For many, many months, astrologers around the world have been studying the pattern of the skies on the 2012 U.S. Election Day. It’s not because the electorate is as deeply polarized as its ever been.  Nor is it because the amount of money being spent and the polarization of voters and issues could be textbook illustrations of Pluto in Capricorn squaring Uranus in Aries.

Here’s why astrological eyes across the planet are so riveted:  As the polls open on November 6, Mercury the Messenger will be completing a part of his cycle known as “the retrograde storm.” In the days before the fast-moving messenger changes direction, as he does three times a year, he slows down—way, way down. This creates a kind of vibrational static on Earth, where Mercury is the energy that keeps communication, commerce, and energetic exchanges of all kind flowing smoothly.

Just after the polls close, Mercury will stop and appear to change direction. He does this three times a year and it’s always problematic for our 24/7, nonstop way of life. The Messenger’s not really going backwards, of course. That’s just an optical illusion created by the difference in his speed and the Earth’s. Like all illusions, though, it has a powerful effect on human consciousness. Traffic snarls, flights are delayed, computers break down, misunderstandings are commonplace. The standard astrological advice for Mercury retrograde is simple: Avoid major travel, major purchases, and major deals—like, for example, high-stakes elections.

One week after the U.S. elections, a solar eclipse occurs in Scorpio, where retrograde Mercury will soon join Saturn.

Don’t Look Now, But That  Cosmic Curve Ball Is Coming Your Way

Yet here we are—face to face with a cosmic curve ball of spectacular proportions. And it’s being thrown at us in a highly charged and potent energy field. We’re at the midway point between a powerful Full Moon in the Earth’s own sign of Taurus (hello, Sandy) and an even more potent solar eclipse in Scorpio, a week after Election Day. Uranus and Pluto are only two degrees from an exact, world-changing square, as they’ve been since June–and will be for much of the time between now and the spring of 2015.

What’s Up With Mercury?

Amidst all this, we’re trying to choose a president in a peaceful and orderly way.  And Mercury is leaving the scene. He’s diving deep beneath the surface of reality, the place where creation and re-creation takes place. He’s on a vision quest, looking for information we need but have overlooked, lost, or forgotten. These are the best of all times to find something that’s lost, repair a breach in communication, enter into therapy, review a big project or document –or plan one.

Mishap or Redemption? Who Decides?

There is great possibility—both for mishap and for redemption. Astrologers’ predictions range from postponed outcomes and lawsuits to violent demonstrations and martial law.

Among the dates that are important to watch are Election Day itself, when Mercury retrogrades, and November 26 and 27, just after he turns direct. By then, Mars and Pluto will occupy the same degree, and with their combined power will challenge Uranus. It’s a recipe for volatility with a very, very hard edge. On either side of Mars and Pluto will be opportunity-creating sextiles with Saturn the Teacher and Chiron the Healer.

Who, Me?

Also included in that list of things that are most important to watch are our own minds and our own hearts. It’s time to stop underestimating our own agency as transmitters of cosmic energy and the information it carries. You and I are in fact one with the cosmos. We’re in no way separate. We’re far more than passive, powerless spectators as the shift of ages unfolds around us.  We carry the cosmos within us. What’s unfolding is our future. And it’s happening through us, not to us. 

How we process the energies that are constantly bathing the planet influences the patterns that we call reality. In other words, you could be the tipping point. I could. We could. Because what we are, at the most fundamental level, are vessels of cosmic energy. What we do is bring the energy to Earth that creates reality. So let’s be conscious of the energy we’re containing. Let’s do it intentionally. Let’s do it mindfully.

Mercury takes his post-election plunge into the interior in a degree that is symbolized by “an old owl [who] sits alone on the branch of a large old tree.” Of this degree, the path-breaking astrologer Dane Rudhyar wrote that it carries the energy of “a wisdom beyond tragedy, a peace and poise beyond conflict.”

When Mercury returns to the surface on November 26, he’ll already have spent a couple of days in a degree that carries the energy of “learning from higher intelligence.” He’ll stay there for seven days in all.  This is the part he really wants us to get.

Each of us has a chance to be a tipping point—or the tipping point. How do we find the wisdom beyond tragedy? How do we bring in a higher intelligence? How do we become more than spectators at the shift of ages unfolding around us?  Here are a few suggestions:

1. Tap into both sides of your brain. Revive Mercury in his real, whole-brain power. Pay as much attention to your dreams and intuitions as to your thoughts and your emails.
2. Be wise. Reach down deep into your core and find the wisdom at your bedrock. Search your depths. Do what Saturn will be doing on the last day of Mercury’s vision quest:  deep-sea diving.
3. Seek out the higher intelligence of the heart. And listen to it. Listen very carefully.
4. Trust yourself. And act.  Remember, there are many forms of action. Consciousness is an act.  Prayer is an act.  Conversation is an act. Love is an act–the supreme, creative act.