Mercury Retrograde on Scorpio 2: A Broken Bottle And Spilled Perfume

1. Long Reply…

   I often watch the Symbols seed and evolve into true life experiences and express themselves with such succulent simplicity and gorge-like depth that the imagination, no matter how creative and vast, cannot predict the manner in which they will show their presence and the way they can deliver their message.

   A ‘A Broken Bottle And Spilled Perfume’ is an example I’d like to share – as an omen and a Quest aspect, and the Symbol raw, as it sits in the spotlight during Mercury’s Retrograde.

   Let me say firstly, I am not an Astrologer, I am an Oracle reader. But no matter, I read the sky as a spread of starry symbols placed on a black velvet mat. I throw my question out high and loud to the universe, or to my computer monitor as this case would have it, press the button on the Symbol generator and talk to Elsie over a cup of tea about her answer. She often says ‘just be awake enough to see and know you already knew’. Good advice for the days ahead, I take heed, and wait, watch and listen.

   But when ‘The Broken Bottle and Spilled Perfume’ appeared as a Quest Symbol last week, it felt ominous, and I braced myself as I held and repelled that Symbol – it was my quest, my assignment, an experience which I would pass through like an initiation by fire, a test, and for better or worse, it meant that I am about to learn something new, about myself and how I respond to the challenge before me. How would it play out?

   A day later my Quest began to unfold, and it started with a drip. While driving on my normal route back from getting a coffee at the local pie shop, I watched the temperature gauge on my old and worn van rise slowly, past the point of moderate and rapidly approaching high. The panic started to set in. I was 4 kms from home but 2 kms away from a damaged motor. Time to pray.

   As I pulled into the driveway moments later the sound of hissing steam and the gurgling noise of the radiator told me not only was the car overheating, and that an earlier temporary repair of an old plug on the cooling system had failed. I looked under the car and my fears were confirmed. The little ‘stopper’ I had made into a seal had broken exposing the tiniest of pin holes from which the anti-freeze and water leaked. Perfume everywhere – Time to despair.

   With no replacement part available, nor money to buy one, I knew I would have to attempt to fix it again myself, and immediately. I had very little resources available, and even less time to come up with a solution, but not to be deterred I waited until the motor cooled and got to work trying to fix the ‘Broken Bottle’ and take the challenge by the horns.

   For the next three days I lay under the car kneading Aqua steel putty into little balls of saving grace, placing them around the leaking hole, one after another, waiting for them to harden and block the never ending river of droplets that appeared from the wad of sealant that was building into a mound. It would not stop leaking, and all my best efforts were in vain trying to find each crack that the water seeped past.

   While lying on the cement with my fingers stuck together covered in grey tacky clay and praying no more water would appear, my mind wandered off, and I saw a crystal cut glass bottle fall from a dressing table and smash onto a wooden floor – then a hand retrieved it as if it was not broken and replaced it back on the dresser top. In amid my frustration and and resignation, I knew that I was being tested. I had to fix this problem and there was a solution available. Practically and spiritually, there were bigger reasons beyond me to make sure I succeeded at fixing this ‘bottle’ – I had to come up with a better way. The sun was setting and I could do no more that day. I packed away my tools and went inside for the night to contemplate an different approach.

   Later that evening, what I was not expecting, was another related issue to appear – My beloved 18 year old cat began to drink water. One bowl, and then another, there was no quenching his thirst. I picked up his little ornate dish and went to empty the left over water into the kitchen sink, but decided to empty it in the bathroom sink. As I walked through the bathroom door, the bowl slipped from my grasp. As I turned to stop it from falling, I knocked it, and it fell into the toilet and cracked completely in half – the left over water splashed about the floor. It was definitely ‘broken’. I stood looking at it and thought sentimentally ‘What a shame! He had had this bowl since he was a kitten. How sad for it to break it now’. Looking back, it was an omen I was being shown to heed.

   We now come to yesterday morning. I began the repairs again with a fresh approach to fixing the leaking car. From the ‘under van vision’ I deduced that I had to start again – a better process, another attempt from scratch. I chiseled away the hardened putty. Found the hole. Patiently sealed it with a smidgen of glue until the water stopped dripping, filled the gaps, and then waited in anticipation. After an hour of staring at the stopper and a few prayers, there was no more leak. I felt as if I had succeeded and met the challenge head on. I was gratefully pleased. I thanked the Universe, and left well alone – only occasionally coming back just to check and see – I was determined it was not going to get the better of me. The job completed I refilled the radiator with green anti-freeze perfume..

   After fixing the ‘Broken Bottle’ I went inside to attend to some other pressing matters. Phone calls and emails started to appear – and I was noticing in the correspondence, how many other people had knocked their bottles off the dresser – but the knock-on effect was that their consequences were impacting me greatly. The symbol was playing out and coming to my attention in rapid fire. I was in a deluge again suddenly. I responded as best as I could.

   By near midnight though, something more serious was about to happen. My cat was now not eating, and he was drinking water from where ever he thought he could find it – in the shower, in the pot plant tray, on the table. His eyes were sunken – his breath was smelt toxic, he seemed to have lost half his body weight, He was in his litter tray weeing constantly. He was very ill. I sat with him for the rest of the night nodding on and off to sleep, with him beside me. He needed the vet first thing in the morning. I then realized the magnitude and significance of the symbol as ‘the Quest’, the challenge I was to meet, and how utterly grateful I was that I had persisted to fix the broken bottle so as I could get him help in this emergency.

   At 10.15am this morning, my little mate was being seen to by the vet. But, beyond my hope, he is now in his twilight days. He is in the advanced stages of kidney disease (2 little broken bottles) and there are only days left now, if that. There is not much to be done but make him comfortable, and for me to make a decision for him, if it need be, to ease his suffering in this transient time. After the shock of the news at the vets, I sat in the van and talked to him for a while – he stared out from his carrier. Then I remembered his broken water bowl, and again, the Symbol in Oracle form – I had been let known that something was happening with him – Then I felt the crack. And suddenly I turned into that Broken Bottle of spilled perfume, tears dripping from my eyes, sobbing uncontrollably, as I drove us both back home.

   So this afternoon, after making a cup of tea and settling my little mate on his favourite chair in the sun, I came to the website to seek some clarity and insight and to reflect on the overwhelming amount of Broken Bottles in my life… and of course, it was no surprise to find this symbol sitting here at the top of the list.

   I know things will get better, though I also know that some Bottles will not be able to be mended, they just cannot.
   And sometimes, (like now) it feels like I’ve knocked over the Tester display stand at the Estee Lauder counter..
   But in all I think the symbol aptly represents all of my personal experiences and puts them into perspective. The practical bottle, the beautiful and irreplaceable bottles, the delicate and individual soul essences within – the essential oils, fragile as glass bottles… and yes, even toilet bowls, and cleaning up Life’s Spills.

   Somehow I’m glad this Symbol is here today for me – It is the clarity and confirmation I desperately needed.

   Now off to the bottle – to spill some Rescue Remedy.

   1. Hey DC, thanks for the wonderful trip through that very difficult but poignantly put experience. I so feel for you and understand what you’re going through as I, too, have had a dear kitty friend go through kidney failure. I so appreciate your words written so beautifully. BTW, I do remember that you were the one that coined the expression “Quest” for the Quest Degree. Thank you. Hope to catch up with you sometime soon. Lxxx

2. Hi Lynda,
   I always remember you teaching that the Broken Bottle and Spilled Perfume was one associated with Elsie Wheeler – and what you taught has stuck in my mind because of Elsie’s circumstances during her life. She was the beautiful bottle, and the sweet perfume was her Symbols. She reminds me too, that there is great strength and potency to be found in some people bottles. And further, having Elsie associated with the Symbol (personally) gives me some assurance, hope, and strength – regardless of the difficulty. She is the encouraging thought behind that symbol – bless her. And ‘thank-you’ for teaching me how to see that! (as well as the other 359 astounding insights :))

   Cheers Lynda
   DC

   1. I feel like you just filled my perfume bottle and it pored into my soul…thank you DC

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