I didn’t talk too much about the Mercury retrograde this time around, and now it’s almost over. With everything else that has been going on it kind of blended into the general chaos of our moment. But now that they’re about ready to start moving forward again, there’s a gap in the sky where we can talk about Mercury.
Mercury Stations
When Mercury stations direct it usually coincides with some information being revealed. Many of the frustrations and upsets associated with Mercury retrograde come down to the fact that we are not working with all the available data. More often than not the missing pieces get revealed around the time when Mercury begins moving forward again. This happened this morning (Friday 12th July).
Illustration by Linus.
The previous Mercury retrograde happened between 17th February and 10th March this year. Mercury stationing direct on the 10th of March coincided with Europe finally realizing that they would not be exempt from Coronavirus. Italy was the first European country to go into total lockdown on the 9th of March. This was a turning point in many people’s minds about the seriousness of the issue. The information that Coronavirus was rapidly spreading across Europe was revealed. Many people’s plans for 2020 were abruptly cancelled or messed with, this is stereotypical Mercury retrograde trickery but on a grand scale.
For the past three weeks, through eclipses and the loosening of lockdowns, we’ve been missing some vital information that will be revealed this week. Stay flexible, keep your ear to the ground and hold back on signing your life away until after the weekend, if you can.
Mercury and Mars
This comes at the end of a week in which Mars in Aries has been in a tense 90 degree square aspect with Mercury in Cancer the whole time. It’s been a little tense and jittery to say the least.
Mercury is acting in their messenger role here. We are in a time between the Venus and the Mars retrogrades, these being perhaps the most powerful that we experience. Venus is still in her echo phase, covering the same ground in Gemini for the third time, allowing the subconscious changes of the retrograde to begin to surface. Mercury squaring up to Mars now passes the torch on to Mars who is about to enter his shadow phase, turning retrograde in September. More on that in my next post.
This week it may have seemed like all of the frustrations and tensions that have been building up so far this summer have been slipping out in all directions. A constant feeling of drinking too much coffee. Bad moods may have turned into sharp words. Stubbed toes into tears of frustration. Minor inconveniences into ruined days.
This is partly because things are just frustrating right now and it’s become harder to find healthy outlets for that. But there is also something else going on.
Chiron Stations Retrograde
Both Mars and Chiron are squaring Mercury from this sign right now.
Illustrated by my brother Linus Nelson.
As Mercury begins to move forward Chiron begins to move backwards. Chiron is a centaur object. It’s an orbit crosser, at its closest to the Sun nearer than Saturn, at its farthest further out than Uranus.
Right now it’s about as far out as it goes – in the sign of Aries – and it’s also caught up in the Mercury Mars square. This pattern suggests that our seemingly surface frustrations are probably rooted far deeper than we first thought. If you take the time to try and find the true source of stress this week you might unearth some pretty complex material.
On an even more detailed look at the current configuration we see centaur Pholus and trans-neptunian Quaoar opposing Mercury from Capricorn. These objects suggest that our frustrations might be rooted in events prior to us even being born. Pholus points to family patterns going back three generations, Quaoar even further than that into our family history.
The astrology of the summer so far has felt as though the earth beneath our feet is being ploughed up. This is a process of churning up the ground that was previously set in place. On the one hand this is necessary to be able to plant seeds of the future, on the other it can be disorienting and painful. Some of that disruption has manifested in our bodies and our minds this week as we try to readjust after all of the unearthing of history, both global and personal.
It feels like something needs to be said.
We have all changed a lot this year and we are still in the middle of that process. The eclipse cycle has helped us to transform, more recently by starting to let go of that which was no longer serving us. Venus retrograde helped us adjust our values and figure what’s most important to us now. Mercury Rx has helped us rethink our habits and evaluate our feelings. Through all of these overlapping processes something new has emerged, something perhaps, that we are yet to integrate into our lives.
It feels like something needs to be said.
Maybe you need to look in the mirror and say it to yourself or write it down in your journal. Perhaps you need to sit down with a partner or close friend and say it to someone else’s face. However you do it, the new aspects of your personality must be invited into the light of consciousness somehow. By saying it out loud you make it real, you are revealing information to yourself and to the world.
You may find this is what getting on your nerves this week, similar to the kind of awkwardness we went through at puberty as we were finding our new place in the world, just on a smaller scale.
Allow the new you to emerge, and listen out for others expressing their new selves too. Be gentle, be open and be kind to each other in a time when the world seems anything but these things.
