Mercury Retrograde

~January 28th until February 18th, 2008

KEYWORDS:

POSITIVE:

Completing unfinished business, random but beneficial encounters, breakthroughs in difficult situations, insight into repeated behavior, research yields previously hidden information, reflection, creativity, synchronicity.

NEGATIVE:

Miscommunication, delays in travel and transportation, scheduling errors, complications with new projects, indecision, forgetfulness, problems with the mail, telephones, computers, and machinery with moving parts.

Retrograde periods are an amplification of a planet’s energy. Those who are trying to develop themselves in the areas of life the planet represents can make huge leaps forward, while those resisting can feel those issues
highlighted, often manifesting as circumstances in the real world that force us to see them clearly.

READING THE SKY

Our ancestors were avid sky watchers; paying close attention to the seasonal cycles of the sun and moon that determined the harvest of the land and the catch of the sea. With time these celestial forces were further domesticated, applied to contexts outside of agricultural like medicine, psychology, and spirituality.

The consistent and regular movement of the planets was seen as a symbol of order in the universe. Disturbances in this pattern foretold a shaking up of things on Earth; especially in the areas of life that planet ruled over. Retrograde motion (from Latin, meaning “backwards stepping�? is when a planet appears to move in reverse, bringing complication, delay, or lack of clarity to its sphere of influence if not listened to.



HOW AND WHY

When retrograde, the planet Mercury appears to be moving backwards in the sky. It’s really an optical illusion created by differences in the relative speeds of the orbits of Earth and Mercury. From Earth, the movement of the planets is seen behind the backdrop of the sky. During a retrograde cycle, the planet pulls ahead of us in space. But from our perspective on Earth, it appears to move backwards against the sky.

Retrograde is a buzz word with lots of fear often unnecessarily projected on to it. It actually occurs regularly. Mercury goes retrograde three to four times a year, for only a three week period. Some of the outer planets move so slowly, they can move backwards for months. Since these periods that demand inner work show up regularly, we shouldn’t project danger on them but learn how to handle them, or even better, harness them for our own personal and spiritual development.

WITHIN THE RETROGRADE CYCLE
(8 degrees Aquarius to 24 degrees Aquarius)

A: Pre-Influence: January 12th, 2008 until January 28th, 2008
B: Retrograde Station: January 28th, 2008
C: Retrograde: January 28th, 2007 until February 18th, 2008
D: Direct Station: February 188h, 2008
E: Post-Influence: February 18th, 2008 until March 9th, 2008

There are distinct parts of a retrograde cycle:

A: Pre-Influence: Around January 12th, 2008 the planet Mercury crosses over the point in the sky where it will eventually correct its backwards motion. Different sources disagree about the exact start of the larger retrograde cycle astrologically, but this movement across the eventual finish line is the standard answer. Although technically not Mercury retrograde yet, you can feel the energy of the planet starting to change.

B: Retrograde Station: Around January 28th, the planet Mercury appears to slow down and completely stop, staying at the same degree for around three days before moving backwards. The time period around these motionless stationary days are usually the most intense display of the planet’s energy.

C: Retrograde: The planet appears to be moving backwards, crossing back over the same part of space that it just passed through. Exactly halfway through this period, Mercury makes an exact alignment between the Earth and the Sun. This three week period, from January 28th until February 18th this time around, is the time frame people usually think of as “Mercury Retrograde�?

D: Direct Station: Around February 18th, the planet Mercury appears to slow down and completely stop again, staying at the same degree for around three days before correcting its motion and moving forwards. Once again, the time period around these motionless stationary days are usually the most intense display of the planet’s energy.

E: Post-Influence: Around March 9th, Mercury passes over the degree where it stopped and started to move backwards. Although technically Mercury retrograde is over, this is usually viewed as the final release of the retrograde cycle. Different sources disagree about the exact end of a larger retrograde cycle astrologically, but this movement across the original starting line is the standard answer.

Because the planet seems motionless for a few days, different authors disagree about the exact start and end of retrograde cycles. Some use the start of this slowing down, others the middle of it, etc. So, in true Mercury retrograde fashion, expect slightly different listings of starting and ending times. Like a party with defined but ultimately useless starting and ending times, some people wander in early to the Mercury retrograde event, some people stumble out late. The concept of pre- and post- influence periods is not as well known. Sometimes called retrograde shadows or storms, they explain why some people feel the cycle more intensely before or after the backwards motion itself. This is especially true with the final stationary days.



SCRIBE, PRIEST, AND THIEF

For centuries, people have understood the energy of Mercury through the symbolism of the spiritual beings related to it. In the ancient Middle East, the planet Mercury was linked to the god Nabu, the scribe of the gods who recorded the destiny of humanity. When astrology came to Greece, the people sought out an equivalent in their own gods, they found one in Hermes. Originally a protective god of boundaries, he developed into a being that also ruled those who passed between them: travelers and shepherds (moving between their homes and destination), merchants (business transactions move objects between people), and the dead (guiding them from mortal life to the underworld). Like Nabu, he served as the messenger of the gods, but also has divine trickster qualities. Tricksters violate the normal rules of society, usually through thievery, playing pranks, and crossing cultural boundaries. Their act is actually a form of deviant compassion, restoring fluidity to a dangerously rigid part of culture through highlighting, inverting, or amplifying imbalance.

Honor the trickster. If disorder shows up, recognize that Mercury is only doing it’s job, highlighting an imbalance in your life that you have been ignoring. In Greek mythology, a young Hermes steals the cattle of his half-brother Apollo, who is distracted pursuing a young lover. He covers his tracks by having the animals walk backwards and hides them underground. To honor the gods, Hermes sacrifices two of the cows, inventing the tools of fire making in the process. His creative streak did not stop there. Combining the horns and leather with a turtle shell, he created the first lyre, a harp like instrument. Apollo comes to accuse the infant of theft but their conflict is resolved through trade; the rage of Apollo, a god of music, is tempered by the gift of a new unusual musical instrument. Like a Mercury retrograde period, Hermes seemed to complicate things for Apollo the Sun (usually a symbol of the Self or Ego) but actually produces new tools for him by doing so.



Much of Mercury’s symbolism is rooted in the movements of the actual planet. From the perspective of Earth, two planets have a unique relationship to the Sun, always found in close proximity: Mercury and Venus. They go through cycles of appearing with the sun at dusk as “evening stars�? then disappearing, then reappearing with it at dawn as “morning stars�? and disappearing again. Like a royal messenger, passing from court to his distant destination and returning home, Mercury appears to travel in and out of the Sun. Because the planet is so small and usually very close to the Sun, it is difficult to see it in the sky.

MERCURY IN THE HOUSE

Every planet except the Sun and Moon can go retrograde. Yet Mercury retrograde, the shortest one, is the most well know. It’s brief time table can be one of the sources of its infamy. While Saturn can be retrograde for months, giving us time to adjust and process its energy, Mercury jumps in and out of our lives suddenly. Mercury retrograde also tends to effect daily life. Each planet is associated with particular parts of our lives. Mercury rules the Third and Sixth Houses. Therefore, Mercury moving backwards tends to reveal itself in them. The Third House represents our everyday life, short distance travel, some aspects of our education, and our relationships to siblings and neighbors. The Sixth House represents our general health, our work ethic and job responsibilities, and ability to keep things in order.

DANCING WITH THE STARS

Astronomically, planets in retrograde motion are the closest that they can be to Earth and therefore appear very bright in the sky if visible. Like someone trying to catch your attention, a retrograde planet gets closer, becomes brighter, and loops around and around the same area of space. It may take Mercury three times highlighting something for us to recognize his message. Like the Full and New Moon, retrograde planets make an exact alignment with the Earth and Sun halfway through their cycle. This midpoint, when the Earth, Sun, and retrograde planet line up is an alignment of the planet’s energy in our life and the core message of the retrograde cycle. How is the Self (the Sun) perceiving and interpreting (Mercury) our present material existence (the Earth)?



In the symbolism of the Tarot, the Magician (I) card is associated with the planet Mercury. Contemporary decks depict a Magician with a table displaying tools that represent the four suits of the Tarot: the ace of coins/pentacles, ace of rods/wands, ace of swords, and ace of cups. Each of these suits represents a traditional element and aspect of human life. (Example: Coins/Pentacles = Earth. Material concerns and possessions.) Most of us are influenced by one or two elements but the Magician card
represents potential mastery of all the aspects of ourselves, the skill to grasp the appropriate tool required to transform our world. During Mercury retrograde, examine your personal tool box and figure out if you are using the appropriate instrument for the job. For example, if you are thinking too much in a situation, perhaps you are leaning too heavily on the airy ‘sword of thought�?aspect of yourself. Perhaps the watery “cup of emotion�?would be better.



THE WATER BEARER

Every Mercury retrograde is an amplification of mentality: thinking, perception, and communication. Original and profound ideas surface through easier access to states of reflection, especially insight into the past, repeated behaviors, and the inner workings of our minds. Every few months Mercury asks us slow down, stop, and enter ourselves, to let issues we did not resolve during its recent direct motion to rise to the surface to be fully released. While outer speech may be garbled, inner communication gets powerfully clear.

If we resist this inner call, lessons we have yet to integrate like flawed thought patterns and personal interactions can manifest in the physical realm as oddly repeated events, distractions, complications in travel, general confusion, and miscommunication, getting processed in a harder way. Even this is ultimately for our benefit, magnifying our mental world to the factor that allows us to examine our thoughts clearly.

Not everyone feels the effects of Mercury retrograde equally, people born under the signs of Gemini and Virgo (both ruled by Mercury) tend to feel the influence strongly, while those who were born when it was retrograde can sometimes handle it better. Each retrograde cycle is slightly different because it occurs within the context of a particular sign of the zodiac. With this Mercury retrograde event happening in the sign of Aquarius, it is likely to effect Aquarians and Leos strongly, with transiting Mercury potentially aspecting planets in their birth chart by conjunction (Aquarius) or opposition (Leo). Within this background context, this Mercury retrograde is likely to show itself to all of us in group situations, effect technology (especially electronics) and the media even stronger than normal, amplify the struggle to find individual identity, buck against social norms, and the desire to detach from others.

FATHER OF INVENTION

To learn the lesson of this period, work with rather than against the influence of the planet. It seems counterintuitive. Remember Mercury itself has not really changed. Our reaction to its altered influence is just showing us where we haven’t. Lists of correspondences are tools used to tap into the energy of a planet to balance or attract its influence. They can be carried, a circle constructed from them can be meditated inside, they can be held in the hand, placed on the body, used to decorate a themed altar for the period, encountered in visualization (like the planetary animals) or offered up to the divine. For example, parts of every plant are ruled by a planet: the Moon rules leaves, Venus rules flowers, and Saturn rules roots, etc. But specific plants are linked to planets because they share a similar vibration, as seen in their symbolism.

GEMSTONES/METALS: Because Mercury is associated with blending, stones with banding or multiple colors like agates and opals, metal alloys like brass. The liquid metal quicksilver, but silver is the standard replacement for it because mercury is toxic. Because mercury was used in plating objects, gold plate. Man-made materials like glass and coins; aluminum is often used today for working with Mercury because it’s an unnatural material. In Indian astrology, the gemstone is emerald, or other green translucent stones like verdelite (green tourmaline).

ANIMALS: Animals that watch over boundaries, like dogs, which physically protect them, or roosters, which announce the in-between time of dawn. Birds that communicate like parrots, or are associated with writing like geese, whose feathers were our pens for centuries. Animals that produce human like sounds, like the laughing of hyenas, or are related to us like apes, or are part of our everyday life like pets or beasts of burden.

PLANTS: Plants with refined scent, like lemongrass, especially aromatic seeds, bark, and peels of fruit, like cinnamon, white sandalwood, mace, and citrus. Plants associated with divination, like vervain, dream states like lavender and clary sage, supporting the mind like fennel and dill, or that can be transformed into useful products like flax through human invention.

COLORS: Traditionally, blue or grey, a blending of yellow and green, or multi-colored things, especially things with iridescence flashes. Contemporary listings usually list yellow or sometimes yellow with purple as a flashing color.




By Christopher Matthews