Yesterday morning, I received a notice from my calendar app: "Mercury Retrograde: November 16 through December 6." I giggled, remembering that at the end of 2017 I had accounted for the three Mercury retrogrades in 2018 in my digital calendar, and programmed reminders about them to be sent via email three days prior to each one. And then, I sighed.

I sighed, although not for any angst around the event. Rather, I sighed in appreciation of its timing.

This final Mercury retrograde of 2018 encompasses both Thanksgiving and just over half of the celebration of Hanukkah. There's something deliciously inviting and holy about that. Something quieting and stirring, at the same time.

There's Thanksgiving...

...with its purpose to be thankful for all we are and all we have; for the abundance in our lives, from resources to relationships. Its roots lie in both a harvest festival and the "first Thanksgiving" (a gathering that occurred in the 1600s between white settlers and American indigenous tribes), each intended to give thanks for an abundant harvest.*

The current incarnation isn't that far off, as it focuses on gathering together and being grateful. The part about the harvest has been lost to time, by and large, even though foods like squash and pumpkin - sturdy Autumn fare - are traditionally served. 

And then there's Hanukkah...

...the Jewish festival of lights, with its purpose to celebrate "the rededication of the Holy Temple" after "a small band of faithful Jews, led by Judah the Maccabee, defeated one of the mightiest armies on earth, drove the Greeks from the land, reclaimed the Holy Temple in Jerusalem and rededicated it to the service of G‑d.

"When they sought to light the Temple's Menorah (the seven-branched candelabrum), they found only a single cruse of olive oil that had escaped contamination by the Greeks. Miraculously, they lit the menorah and the one-day supply of oil lasted for eight days, until new oil could be prepared under conditions of ritual purity."**

The energy of our final Mercury retrograde

While all Mercury retrogrades offer us an invitation to reflect and review, reminisce and reclaim, reorganize and re-prioritize, this one glows with its own special invitation.

"This retrograde accesses the deepest recesses of the human psyche, provoking the need to reason from the heart, and to enter into a covenant with the coming new year."

Ah... There it is.

It feels as though the access and provocation of this Mercury retrograde was tipped off by the recent 11/11 portal. The energy that entered through the portal seems to be coordinating with the energy of this retrograde cycle, to great effect. There must be a purpose.

"The purpose is twofold. The purpose is to first reclaim the heart center and to second reclaim the origins of humanity."

How we go about that is both individual and collective. We individually reclaim our heart center, then we collectively reclaim "the origins of humanity."

What's meant by "the origins of humanity"?

"The origins being simplicity, cooperation, and working with Earth."

Once again, I see that message being enfolded within the energy of the 11/11 portal. If you haven't read that post yet, you can read it here.

A "covenant with the coming year"

What's a covenant? It's an agreement, as simple as that. The word choice lends it a different energy and weight than just "agreement," though. Doesn't it?

Questions to consider:

• What covenant might we make with 2019 utilizing the energy of this holy-feeling retrograde to support us?

• What might we choose to do differently in 2019?

• How might we choose to be and act and respond differently in 2019?

These are questions to consider; to bring to our hearts and perhaps to our journals and/or divination cards. Stir them into the frequency of reverie that Mercury retrograde is steeped in. It's possible a form of gold will be found through this practice; something else to be thankful for and to celebrate.

Blessed be.

1. *Thanksgiving (United States) on Wikipedia

2. **From the post What Is Hanukkah? on Chabad.org