Life Design
Mercury Retrograde: A Time To Revisit, Reflect And Realign
Has it felt like the universe has been playing a cosmic prank on you lately? Maybe your phone or computer has started acting up, or your travel plans have taken an unexpected turn, or maybe every conversation feels like a confusing game of telephone?
You’re not imagining any it, and you’re definitely not alone. Blame it on the astrological phenomenon known as Mercury Retrograde.
Mercury began its current retrograde motion in the sign of Leo on July 18, 2025. This phase will last for 24 days, ending on August 11, 2025, with Mercury still positioned in Leo as it returns to direct motion.
But this energetic shift doesn’t stop there. After Mercury stations direct, we enter the shadow period, also known as the post-retrograde shadow or retroshade. This phase usually lasts for about two more weeks, meaning the lingering effects of the current retrograde may continue through August 25, 2025.
Mercury retrograde occurs three, and occasionally four, times each year due to the planet’s swift orbit around the Sun. As the innermost planet, Mercury completes this journey in just 88 Earth days.
During its retrograde phase, Mercury appears to move backward in the sky from our earthly perspective, creating a temporary disruption in its usual energetic influence. Because it is the planet that rules communication, travel, and information, its retrograde motion often stirs up confusion, delays, and misunderstandings in these areas of life.
The Power Of Creativity To Transform And Heal
Creative play is a crack, or a doorway into another part of ourselves… into our intuitive and spiritual nature. To explore our creativity is to open that door of possibility.
It is easy to doubt our creativity when we compare ourselves to others, and to great artists of the past. Through their life stories and work, the master artists left reminders, showing us that creativity is not something we are taught, but rather something we are. Tapping into this is about experiencing this for ourselves, in whatever form that may be.
I took up painting as a hobby in my late 20s. It began as a desire to learn to paint, although I held the belief that I wasn’t really creative, given my Finance and Accounting background. I had never considered Art to be healing, or that it held personal healing benefits.
At the beginning of my journey, I immersed myself in art books and read about other artists. I also joined a local art group. In class one day, I felt inspired to paint the Buddha. From the moment I picked up my brush to paint him, I could feel a presence by my side and I could see in the blank canvas the face that was to appear, long before it was visible to anyone else. That painting is the piece that changed the direction of my life path, as I embraced my creative and spiritual gifts.
Turning up to a blank canvas, is like saying yes to life and the unknown of what lays on our path. And there are many benefits of saying ‘yes’ to painting. Painting allows us to express ourselves through our work, it allows us a time and space to reflect on our life and the meaning we attached to our experiences.
How To Access Your Inner Wisdom
How can you tap into your inner wisdom? How do you learn to trust your intuition? How can you better receive guidance from spirit? These are the kinds of deep, soul-searching questions that arise when you begin to awaken to your spiritual path.
As you journey to understand yourself and find healing, you’ll discover that the answers you seek are often within you. Your inner wisdom is a gift that you already have.
Your inner wisdom is a gift from God. It’s a part of you that connects you to the divine. It connects the spiritual world with your physical experience, helping you live life more clearly, gracefully, and with purpose.
Your intuition is always there. It gently nudges you, whispers insight, and provides subtle feelings or knowing that help guide your decisions. It often operates below your awareness, always humming in the background like soft music.
But in the busy world we live in, it’s easy to lose touch with that inner sense of direction. Stress, emotional pain, and the noise of external expectations can block your intuition. That’s why it’s so important to practice spirituality on purpose. Meditation, prayer, and moments of quiet are like keys that open the door to your soul’s wisdom.
If you take five minutes to sit quietly and listen to your thoughts, you will hear the voice of spirit more clearly. This voice doesn’t shout. It speaks with love, warmth, and strength. One of my spiritual mentors often said, “The voice of inner guidance is never harsh or fearful. It always brings peace, even when the message is challenging.”
You Create Your Own Happiness
Too often, people find themselves trapped in a shadowed corner of life, believing that happiness lies just beyond the next relationship, paycheck, job, or home. But true joy isn’t found in any of these external pursuits.
As the Dalai Lama so wisely said, “Happiness is not something ready-made. It comes from your own actions.” Pause for a moment and really reflect on that. It’s a beautifully simple truth, yet so many of us struggle to embrace it.
We’ve been raised in a world that teaches us to chase after happiness as though it’s something ‘out there,’ just one success or possession away. But here’s the sacred truth: happiness begins within.
This is a difficult statement for many to comprehend. “How can I be happy, if I have nothing? you might ask. “I am alone. I have no job, no money, no love.”
And yet, the answer is simple and profound: no one else is responsible for your life. No one else is responsible for your happiness. You are the sole creator of your reality.
Your emotional well-being, fulfillment, and general experience of life aren’t determined by outside forces, other people, circumstances, or luck. Living your best life starts with you.
Happiness isn’t something someone can give you or take away. What you think, believe, and do determines if you feel satisfied or unfulfilled.
The Four Levels Of Relationship Connection
Every so often, we meet someone who lights us up in an undeniably powerful way. These connections are rare, but when they happen, we sense their potential to become a significant part of our lives.
But that initial spark can sometimes give way to doubt, especially in romantic relationships. As we get to know someone more intimately, we may wonder if the connection we felt initially was meaningful or just a passing fancy?
So, what’s really going on here? What are these dynamics trying to reveal? How can we assess these bonds more practically to determine if we want to be with someone long term?
At the heart of it, there are four fundamental levels on which we connect with others. When deciding whether to invest our energy in a relationship, we must consider all four levels.
A connection based on only one dimension often feels incomplete or out of sync. Typically, we need at least two levels of alignment to feel a genuine bond.
Three levels create a profound sense of harmony. When all four levels are in sync, the connection can feel magical. The connection can feel nothing short of magical.
Exploring our relationships through this lens empowers us to make more conscious choices. We gain clarity about what matters to us and how we experience connection. This approach also helps us cultivate gratitude for the unique ways others connect with us and appreciate the different flavors of intimacy that each level brings.
A Psychic Reading Brings Order To Chaos
In a typical lifetime the sun will pass over us twenty-five thousand times. If you were to walk just one mile due west each and every day of your life (if such a journey by land were possible) your life would end at the place it began.
Just one mile every day, at a most comfortable stroll, you will have experienced more than anyone, and lived the dreams of most. Instead of merely waiting and watching the sun and time pass by.
If we walk slowly through life, but with purpose, we will see more, travel farther on less energy, and allow others more time to get out of our way. But occasionally, we will meet immovable objects in our path, and a decision on which way to turn must then be made.
Having a precise destiny in mind is challenging in itself, so making the right decisions along the way is essential to ensure our safe arrival at our intended destination.
In my own journey, I remind myself to smile demurely at those skeptical of what I do, even if their cynicism always surprises me, as we all foresee the future all the time.
For example, watching a carefree child at play, unaware in the midst of their joy of the likelihood, the inevitability of a fall sometimes becomes apparent and very clear to those with experience looking on.
The fact that some of us are able to see more, and in more detail, and further into the future, should therefore not be so impossible to conceive – as disconcerting or uncomfortable as this may be to the doubter.
Your Spirit Guides Will Never Lead You Astray
“My guides must hate me! Why else would they lead me to things that cause me so much pain?” someone once said during a reading. “And where is my guardian angel when I need him?”
It was not the first time I’ve heard such sentiments from a distressed client. This kind of disappointment and frustration is not uncommon because it cuts to the heart of spiritual seeking.
It is certainly a valid concern. If angels, guides, and ancestors are meant to guide, support, and protect us, then why do they sometimes lead us to pain, heartache, and even trauma? Do they really have our backs, or are they inflicting suffering upon us for some strange reason?
I confess that there was a time in my own life when I also asked these kinds of questions.
But after years of working as a professional psychic and energy healer, as well as through my own spiritual growth journey, I’ve since come to a comforting conclusion. Our spirit helpers always operate from a place of divine wisdom, unconditional love and compassionate support.
Then why, you may ask, do bad things sometimes happen to good people? It’s simple, really. Any detour from our highest good does not occur because spirit somehow miscalculated, neglected, or misrepresented anything.
When we encounter trouble, it is usually our own doing, or something we co-created with others. Whatever the reason or cause, we alone are always the common denominator.
Below are a few examples of such self-inflicted calamities that I have repeatedly come across in my work, as well as how they differ from actual spirit guidance and divine intervention.