The Guide of Souls in February 2013 - Mercury Slowing Down, Preparing to go Retrograde at 20 Pisces

by Robert Wilkinson

Yes, it's THAT time again! Mercury is radically slowing down, preparing to go stationary retrograde at 20 Pisces on February 23, 1:41 am PST, 4:41 am EST, 9:41 am Greenwich. This has important implications for all signs.

I'll be composing several articles about this Mercury retrograde in Pisces over the next several weeks. Until then, adapt to the slowing pace of things, be willing to put some things on hold for a little while, and take a look at what's been set into motion up to now with an eye to seeing what has to be done before things can again move forward in late November.

I know there are many unfortunate things attributed to Mercury retrograde, but there are also many productive things that get done, connections that are made, and different angles of view glimpsed that make our understanding more complete and well rounded.

The two weeks before the retrograde is good for setting things in motion that will need a delay before being picked up anew. Or for doing things that will need research, rehearsing, or reworking to whatever degree before completion. The time before Mercury goes retrograde is good for doing what must be done so that other related things can be done later, as well as reconnecting with people and activities from the past that are somehow related to the future.

The coming retrograde will be an extremely important one showing us that when all is said and done, we will find what nourishes us among those who are our spiritual family. We can find protection, or can see how we have been protected in our “day of labor” and now can sit down for the feast.

We may find insights related to 2008-2010 when Uranus and Jupiter transited this degree, and can see what life has prepared for us since the last Mercury retrograde. We have all had opportunities to look back and distill wisdom from our past experiences while navigating the Grand Irrationality that’s been constantly active since the last Mercury RX period.

This retrograde will help us say goodbye to many things, and experience “the encompassing richness of experience whenever (our) particular ordeal is over.” We can find “spiritual nourishment” and an “ingathering of forces” that is our reward for diligent work. This time we can stabilize our understanding or plans based in reviewing what we’ve glimpsed or sensed the past several weeks.

Consider the next 3 weeks as a transition period where we shall all take a look back, and do what we must to achieve closure on whatever is related to the 2008-2010 period. Trust your final insights more than your initial ones, and see what is ending or needs closure. This period will concentrate many energies preparing us for the new beginnings of mid-March, while everything we cannot take across the threshold of late March will begin to fade away or dissolve. It will certainly be an important retrograde, given the aspects in play!

This chart gives us several extremely important aspects indicating what’s up both for the next few days and the entirety of the retrograde period. The Moon is highly active in the stationary retrograde chart, as it’s at 6 Leo and triggers the Grand Irrationality, as well as makes a trine to Uranus, sextile to Jupiter, and square to Saturn. We will all have to make critical decisions as we hit major turning points in the areas where we have Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces. I’ll write more about this in future articles in this series.

So expect major choices and changes throwing us forward! Try to admire the differences between you and others rather than get into confrontations based in temporary or limited views. The Moon guarantees that the Grand Irrationality is in full play, as does the Jupiter triseptile Saturn discussed in recent Lunation articles. These configurations show us areas where we’ll confront important choices and changes altering the course of destiny, both for us and those in our lives.

So the Moon triseptile both Neptune and Pluto puts The Grand Irrationality into action. This lights up 3 points of the 7 pointed Star, and anyone with planets or points in one or more of the 7 zones will be heavily affected.

These zones are approximately 9-13 Capricorn, 1-5 Pisces, 22-26 Aries, 14-18 Gemini, 5-9 Leo, 26-30 Virgo, and 17-21 Scorpio. To learn more about this long wave phenomenon please go to recent articles on the subject. Obviously when the Moon is moving through any of the 7 hot zones it’ll set major things into motion.

Along with the Grand Irrationality creating an energetic field of destiny-producing choices and changes, we have Jupiter triseptile Saturn. Again, that puts many signs into play, given we have non-rational aspects happening involving the Moon, Jupiter, Saturn, Neptune, and Pluto. That’s a LOT of craziness where many areas won’t make much sense but we’ll have to be dealing with things anyway!

So besides the 7 zones listed above, we also have hot zones created by Jupiter and Saturn at 6-10 Gemini, 28 Cancer – 2 Leo, 19-23 Virgo, 10-14 Scorpio, 2-6 Capricorn, 23-27 Aquarius, and 14-18 Aries. So as you can see, every time these zones are triggered by transits, it will be followed shortly by the Grand Irrationality being triggered. Watch when the Moon moves through any of these zones, and of course if you have a planet or Ascendant in any of these 14 zones, expect destiny to be on the move in your lives!

During the next three weeks the Moon will trigger these regularly, but no other planet will trigger these zones, so we should be able to focus as we move through the endings promised by Pisces into the new initiatives of the inner planets transiting Aries in the second half of March. So while it may be a wild ride from time to time, we should be able to stabilize some things as we move into the transition between past and future. Since much won’t make any sense and be thrown into some temporary confusion, or we’ll confront our own or someone else’s compulsions, kick back a little, show some courage and heart, and keep relating to others at the highest level of social interaction.

This Mercury retrograde will give us many signs and signals for what will dominate Mercury-ruled areas from mid-March through mid-October 2013. This retrograde is a time of critical choice and change, where we can take a new look at what’s behind us before moving forward anew at the end of the RX period. We can get all kinds of new insights into future potentials, while seeing things in the recent past differently.

As the Inferior Conjunction happens March 4 at 15 Pisces, the coming “fusion of life and mind” will show us how sometimes a “dress rehearsal” must be done to prepare us for the real thing, and that sometimes the “real thing” must be rehearsed if we are to create a pattern we can live in the future. This will allow us to set aside appearances and “pretending” due to the very real necessities that will require our time and effort.

So all in all, we begin a period of important choices and changes in trajectory and destinies thanks to the challenges and weirdness of the Grand Irrationality coupled with Jupiter and Saturn. Welcome to many things being reviewed or coming back up to surface thanks to the retrograde quality of the time. Some will review and/or rework past efforts to see what’s done, and find spiritual nourishment through the review and reflection on seeing how an ordeal is in fact over.

While there will be some hard edges, this time should help us integrate our feelings with our sense of responsibility. Keep it loving, keep it simple, keep it enjoyable, keep it friendly, see the big picture, and say goodbye to whatever is done.

For all of us, during the next several weeks the future that's already rolling forward will slow a little so we can get a new look at crucial elements of the process we cannot afford to ignore. We will all have opportunities to grow in natural or creative self-expression, exchange views and information to come to balanced actions and views, and rehearse and/or research potential futures already showing themselves in symbolic forms.

This is the end of an end, as well as the threshold of a new future, a new adventure, and a deepened focus. It promises to be a very intense time that doesn’t make much sense, but it doesn’t have to. Learn to ride the waves, adapt and adjust your rules and sense of limits as needed, and don’t get frustrated by the cross currents. They are leading us to simplicity, straightforwardness, visions of new potentials and futures, new truths, new perspectives, and an integrated broader and higher vision once some things are ended.

This will be an important retrograde, where the future is set into motion in some very direct ways. It will help us rehearse or do the research we need to get ready to spring forward in mid-March, freed to begin a new receptivity to a greater spiritual wisdom. New ideas, new perspectives, new potential futures, and new ways of getting focused are promised by this retrograde. And of course, more on this Mercury retrograde period will come soon!

Copyright © 2013 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Marta]

Thank you for this article!=)
I was a bit fearful about this transit but after reading this, I can understand it better!!

[Diane]

The next three weeks sound like they'll be interesting to say the least. Cancer rising/Libra ascending here. "an end of and end and threshold of a new future" - sounds exciting & scary at the same time. Went to Forward on Climate Rally in Washington, D.C. on Sunday to let Pres. Obama know this is one of his/America's critical points in the road....say NO to the keystone xl pipeline!

[Brannvattnet]

Irrationality, please don´t point at my North Node Leo..

[debbie]

Thank you Robert, as always such good nourishing information!

After many days of feeling something strongly building within me but unsure what, I was woken during the night with passionate ideas re emerging and flowing through my mind that had been long forgotten during the last 15 years of chaos and self healing, so enthusiastic it was hard to not go and wake up those I am currently staying with lol! Checked my chart this morn, the moon passed over my vertex at beginning of 8th house as mars is in sextile to vertex from the end of my 5th house and mercury not even rx yet! I am feeling alive as I am actually able to see what needed to occur during those tough times in order to be authentic and act accordingly now!

I have merc rx as well as 3 other planets natally, so for other rx recipients, just wanted to share that I have not always, yet often, found that when merc or the others are in rx in transit, as well as the deepening and reviewing aspects mentioned for that which they symbolise, I often find that something resurfaces for action, or additional insight for it to be perfected, or acknowledgment/respect is shown for something formerly disregard or credit given where due when previously disregarded or even judged wrongly for, where others have this occur when they are in direct motion?

So in case that helps anyone :)

[debbie]

oops all a jitter and meant moon passed over vertex as mars sextiled natal venus

[debbie]

sheesh Debbie slow down, i also forgot a point that was the relevent one intended to make relating to the above post, regarding the ideas, in particular the one resurfacing from past which I wrote about when I was 8, so almost 44 years ago, I am still not in a position to act on it or provide it for others yet myself, but someone I have crossed paths with a few times the past year, IS in a position to, has been struggling like the rest of us with her own things to overcome and came to mind too, so I emailed the ideas this morning and VOILA, she was floored and excited all at once, didnt know why she hadnt thought of it before herself as she has the place and the connections and it will help so many as well as her, so yep good things through all this chaos are definitely afoot...

[Suzanne]

Robert,

This retrograde was scary as all Mercury ones seem to me, but your analysis makes it sound renewable, purifying and eventually future oriented. I have Mercury trasiting the 4th and the full moon transiting the 10th. Looking for a new job and I hope these transits help in the process. Thanks for a wonderful post.It made me feel better after a horrible day.

[Grace Wilson]

Debbie I have merc rx and I too find it too be the perfect time to go back over my charts and work to find what I have missed. I find so much. But it does feel to me that things are ending and newness is just around the corner.

[Nancy R.]

Is it not just superstitions about Mercury Rx times? The more we feed the fears into the collective the more it builds.. Anyways. Glad to see more fellow natal Mercury Rx folks around. My natal Pluto and Uranus in Virgo, over-rides the Mercury Rx much of time.

Such as Pluto likes to strip apart bodies of knowledge or words and text, and leave the rest behind. But if I forgot something, it drives me nuts, and have to back and retrieve.