by Robert Wilkinson
In part two we explore more about this phenomenon that occurs three weeks at a time three times a year. At the end of this article I have included a table so you can find out which house(s) this July 2006 Mercury retrograde period falls in relative to your Sun or rising sign. Consult this article to find out how this transit will affect you personally as a result of Mercury retrograding through the houses in your chart.
Like all Mercury retrograde periods, these three weeks offer a chance to reorganize in the areas of our life ruled by Mercury. These are the houses of your chart ruled by Gemini or Virgo, any planets in these signs in your chart, and the house occupied by your natal, progressed, or solar return Mercury.
All retrogrades show us that sometimes it is more important to be inwardly oriented than outer-directed. These are times when our previous activities "echo back" information about what we've already experienced during a planetary direct motion phase. When retrograde, Mercury, the "Guide of Souls," challenges us to cultivate our "fellowship with the Eternal," explore our deeper issues and useful but overlooked details in what's being discussed or asserted, take an unusual view, and allow ourselves to be led by the future implications of what's happening.
We can get different perspectives and insights into prior events, messages, and signals, and can fill in important gaps in our understanding. Sometimes it may seem like it's one step forward, two to the side, one step back, one to the other side, then two steps forward, but often we find that we are offered entirely new and crucial perspectives and knowledge that can help us when it's time to move forward again after the retrograde is past.
In Part 1 of this series of articles, we explored some specific qualities of the present Mercury retrograde period. Remember to get your important paperwork in order by Friday, June 30th, and be ready during the three week retrograde period to deal with things you've put off, or take care of things from the past. This July 2006 Mercury retrograde is going to give us new understanding about the events of the past four months.
We can again reconsider, reinterpret, and rework Leo and Cancer issues and activities, seeing their significance from new angles of understanding. We'll get more insights about needs, habits, feelings, protection issues, assuring supply, children, creativity, spontaneity (or the lack thereof) and how connected to life and its pleasures and enthusiasms we are or would like to be. By the end of this retrograde period, we will stand on the threshold of four months of seeing how our longing and expectations are or are not bringing us a sense of life as a grand adventure, and how our sustained desire and dreams are or are not being made manifest.
Explore the concept of "Equinimity," and you should see accomplishment to the degree that you find a "sure insight into the meaning of chance events and the current drift of circumstance." We'll begin a period where we will find Soul power through creative poise and a range of perspective bringing gifts of sustained interest and constructive attitudes toward potential consequences. The entire four months accents a focus on "our ships coming in," and a consummation of ideas that can give our life an enduring quality.
It's a time of separating from that which is problematic, and seeing the "constructive result of inconveniences of life in developing communal values." Your sensitivity to various departments of yourself will bring you spontaneous and combustible experiences, and ultimately will lead to new self-assurance. Trust what is being dropped, trust in offers to play and be creative in different ways and circumstances, and by late July you will see your hopes, dreams, and expectations more clearly. Much will be shown in the next three weeks that will lead us to different visions of what we need, why we need it, and how we are helping or hindering our dreams coming true by our subconscious patterns around expectations.
The primary aspects Mercury makes this retrograde period is a biseptile and then tredecile with Jupiter, which will activate repair, reform, and purification energies, and offer regeneration, focus, and magnetism for new relationships with others who are our comrades. Based in the lifestyle needs we're awakening to, this will give us interactive gifts and special circumstances of what needs to be eliminated from our lives, and put us at a critical fork in the road in how we can regenerate based on an accurate understanding of our needs, habits, and past patterns. As I mentioned in part one, since Mercury and Jupiter rule signs that oppose each other, it's a great time to find interactive gifts in the Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces areas of our charts.
There are two significant afflictions to Mercury in this period. One involves the quincunx to Pluto, showing us the need to be very clear, honest, and above board in all our communications and interpretations. If something can be misunderstood, it will be, so adjust your perspective and communication style, and if it's offered, accept "a mantle of power" that can help you be a leader in some area of life. This aspect is closest July 14 through 24, and opens productive growth in terms of being able to pick up and deliver forms of spiritual power, and through accurate measurement, release that power through controlled feelings. Check up on what you have at your disposal, since it's taking your into an individual-mental-Spiritual dimension of how you can make a larger contribution to your society in the future. The other area of productive growth from this quincunx is that it offers us all the opportunity to define our role, function, and imagery precisely to compel the manifestation of what we love. If we can find the right role to play, we can find tremendous enjoyment in the dance, if we're willing to adjust appropriately.
The other frictional aspect Mercury makes is the sesquisquare with Uranus, which is closest July 4 through 16. This aspect usually brings annoyances and conflict that is not crisis producting, but is more a spur that keeps pressure on us to resolve the irritating circumstances it usually signifies. Many will find that elements of past habits and feelings that are venerated are obsolete, and that too much worship of the past and its traditions do not serve our need to rehearse a future that is unfolding in the NOW. In fact, too much sentimental attachment to the past can actually obstruct our future, and set up a conflict depending on how tightly we cling to old notions, habits, and traditions.
This retrograde, through July 24-25, will have the New Moon quality of the 4 degree Cancer Moon-Sun combo, giving new insights and reflections on recent decisions, reorienting our consciousness and our lives, and the inevitable rationalizations from our past that challenge the validity of those decisions. This New Moon is assisting us to do away with internal doubts and arguments, sophistical thinking and offering us opportunities to dump people that waste our time or are needlessly challenging or querulous.
Mercury is heavily influenced by the Sun and Moon this retrograde period, since it occupies the sign that those planets rule. Because Mercury is not afflicting the Sun, and goes through afflictions to the Moon fairly rapidly and there are very few other afflictions to Mercury, it should prove to be a fairly satisfying retrograde period, as long as your overcome the constant irritation of the Uranian sesquisquare and make the needed adjustments indicated by the quincunx to Pluto. Use the aspects to Jupiter to deepen, open, connect, and regenerate, and like the last Mercury retrograde period in Pisces, this is a great time to get unique gifts and qualities of a Scorpio nature, which can help eliminate unhelpful corrosive tendencies as you flow out of old views into new dynamic activity that will quickly follow this three week period.
The entire three week period is one of seeing how you can be more spontaneous and assured in your activities, while consolidating recent life developments on the individual-mental-Spiritual level as well as the emotional-social-cultural level of life. The beginning activates the action sector of early Leo, and retrogrades back into the mental Spiritual level of Cancer July 10. It finally winds up on the emotional-social-cultural level of "Consolidation" on July 18, also known as the span of "Ingenuousness," where it finally goes stationary direct on July 28-29, depending on which continent you live.
As with all Mercury retrograde periods, review, reflect, research, gather information, and take a new look at your power to change your point of view and interpretations. This gives a chance to shift how you do what you do, how you coordinate your affairs, and indicates future shifts in the areas where Cancer and Leo falls in your birth charts. The last Mercury retrograde period in March showed us how to ground our realizations and peak experiences in our everyday life, and how to incorporate new values in our quest to meet the challenges of a new way of life.
We were all given a "mandate," and since March have seen many things consumated and subsequently left behind. We now have a "camouflage," have been put in situations where we had to "advertise our inner worth," and have had our merit certified through "high accomplishment through a consistent representation of the self's assets in the best possible light."
By learning about these recurring Mercury retrograde periods, we can understand how to deal with them productively, as well as the months afterwards, which they also indirectly influence. Since this July 2006 Mercury will go stationary at 2 Leo and retrograde back into Cancer, you can learn a lot about this coming period by reading all you can about Mercury retrograde in Cancer and Leo. To find more about Mercury retrograde, you should find a copy of my definitive book on the subject, "A New Look At Mercury Retrograde." Written a few years ago, it has timely and useful information. Though it has been out of stock from time to time, I am now editing the files anew, and will offer it as an ebook in the near future on this site.
If you want more information from this site about how this important time of Mercury retrograde (which happens three times a year every year!) will affect you personally, if you can get a copy, read the section in the book on Mercury retrograde in the houses. However, in the meantime you can also get some useful ideas of how it will work by consulting the article on this site titled "How Does Mercury Retrograde Work in the Houses," linked at the top of this article. The houses in astrology show us the specific areas of our worldly affairs where we are experiencing a given planetary influence. You can find out Mercury's approximate position in your solar houses (created by your sun sign position) by consulting the chart that follows:
For birthdays between:
June 23 to July 14, read Mercury retrograde in the 1st house.
July 14 to 23, 12th and 1st houses.
July 24 to August 13, 12th house.
August 14 to 24, 11th and 12th houses.
August 25 to September 13, 11th house.
September 14 to 24, 10th and 11th houses.
September 25 to October 14, 10th house.
October 15 to 24, 9th and 10th houses.
October 25 to November 13, 9th house.
November 14 to 23, 8th and 9th houses.
November 24 to December 13, 8th house.
December 14 to 22, 7th and 8th houses.
December 23 to January 11, 7th house.
January 12 to 21, 6th and 7th houses.
January 22 to February 10, 6th house.
February 11 to 19, 5th and 6th houses.
February 20 to March 10, 5th house.
March 11 to 21, 4th and 5th houses.
March 22 to April 10, 4th house.
April 11 to 20, 3rd and 4th houses.
April 21 to May 11, 3rd house.
May 12 to 21, 2nd and 3rd houses.
May 22 to June 11, 2nd house.
June 12 to 22, 1st and 2nd houses.
Of course, this table is approximate. One should always have the chart calculated professionally in order to know where the planets are situated, as this helps clarify your exact cyclic pattern.
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