by Robert Wilkinson
Over the years many have asked me what Mercury retrograde is good for. We know it's supposedly NOT a good time to sign contracts, make purchases of electronics or major moves or decisions, and we are supposed to hang out with the energies, seeing that things may not be as they appear, and so on. That said, there is much that a Mercury retrograde period is good for, such as traveling, research, and other important things.
Due to overwhelming counseling work, I haven’t yet composed the articles on the qualities of this retrograde nor its effects in the different houses. I will get them done as soon as I can. That said, today I’ll offer you a few choice bits to ponder, and a few paragraphs on Mercury Retrograde in Aries taken from my pioneering work, “A New Look At Mercury Retrograde.” (Though it’s been out of print for years, I have finally begun to make progress in connecting with people who can help me re-publishing it as an e-book. Should be happening sometime before Mercury next goes retrograde in mid-July.)
Back to what Mercury retrograde is good for. I have found that as long as one is flexible, traveling during a retrograde can be a very good thing, as long as we’re flexible. Other favored things include research, reflection, review, rehearsals, and returns from the past. It's also a great time for reconnecting with old friends, finding people and things thought lost.
It's a great time to explore possibilities, as long as no definitive decisions are made and options kept open, since they are usually modified or reversed later on. It's also a good time for doing things left undone or neglected from previous times.
It's good for resuming something from the past, as long as you remember that it may not look like it used to, or requires a different approach than before. It's also excellent for getting new information and perspective that fills in gaps in understanding or activity, and doing things that seem to go in one direction but lead us to entirely new information and understanding.
We can safely resume things begun in previous retrograde periods, or pick up threads we once set aside while other things developed. It's an energy that favors building in a time lag in judging or evaluating whatever you're doing, since retrogrades often show that there are things yet to develop that will ultimately fill in whatever is missing in the present.
So what can we expect from Mercury retrograde in Aries? Besides giving a different atmosphere to anything we have in Gemini or Virgo, and the house it's retrograding through will feel more Mercurial, here is a bit from “A New Look At Mercury Retrograde." What you’re about to read is from the chapter on Mercury retrograde in the signs. Here's a portion of what I wrote about Mercury retrograde in Aries:
... Here there is a constant distraction by whatever is new, or whatever is emerging in the now; new ideas are more appealing than old ones. Here Mercury glimpses pioneering insights, or insights about new ground broken by someone else.... There may be an indirect, abrupt communication style, or the unconscious speaks, bypassing the consideration system.Seed ideas may be communicated, but in a way that will not be understood until later; here there is an alertness to seed ideas, but these may be so germinal as to not be utilizable.... A retrograde Mercury here is able to verbally nail the subconscious or unconscious issue of another."Mercury in Aries is in its own 11th sign. Here initiative expresses as its own ambition... There is a possibility of initiatives in world service.
It is also in its own 8th sign, indicating "initiative as a renewing force; any new initiative gives a death blow to whatever is old, obsolete, or outmoded... this is an insatiable desire distracted by other desires... there may be power struggles between part of the inward-turned mind. Mercury retrograde in Aries argues cases internally."
"Knowledge comes through direct action and review; knowledge also comes from the unusual past feeding the dynamic future."
So during the next few weeks, (since Mercury will again cross its Aries RX span in April), relax into a new sense of potential and new areas of direct action, and review the initiatives shown in the recent past. Take a new look at pioneering activities, new developments about to expand, and recent direct communications that showed the need for rehearsal, review, or research.
Here our mind is showing us how to operate on multiple levels of life simultaneously, or perhaps how to move forward through indirect ways and means within some dualistic system. Here we use the Mercurial lens of coordinating two different worlds within which we live and breathe and have our Being. This is the front-end threshold for what will follow in the coming months, and gives a look forward as well as a look back.
This will be an extraordinarily meaningful retrograde, finishing out the Pisces energies awakened between March 2009 and March 2011. It could bring flashes of insight about that period, or blessings and protections set into play during that time. It can give us reflections and echoes of what ended, as well as how we were introduced to a greater intuition, compassion, altruism, or social sensitivity.
That brings us back to something I said earlier: Hang out with the energies and information, pay attention to details while remembering that a lot of it won't make sense for several weeks or months, and don't believe everything you're told. It will be a great time to see new future initiatives and new ways of communicating elements of the new life we all entered between mid-March and mid-May of 2011.
By the end of this Mercury retrograde in Aries and Pisces period, we will have a new view or understanding of the nature of things, seeing how recent entries into a new life have had the effect of instilling in all of us a new motive, new feelings, and why certain closures were necessary. That can help us understand the endings and beginnings in terms of our interrelatedness (or not) with certain people and groups. It’s certainly going to challenge all of us to be able to operate on multiple levels or in multiple dimensions of activity at the same time.
Here are links to what the recent November-December 2011 Mercury Retrograde in Sagittarius was all about, which can give insights into what the Mercury retrograde then set into motion these past few months:
Astrology and Mercury Retrograde November-December 2011 in Sagittarius - What Is Mercury Retrograde?
Here are the latest series on the present Mercury Retrograde:
The Guide of Souls in March-April 2012 - Mercury Slowing Down, Preparing to go Retrograde at 7 Aries
Astrology and Mercury Retrograde March-April 2012 in Aries and Pisces - What Is Mercury Retrograde?
And yes, there's at least 6 more Mercury retrograde articles to come over the next 3 weeks, all of which will give you information about this often-recurring, little understood, but very powerful phenomenon we call Mercury Retrograde!
Copyright © 2012 Robert Wilkinson
Good Morning All; I have to share that i had my first "nightmare" in some years,in the early hours of this morning and was actually really scared and slept with the light on for the rest of the night!
There were 2 characters in my dream; both male, both wearing green from top to toe, including green masks and i asked them to come to my room that i had just moved into (I should mention here that also in the dream; my ex-partner had moved into the room next door), because it was haunted and i wanted someone to come and see the furniture being moved around!
Anyway; they did come and did see the furniture moving and because i was scared i opened the door to go out at the same time; looking back at them to see if they were coming and their masks had merged with their faces which of course made me want to run!.
When i woke it took only moments to realize that Uranus has not long moved in to my 12th house and is now joined by Mercury and my ex-partner; Uranus is transiting her 11th house and of course; joined by Mercury right now; "right next door"!
I love the way the unconscious can be so blatant sometimes.
Today i'm smiling!!
Posted by: Amrita | March 12, 2012 at 05:01 PM
This Mercury Rx in mutual reception with Mars Rx is really demanding this ram to demonstrate some serious patience and to be on top of everyone else for the details they are trying to skirt around (or, calling people out on the "little things" they are trying to sneak by me!).
Regarding the latter, I had to "call out" the lab my doctor sends my blood work to because they billed me for expenses I paid them for last month - they cashed the check in mid-Feb - and sent me another bill for the same charges at the end of the month! So I called up my bank to find out when the check cleared... and it cleared one week before the date on the duplicate bill. This ram had some diplomatic but nonetheless forceful words for them today... and because I paid the bill twice (I figured since they were threatening me with referral to collection over $12, it made more sense to box them into a trap then fight them on principle first) - they now will be issuing me a refund on the duplicate payment.
Posted by: Matt | March 12, 2012 at 05:51 PM
Great article! I am eager to read more on Mercure retro.....
Posted by: Ilse | March 13, 2012 at 02:04 AM