Mercury Retrograde is a 3 week long astrological event which happens several times a year--in 2016, four times! It has gotten a bad rap because it can be challenging...and that is why I developed the Mercury Retrograde E-Z sessions to help you deal with the challenges AND use the retrograde time in the best way possible. Considering that we will be spending 12 weeks this year within Mercury retrograde, that seems like a pretty good idea, to get repatterned for this.
You can register now at www.repattern.com/Mercury_retrograde.shtml.
Here are excerpts from a very in-depth article by an astrologer I follow, Robert Wilkinson. If you find the astrological references a bit too technical, just bypass them and focus on the implications which are explained beautifully. He has even written a book on Mercury Retrograde which you can purchase through his website.
Source: Robert's website, www.aquariuspapers.com.
The
Guide of Souls in January 2016 - Mercury Slowing Down, Preparing to go
Retrograde at 2 Aquarius by Robert Wilkinson
Happy Western New Year, and yes, it's THAT time again! Mercury is
radically slowing down, preparing to go stationary retrograde at 2 Aquarius on
January 5 at 5:06 am PST, 8:06 am EST, 1:06 pm GMT. This has important
implications for all signs.
,,,For now, adapt to the
slowing pace of things, be willing to put some things on hold for a little
while, and take a look at what's been
set into motion up to now with an eye to seeing what has to be done before
things can again move forward in late January.
Since Mercury has already been slowing way down for a couple of weeks,
we’ve already begun to experience a quality of “Mercury crashing into
retrograde.”.
I know there are many unfortunate things attributed to Mercury
retrograde, but there are also many productive things that get done,
connections that are made, and different angles of view glimpsed that make our
understanding more complete and well rounded.
The two weeks before the retrograde is a good time for setting
things in motion that will need a delay before being picked up anew. Or for
doing things that will need research, rehearsing, or reworking to whatever
degree before completion. The time before Mercury goes retrograde is good for
doing what must be done so that other related things can be done later, as well
as reconnecting with people and activities from the past that are somehow
related to the future….
The coming retrograde will show us a new look at recent signals
and information that we sent or received, and get clear about what roles we're
playing and not playing. This one will bring some sort of “cosmic visitation”
that will “galvanize us into action” and “liberate us from adverse conditions.”
Many will glimpse a greater effectiveness or find a way to reorganize to help
things move forward in late January.
As with all Mercury retrograde periods, things from the past will
be reevaluated, re-examined, or understood differently. We can get a new look
at ideas, ways we’re communicating and understanding what others are
communicating to us, and get new insights into all things ruled by Aquarius and
Capricorn, such as larger goals and aims, friendships, and our sense of
responsibility and duty, and specifically all things related to the house(s)
where we have 15 Capricorn to 2 Aquarius.
For example, we may get new insights or understanding about someone
who used to be a friend, or someone who was a group colleague, or something
related to our honor, public standing, or profession. Some will remember old
goals and ambitions, or even why an interaction had the effect of showing us
something that had to be re-examined in light of our goals at the time. It’ll
be a good time to shift gears around old obligations, duties, and structures,
and get free of those which have kept us in adverse conditions.
And of course, it should be a good time to see how our life
structures hold up or not when confronted with a challenge, and quicken as
things come to a head. Some will figure out a different emphasis in what they
believe would fulfill them, and those who can be creative in seizing
opportunity can shape the process to a desired end.
Mercury goes stationary retrograde in Aquarius just an hour after
making its final square to Mars at 2 Scorpio. This is a very powerful square
that we’ve experienced ever since the Solstice, and heavily affects everyone
with planets in the beginning of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. From the
Solstice through Jan 1, it mainly affected those with planets in late Aries,
Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, and once Mercury re-enters Capricorn on Jan 8, we
can expect echoes of that late Cardinal sign square to give us new insights and
understanding about the friction of late December.
As Mercury has been and continues to be in septile to Venus, this
indicates that this time in late December and early January is one of very
important choices in determining our destiny in at least a third of our life
areas. The best thing about this retrograde is that once Mercury retrogrades
back into Capricorn, it will again make a long term trine to Jupiter, which
will keep that favorable Earth energy in play for many weeks to come! This
should be an easier transit than the last one in Libra, which was in a powerful
square to Pluto AND a semisquare with Saturn at the end of Scorpio, which
indicated a not so easy transit!
As Mercury goes retrograde in the Air sign of Aquarius and then
retrogrades back into Capricorn, it again shifts the elemental emphasis of
Mercury retrograde. All the 2014 Mercury RX periods began in early Water signs,
with Mercury retrograding back into Air signs. So in 2014 we danced between Feelings
and Ideas, experiencing and relating. All the 2015 Mercury retrograde periods
began in an Air sign and stayed in that sign the entire retrograde period,
making 2015 entirely an Air affair!
In 2016, this shifts again, as this January Mercury retrograde
begins in the Air sign of Aquarius, but retrogrades back through the last half
of the Earth sign Capricorn. So here we dance between ideas and practical
necessities, relating and taking a new look at what is in our “enlightened
self-interest.”
This January RX is a transitional anomaly, since the April-May
retrograde is entirely in the Earth sign of Taurus, and the Aug-Sept retrograde
is entirely in the Earth sign of Virgo. It will shift to multiple elements
again in the Dec 2016-Jan 2017 retrograde, since that one will begin in
Capricorn and retrograde back into the Fire of Sagittarius. Of course I’ll
explain more as each of these periods approaches. Until then, A New
Look at Mercury Retrograde” will help you get a fix on all of the
above and more!
In the next 3 weeks, we can see what life has prepared for us
since the last Mercury retrograde in September-October. This can give us a new
perspective on what’s shifted in our view or understanding since then, and this
will give us a look back so we can find a more well-rounded perspective as we
come to a new understanding of those past events.
This Mercury retrograde will offer us opportunities to look back
and distill a different sense of vision, and for some how they can contribute
to a better world through some sort of idealistic yet practical service. Others
may get a new sense of group work, or a different overview of how past friends
either helped us fulfill our goals or frustrated them. All of us will get
glimpses of how our past experiences and choices resulting from the last
Mercury retrograde have led us to a new view of possibilities.
Consider the next 3 weeks as an opening of liberating conditions
that will sometimes abruptly move us into new directions and new work. Some
will get new insights into old friends and public work done with others, and
perspective about what happened in a prior time of life. This time will bring
interesting insights through looking back or within about prior interactions,
misunderstandings, or miscommunications, and why certain things came down the
way they did in relationships and public situations in our past.
Pay attention to the signs, signals, information, and ideas that
come in this period, because the Mercury RX span is the same sector as Pluto
will occupy between 2015 and November 2025! In some roundabout way, what occurs
in this retrograde will sprout seeds of long term importance wherever we have
the second half of Capricorn in our charts.
As the song says, “There are new dreams crowdin’ out old
realities, There's revolution sweepin’ in like a fresh new breeze, Let the old
world make believe It's blind and deaf and dumb, Nothing can change the shape
of things to come…”
This is where we get to look back on what has been and what is
happening right now in order to get insights into what is to come. It will
certainly be an important retrograde, given the aspects in play! Get ready to
leave the past behind!
Important changes are in the air, with dramatic culminations and
major protection and efficiency. I’ll explain more in future articles on this
Mercury retrograde period.
This Mercury retrograde will give us many signs and signals for
what will dominate Mercury-ruled areas from late January 2016 through late
April 2016. This retrograde is a time to review past ideas and ideals in prior
friendships and ambitions, and take a new look at how these contributed to
misunderstandings about what roles we were and were not playing with those
people or in those collective efforts. Keep it friendly, detached, and
responsible, and take a new look at why you had to withdraw from some
relationships in order to launch new visions or conform to new truths in your
life.
Here we take a new look at what’s behind us before moving forward
anew at the end of the RX period in late January. We can get all kinds of new
insights into future potentials, while seeing things in the recent past
differently.
The Inferior Conjunction happens January 14 at 24 Capricorn. That
indicates the coming “fusion of life and mind” will help us to a new look, new
interpretation, or new understanding of the issues associated with the third
decan of Capricorn, and give us a new take on what “transcendent security”
would mean for us.
So welcome to many things being reviewed or coming back up to
surface these next three weeks thanks to the retrograde quality of the time.
Some will review past efforts to see what still needs to be integrated into the
life, and/or there could be returns, rehearsals, or echoes of the past and its
views, misunderstandings, dilemmas, paradoxes, and dualities.
This one allows us to take a look back at how we’re using Aquarius
and Capricorn energy in our lives, see who our friends truly are, review and
renew goals and ambitions, and see a new way to be effective within a group
context. Take a new look at the ideas you got in late December, since we will
capture the essential elements of understanding what we need to mobilize into
action by late January based in our insights these next 3+ weeks.
For all of us, during the next several weeks the future that's
already rolling forward will slow a little so we can get a new look at crucial
elements of the process we cannot afford to ignore. All of us will have a new
understanding of multiple elements of our lives by late January, and will begin
a process of purifying everything in our public self-expression, moving into a
more caring role or sprouting seeds of power.
This will be another important retrograde, where the past will be
reviewed to see what we can and cannot bring with us into the future in late
January. It will help us rehearse or do the research we need to get ready to
spring forward in mid-February, clear about what we know, what we need to know,
and what must happen if we are to move forward in our lives.
Renewals, returns, reconnections, reunions, and re-beginnings are
promised by this retrograde. And of course, more on this Mercury retrograde
period will come soon!
Copyright © 2015 Robert Wilkinson
