Mercury Retrograde – A Perfect Time For Cleaning & Decluttering

I confess I have become fascinated by feng shui lately. Feng shui and astrology have quite lot in common. Both state that your environment, whether it is your home or the heavens, mirror your life situation.

When you think about it, it is not so far-fetched. After all, everything is energy. Both can help you enhance various areas of your life for the better and who doesn’t want a better life?

For those of you not familiar with feng shui, it is a popular system that has been used in Asia for over 3,500 years. The guiding principles of feng shui is that chi (energy) has to flow freely and unhindered in your home like water or wind. In fact, feng shui, literally translates to “wind and water.” This free-flow of chi will harmonize the various areas in your life such as your relationships, career, finances, education and health.

In feng shui, your home is mapped into quadrants representing these areas of your life. This is very much like the house system in the zodiacal chart in astrology. The map is then overlayed on top of the blueprint of your home. Here is an example below. The Chinese refer to this feng shui map as the bagua.  If you want to learn more, here is a link to an article describing the bagua. 

Pretty nifty, huh! So, are you wondering what does this have to do with Mercury retrograde? Well there are various rules and guidelines you have to follow if you want to successfully transform your space in feng shui for the better. The number one rule is YOU MUST DECLUTTER. If you don’t do this, all other feng shui principles are useless.

So, isn’t great to know that the celestial skies have provided us with a gift this week. On September 16, we will experience a powerful lunar eclipse. What is powerful about this lunar eclipse is that it is opposing and conjoining the asteroid Chiron, often referred to as the wounded healer. It is squaring Mars. This full moon eclipse is about letting go of all the things that no longer serve us. It is about letting go of all the obstacles that impede our growth. The Sun is in Virgo and the Moon is in Pisces which is sounds like makeover project to me. It could be a house makeover or a health makeover.

This is a golden opportunity to declutter your space because Mercury retrograde is all about reorganizing, replenishing and restoring. The universe bestows us with Mercury retrograde three times a year so we can do this.

The universal principle at hand states, “Grow or Die.” It is the universe’s way of making sure you don’t become stagnant. If a plant outgrows its pot, it must be repotted in order to grow to the next phase, otherwise it will wither away and die. Humans are no different. Sometimes, growth comes in the form of letting go.

Things like piles of papers or clunky awkward furniture misplaced, will obstruct the flow of chi in your home and in turn will weigh you down emotionally, especially the quadrant that houses the offending obstacle.

The rule of thumb is the more you declutter, the more space you make, to allow the new in. They say nature abhors a vacuum and rushes in to fill it in with something more complex.

I recently learned that cattle farmers burn their pasture in the spring which is a complete contradiction. The reasoning behind this is that it improves the health of the field and that the new grass that sprouts is higher in nutrients for the cattle to feed on.

Like the pasture analogy, decluttering can work the same magic in your life. So get your garbage bags out and get to work. By the time the new moon rolls in on September 30, you will be able to welcome the new.