On Wednesday my internet stopped working.
At first, I thought it was a simple technological problem, perhaps related to Mercury moving through their pre-retrograde shadow.
I did not yet know that a whole nest of wasps had been supporting my Summer Solstice commitment to self-care by severing my communication with work.
My Solstice Commitment
As the Summer Solstice approached, I realized I had been holding and processing more than my own energy. In my efforts to hold space for those around me at work during a difficult time, I had been processing the low-level vibration, toxicity, and feeling of lack of psychological safety at work in my own body.
This was not a conscious choice. It was a result of wanting to support others without having strong enough boundaries and clearing practices. I was feeling unhealthy and coming home from work drained every day.
At Solstice, I made a commitment to stop metabolizing what is not mine. I am still willing to support others, but I will no longer process anyone else’s toxicity in my body.
Since making that commitment, my vibration has stayed higher and I have felt better.
The Protectors of the Nest
When the technician came to fix my internet connection, he found that wasps had built a nest in the access panel and severed the cable that connected me to the internet.
I have long admired wasps for their beautiful paper-making skills, but I had no idea they could chew through cable, or that they would do so to sever my communication with work in support of my commitment to self-care.
This seemed so unusual, I decided to look into what was going on in the Spiral Dance a little more deeply.
At Solstice, the Sun had just entered Cancer, joining Mercury there. Cancer brings in themes of emotional safety, care, protection, nesting, home, and the body. Cancer is not only nurturing. She is also protective. Her hard shell protects her soft emotional body. Cancer teaches the wisdom of the shell, the protected home, and the sacred boundary.
Cancer’s teaching is that it’s possible to be sensitive without being too permeable. I can control what I let into my energy field.
Wasps are protectors of the nest. They teach boundaries, instinct, collective care, and the protection of home.
Wasp exoskeletons protect their soft bodies, and when that does not work, they sting. Their exoskeleton connects to the Cancerian shell: protection, structure, containment, and safety.
This happened while I was working from home, so the energy of work was entering my home through the internet. The wasps cut that line of entry.
The wasps stung the technician twice while he was working.
They never stung me, even though they had been living in community with me for quite some time. Instead, they interrupted the signal carrying work into my home.
The protectors of the nest cut the line.
What a way to remind me to protect my home, my body, and my energy field.
The Winged Messenger and the Wasps
This year, as I have deepened my understanding of astrology, I have been spending a lot of time with Mercury, the Winged Messenger. Mercury governs communication, messages, networks, technology, wires, speech, thought, and transmission.
When the wasps severed my connection, Mercury was in their pre-retrograde shadow. When any planet goes retrograde, it provides an invitation to pause and look back at the lessons of the last transit.
Mercury moving toward retrograde in Cancer asks: What am I taking in? What am I communicating? What messages are entering my home, my body, and my energetic field?
The throat chakra is also about communication, and it has been trying to get my attention lately. I have been coughing more than usual, and have felt energy moving through my throat. Once, as I started coughing during a sound bath, I saw an image of silver molten-metal tears.
It felt like Mercury in my throat chakra, asking what truth wanted to move through me.
Insects as guides remind us to get out of our head. Their antennae symbolize intuition, sensitivity, higher perception, and the ability to read subtle signals.
I could not help but notice the connection to Mercury in Cancer, because the shadow side of Cancer is over-attunement: picking up every signal, every mood, every emotional frequency.
The wasps, Mercury, and Cancer were teaching me discernment.
Not every signal is mine to receive.
Not every vibration is mine to metabolize.
Not every message deserves entry into my field.
Compassion Needs a Strong Container
Around this time, the Sun in Cancer was in a flowing trine with the North Node in Pisces. The North Node is often described as a point of growth and soul direction. It points toward what we are learning to become.
Cancer speaks to protection, home, emotional truth, care, and the body. Pisces is about surrender, intuition, compassion, spiritual meaning, and the unseen.
This is a lesson I continue to have the opportunity to explore.
Compassion does not require energetic self-abandonment.
I can care deeply without carrying what is not mine.
I can remain intuitive and open while still protecting my body, my home, and my energy field.
What the Wasps Taught Me
The wasps did not simply cause a disruption. They were messengers.
They cut the internet so I could feel what else needed to be disconnected. They reminded me that communication is not only digital, and that nature speaks through interruption, instinct, body, and symbol.
The protectors of the nest cut the line carrying work into my home. They reinforced the message that my body, my home, and my energy field are sacred spaces.
Not every signal is mine to receive.
Not every vibration is mine to metabolize.
Not every message deserves entry into my field.
I can remain sensitive without being too permeable.
I can care deeply without carrying what is not mine.
Compassion does not require energetic self-abandonment.
Sometimes the message arrives through the nest.
Sometimes the messenger has wings.
