At 11:38PM on Friday, September 9, 2022, Mercury stations retrograde at 8 degrees Libra.
Mercury goes retrograde (from our point of view here on Earth) three, and sometimes four, times a year. He is retrograde (moving backward) for about three weeks and then stations direct and starts moving forward.
Mercury/think Hermes here - is "the Messenger", the "Trickster", the "Cosmic Magician". He rules the signs of Gemini and Virgo. Collectively this is our - words, communication, siblings, early childhood education, our local community, commerce, tech devices, transportation, our daily life, our service, our health, our work - our collective 3rd and 6th houses. Mercury retrograde periods are times to slow down/to look within. Anything started with "re" becomes the most effective use of our time. Re-thinking, re-evaluating, re-flecting, re-peating, re-unions, re-novations, etc.
Mercury retrogrades are re-curring opportunities to shift out of old mental patterns. We are often asked to pull back from the world and face our shadow self in some way. When we’ve exhausted the possibilities for what we can gain by projecting our shadow self onto the external events and people in our lives, we are ready to face them within our own mind (and heart).
On a practical level we see things that were concealed when Mercury was in direct motion. Maybe
because we were going too fast to notice them or maybe we took a wrong
turn two miles back and need to change direction. Maybe there is a road out up ahead that we don't know about yet. These retrograde periods are always useful/always needed even when we appear to incur delays, re-dos and roadblocks.
Mercury moved into his retrograde shadow degrees back on August 22, 2022 (this was also the day the Sun entered Virgo). That's when he reached 24 degrees Virgo, the degree he will station direct on October 2nd. He leaves his shadow, reaches the degree he/she will station retrograde (8 degrees Libra) on October 17th and then he (as we), having re-ceived all the necessary information/learning from this re-tro period, will move on and will start covering new ground. So, the entire cycle is from August 22 - October 17, but he is retrograde from September 9 - October 2.
Mercury's retrograde starts in Libra then moves back into Virgo.
Collectively we are re-looking at our relationships, in particular our partnerships and our need for balance, fairness and peace. Then we move back into Virgo (September 23rd). Air to earth. The re-looking, re-viewing, re-evaluating, re-novating, etc - continues, but now we are dealing with more solid things. Separating the wheat from the chaff. Our words are given form. It is particularly important what we are saying/thinking/hearing - ABSORBING now. Mercury is back in his home sign of Virgo, so we are fixing, making things better.
During Mercury's retrograde he/she will be in multiple conversations with Venus, multiple trines with Pluto and multiple oppositions with Jupiter. He has mutual reception with Venus almost the entire time and winds up back in his home sign - a comfortable space he rules. We really couldn't ask for much better. The Venusian contacts and the fact Mercury starts this retro in Venus's sign Libra, pulls in our relationships, our money, resources, our values, our self-esteem, women and beauty. The trines to powerful Pluto give us MULTIPLE opportunities for empowerment, to speak our truth, to notice TRUTH. The oppositions to Jupiter indicate multiple opportunities to MINE FOR OLD GOLD. We will talk about all this over the next few weeks as we move through the energies of the retrograde period.
A couple things to keep in mind - Mars is in Gemini for the long haul (through March 2023), so he is answering to Mercury. We are already doing things twice or doing two things at once. Mercury retrograde is going to complicate this. We are going to need to be smart, at exactly the time 'being smart' will be especially tricky.
Also, Mercury in Libra is answering to Venus in Virgo. So, we have this mutual reception thing going on with each planet in the other planet's sign. This will last for almost the entire retrograde and is VERY GOOD NEWS. Mercury can get back to Virgo (his sign) through Venus/Libra. And Venus can get back to Libra (her sign) through Mercury/Virgo. This is better news for Mercury than Venus, since she has to go through a retrograde planet (meaning our relationships/money/values/self-esteem/women - the Venusian stuff - needs to go backward to go forward). For Mercury this means that Venusian tactics get him back to Virgo. This means cooperation, being social, being fair, being kind and diplomatic. With Mars in Gemini, this will not always be such an easy thing because we are also charged with standing up for ourselves/being ourselves/being brave through our language.
Here are the pertinent dates:
AUGUST 22 - Mercury hits 24 Virgo and starts walking degrees he/she (through us) will walk two more times
SEPTEMBER 2 - Mercury (still direct) opposes Jupiter retrograde
SEPTEMBER 9 - Mercury stations retrograde
SEPTEMBER 12 - Mercury retrograde semi-sextiles Venus
SEPTEMBER 18 - Mercury retrograde opposes Jupiter retrograde
SEPTEMBER 23 - Sun meets Mercury retrograde - mid-point of cycle - ILLUMINATION, here is what the Mercury retrograde has been about for us - this happens at 0 degrees Libra, an Aries point, our collective attention will be on SOMETHING, then Mercury retrogrades back into Virgo, his home sign. Mark this day.
SEPTEMBER 26 - Mercury retrograde meets Venus (26 Virgo)
SEPTEMBER 27 - Mercury retrograde trines Pluto retrograde
OCTOBER 2 - Mercury stations direct at 24 Virgo
OCTOBER 6 - Mercury trines Pluto retrograde (Pluto will station direct 2 days later, is very strong and still here)
OCTOBER 12 - Mercury opposes Jupiter retrograde for the final time, so this will connect to September 2nd and September 18th
Now, besides connecting to the collective energy/the ways we respond TOGETHER, we each have our personal Mercury energy in our natal and progressed charts and the houses he rules within us that are impacted through transiting Mercury. Your natal Gemini and Virgo houses and their themes are affected when Mercury changes sign and direction by transit AND the houses he touches by transit. So, here we are talking about your natal (and progressed) Libra, Virgo and Gemini houses - and we have Mars in your Gemini house and Venus in your Virgo house, and the Sun will move from Virgo to Libra during the retrograde, so this is an action packed area that will be prone to to busyness, delays, repeating patterns, etc.
When Mercury stations on Friday night he/she (Mercury is very androgynous energy, but I will mostly use the pronoun he here) will be tightly sandwiched between dwarf planet Makemake and asteroid Logos.
Logos is an ancient Greek philosophical term meaning "the Word". "In the beginning was the word" and the way we think about and describe our world is a powerful aspect of our creativity. The concept of Logos itself could be considered a drive towards rationality (as the Greeks used it), or a connection with the sacred nature of things. We can expect powerful new insights at all levels from personal to collective during this retrograde.
Makemake is one of the group of Trans-Neptunian objects (because they orbit beyond Neptune), that include Pluto, Eris, Haumea, etc. The influence of these planets comes from deep space and moves into our more human realm at certain times. They are galactic messengers -weaving our human-story into a story much bigger than we are accustomed to working with.
Makemake was named for the Creator God of a small isolated volcanic island in the Pacific Ocean known as Rapa Nui or Easter Island. Astrologer, Philip Sedgwick, believes the position of Rapa Nui bears a direct relationship to the Galactic Centre. It is difficult to know Makemake's story because so much of the oral tradition of the islanders has been lost, but the islanders, as part of the 'bird-man' cult, would swim out to an islet each year through dangerous open sea to collect eggs. Maybe this annual ritual was designed to ensure that the strongest and bravest warrior was chosen each year to be a sort of chiefly figure, someone the islanders could trust to provide for them, to bring them continued fertility for example. The symbolism of the 'egg' is significant, given that the island was originally named Easter Island by the Europeans who arrived there on Easter Sunday in 1722. The planet Makemake was also discovered on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2005, and astronomers temporarily named Makemake “The Easter Bunny”.
How this connects to this Mercury retrograde period I will leave up to you to ponder/discover for yourself, but some things to consider might be that Easter Island is another historical example of European conquest - the devastation of the native people and resources, enslavement, smallpox was introduced here purposefully with devastating consequences. We might see how this connects to current collective events by considering the underlying power mechanics of slave labor (including the current zeitgeist's 'quiet quitting' movement), viral epidemics, wise/unwise use of the earth’s resources, the loss of spirituality and Goddess energy, and the loss of local culture and a sustainable local food supply. It might seem we are re-living Rapa Nui’s/Easter Island's destruction on a global level. Hopefully Makemake and Logos connection with Mercury as he/she backs up speaks of smart AND practical solutions to collective problems. This will connect to our personal lives and circumstances, too.
Keep in mind our North Node - collective way forward - is still in Taurus, so answering to Venus in Virgo, who is answering to this retrograde Mercury. The way forward/through is BACK. Our words are our fortune and our voice MATTERS. When we speak, we are casting S-P-E-L-L-S and during Mercury's - the God of language - retrograde it is especially important to pay attention to this.
Try not to be discouraged/annoyed at the repeating energies, delays and re-dos. This is all happening as it should be and in its own time. Slow down and double check things. Don't take on too much! Re-turn to the things, people and places that brought you comfort or that need fixing. We are moving from air to earth. Taking our ideas back to the drawing board. Our relationships back to the basics. This isn't really a problem, even when actual problems are presented, but part of the complicated process called "life on planet Earth".
As always, I hope something here is helpful.
Back with the BIG Full Moon in Pisces post!
xo all
I am always listening to podcasts while I make and would recommend for this retrograde period anything brain/speech related by Andrew Huberman and also, and probably most especially this conversation as podcaster Aubrey Marcus interviews the amazing and brilliant Laurel Airica.
photography by the talented sara-with-a-gun
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