First of Mercedonius (or Mercedonius V)
I discovered Mercedonius about 2,100 years after Julius Caesar ended it. I may seem a bit late to the game, but I’m actually exactly on time—Mercedonius just needed some time to catch up to me.
Last year, I wrote 4.5 blogs exploring the idea of Mercedonius—what it meant and what it means. Put simply, Mercedonius is an early (8-9th c BC) Roman creation, a month of 27 or 28 days inserted into the calendar every 2-3 years. Mercedonius was inserted after February 23 and, according to the blog The Book of Days Tales, “after the end of Mercedonius, the rest of the days of February were observed and the new year began with the first day of March.”
The early Romans used a lunar calendar which quickly fell behind the solar year. The “month” of Mercedonius was invented to allow the calendar to catch up with the seasons so that planting festivals wouldn’t happen in high summer or Christmas wouldn’t happen in July (of course neither Christmas nor July actually existed in the 8th century BC, but you get it).
The Project
I’m not trying to revive Mercedonious as the 13th month in the calendar but to revisit it as a metaphor for taking time to observe your own life. For me, Mercedonius is a period I create in my calendar to align my year to my season—to bring what is happening around me into line with what is happening inside me.
Over the past year of exploring this idea, my concept of Mercedonius has evolved.
I wrote my first blog (Mercedonius) about this time in 2021 and attempted to define Mercedonius as an entire season—three months—not just a moon cycle. At first, I saw this inserted time as a way to step back, clean up the mess of Covid, and start the year anew.
My second blog tried to codify Mercedonius as a quarter within the year—Q1, Q2, Q3, Mercedonius. And moved it from the beginning to the end of the year.
Blog 3 is really the .5—I began to recognize that catching the year up to the season does not mean skipping a whole season but simply rethinking a month.
Number 4 is a Mercidoniacal Hail Mary.
This is M5. I think I’ve got it now.
Mercedonius is a period of time—about a moon cycle—inserted into your year when you need to align your year with your season. Mercedonius is a time out of time that helps your world catch up to you.
Mercedonius isn’t a 28-day vacation or a month-long stay at the Betty Ford Mercedonius Clinic or an excuse to leave the planet; it’s a period in which you metaphorically (and perhaps literally) stand still in your life, look around, and see where your actions and your seasons are not moving together.
What are you trying to harvest that’s still growing?
Where is abundance being hoarded and going to waste?
How are you shepherding your resources?
And what do you want to do about it?
The Practice
While the Romans had a set time for Mercedonius, you can call Mercedonius wherever you want to step aside in your year, take account of where you have been, and realign where you are going. While you can have as many “Mercedonia” as you’d like, I recommend once per year around your birthday.
Your birthday is the start of your personal year, your own trip around the sun. It’s a point in the year where we naturally look around and consider where we have been and where we wish to go.
Find your birthday on your calendar.
Look at the few weeks before and after the date for special days—holidays, anniversaries, deadlines. Or consider cosmic boundaries—new moons, full moons, equinoxes and solstices. What date feels like the right time for you to start?
Pick days to start and end your Mercedonius using days that are significant to you and about a month apart (if you can’t find a clear end right now, no worries—it will show itself).
Mark the “1st of Mercedonius” on your calendar.
Get a notebook and commit to paying attention. Start with journaling around a few basic questions:
Why do you need to stop and look around? What do you need/hope/want to see? Why now?
What is paying off right now? What is asking you to recalculate—what is keeping you in debt?
Where are you working against your own purposes and goals?
My Mercedonius
This year, May 13 is my First of Mercedonius because it is a soft area after my semester’s end and just before the full moon. I celebrated the culmination of a self-development program today and luxuriated in time alone in the house with no other responsibilities than yoga, writing, and walking the dog. Friday the 13th happens to be a portentous date of feminine power and fertility. It felt like a good day to start.
And let’s not forget Mercury retrograde—a time to stop and notice—started yesterday (and goes until June 3).
I had originally intended to start on May 15 with the full moon eclipse, but that felt that adding too much onto an already powerful day so I went with an easier opening and let the eclipse have its own weight.
Twenty-eight days from today is June 10. Right now, there is nothing on my calendar for that date. It may be the perfect day to stop or I might go a little longer (to the full moon on the 14th or the Solstice on the 19th?) or wrap it up a bit earlier—perhaps come out of retrograde with Mercury on the 3rd. The Romans sometimes extended or truncated Mercidonius as it fit their political will. 46 AD was 445 days long—and that was also the year Ceasar did away with the convention.
Mercedonius shouldn’t overstay its welcome.
My Mercedonius might be 26 days because I like that number or 28 days because I already announced that date or 32 days to the next full moon. Recognizing the end of an event is as important as calling in a start—I will pick a date as the feeling of closure begins to reveal itself.
The word Mercedonius translates to work and wages—effort and payoff. Soldiers were paid in Mercedonius, so it was an important time to reckon accounts and collect one’s due. Fortunately, we get our wages slightly more regularly than annually, but we can still use Mercedonius to see and collect our value.