Wishing the Ghosts Goodnight

As Mercury stations direct in Pisces, we explore the six-year cycles of grief and the hauntings that invite us to finish our oldest conversations.

As I write, the Moon closes into newness in its conjunction with the Pisces Sun. In just a few days, Mercury will make its direct station. This is a final declaration in this same watery territory, amplified by the ravenous dragon’s head.

A voice that began as a whisper is turning to a scream: ghosts begging for our attention.

I’ve spent a lot of time writing about Mercury’s retrograde cycle over the past few weeks, but the part I’ve failed to mention is the hauntings—the visiting spirits from past lives, arriving in dreams and in waking life.

Yesterday, out of the nowhere-blue of social media, a friend of my father’s reached out. My father had a Scorpio Sun. He was a man who carried a lot of pain and secrets, but who found joy near the end life in his retirement job driving a truck for PlayStation. On the road, he befriended a group of young gamers. They spent their off-hours trading inside jokes and exploring the local food scene in every new city.

That short period of time was the happiest I’d ever seen him, so hearing from one of these friends felt like a blessing. It was a punctuation mark on weeks of ceaseless dreaming about my father. Though he’s been gone twelve years, his voice only grows louder.

Usually, in my dreams, he’s, well—haunting me. He’s either just out of reach or chasing after me. It’s never pleasant. Until last night, when we finally caught up. In my dream I was back in the doctor’s office, receiving his cancer diagnosis, and for the first time, I was able to sit with the bigness of that pain and the depth of his loss without running away.

Upon waking, I did what any astrologer would do: I began to connect the dots.

The 6-Year Echo: Discovering the Whole of Your Story

If you listened to my most recent podcast with Gary P Caton, you’d know that Mercury retrogrades occur in elemental cycles. Right now, we’re wrapping up a Mercury retrograde in Pisces, part of a watery cycle that will last through 2027.

Every six years, these cycles repeat. This means you can use Mercury’s frequent underworld journeys to tell a larger story over time, both individually and collectively.

Going into this retrograde, I knew the last Mercury retrograde in Pisces was March 2020, just before the world shut down for COVID. For me, that time marked the beginning of an insomnia and anxiety spiral that eventually landed me in therapy, working through my CPTSD and— surprise!—my father issues. It was the moment I realized how hardcore I had dissociated after his death.

But when I woke up this morning, I had a hunch that Mercury was trying to tell me something even deeper. I was correct.

It turns out the water cycle preceding the one in 2020 coincided exactly with the duration of my father’s sickness and eventual death in late 2013. The ghosts aren’t just visiting; they are following a map.

Mercury as Psychopomp: Carrying Us Home

Mercury is the Roman relative of the Greek god Hermes. He is the trickster, the philosopher, and the psychopomp. He is the one known for escorting souls into the Underworld, and for the unique ability to enter and exit it of his own accord.

Much like the lunar nodes, Mercury’s retrogrades move against the zodiacal grain. In the moment, each cycle can feel chaotic. Gary Caton describes these periods as the “churning of an ocean” where all the gunk comes to the surface, blinding us in the storm. Yet this, Gary reminds us, is “where the life is.” It’s messy, but it’s how we transform.

Twelve years after my father’s death, and after countless trips to the Underworld and back, I’m finally making peace with him. I’m learning that the “haunting” isn’t a threat. It’s an invitation to finish the conversation.

Whatever stories are being churned up for you, whatever ghosts are tugging at your sleeves or your dreams, I hope Mercury helps you find the clarity to finally wish them goodnight.

Take a breath. The water is clearing.

Find Your Story

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