gives magic more ways to work, a principle that, really, we can apply to anything in life. Have we become overly attached to seeing a situation, a person, a solution, ourselves in one particular way? Hmm…what else might be true?
Here’s to a magical retrograde!
Melissa xx
Map the flows of money in your life using the tarot. That’s what we’re exploring in May in The Portal–join us here.
