Mercury's Station and the Retrograde to Follow

 A statue of Mercury perched on the Commerce Bank Building in Bilbao

(photo in public domain)

Mercury’s going retrograde on November 6th at 11:05 in the evening UT/+0 time makes its moment of going into retrograde early evening on the east coast and mid-afternoon on the west coast.

November 6th is, of course, Election Day USA.

So what does it mean for Mercury to be on station and going retrograde on the date of an election?

I’ve done a substantial amount of research on release dates for movies and the subsequent box office take. And when it comes to movies, planetary stations indicate marked effects. All things being equal (Mercury operates not alone in this solar system, after all) the most general thing to report is much ballyhoo and strong initial attendance.

Considering this Mercury station is taking place in Sagittarius, that could indicate all sorts of people coming out to vote, which is a good thing! But also considering this station is in Sagittarius (a sign which with Mercury can indicate overstepping, overstating and sloppiness) this could be a sign of problems or challenges at the polls…added to which there is always the idea that Sag is the sign of legalities.

(Hanging chads, anyone?)

The dates associated with this incoming Mercury retrograde were etched in blogful digital ink a handful of blogs ago (yes, ‘handfuls of blogs’ is a measurement). In case you missed that, here’s the chart:

But that isn’t all the juice. First of all, Mercury is going retrograde at 4 Sagittarius – a degree which besides being square my personal Sun (I protest!) is one of those deceptive degrees which are just fine so long as we aren’t challenged. But when we are – oooh, baby, does that fur fly or what?

(Just for the record, I know protesting won’t do me much good.)

The good news – especially with this degree getting so potently activated on Election Day USA – is that 4 Sagittarius is known in lore as a mental and no physical degree. Much shouting, snarling, yelling may be heard. Opinions – some visceral – may well get voiced. And yes, those short pithy words so favored by the annoyed are likely to be heard.

But even more than that, what this Mercury ‘turn’ on this date at this degree would seem to indicate is a realization, a recognition of what others think and what the world is ‘doing’ (or what it approves of) in spite of what we as individuals may think.

You may love that…you may hate that…and that’s totally your choice, opinion, option and all the rest. But if you want to make the best of this retrograde period…and the time which comes after this retrograde period, you’ll at least heed that which you’re being shown.

That’s all very Sagittarian. Sagittarius can certainly manifest as belligerence and trying to insist on your perspective, belief or point of view. But the purpose of Sagittarius (and the related 9th house) are to highlight that which you have to take into account and deal with if you are going to reach your (10th house/Midheaven) goals.

In everyday life Sagittarius is the testing ground. It’s where we gather samples and statistics. It’s where we take the poll and learn what the majority is for or against. This is the sign about trial runs and seeing if that flag, that idea, that Spruce Goose will fly.

The front section of the Huges H-4 Hercules (popularly known as the 'Spruce Goose') as it sits on exhibition in Long Beach, California with an old vehicle in the foreground helping give a perspective on the airplane's mammoth size.

(photo credit: Triddle)

Sometimes it does fly but you still decide that’s not what you want to invest in. Sometimes you figure out that there are still a few bugs to be ironed out of the process. Sometimes you realize you’re going about the right thing in the wrong way – or the wrong thing in the right way.

Sagittarius is the theory of ‘things foreign’ because it’s the first of the last four signs of the zodiac (the global quadruplicity) and thus about where our world intersects with the world…as conceived of in the Sagittarius polarity of our personal Gemini mentality.

Fortunately for us, this is not the fact, this is the theory. Sagittarius is a fire sign. And Mercury is always the ‘idea’ the ‘mental’ aspect of the doing, the operation, the method, the schedule, the duration of the act-or-effort. So whatever happens now, we have (theoretically) the whole of this Mercury retrograde – until November 26th – to think things through.

Then we need to act with whatever we learn now, or whatever we’ve learned just recently…or whatever we learn during retrograde….in moving forward from there.

That Juno is conjunct Hidalgo with both in exact opposition to Jupiter from 14 Sagittarius to 14 Gemini underscores everything and anything which has to do with ‘minding how you go about things’ – with a particular emphasis on not going overboard.

Or dealing with where you may have already gone overboard. Or where you were thinking to go overboard in the days and weeks which are coming up.

Mercury’s going station/retrograde in square to Chiron and Fomalhaut (in early Pisces) also makes this a time when we don’t want to think about vulnerabilities…but when we should.

Mercury’s retrograding back into Scorpio on November 14th (at 7:43 a.m. UT/+0) indicates an ‘intensifying’ of focus. Whatever is up for consideration now is likely to strike a note of intensity. Or maybe it simply deserves your full attention. With Venus opposing Eris on the 15th (from Libra to Aries), the combined influence may provoke an ‘enough, already!’ reactions as people either opt for fun or rebel against responsibility.

Which yes, are sometimes one and the same thing!

November 17th comes with a Mercury-conjunct-North Node (at 26 Scorpio) need to consider the ramifications of attitudes, actions, choices – and all that. So don’t cut yourself short! Seeing that Mercury backs into 25 Scorpio and there meets up with Sun-conjunct-Tantalus…WITH the 17th being the date that Mars enters Capricorn, temptations abound, and you may have an opportunity to do something dramatic.

An inner channel in Nanedi Valles on Mars

(photo credit: NASA, Jim Secosky)

Before you do it, ask yourself one question: at what cost?

That ramifications (read: karma) may well be affected here is marked by Moon conjunct Pluto. And since when in Capricorn the Moon is also know to be maybe a bit too assertive for its own good, looking before leaping seems a singularly good idea.

That November 18th has the Sun conjunct North Node conjunct Tantalus at 26 Scorpio with an opposition from Algol-conjunct South Node in Taurus…well, let’s just say it’s easier to want what we want than to be fair (with ourselves and others – the Taurus/Scorpio challenge) about the difference between ‘like’ and ‘need.’

As November 19th rolls around, Mercury’s opposing Sedna signals trying moments and choices which originate in some ‘inbred’ instinct and which feel ‘importantly comfortable’… but which maybe we should let go of anyway.

And that’s about it until the Sun moves into Sagittarius, an event which will happen late on November 21st, UT/+0 time. Just before this happens you'll feel an ambient shift, as if energy is moving or gathering. Is something going to happen?

It may: the Sun moving through 29 Scorpio (prior to shifting into Sagittarius) can feel intense... mysterious... even creepy. The combination of Sun-against-Mercury will get you to think, but don't get too distracted. With Mercury still in retrograde, its unlikely that anything which does happen is lasting...and whatever information turns up isn't the last word on the subject.

Then the Sun enters Sagittarius, which you may feel as the need to catch up with yourself, or maybe your schedule. New things are popping up and your challenge is to shift into a mode to deal with or take advantage of opportunities.

Just choose carefully. With Mercury moving into its station on November 24th, having room (at least mental room) to deal with the important thing.

Mercury goes direct on November 26th. The degree of this station is 18 Scorpio – a degree noted for a sort of isolated form of thinking which is prone to jealousy and/or judgment of others. But since, when we think it through, both sides of that coin (jealousy and judgment) are really about the Self feeling vulnerable or invalid at some level, that sense of the ‘other’ isn’t “about” them – it’s about how we wish we had more priority with others. Or how unhappy we are with ourselves that we haven’t done something. Or given something that best shot.

Just just to make this all seem a bit fairy tale-like (or maybe akin to an Aesop’s fable) on the day that Mercury goes direct (November 26th), the Sun (with Tantalus) will be positioned at 4 Sagittarius.

 The slave Aesop serving Two Priests by Francis Barlow (1687)

You know…the degree Mercury went retrograde at to begin with?

For whoever wins the election, this will like as not be about when they settle into what they need to get done – the hard work which happens after any election settles out and all the associated people move on, get named or thanked…all that. For whoever loses the election, this will like as not be when they begin ‘throwing off’ the enormity of the effort passed in getting on with their life.

For the rest of us, this is when hopefully what we really (Tantalus) crave will (Sagittarius as a fire sign) inspire us to (Sagittarius as a process) work through the glitches, letting go of what doesn’t work in getting on with what we really need to do in order to reach our (Midheaven) goals.
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Mercury in Taurus

 Mercury - a statue by Francois Rude

When Mercury enters Taurus on May 9^th at 5:14 in the morning (UT/+0) we will all move into a somewhat more serious mode. Not depressed - serious. Instead of thinking in terms of what life can be or could be (or what we wish it was), we’ll be thinking more in terms of what it is and what it needs to be in order for us to feel like we’re at least headed in the right direction.

Life is interconnected. It’s all a continuum - that’s the meaning of E=mc² (or as the ancient Maya used to say, inlakech). Over thousands of years, astrologers have watched the skies and watched human beings (we assume they mumbled dastardly things from time to time, but little of that got into the written record)…and they noticed not an overlap, but a connectivity of influences. It’s not quite ‘the ankle bone is connected to the shin bone’ sort of thing, but it is an understanding that there are patterns and harmonics to life - from which arise the idea of sign rulership.

I know people (astrologers, even) who think that astrology is willy-nilly and that anything can be made to sound like anything you want it to. That’s not true. The reason why metaphysical research goes on is because sometimes you try to fit the square peg into the round hole and it just doesn’t work. The smart person (or astrologer) goes to find the round peg.

I make no claims about the others.

In this case, the connective Taurean harmonic is Venus - ruler of Taurus and Libra, signs which are all about the quality of our life. In Taurus, we recognize our qualities, and decide if we like ourselves. (If we don’t, hopefully we work on it.) In Libra, Venus represents the quality of that we put out into the world (said ‘quality’ being a reflection of the Taurean Venus) …and according to that quality of Self or the qualities of our work, we create the ‘cause’ which generates the ‘effect’ from others…and in time, the like attracts like principle of who we end up spending our time with. If we don’t attend to some lack of quality we see in ourselves, we can bet we’re going to attract others with a similar lack of quality in themselves …as those are the people who - to put it as blatantly if gracelessly as one Taurus male I know put it with regards to himself, those are the people who will ‘who will put up with’ us.

Mercury enters Taurus

(Aries Wheel - Location not Specific) 

We can change that at any time. And as a matter of fact, this is about as good a time as any for changing things about yourself - the ‘quality’ of your life or how you live.

Actually, it’s a better time than many…particularly if life has been ‘telling’ you of late that you have some issues with personal ‘quality.’

Question: What makes this a better time?

Answer: Venus is about to go retrograde as of May 15. 

Retrograde is the classic time when you can’t get things done ‘out there’ …which metaphysically says it would be the time to deal with stuff on the inside. The planet (Venus, in this case) is on the other side of the Sun (from Earth) when it’s in retrograde. So the Sun (life) is getting in the way of ‘your making a connection’ to whatever the precept represented by that planet is.

With Venus, we would guess appreciation in any form. It may be money, it may be love, it may be just the warmth of laughter or cuddles. And even if you’re getting the money (which is possible) or getting the love or sharing the laughs…they really don’t satisfy like they usually do.

That’s the retrograde quality. More money, more love, more laughter isn’t going to ‘hit the spot’ because, believe it or not, you’re not available to be loved or appreciated or to feel worthy and valued. Venus retrograde is simply like that.

So as Mercury enters Venus, it’s beginning to stir up all that intuition. With Venus at 23 Gemini at the time when Mercury enters Taurus, this is a back-and-forth self-feeding cycle (Venus rules Taurus, Mercury rules Gemini) astrology calls a mutual reception.

 Venus and Mercury by Bartholomaus Spranger (1585)

And that’s not all. Venus is conjunct Byblis (trying to defend the indefensible), Lust (focus-fixation), Bellatrix (the difficult idea to get across or comprehend) and Amphitrite - the idea we find hard to accept which in time catches up to us.

We’re all dealing with some of this. And that Mercury itself is entering Taurus in a perfect opposition to asteroid Medusa? While the story is of Medusa is not exactly about being ‘turned to stone,’ there is a quality of being stopped in your tracks with asteroid Medusa. 

But the thing which stops us in our tracks is realizing what the truth about something really is. Either we’re scared to know the real truth or we are scared of what knowing that truth is going to mean to the rest of our world.

The truth is the truth. And that we’re scared of it is about US.

With Medusa in opposition to Mercury’s entrance into Taurus speaks of a confrontation: either you’re concerned about having it or you’re having some sort of Mercury/Medusa gag-fest over having been confronted with something which - (gulp!) - says something about you.

With Mercury trine the Moon at 1 Capricorn in this figure it’s really likely that someone has taken a hard line and that said hard line was like-as-not taken a little fast. That may be ‘too fast for your liking’ and then again, you may have overstepped your bounds or done or said something before you had sufficient (Medusa) facts to act with a degree of wisdom.

That’s another thing about Medusa: the whole Medusa issue is about Athena - dispassionate (often intellectual) wisdom. The story of Medusa is really all about human vanity and our yearning for ‘immortality’ which we get a chance to earn through investment in intelligence and a loyalty to a high standard of clarity….but which we flub up on by giving in to emotional cravings. Medusa embodies the ‘cost’ of indulging ourselves by flagrant disregard of standards ethical and commitments personal.

In this case, the cumulative effect of Medusa, Moon, Venus, Byblis, Lust, Bellatrix and Amphitrite involved with Venus already slowing down to go retrograde represents a growing awareness that we have undermined ourselves at some level.

Then we add in the fact that Mercury is also inconjunct Juno…self discipline or the need to run one’s ‘personal household’ (your life) with discipline. The inconjunct represents an ‘adjustment’ you need to make, and with this happening from Taurus to Sagittarius, we have an eight-sign “departing inconjunct” which says you need to make a decision. The decision is to leave XYZ behind OR to be left behind by ABC.

After all that, next we get to the muddying of the mental waters.

 

What? You thought things were messy enough? Heavens no…! We have a mere eleven days until we hit the moment of a Gemini Solar Eclipse. And before that happens, Venus is going to go retrograde.

Did you really think thinking things through would be easy about now?

Uh…sorry, no.

So back to that murky muddy thing. Mercury is in sextile to Neptune/Bali in early Pisces. So we have some pretty, dreamy, happy ‘little lie’ we would like to tell…or like to tell ourselves…about things being all happy and good and such. The reason why we would like to tell this little lie (no matter who it’s to - them or ourselves) is because we would like to have to avoid feeling bad. 

Okay…so what do you think the chances of that are, considering Venus is about to go retrograde?

Interestingly though, there is help - though you may be too close to the issue to really see the answer to your own problem here. As Mercury enters Taurus it is not just opposing Medusa and not just trine a ‘maybe too fast’ Capricorn Moon. It’s not just sextile Neptune/Bali and it’s not just overloaded by a Byblis-Lust-Bellatrix-Amphitrite-Venus conversation spinning in the back of our brains.

The good news - for those willing to get down to it - is that Mercury is also conjunct Vesta/Phaeton. Vesta representing ‘sacred service’ (personal promises) and Phaethon representing the impulsively brazen ‘devil-may-care’ teen nature which frequently overreaches good sense tells us where our gliches (or lack of quality may be). So providing we’re willing to deal with that and not compound our errors with insisting on doing ‘more of the lack-of-quality same,’ we may be able to redeem ourselves - first and foremost in our own eyes.

 The Fall of Phaethon by Peter Paul Rubens

Considering that Mercury will be in Taurus for only about two weeks, this next little while is a time to get straight with ourselves. Because Mercury in Taurus lends itself to conversations which pertain to quality or lacks thereof, this can be an excellent time to get some input from someone or even for rebuilding bridges with someone, should you have had a problem.

Negotiations of the business type are also favored by this transit, although with Venus about to go retrograde and the Gemini Solar eclipse this is not a ‘business as usual’ sort of cut-and-dry moment. If you get a job now, don’t plan on the position you accept being the one which you end up working in. This isn’t any cause for terror - after all, you may end up in a position you like much better or which you are better suited for.

On other business levels, Mercury in Taurus leading into the Venus retrograde would also be a marker for complex business negotiations or dealings which end up being solidified as or after Venus goes direct in late June. If you have any interest in developing a business with someone, this is a good time to open discussions but don’t plan on any agreements reached in short order holding for the duration. This is a fine time for development of any ideas and for improving the structure, operations or design of anything you need to move forward with - especially long term. Again, just don’t think anything’s going to get sorted out in five minutes. Or if it does, that it won’t need to be revamped.

Mercury in Taurus is an opportunity. This Mercury in Taurus in particular offers us the chance to get some real insight on ourselves - insights which can lead us to a happier and more profitable future.

The one challenge here: facing our weaknesses, our errors, our vulnerabilities, our misguided efforts.

Depending on their nature or the ‘size’ of the glitch, you may have to spend some real time investing in fixing some problem.

But in the end, aren’t you worth it? Besides, what other choice to you really have?