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Friday, December 10, 2010

Mercury goes Retrograde in Capricorn




 Hermes (Mercury) at the Grand Cascade of Peterhof
photo credit: Yair Haklai





It’s December 10th…it’s five minutes after twelve (in the afternoon) and you’re in the +0 time zone – the United Kingdom…somewhere not unreasonably close to Greenwich.

So what’s happening?

Mercury’s going retrograde, that’s what’s happening.

We’ve talked about this some already, yes. We’ve talked about how Mercury going retrograde at a first decanate degree like 5 Capricorn (first decanate meaning between 0 and 9 of some sign)…that this is personal. It’s about your physical self, what you’re doing, your Capricorn responsibilities or some Capriocorn-ish need to take care of life’s structural issues.

Because this is about Capricorn (and this implies a Saturn flavor), there’s a whole societal, commerce and commercial theme. There’s a governmental, leaders and ‘rules’ theme. There’s a kidneys, knees and spinal theme. The limits of capacity, the limits of what we can get done given what time we have today, this week or in our life – that’s all in the hopper.

And because this is a Mercury station, we’re all thinking about it. We are focused on it – or trying to embody the ‘anti-focus’ and not think about it at all!

As with any planetary stations, events, encounters and situational dynamics of note (including announcements and decisions) are ‘markers’ in life or in some ongoing process. So don’t ignore what happens in the two days prior to this station (indications of what is yet to come), in the two days after this station (a playing out of things which have already happened) or – in particular – on this date.

Things which happen ON the date of a station – any celestial station – are important. And that applies whether we’re talking planet, dwarf planet, asteroid, comet or TNO.






In this case, we’re talking about a real planet. Yes, Mercury may be a pretty dinky planet, but it’s a planet, nonetheless. Science ‘demoted’ Pluto, but nobody’s even peeped a pipe of a pip about demoting Mercury. (At least not that I’ve heard.)

So back to the astrology here…With Pluto, the North Node and Mars just behind Mercury (at 4, 3 and 1 Capricorn respectively) and Sappho (poetic universalism) just ahead, we’d like to think the ‘tough stuff is all behind us.

Uh…probably not. We are definitely in a moment of change. There are Black Holes a-plenty in this picture – one right under Mercury at 5 Capricorn, one behind at 4 Capricorn (conjunct Pluto) one right under the North Node at 3 Capricorn plus one in direct opposition to Pluto at 4 Cancer.

This is a sure sign of a changing society. Black Holes represent an ‘alternative perspective’ or ‘alternative’ possibility, point of view or way to go. And with Pluto-Mars-North Node-Mercury clustered in early Capricorn we may be sure that the entities which ‘rule’ our lives are hotly debating what alternatives exist.

But Capricorn is not just about ‘the world’ and ‘world forces.’ Far more importantly, it’s what we do IN that world, and thus how we harness our abilities and what we aim to do or accomplish.

One interesting note here is that there is a Quasar at 6 Capricorn. Quasars being ‘brilliance’ and ‘that bright light’ we all want to get to, that Mercury is going retrograde just shy of that Quasar tells us there is something ahead. Or that we can reach for. Or aim for.

But this either isn’t quite yet the time to “do it,” “go for it” or – given this is Mercury, symbol of thought, mental effort, communication, organization, the learning process – we may need to do a bit of work to get where we need to be in order to step out our launch our new effort.

Of course, for many, this is just about the holidays. Everything else is going on hold for a bit. And given that Mercury goes direct on December 30th – just as New Years rolls in – that doesn’t seem unlikely.

But there is also that on the other side of New Years is a new year – the classic time to start something new, no matter what that may be.

Thinking back a few days, we are reminded also that a bunch of astrological ‘factors’ (asteroids) moved into yang signs. So we want to ‘go’ and ‘do’…there’s a natural assertiveness in the air, in our minds, in the pace of life. Things are buzzing. Maybe it’s just noise. Maybe it’s a bunch of business we aren’t going to indulge in.

But maybe it’s the energy of wanting to change our life...an intention to dedicate some time to figuring out what we can and want to do and how to do that. All that ‘alternative vision’ Black Hole energy combined with all the yang factors suggests we may be very frustrated with others – or our situation because something is ‘blocking us’ or keeping us from being able to do what we want to do.

Yet if we think of life as ‘unfolding as it should’ (the great metaphysical mantra: whether or not we know it, the universe is unfolding as it should) …then there’s a reason for whatever delay or bollox is tying up forward progress.

Any way we look at it, at some level, this moment is about looking at, and into ourselves. This is about seeing who we are, who we can be, what we can do, and what we need to learn or accept or deal with in order to – in some way, even just mentally – get out of our own way.

So yes, this may well be a season for good thoughts. But it’s also one which calls for realism about ourselves and our life. Mars will conjunct the North Node on the 12th (at 9:34am UT/+0) – just as we move into Gemini territory – the Geminids being the last of the yearly meteor showers. As that happens, needs are ‘set off.’

And but a few days later, Mars conjuncts Pluto.



Mars as photographed by NASA/JPL in 2001



All of this will be discussed as things happen. But the point is that this is a Mercury retrograde period loaded with dynamic, transformative energy. There are things which will happen in life and in the world which you cannot prevent. What you can work towards is making the most of your life.

Thus so I ask: have you had a good think today? How’s life working for you as a whole.

It’s Mercury’s station/retrograde. If there ever was a moment made for thinking things over and getting to the nitty gritty of what you really need to change (whether you really want to or not)…this is it.

So I repeat: have you had a good think today?





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