“Excuse me, can I get your opinion?” The short, middle-aged, white woman approached me between round clothing racks at the Starkville Walmart just before closing one night. She had a girl at her side that I assumed was her daughter. “You look like you have good taste,” she said. Now mind you, I almost didn’t think she was talking to me, cus usually folks avoid conversations on late-night Walmart runs. So I had to orient myself to understand what she was saying. But then I got curious.

She held up two long skirts with a top. “Which one of these skirts do you think I should buy to go with this top?” She apparently liked flowy clothes, but one skirt stood out to me as a bit more chic. She showed me what each skirt looked like with the top she’d chosen, and both of them could work, for sure. But I really locked in when she told me why she was shopping for a new outfit.

“I get to see my husband soon.” She was practically giddy and breathless at the thought of this. “He’s been in prison, and we haven’t seen him in so long” She was almost hugging herself. In her voice I could hear longing and hope. “I want to make a good impression. I really want to look nice for him.”

I instantly wanted that for her too. With this new information, I knew I had to recommend the chic skirt. Walk in there dressed in your finest, girl!

That was 20 years ago, and I’ve thought about that night often and wondered how her visit went, wishing it was all that she had hoped it would be. And I wonder just how many times I’ve been a brief background character in someone else’s love story or in the comedic drama of their life.

Later this month, we enter Pisces season, but this week the planet Mercury moves into the sign of Pisces. Mercury in Pisces might inspire us to start thinking and talking more about our connectedness and unity consciousness. While the sign of Aquarius is the sign of the people, groups, and societies, the sign of Pisces goes even further and says: We’re not just a group of people. We are one. We are all direct fractals of the same Source.

The sign of Pisces also deals with prisons and other forms of confinement. This was not on my mind when I decided to tell the Walmart story, but the connection makes sense to me now. This side of Pisces reminds us that individually and collectively we have to be willing to integrate our shadows and understand that we are all of who we are, not just the shiny, polished parts. Pisces asks us to surrender our personal and collective shame.

I feel like that night in Walmart has stayed with me for so long because I was so touched by this woman’s happiness and the fact that she shared a bit of her excitement with a total stranger. But mostly it was her vulnerability. It’s like she was so happy that it gave her the courage to open up. Sharing the detail about her husband is vulnerable, but what felt even more vulnerable was that she took a risk in trusting me with the joy of her special moment. Her openness still inspires me.

Pisces deals with artists of all types, but Mercury deals specifically with words, communication, writing, and speaking. So we might get an extra dose of artistic flavor with our words for the next few weeks. This would obviously be great energy to tap into if you are a writer, poet, teacher, speaker, or musician. But this can even help us enjoy and appreciate these art forms more deeply, whether we fancy doing them or not. So read some poetry or any good book, create a playlist of your favorite lyrically rich and layered songs, and spend your mornings or evenings journaling about your feelings and dreams!

Dream journaling has been one of my favorite practices for a couple of decades now. With Mercury in Pisces, it might be easier to remember your dreams and to intuitively understand a layer of meaning in them. There’s often more than one layer! You could even get some clever ideas or creative inspiration in dreamtime.

Pisces is a highly spiritual energy. It’s associated with clairvoyance, mediumship, mysticism, and spiritual awakenings. In tarot, Mercury is associated with The Magician card. So for the next couple of months, you can get a boost of motivation to study these topics, read books, watch documentaries or lectures. Have a meetup with your spiritual friends or visit a metaphysical shop or apothecary.

Mercury is going to be in Pisces for longer than usual because it will go retrograde (appear to move backwards) for almost a month from February 26th until March 20th, the day of the Equinox, no less. So while you’re free and clear of retrograde energy this week, it’s helpful to start paying attention to what energies and themes start coming up for you in the Pisces area of your life. (Reply if you’d like me to help you find out what that is.) Journaling, again, is great for this! Pisces is already a deep sign, so a Mercury retrograde will enhance our capacity or interest in self-reflection and deeper reevaluation. Speaking of which… Of course, I can’t talk about a Mercury transit without sharing some journal prompts!

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