Back to School: Virgo

My little boy, Nathan, (aged 5 in two weeks) attends full time school for the first time tomorrow. I will be a little emotional. The six weeks that he has been off hasn't been too bad, apart from the last week when boredom and restlessness have taken over. He can't wait to return to school again and see his friends and teachers. A couple of weeks back I decided to try for another baby with my partner, so I will see how it goes. I know the predictable broodiness has set in when one leaves the nest for school. However, this time it's planned. With Nathan I had an unexpected pregnancy when transiting Uranus was conjunct my natal Sun. It sounds stupid a grown woman saying "unexpected," I know all about the birds and bees. I won't go into it all, but it really was a surprise pregnancy and a happy one. I am looking forward to extending the family. We are currently in the month of Virgo, and this is a time we are preparing to go back to school and a normal routine (yay). You check everything is ready for school, like the archetypal Virgo: uniform, book bag, sports gear, new shoes. I have sent my little boy out for his haircut today with his dad, so I can cross that off the Virgo check list. All the practicalities need to be taken care of in this period. The last week has been the busiest (mutable Virgo earth) in the sense that we rush around preparing everything. We are all a little anxious and making sure everything is in order.

I will have more time on my hands and I need to do some more site optimisation and improve articles on the blog, rounding them out, re-editing and adding improved content. In Virgo, we need to think about how we can improve quality, usefulness and productivity. I am beginning to understand the unseen work element of both the 6th and 12th house a little more. The Mercury Retrograde period in Virgo is more powerful in the sign it rules and it reflects this introspective time. With all the kids returning to school with Mercury Retrograde. I do wonder if that will have any impact.

Mercury retrograde introduces us all to Virgo-like energy three times a year. The next time Mercury goes retrograde, note the archetypal energy all around us-the sense of patient waiting while we perform humble, routine tasks-the introspection, the industrious planning, or most important, repetition of the old task that was imperfectly completed the first time. On a Mercury retrograde, we wait, we live in the "meanwhile," the alchemical interval during which nothing at all seems to happen. We may go eagerly to the mailbox each day and be disappointed. Or we are reviewing, rewriting, reflecting. By Kathleen Burt