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 which house(s) this October-November 2006 Mercury retrograde period falls in relative to your Sun or rising sign. Consult this article to find 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 the inner planets are retrograde, our personal life is most subject to review, reflection, re-doing or getting a new angle on those affairs. When the outer planets are retrograde, we get the same process of review but it impacts our place in the larger scheme of things, whether social, cultural, or transpersonal-global.
When retrograde, Mercury, the "Guide of Souls," challenges us to cultivate our personal understanding of 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. It’s a time when we truly get a new look at many things and come to a different understanding of how the various affairs of our inner and outer life are coordinated, or need to be.
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, October 27th, 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 October-November 2006 Mercury retrograde will give us new understanding about the events of the past four months.
We can again reconsider, reinterpret, and rework Scorpio issues and activities, seeing their significance from new angles of understanding. We'll get more insights about our magnetism, desires, shared values and resources, deep inner conflicts, power struggles, and stuck feelings. We’ll also have the ability to transform old defeats into long term regenerative victories, and losses into “spaciousness and luminosity” to attract what we need to fulfill our purpose at this time in our lives. By the end of this retrograde period, we will stand on the threshold of four months of seeing how our willingness to share experiences with others and feel a deeper sense of connection with them will bring us a sense of community and fellowship.
Regard much that presents itself these next few weeks in terms of “Efficient Functioning,” and be willing to adjust quickly to whatever new inner or outer environment in which you find yourself. Move on as needed, make everywhere your “home,” as we’re beginning a period where we can strip away the unnecessary things, feelings, and ideas we’ve collected before now, and see what is lacking that we need to attract to bring us new power, focus, and willingness to break through to a higher intention. The entire four months accents a focus on adaptation, loss, and regeneration through attracting the deeper connectedness within ourselves and with others so we can find others in our “spiritual” community.
The past four months we’ve separated from many problematic things and people, and got to see the "constructive result of inconveniences of life in developing communal values." We’ve had the opportunity to find new self-assurance, and have seen many hopes, dreams, and expectations more clearly 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 are the conjunctions with Sun, Venus, Mars, and Jupiter in Scorpio, showing an overall fusion of these areas, offering us a chance to coordinate or reorder some elements to make our lives work more effectively. There will be losses that create space for newer things to present themselves after the retrograde period is over, or what is presented during the retrograde will have a new application and/or meaning in the future.
Mercury and Jupiter rule signs that oppose each other, so it's a great time to find union between the Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces areas of our charts. Due to the other planets we can also find union of these areas with those ruled by Aries, Taurus, Cancer, Leo, Libra, and Scorpio, with release provided by the other significant aspect, the square to Saturn. While this shows the Capricorn and Aquarius parts of our lives are at odds with the Mutable sign areas mentioned in the first sentence of this paragraph, it can provide useful “turning the corner” energies, since Scorpio is the lower, or waxing square, to Saturn in Leo.
The other frictional aspect Mercury makes is the semisquare with Pluto in middle and late November, which will deal a death blow to whatever would obstruct our dedication to a larger ideal, the expression of our individual genius, or our ability to make our unique mark on our society. As this represents an internal conflict between the dying form of what has been and the on-going formation of the seeds of things to come, let go gracefully and don’t get too frustrated about whatever annoys you.
Keep your sense of what’s possible, and don’t let others’ narrow minded views or pessimism throw you off your balance. Make sure you’re seeing clearly, and interpreting what’s coming and going without desires deflecting your energies into unproductive outlets. It’s a pioneering impulse, so joyously move into the future without old resentments or attachments making you feel divided inwardly.
You may find that elements of past feelings are counterproductive, and that too much attachment to what’s wrong will not serve the need to rehearse a future that is unfolding in the NOW. In fact, too much discontent with what is already gone can actually obstruct our future, and set up a conflict depending on how tightly we cling to what bugs us. The energies of Scorpio challenge us to be as FOR something as we can be against what we don’t like.
This retrograde, through November 17-18, will have the New Moon quality of the 29 Libra Moon-Sun combo set into motion October 21, giving new perspectives on recent events where we have begun to reconstruct or repair something, forcing us to be good warrior-guardians of whatever philosophical completeness we’re coming to. This New Moon is assisting us in participating in some social process which opens the future to “Truth and a greater Life.” We are told it can destroy the “roots of loneliness” and show us the way to participate with others in a greater social effectiveness.
Mercury is heavily influenced by Mars this retrograde period, since it occupies the sign that planet rules. Because Mercury has no major afflictions except for Saturn in the early part of the retrograde, it should be a time when many things come together, as long as we do not yield to the usual pessimism and rigidity of view occurring when Mercury afflicts Saturn. As usual, the antidotes are positive Taurus and Aquarius traits and attributes, so simplify, enjoy, detach, and see the big picture even as you dig deeper into your feelings about things.
Since Autumn is the time of “cutting and destroying,” the semisquare to Pluto is somewhat of a natural thing for this time of year. Use the Mercury trine to Uranus most of November to understand the emotional movement you’ve been offered in 2006 through prior Mercury retrogrades in Pisces and Cancer, and see how you’re move fluid in your responses, and feel more deeply about some things. You can be more in touch with your needs and feelings and understand with more certainty what your focus is, or needs to be.
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 efficient and adaptable while consolidating recent life developments. The beginning of the retrograde activates the individual-mental-Spiritual level of “Faith,” then retrogrades back through the emotional-social-cultural and actional-physical levels, eventually moving through the mental Spiritual and emotional-cultural levels of “Communion,” where it goes stationary direct.
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 Scorpio falls in your birth charts. The last Mercury retrograde period in July showed us the "constructive result of inconveniences of life in developing communal values." We gained through subtraction, or benefited through forms of quarantine, whether of self from others or situations, or exiling, if temporarily, those who are "dis-eased" so that we could play or create in healthy fashion.
For several months we’ve had the ability to become sensitive to how individual crises affect the collective, and how a single person who is dysfunctional can blow the deal for an entire group. We’ve had to isolate what hasn’t worked, or which threatened the health, wealth, or peace of mind in our lives and relationships. We’ve been challenged not to retreat to "self-deficiencies" or avoid what must be confronted, and find healthy ways of self-dramatization.
Whether conscious or unconscious, we’ve had the possibility to open to a transcendent happiness through following dissatisfaction with what was into a more concrete image of what we want. It’s been a time to evaluate our expectancies, find a "creative poise" and a perspective that leads to a constructive attitude toward potentials. This equanimity could give us "a sure insight into the meaning of chance events" and circumstances as they have unfolded.
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 October-November 2006 Mercury will go stationary at 26 Scorpio and retrograde back to 10 Scorpio, you can learn a lot about this coming period by reading all you can about Mercury retrograde in Scorpio. I published a piece of the section from my definitive book on the subject, "A New Look At Mercury Retrograde" in this article, A New Look At Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio. Though out of print, you can still pick up copies through various places.
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 of my book, read the section 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:
October 18 to 31, read Mercury retrograde in the 1st house.
November 1 to 17, 12th and 1st houses.
November 18 to 30, 12th house.
December 1 to 16, 11th and 12th houses.
December 17-30, 11th house.
December 31 to January 14, 10th and 11th houses.
January 15 to 28, 10th house.
January 29 to February 13, 9th and 10th houses.
February 14 to 26, 9th house.
February 27 to March 14, 8th and 9th houses.
March 15 to 29, 8th house.
March 30 to April 14, 7th and 8th houses.
April 15 to 28, 7th house.
April 29 to May 15, 6th and 7th houses.
May 16 to 29, 6th house.
May 30 to June 15, 5th and 6th houses.
June 16 to 30, 5th house.
July 1 to 16, 4th and 5th houses.
July 17 to 31, 4th house.
August 1 to 17, 3rd and 4th houses.
August 18 to 31, 3rd house.
September 1 to 17, 2nd and 3rd houses.
September 18 to October 1, 2nd house.
October 2-17, 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.
My birthday is September 17, 1925, at Houston, Texas, 4:51 P.M CST., the day the Age of Aquarius commenced. Werner Heisenberg announced his views on what is now "quantum mechanics." Heisenberg was Hitler's atomic bomb builder. I invite you to visit my new blog "The Higher Law" at the above URL
Posted by: Joseph W Smith | October 23, 2006 at 08:05 AM
Hi Joseph - Sorry the link didn't get posted. I've tried, but you're better off just typing it in.
1925 was a special year, showing you're a man of unique and special aptitudes. Always found 1924-25-26 men intelligent, intuitive, and capable of wide influence, though plagued by echoes of memories of perceptions of memories of perception of...
Please send the link again. And also remember that a "Great Age" has a transition period before and after the "point of emergence," and in the span of a great age the transition is several hundred years. So I figure it'll take humanity a while to figure out the old era is braindead, and a new way has already come upon us. 20-20 hindsight is like that. I also figure a majority will be awake by 2070, including those of us not in a body any more. ;-)
Posted by: Robert | October 23, 2006 at 05:29 PM
Still regardless of Mercury retrograde I do want to change things around. New changes are stuck in my mind, ready to pop up. Should I wait till Mercury goes direct for realization of new things or should I proceed now? I would love to move step by step. Each day brings a change one step at a time. I can't stop the process since it has started on October 15 for me. I feel like there is no way back. Not burning the bridges as yet, but feeling that something definitely will be left behind soon. I feel that fresh wind is brushing through my hair. Feeling of unknown, but plan is certain and I am not afraid. I do not want to reconsider. Larissa, FL (Aries sun, Leo rising, Scorpio moon).
Posted by: Larissa Pond | October 31, 2006 at 08:14 PM
Hi Larissa - Mercury rx just shows things from the past returning, or plans being re-evaluated so they work better, or a time when "life will catch up to mind," bringing new info or activities which must be done before seeking entrance to whatever is beyond. Maybe this RX is giving you one look back before proceeding. Follow through on whatever you set into motion before now, or rehearse whatever you're in process of doing. I wouldn't stop the process that began on the 15th, and of course there is no turning back once the die is cast. Take an unusual view and keep moving forward.
Posted by: Robert | November 01, 2006 at 05:56 AM
I am new to all this, but I understand that with Mercury in retrograde in Scorpio, no one should do anything that would become life changing. I am born on a cusp, my birthday is September 22.
I was wondering if anyone out there could enlighten me about Mercury in retograde in my sign, as I understand plain language better than techneical terms.
I have expericened some brief glimpises, it's very strange how they come, anyway if you can share your knowledge it would be most appreciated.
Love & Light,
Mary Ann
Posted by: Mary Ann | November 05, 2006 at 10:50 AM
Hi Mary Ann - Mercury RX in Scorpio is great for reversing magnetism in one's life, eliminating outmoded physical, emotional, and mental responses, replacing them with concentrated attractive force in intentional renewal. Mercury isn't retrograde in your sign, but you will note that Mercury falls in your Solar 2nd house, and if you go to the link at the top of this post to the article How Does Mercury Retrograde Affect Us In The Different Houses? you can get a better sense of some of how it's affecting you.
Posted by: Robert | November 05, 2006 at 12:53 PM
Hi All - An aside - from hard experience I've learned that it takes two to make a relationship, and we need to imagine being with someone in ways that are better than what we've settled for in the past. Also that friendship is the only solid basis for a long term relationship. I suppose one perfect retrograde manifestation is that we can learn some things about another's subconscious.
Posted by: Robert | November 07, 2006 at 11:57 AM