we are in the mercury retrograde shadow! can you feel it? honestly i have felt mercury retrograde from the moment venus entered mercury-ruled virgo and stationed retrograde on 7/25. there have been lots of communication snafus, missed emails, miss connections and more since venus entered her underworld journey. have you found this to be the case too? well it’s interesting as we had venus station retrograde in mercury’s sign and now we have mercury stationing retrograde in venus’ sign- so we have this huge portal of time from summer solstice (6/21) to just shy of samhain (a week before 10/31) to find a new alignment between mind and heart, thoughts and feelings, intellect and emotion.
mercury will station retrograde on september 17th at 15’55 libra and he will do so the same day that saturn officially goes into sagittarius for good. that is likely to bringing a lightening to some of the intense heaviness and karmic completion we have all been feeling and facing these last months of saturn in scorpio (what a doozy of a transit!). mercury will transit between the 1st degree of libra and the 16th degree of libra for a total of 3 times due to the fact that he goes over these degrees the first time during his front end shadow, a second time while retrograde and one last time during his back end shadow.
the front end shadow of mercury just began on august 28th- a day before the potent full moon in pisces was exact. all the conversations, communications and contemplations of the heart and mind going on right now and up until september 17th when mercury stations retrograde give us insight into the mercury retrograde that is to come and what it will mean for us personally- so PAY ATTENTION!
mercury retrograde is traditionally seen as a time to rethink, review and revise things. in libra there is a strong focus on relationships- particularly romantic- but it’s also about balance, peace, harmony and how we do the self/other dance. mercury retrograde can bring us face to face with where we THINK we want something in our lives- be it more peace, harmony, connection, Love, etc…- but what we actually do and the actions we take are in direct opposition to what we say we want. intention is everything and mercury retrograde is a great time to really get clear on our intentions- as saying one thing but doing another will not bring the outcome we say we desire.
from a depth psychological perspective mercury retrograde is the time when mercury goes into the underworld and comes into his role as psychopomp. in this role he is able to move between the worlds- something very few deities could actually do. in greek mythology you either lived in the upper world or the lower world but you did not get the privilege of moving between them. the few that do have this privilege include mercury and a handful of Dark Goddesses (hecate and persephone are two)- so when mercury is retrograde he has a Dark Goddess quality about him. intuition, magic, seeing into the shadow and seeing into the depths of the psyche are all possible during mercury’s retrograde. it’s a great time to be in therapy, take shamanistic journeys, pay attention to dreams and do one’s inner work!
this mercury retrograde makes some incredibly powerful aspects that will occur 3 times due to mercury going back and forth over the same degrees three different times. add to that the fact that this journey occurs during the eclipse portal (there’s a solar eclipse in virgo on september 12th and total lunar eclipse in aries on september 27th)- and we have a much bigger picture being formed. this isn’t your typical mercury retrograde. it has the potential to take you into and through an evolutionary portal- if you allow it to! the opportunities for seeing self and other, within and without in greater depth, perspective and breadth are potent. so be sure to use this time wisely!
all the aspects mercury makes during this journey are listed at the end of this blog, but i will take time to describe the ones that stand out the most here.
first of all mercury enters his front end shadow and stations direct again at the very 1st degree of libra- which is the degree of the initiation of fall in the northern hemisphere (or spring in the south). this activates the aries point (the 4 degrees that connect to the aries point are 0 aries, 0 cancer, 0 libra and 0 capricorn)- which carries with it a collective energy of initiation and change. add to this the fact that the super galactic center is at 1-2 libra and we see something of much greater importance. many people have heard of the galactic center- which is literally the center of our galaxy that you can see any clear night in a place with not much light pollution when you look at the center of the milky way. the GC (galactic center) is very sacred in many ancient cultures and is often seen as the opening to the womb of the Great Mother. well the SGC is also the center of something but it’s trillions of times larger. the way i think of it is that if the GC is the womb of the Great Mother then the SGC links to the place where she came from (and assuming she birthed herself you can go into a wormhole simply even contempalting this).
mercury aligning with the SGC is a defining feature of this retrograde journey. in addition, the evolutionary north node is also in the first degrees of libra and aligns with mercury 3 different times and is sitting on top of the SGC until october 9th when the nodes move into their new home sign of pisces and virgo. so we have the mind and the psychopomp- the mover between the worlds- aligning with the evolutionary north node and with the place where the Great Mother came from. when i contemplate this i see potential for amazing downloads, realizations and massive evolutionary shifts and even quantum leaps into the future! on a more practical level- our relationships and communications with others provides the opportunities for significant growth and evolution right now- so stay the course and don’t jump ship too soon!
during mercury’s journey he will also quincunx neptune and square pluto (the first activation of these two will be september 3rd and 9th respectively). mercury quincunx neptune brings an idealism but also delusion or deception of self or others we need to face and see through. both libra and pisces- the signs mercury and neptune are in- like to see the beauty, potential and positivity in everything and everyone. sometimes they can overdo it to the point of codependency, enabling, addiction, avoidance and denial. just less than a week later mercury squares pluto, and pluto is all about the shadow. pluto excavates and goes deeply into all the shadow and shit that is messy and yucky to libra and pisces. pluto happens to station direct on the same day that mercury squares him for the second time (september 24th)- which brings a very powerful, intense and potentially transformative energy into our relationships, communications, mind and thought processes. yet let me tell you- you will not transform without a (good) fight! and you will not embody more Light without going into and through more of your shit and shadow.
the pluto station is potent and it’s just days before the 4th total lunar eclipse in aries on september 27th. we have been in a series of 4 total lunar eclipses back to back (called a tetrad) and interestingly they have all been in aries and libra. at the start of last year, before the first total lunar eclipse, i wrote a blog about how this heralded a shift in the masculine/feminine dynamic and relationships. true to form there have been A LOT of relationships going through the fire- some coming out alchemically changed and others ending completely and going back to Source so that energy can be reabsorbed and then reconnected elsewhere. i have seen this with tons of clients, friends and family as well as in the celebrity news (thanks to Facebook!). this is the last of the 4 eclipses and it carries a huge signature as well and is a completion and culmination of the last 2 years of rocking, shocking waves of energy that have been helping us to evolve- willingly or not so willingly (for more info read the lunar insight on the eclipse that will be posted a week before the lunar eclipse is exact).
in all of this one harmonious aspect with mercury helps to anchor us down into the shifts, changes, transformations and evolutions happening right now- and for that we can thank saturn. saturn gets a bad rap but honestly no level of inspiration, transformation or evolution can be fully anchored into, grounded down and embodied without saturn and some earth energy. mercury sextiles saturn throughout his journey- helping us to take the insights about ourselves and our relationships and anchor them into our physical, material world in a way that helps us embody conscious change. saturn is also trine the karmic south node (and sextile the evolutionary north node)- helping us to see, own and take responsibility for our past so that we can masterfully move with grace and ease into our future. saturn is helping us to grow up and move beyond karmic patterns of the past that keep us spiritually immature.
this is definitely one powerful mercury retrograde! i have the list of all the exact dates below- and horoscopes each will will speak to how this is playing out for you by sign. taking time to self-reflect and do inner work on how we should up in communication and relationship with others will definitely be worth your while in the coming couple of months!
yours in the stars…
~divine harmony
MERCURY RETROGRADE
spanning the degrees from 0’53 libra-15’55 libra
8/28 enter front end shadow
10/24 exit back end shadow
mercury into libra- 8/27
mercury conjunct BML- 8/27
***8/28 enter front end shadow***
mercury conjunct NN 8/29
mercury quincunx neptune RX- 9/3
mercury square pluto RX- 9/9
SOLAR ECLIPSE 9/12
mercury stations retrograde at 15’55 libra****- 9/17
(SATURN INTO SADGE the same day)
mercury RX square pluto- 9/24
PLUTO STATIONS DIRECT same day** 12’58 capricorn
TOTAL LUNAR ECLIPSE 9/27
mercury RX quincunx neptune- 9/29
sun conjunct mercury- 9/30*** MIDPOINT OF MERCURY RX JOURNEY
mercury conjunct BML- 10/2
mercury sextile saturn 10/6
mercury stations direct 0’53 libra 10/9****
NODES INTO PISCES VIRGO same day
mercury sextile saturn- 10/13
mercury conjunct BML- 10/17
mercury quincunx neptune- 10/18
mercury square pluto- 10/22
LEAVES SHADOW 10/24
first aspect made OUT OF SHADOW
mercury quincunx chiron- 10/25