Mercury in Cancer / Mars in Gemini

This double-helix stairway stands in Munich, Germany. It's structure reminded me of the back-and-forth

sort of self-feeding connections this Mars-Mercury shift is likely to produce.

(photo credit: Oliver Raupach, April 2006)

That Mars and Mercury are changing signs on the same day speaks to a ‘changing gears’ or a shift in life’s ‘tone.’ 

Or maybe it’s our tone…?

Or – considering that we’re hardly past the last of three eclipses – the ‘tone of outlook’ or perspective we have on life, or some project, aim or relationship?

Mars being a symbol of assertion, Mars moving into Gemini either means we want to think something through or learn more about it…we want to make a choice (I’d say ‘good choice’ but that seems obvious)…or we’re wanting to convince someone of something.

OR….considering how Mars is entering Gemini in conjunction with asteroid Lilith (at 0 Gemini) with Pallas at 1 Gemini and Lachesis at 2 Gemini just ahead…maybe we are working to (Pallas) understand something we come to this moment not (Lilith)  believing.

Although…this is the asteroid Lilith, not the calculated form. Lilith the asteroid has mass. It takes up space. To draw on my last post (“A Watery Time”), it makes ripples. Asteroids in the main belt being postulated as things we learn about ourselves on the way to knowledge (Jupiter) and mastery (Saturn) of our Self or whatever we’re involved in trying to be or do, this asteroid form of Lilith points to something about our Self. Or more precisely, something we don’t want to know (Gemini) about our Self.

So Mars and Lilith jumping into Gemini may be our ‘jumping’ to defend ourselves against something we don’t want to think about. Or something we don’t want to think about some (Gemini) choice we’ve made. It could even be our jumping in to deal with some gap in our (Pallas) knowledge – something which changes the (Lachesis) status quo.

Or - considering Mercury – maybe this is about something we don’t even want to think is true.

Because Mercury rules Gemini, there is a natural quality to this double ingress which ‘pulls’ or ‘directs’ the “subject” being discussed or thought through here to the Cancerian realm. So that may be your home or home life. Your family or culture. Your upbringing and how that has ‘formulated’ who you are. Or maybe your nationality or homeland.

Whatever the subject du jour, it has an emotional bent. Or perhaps, as Mercury enters Cancer at 7:08 in the morning of May 31st, UT/+0 time (to be followed by Mars entering Gemini at 10:40 that same morning), your feelings will get provoked. Or evoked. Or maybe just poked.

Keeping zodiacal company with Mercury we have Scheherazade (“the story told”) at 0 Aries (which would be exactly conjunct) with Betelgeuse and Atlantis (“it’s easy, once you get used to it…”) just behind and Atropos (endings or cut offs) just ahead.

This does sort of look like a recipe for changes. So maybe you’re moving out of a period of doing less into one of doing more? Or maybe, despite some ‘I don’t get why I have to do this’ Lilith-ian protesting, you’re going to make some changes you have been dawdling about making since dinosaurs roamed the earth.

Okay…so maybe not quite that long – but for a while, at least! Maybe the issue is some ‘story’ you’ve been told or that you have been holding onto which you didn’t believe before and now realize is true. Or maybe you knew the truth of something but were handling it in a less-than-productive manner which given recent revelations, ponderings and emotional crunches (you know, that eclipse stuff?)

There’s a whole other level to this concept – one which is about having (Lachesis) waited to get started with or on something. And now, by gum, you have what you need to get a move on and git-a-going.

(Yes, I’m having an old time cowboy movie moment.)

There are a couple of resident images in my brain when it comes to westerns. One is Rawhide, an early 60's television show with Clint Eastwood which ran for something like eight seasons. The other (of course!) is John Wayne in any of a number of films he made, including the 1953 movie 'Hondo' which sticks out with me because it's based on a story called "Gift of the Cochise" by the one and only Louis L'Amour, a warm and wonderful man I was fortunate enough to grow up knowing.

('Hondo' poster courtesy of Warner Brothers, c. 1953)

 
Since these two celestial emblems are changing signs nearly in unison the relationship between these two signs is dearly underscored. With the Sun, Pallas Jupiter and Venus (oh yes – and the calculated form of Lilith) already in Gemini, there’s a lot of Gemini energy a-foot. This much Gemini energy will tend to produce a lot of discussion and tend to not get to any decisions all that fast, though that is the ultimate Gemini aim. Scattering one’s efforts or ideas or interests about is a common Gemini activity. But since the polarity is Gemini-Sagittarius, the real point of Gemini is to put together those things – disparate though they might be – which create something which works in the real world…that being the Sagittarius part.

If you think about it, that makes perfect sense with all which we think of as Gemini. Doing our errands is a Gemini activity because those separate little annoying stops when put together help us continue having our chosen life (or lifestyle). Communication and cars and driving and emails (or regular mail) or whatever else is simply part of this process – as is the maintenance which does the upkeep on our machines and the exercise and planning our diet, daily schedule and deciding to ‘do this, but not that’ which provides and protects the integrity of the mind with which we live that life.

Gemini is an air sign. It’s always mental. It’s always about the idea of the thing – or that which ‘processes’ and sorts through the idea, which at the most basic level is our brain.

So maybe a few brains will get into gear now? We can only hope!

Jokes aside, ALL that Gemini energy is ‘canted’ by Mercury. Think of it as a funnel…however many planets or objects are in Gemini, they’re pouring their ‘whatever qualities’ into the Gemini funnel. Where will that be directed?

The answer to that comes from where Mercury is. And on May 31st, Mercury moves from it’s home sign of ‘me and what-or-how I think’ Gemini into the first of the water signs: Cancer.

 
Gemini and Cancer live next door to each other on the zodiacal wheel. That always tells us that we’re dealing with modalities (methods of acting) which are very different in nature. Cancer is a cardinal sign – it’s all for taking a stand and doing what needs doing right now…even if as the first of the emotional signs (and Moon-ruled, to boot!) it tends to act in ‘phases,’ alternating between straight-out driving for the goal against retreats to rest, reconnoiter or deal with the need to protect one’s ‘home base’ of operation, emotional or otherwise. Meanwhile, Gemini – as stated – is an airy air sign. In Gemini we learn that we need to think as much as we learn how to think. As a mutable sign, Gemini tends to push the matter a little then think through what happens. Then it pushes a little more and sees what happens then.

That’s the mutable way of learning. It’s sort of like tacking a boat across a bay with shifting currents and fickle winds. Cardinal signs take aim and go for the bulls-eye. Mutable signs adjust the course trajectory and the ‘how you get there’ as things go along.

Obviously this can set up a little friction – in this case, in our thinking. All that Gemini energy means we’re seeing a lot of things in theoretical terms now. But once Mercury is in Cancer, we feel why it all matters. Thus Scheherazade being conjunct Mercury’s Cancer ingress may well be our seeing why ‘it’s said’ to do something a given way. Or why this or that method or standard or tradition really counts.

Thinking is a wonderful thing, to be sure! But sometimes people need to feel the reality of the human repercussion in order to know why they really do need to mind this, or do that, or delay this, or deal with that problem which they really don’t want to talk to.

That brings up one other quality worth considering here: quadrants. The first quadrant of the horoscope is akin to the infant (Aires), the baby (Taurus) and the toddler (Gemini) in human growth terms. Aries is all about discovering we exist. And hey – we have fingers and toes! (How cool, right?) Taurus is about that stage where we realize there are good and bad things in life – and we like the good and we don’t like the bad (and can I have some more baby food bananas, mom?). We want to feel secure, we don’t want to feel scared or threatened – so we coo and scream by turns.

Gemini is the toddler stage, where we learn to navigate in our environment. We learn that latches exist…then we figure out how to start unlatching those latches (much to our parent’s consternation!). Our sense of being ‘on our own feet’ is occurring to us, and thus we start running around causing havoc – often just to see what happens.

Those three signs are all about our experience of being in a very basic sort of way. And please notice: there is no water sign in this mix.

Metaphysical water – equaling emotions and the ‘feeling state – don’t come into zodiacal reference until we’re in the second quadrant: the land of being one among others. There are many ways to figure the ages denoted by the zodiac, but in human developmental terms (our life as part of the world we live in) Cancer corresponds to age seven-and-a-half to ten.

(For those of you who are astro-techie, this is part of the Greek Profection theory as applied to Saturn, planet of human maturation.)

Around age seven, “magical thinking” tends to disappear. Children realize reality is reality (often to the disappointment of parents busy enjoying their second childhood). This is also when kids start developing their first real relationships with friends in school. Or maybe in the neighborhood.

So as Mercury moves out of the ‘magical realm of thinking and thoughts’ (Gemini) into Cancer, there’s a quality of realism or reality which dawns. And with Mars ‘powering up’ all the Gemini energy, that may be a bit of a jolt. Then again, Mars entering Gemini as Mercury enters Cancer may be our seeing that it is time to make a move and get things into gear.

And because of that, in line with Mercury entering Cancer, we may reach out to people we feel comfortable with or close to with an eye to making our world work for us…which is ultimately the Cancerian goal. In childhood, Cancer may be our family. And in the Big World, Cancer is our adult family and our home and real estate in general.

But being that Cancer is also the sign at the ‘base’ of the horoscope wheel, Cancer also represents the ‘foundations’ of anything we do in life. From  that ‘base’ or ‘basis’…atop that ‘bedrock’ or ‘foundation,’ we build.

The Sun – our emblem of life and consciousness – will not reach Cancer until June 21st. Between now and then, we’ll have a major planetary station (Neptune’s) and the onset of a run-up to Mercury retrograde and Jupiter’s change of signs. So, like as not, some of us will interpret the weeks ahead as uncertain. Some of us will experience some heady breakthroughs and insights on past, present and future. Some will take these weeks as a space of time in which to move ahead, step by step, learning as you go while requiring of yourself that you press ahead, in spite of anything and everyone.

Mars will be in Gemini until July 13th. Because of the retrograde which will begin in late June and lapse over into July, Mercury will be in Cancer now until August 8th.

Yes, I said August.

So this is a time for building. Or maybe for rebuilding or founding, laying foundations or building various kinds of internal structures (or infrastructures) which will support where you’re going and who you want to be – and ultimately be known as – in this world.

So…where will your mind take you now? Many are the choices. Will you choose to make a choice to act?
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Mercury in Pisces: From Sloppy to Sublime

 Mercury, holding the caduceus

from a mural unearthed in Pompeii

Maybe you’ve heard that Mercury “isn’t good” in Pisces? Au contraire, my pseudo-judgmental friend!

Mercury in Pisces can be brilliant. Yes, it may not punctuate every sentence like a grammar Nazi. Yes, Mercury in Pisces is not generally what you would look for in someone you want monitoring your ‘clean room’ at a computer chip production facility.

But when you want an idea? When you want a gleeful thought? When you want a stylistic facility with words? Then Mercury in Pisces can be just the very thing.

So where did that nasty reputation come from? Oh where, you ask?

Take it from me…it’s a polarity thing.

Signs come in pairs. We like to think of them as single colorations, but they aren’t. They’re more like teeter totters. When sign pairs are in balance, both precepts – in this case, precision and creativity – are in balance. When we have a planet sitting in a sign natally, that ‘tips’ the balance to one side, which is why we get the distinct positives from that placement as well as the ‘overactive’ negatives.

Similarly, when a planet passes through a sign, that ‘activates’ the polarity question.

 The Pisces/Virgo polarity as pictured on a 'natural' zodiac wheel

(i.e., ths signs placed as they fall in 'natural' order - starting

with Aries and ending with Pisces - around a horoscope wheel).

Here we have Pisces as the sign of feeling our feelings…through which (hopefully) we come to not feel all alone because we realize our feelings aren’t unusual and the value of sharing our feelings – good and sad – with others. It’s the commonalty of the human experience Pisces drives to achieve, as do all signs. 

In Pisces we just do it through our feeling nature.

At the other end of this polarity we have Virgo. Virgo the very precise, Virgo the detail oriented, Virgo the wholesome, clean, earthy and earthly. Virgo seeks to make a better world through everyone doing things knowingly and “cleanly” (in every sense of that word!)

Mercury being a planet all about mentality, we now get to learn some about the pluses and minuses of our feeling, communal, creative and inspiring nature.

And yes, from February 21st at 10:54pm when Mercury enters Pisces until March 9th when it moves on into Aries, we will also be prone to more daydreaming and the 'gist’ of the thing…with maybe a little less jumping to the exactitudes and nuts and bolts and all that.

So if you’re looking to tap into your creative side, this is a good time to start. If you’re looking to be precise, maybe this isn’t your moment. 

Except…. 

I have a good friend who (bless her heart!) is in her early 30’s who has just taken on getting a college degree. Apart from what I take to be a general anxiety about ‘doing college,’ in particular she’s not excited about algebra. Really? When am I ever going to use this (blank – blank – blank – blank) stuff in real life? 

Being of the opinion that there are real world uses for algebraic theory, I replied to her petite social network rant with the comment algebra is a way of thinking. Most of math is. And while it’s not precisely emotional (an idea which would probably be well attested to by the countless geeks who have emotions certainly…but who are not particularly good with emotionalism)…algebra is a way of thinking. 

In other words, the idea of how to think which algebra (and most higher math) asks one to indulge in is what gets you to the precise way to do the precision calculation.

The difference between this higher math – and all the magical sciences which lie beyond higher math’s door (yes, we know which side of this argument I’m on…) physics, astrophysics and even metaphysics – when treated as a science – it’s all about being able to go with the idea of the thing, then the ‘how to do.’

In other words, it’s deciding what you want for dinner so you can then look up and follow the recipe, not just focusing on the recipe itself.

Make sense?

The whole of the zodiac goes through this cycle.

Starting in the bottom half of the natural hemisphere we have the ‘me’ part of life’s explorations.

 The zodiac polarities (color coded, even!)

Aries-Taurus-Gemini are our baby steps. What am I? What do I need? What’s that? What do I do next?

Then we have the Cancer-Leo-Virgo phase: what does everyone else like? How do they do things? What do I like? How can I make this work for me? This is the zodiacal equivalent of figuring out and ‘gluing things down’ – the rules of our personal road and thus what we tend to think think life is based on and how things work best.

After that comes the shift from the lower personal and internal to the upper public and external horoscope hemisphere, an arena which starts with the interactive signs. Libra is this is my idea – what’s yours? Then we have Scorpio – everything which evokes an emotional reaction in us. Last is Sagittarius, a sign all about do my ideas work for everyone else? If not, why not? Will my idea get me where I want to go? 

Last comes the public/worldly triad of ‘global’ signs: Capricorn – what we do to achieve and with the power and social status achievement anoints us with…Aquarius – the interactive marketplace of ideas, ideals, acceptance and systemic connectivity…and Pisces, the universality of perceptions and from that, the experience of what we feel – and how we feel about what we feel.

Whatever Sun sign you’re born under, that’s your basic point-of-view consideration on much of life. Doesn’t mean you can’t really love some other Sun sign’s point of view (you probably will!) but of all those ‘other’ POV’s the one you will probably have the most problem with is that which is your polarity.

It polarizes you. It’s not so much about what who they are as what they make you recognize in yourself.

(I know…! Aren’t we just all such endlessly egocentric creatures!?!!)

Being that the ‘global’ signs are opposite (in polarity with) the signs about defining our world, we can all perceive the problem. ‘Big Picture’ people have issues with ‘the little stuff’ and those who think details make the thing work scoff at global sign perspectives as ‘too ambitious’ (Capricorn), ‘too expensive or likely to be rejected’ (Aquarius) or ‘unworkable’ or ‘not reality based’ (Pisces).

Does that make you want to look up a Sun sign or two? Maybe of some politician? A great thinker? Someone else you admire, are in awe of or possibly loathe?

Just looking back at a few recent subjects discussed here at Ye Olde Blog what you may see – and thus why I’m bringing this to your attention - are distinct differences in attitudes and effectiveness which can pretty much be summed up as whether someone born in a sign belonging to one hemisphere appears to understand and be able to grapple with issues belonging to the other!

My friend going back to college is a Cancer. She is plainly struggling with seeing the algebraic ‘Big Picture.’ We see this often times in politics – just to pick out a name here, William Jefferson Clinton (aka Bill) is born on August 19th.

 President Bill Clinton - 1993 Presidential portrait

He’s a Leo. Yet Bill Clinton’s greatest asset may just be his ability to grasp systemic big pictures and communicate that to the greater public in a way which can be understood. You may not like it – but you’ll understand it!

With President Clinton, this is a clear demonstration of his Solar Leo/Aquarius “teeter-totter.” Love him, hate him, think him charming or weird, Bill Clinton has demonstrated his ability to understand economics, for instance. And his ability to manage and marshal the economy and economic system not merely for his own Leo pleasure, but for the sake of the economic system and thus everybody…which in turn of course, won great acclaim for him… 

…Which let’s face it – is everything any Leo is born to love, crave and desire.

Learning to ‘do’ any given sign’s polarity is what completes yours. It’s the balance which fulfills – which allows you to be the person successful in their own right.

That’s a Mercury in Pisces concept. It’s universal. It’s very big picture. It’s about the commonalty of what we all go through in life.

Oh – and while we’re here…despite all the US political hoo-hah about this or that being started under some ‘other’ administrations, metaphysically, an administration is elected in its own time. 

What the fern does that mean? That means that what happens during any given President’s administration, is a metaphysical reflection of that President. And yes, their administration. The reverse would also be true – namely that they get elected because the metaphysics person has a metaphysical portrait (a chart) which is part and parcel of the metaphysical patterns of a given time.

Is that ‘fate’? In metaphysical terms, no – that would be functionality…namely, all things happening when they should. 

Quite a thought, eh? It has even more interesting implications when we consider a country like the UK, which though it changes Parliamentary administrations has had the same Queen for many decades now.

 

 Queen Elizabeth II on a visit to NASA in 2007

photo credit: NASA

Putting on our Mercury in Pisces hats, can we see how the nation has reflected the Queen and the Queen her national situation as years have passed, things been experienced and (hopefully) wisdom gained?

I find that interesting….you?

Okay…well! Now that I’ve either got your teeth on edge as you mutter will she just get ON WITH IT? or set your feet and associated brain cells to squirming…

Mercury enters Pisces in exact conjunction with Chiron, centaur asteroid of needing to learn how to do that you don’t even know enough about to know how to learn.

The simple answer is ‘try.’ Wherever we see Chiron, life becomes trying….and can be improved by trying.

Right behind Mercury (at 29 Aquarius) Mars is barely an ootch ahead of Neptune, still at 28 Aquarius, but soon to complete it’s 8-year transit of that sign and plunge us all into a whole new experience of emotions and nebulous certainties about uncertainties.

Oh yeah…we are SO all going to love that, right?

(Not!)

(At least not for a little while…)

But this Neptune/Mars thing….this is a marker which suggests that the most of us are going to start letting go of what ‘they’ say in favor of thinking for ourselves.

It’s a ‘what do I think?’ moment.

Ahead of Mercury/Chiron, the Sun stands at 2 Pisces and a trio of celestial markers (Fomalhaut, Circe and Amphitrite) are all at 4 Pisces.

 Screen shot snippet of Mercury's entrance into Pisces

 - chart generated by Solar Fire Gold -

Fixed star Fomalhaut promises great success providing our dreams and yearnings are not corrupt, corruptive or corrupted.

Circe is a myth about personal powers + loneliness promoting such terrible yearnings that we will stoop even to doing evil to others in order to try not to hurt in our own hearts, minds or souls.

 'Circe Invidiosa' by John William Waterhouse (1892)

Amphitrite speaks to the wanting to run away from something which once you surrender to it, you’re very happy with.

We thus ‘stand between’ (the Sun) the idea of what we need to do and learn by doing (Chiron) and all our concerns about drinking the metaphysical Kool-Aid.

Or even our own personal Kool-Aid…otherwise known as realizing we’re wrong about something. Oooo, do we all hate that or what?

For those who find this all a bit creepy for their tastes, not to worry! Unless you have a birthday during the next couple of weeks, this period will pass soon enough. If you do have a birthday coming up, welcome to some portion of your mental ministrations for the next solar year!

In saying that however…a few more notes: Mercury will be in Pisces’ first decanate (degrees 0 through 9) from February 21st through the 26th – give or take a time zone. Like all first decan periods, this emphasizes the ‘doing’ and physical aspects and questions.

Mercury will then move on to Pisces’ second decanate (degrees 10 through 19) from the 26th (as above) until March 3rd or 4th - again, depending on where you are. The second decan of any sign being where it manifests emotionally, this would be where thoughts are emotional, things which provoke emotionality occur and when we ‘see’ things (including our feelings!) from a more feeling point of view.

From that March 3 or 4 (depending), Mercury then moves on into Pisces’ third decanate: degrees 20 through 29. This is Pisces’ most worldly, most global realm – where ‘big picture’ concerns are most prevalent, where we are easily daunted if we teeter too far towards ‘Virgo’ definitions and just as easily drawn off track if we allow too much Piscean emotionalism to just simply wash us away.

Being this is Mercury we’re talking about – it’s a good time to think about things. About your life. About your hopes. About your plans. About your mistakes – and forgiving yourself for being human.

Fact is, we all are. Sometimes that’s the hardest thing of all to admit…which may be the biggest mistake of them all.