Why NOW is the perfect time to THINK DIFFERENT (ly)

Today at 1:12pm EST Mercury enters Aquarius, where it will remain until the evening of February 13. Mercury moves fast, except when driving us crazy with a retrograde! (The next Mercury retrograde won’t be until March 12, 2012 and will last until April 4, 2012. We are currently feeling the effect of a Mars, retrograde though. If you are like my friends and me, you are feeling STRONG effects. Check out Monday’s post for details.)

Mercury is the planetary “ruler” of two signs – Gemini and Virgo. It rules the conscious mind: how we think and process direct thoughts and how we communicate. Mercury also influences how we solve problems and make decisions.

If you were born with Mercury in Aquarius, “Your unique yet practical ideas prompt people to say, ‘Why didn’t I think of that?’ That’s the result of your clever, imaginative mind at its innovative best.” You intuit what people really think, versus what they say. You are open-minded but almost never change your mind. You rarely let emotions influence your decisions, and you are more comfortable expressing thoughts than feelings. (Source:  Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Astrology)

Even if you weren’t born with Mercury in Aquarius, you can still take advantage of this innovative (and, yes, WEIRD) energy for the next 17 days. The sun is in Aquarius, too, so use the opportunity to THINK DIFFERENT. (I always want to add an “–ly” to that Apple tagline. I may have an Aquarian sun but my Mercury is in conformist Capricorn.)

Speaking of Apple, I received the following bit of information in my email the other day. It’s perfect for all of this Aquarian energy!

In 1977, Steve Wozniak (the sole inventor of the Apple I and II personal computers) revolutionized the computer industry. In his autobiography, iWoz, he advises us to live in a gray scale world – 

The only way to come up with something new – something world-changing – is to think outside the constraints everyone else has. You have to think outside the artificial limits everyone else has already set. You have to live in a gray-scale world, not the black-and-white one, if you’re going to come up with something no one else has thought of before.

Passion Killers
Granted, not everyone wants to come up with something that no one else has thought of before. As I’ve said before, if everyone in the world was a visionary, the world would soon fall apart. BUT, I do know that nothing will kill personal passion quicker than conformity. Your passion may be like millions of others; you may have a passion that involves mega-conventions, costumes, and celebrity guest speakers. That’s great. But, conformity should not be the defining quality of what you do. Your passion should come deep from within – expansive and without limits. Trying to over-define and categorize your flame will extinguish the fire.

Astrologically, now is the perfect time to innovatively reflect on the questions that I posted on Sunday:

• What do you find meaningful in life?
• What does your heart long to contribute to that world?
• If you won a big lotto drawing, what would you do?
• Would that feel meaningful to you in the long run?

But, instead of the “gray-scale” world that Steve Wozniak suggests – let’s make it TECHNICOLOR!