Mercury in Retrograde is a great time to clear out the closets (metaphorically and physically); to finish projects, to take things a little slower so you can find gratitude in the small things – and of course to do your shadow work.
If you have not come across that expression before it simply means being open to seeing and accepting parts of your nature that might be operating out of wounding, and are typically things you do not like about yourself. These might be buried so deeply that you do not even know you have them (hence a shadow)
That which we reject and do not like about ourselves – we will also not like in another… So it’s always a really useful exercise to non judgementally do a spot of detective work with yourself. Using curiosity, humour (if you possibly can), and oodles of compassion – try to see where you have a similar trait or behaviour to a person that you are annoyed/frustrated/disappointed with. This might just be vibrationally, rather than the exact same thing.
If you can’t see how you might ‘do’ whatever it is you dislike to another person, ask yourself where you might be doing that to yourself…. So for example maybe you are disappointed at a friend letting you down once again for a commitment you thought had been made. Maybe you would NEVER do that to them… however, if you are really honest, do you sometimes fall down on commitments you make to yourself?
When we can see where we sometimes have (or do) the same annoying thing as another (albeit in different ways), then it really helps to breed compassion, awareness and forgiveness. The feeling of judgement about someone is ‘heavy’.. When we take ownership of having a similar vibration in our own behaviours at times, then we feel lighter and gentler. And that means we can vibrate at higher levels ourselves.
Honesty and humility are far higher vibrations to hold in our systems than just not making mistakes in the first place – because that air of righteousness can feel a little heavy in our systems and ultimately drag us down..