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Super Flattering is here. And how.
On June 11, we launched our first issue. With champagne, St. Louis-cut ribs, guests who stayed until midnight, and questions everyone could answer in
Text: Rashunda Tramble
Illustration: AI-generated
Mercury is retrograde from 29 June to 24 July. Cue the warnings about checking your electronics, backing up important data, avoiding communication misunderstandings, and so on. I’m not a fan of the negative messages normally connected to the event. But what happens astronomically during that time has always captured my attention: Mercury does not move backwards during retrograde. It appears to move backwards because of an optical illusion.
The planets in our solar system travel at different speeds. Think about what happens when you’re driving and you pass a slow-moving car on the autobahn. The car you’re passing looks like it’s going backwards, but it’s not. It’s an illusion.
During retrograde season the Earth momentarily overtakes Mercury. Since both planets are side-by-side, it looks like Mercury is moving backwards. But it’s not: it’s an illusion.
And that’s where our Tarot Card of the Month, the Moon, comes in.
The Moon card shows a wolf and a dog howling at the sky as the luminary rises overhead. A crayfish climbs slowly out of a pond. Two towers frame the scene.
The card can represent our fears and how we wrestle with the dark and spooky. But the Moon card can also signal illusions, perhaps things we really believe are true and present in our lives but aren’t. And maybe those things are dark and spooky as well.
“I’m 35 and I haven’t landed a director position at my company. My co-worker is 10 years younger than me and has just been promoted. I’m a complete failure.”
“Ugh, this damned influencer posts nothing but bullshit and has 50,000 followers. I can’t crack 10,000. What am I doing wrong?”
“I would love to invite my classmate to my flat, but it’s not as nice as hers. And all of my furniture is from Ikea.”
We travel through life noticing how supposedly better everyone else is doing, how faster everyone else is moving. We try our best to keep up. And when we can’t keep up, the self criticism starts. We think we’re moving too slowly, like that car on the autobahn. Or that crayfish crawling out of the pond.
But the Moon card has a few questions for us this month: What if we allowed our eyes to adapt to the dark? What if we waited for the landscape to reveal itself and watch how the scary shadows morph into beautiful trees?
What if we climbed out of that pool of competition and allowed the soft light of the Moon to lead us down our own path at the speed that’s right for us?
Are you really behind? Or are you living with an illusion?
Of course some life events are determined by biology. The role age plays in getting pregnant is an example. But other norms and events, such as when someone should be promoted, what a suitable financial net worth is, or social status we should strive to achieve, are constructs of the capitalist, patriarchal society we live in.
Perhaps you think you’re behind or haven’t lived up to society’s expectations because you’re looking at things from one perspective, like us standing here on Earth believing that Mercury is actually going backwards.
There are couple of ways you can work with the Moon card’s messages and Mercury retrograde this month:
This month, slow down and let the gentle beams of the Moon show you where you are in the here and now. And remember, you’re not behind. You’re traveling at the right speed in your own lane.
