by Robert Wilkinson
In part 2 we explore more about this phenomenon that usually occurs 3 weeks at a time 3 times a year. At the end there's a table so you can find which house(s) this March-April 2012 Mercury RX period falls in relative to your Sun sign. Then you can find out how this transit affects you personally by consulting my article How Does Mercury Retrograde Affect Us In The Different Houses?
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 the previous article in this series we explored specific qualities of the present Mercury retrograde period. Links to them are at the end of the article.
The period before Mercury goes retrograde is important in getting your paperwork and other life areas in shape, so take note of what was presented in the first half of March and see what hit a threshold and now requires a delay, research, or renewal.
For now, while Mercury is retrograde, please take this period to re-trace ground covered in recent weeks, get new information and interpretations of old ideas and perceptions, and find new points of view. All these are great things to do while Mercury is retrograde.
We are now in a three week retrograde period to deal with things we've put off, or take care of things from the past. This March-April 2012 Mercury retrograde is giving us new understanding about the events of the past four months and indirect insights into what we'll be dealing with in April.
Once Mercury is retrograde, we often experience that communications and other Mercury ruled areas are slower than usual. It's time to re-do, review, rehearse, research, and take a new look at many things that evolved to a threshold during the period before Mercury goes stationary retrograde. So during this time we can again reconsider, reinterpret, and rework Aries and Pisces issues and activities, seeing their significance from new angles of understanding.
Looking back (a perfect thing to do during Mercury retrograde!), we got Cancer insights during the Summer 2007 Mercury RX, and Scorpio insights during the Autumn 2007 Mercury RX.
We got Aquarius insights during the early 2008 Mercury RX, and insights about our Gemini areas during the Summer 2008 Mercury RX in Gemini. We completed a natural Air trine of Mercury RX energies when it went through Libra in Sept-Oct 2008, offering new insights about relationships, judgments, balance, fairness, and ways we are or are not being an equal with others in our world.
It again moved through Aquarius in early 2009, offering insights about our friendships, goals, ambitions, ideals, group work, larger vision of how we can contribute to our world, how our love and enthusiasms are exteriorizing, and the greatest good for the greatest number. When it retrograded back into Capricorn January 2009, we got insights about our public self image, how we self-organized to make our lives more effective, and how willing we were to embrace different ways to use discipline and our power to take responsibility effectively.
In May 2009, we got new ways of communicating, researching, understanding, and getting insights into how we can or should discover blessings that can reward our faith and purity of heart. When it retrograded through Taurus, we got to review values and how we use what we have, or need, so that our new emerging self-images can be sustained.
In September 2009, we got new perspectives in relationships and how equal we are or are not, finding new ideals that prepared us for important Saturn in Libra experiences that began late October 2009. When it slipped back into Virgo, we got a review on how we needed to adjust to make our lives more effective, or got a new look at work and/or health issues.
In December 2009 and January 2010, we got new perspectives on why we had to surrender in certain ways in 2009, and found unique interactive circumstances that fit our gifts, or gifts to fit our circumstances. Adjustments helped us achieve closure while giving our curiosity something to chew on in the way of ideas we've been externalizing since February 2010.
In April-May 2010 we again got a look back at Taurus themes and issues, and mobilized in some way that has been cooking steadily since then. Those Taurus insights are now key to the opportunities and truths presenting themselves with Jupiter in Taurus.
In the August-September 2010 Virgo retrograde period, we got to see new possibilities of expressing the RX the Taurus energies that affected us between Spring and late Summer. During Mercury RX in Virgo we also got more insights into Saturn lessons from when it was in that span of Virgo from October 2007 through February 2008, July 2008 through November 2008, and February 2009 through August 2009.
The times of Mercury retrograde in Earth signs illustrated how we could be more practical in organizing our lives. In 2010 we began to finish up some things, preparing to move into a more "limitless" set of possibilities.
So in April-May 2010 we got new insights into the past and future Taurus areas of our chart, and by mid-May began a slow, steady growth mode through the August 2010 Mercury retrograde in Virgo which began "an adventure in consciousness" linking us to others. The Mercury retrograde period in December 2010 finished the "total Earth" influence of the Dec 2009-Aug 2010 period, as Mercury went retrograde in Capricorn but then slipped back into Sagittarius, a Fire sign.
This indicated the retrograde Earth influence dominating 2010 gave way in December 2010 to a blend of Earth and Fire, moving the retrograde focus from practical matters toward inspirational and spiritual matters. We began a final "finishing up" period in December 2010, and then entered a Mercury RX Fire era where the past gave way to the NOW.
January 2011 set a time into motion involving our ability to see how to work with foresight to prepare for "future supply." In April 2011, we entered a period of re-shaping our perceptions and expectations on the basis of the new "cosmic order" that began in mid-March 2011. March began a time of new beginnings, initiatives, and pioneering life events due to the multiplicity of conjunctions between the inner planets and Jupiter encoded by the April Mercury RX, where we reworked, researched, or rehearsed the succession of Aries waves set into motion in early May.
In April we entered a "probationary period" of shaping and reshaping our expectations, our willingness to move into unknown zones, and were left with a new identity and a new creativity. Some had to face "intangible fears of nascent selfhood," some perhaps got frustrated at the slowness of the pace of transformation, but we all saw the "redemption of a promise," even if we knew it not,
April began a series of Mercury retrograde periods where the emphasis varies, with the Fire element predominating over the next year. The 2011 August Mercury retrograde again began in early Earth (linking it to the 2010 periods) and retrograded back to mid-Leo, while the Nov-Dec 2011 Mercury retrograde period was again entirely in Sagittarius, a Fire sign.
2012 extends the blending of elements, with the March-April 2012 Mercury retrograde beginning in Aries (Fire) and retrograding back to late Pisces (Water), going direct on the exact degree Jupiter went stationary direct in November 2010. The July 2012 retrograde is entirely in Leo (Fire), while the November 2012 period begins in early Sagittarius (Fire) and retrogrades back to mid-Scorpio (Water). 2013 Mercury retrograde periods are entirely in Water signs.
By learning about these recurring Mercury retrograde periods, we can understand how to deal with them productively, as well as the months afterward, which they also indirectly influence. Since now in March 2012 Mercury went stationary RX at 7 Aries and retrogrades back to 24 Pisces, you can learn a lot about this coming period by reading all you can about Mercury retrograde in Aries and Pisces.
You can get more information how this important time of Mercury retrograde (which happens three times a year every year!) affects you personally by getting a copy of my book "A New Look At Mercury Retrograde" and reading the section on Mercury retrograde in the houses. It will also be in ebook format sometime this year.
You can also get some very useful ideas of how it works by consulting the article that I linked to in the first paragraph of this article titled "How Does Mercury Retrograde Work in the Houses." The ideas I offer there work, whether you're referencing the natal or Solar charts.
To that end, the houses in astrology show us the specific areas of our worldly affairs where we experience a given planetary influence. If you know your natal chart, then read the corresponding house in the article. However, whether you do or don't know your chart, you can find out Mercury's approximate position in your solar houses (created by your Sun sign position) by consulting this table:
For birthdays between:
Mar 13 to 26, read Mercury retrograde in the 1st house.
Mar 27 to Apr 12, 12th and 1st houses.
Apr 13 to 25, 12th house.
Apr 26 to May 12, 11th and 12th houses.
May 13 to 26, 11th house.
May 27 to Jun 13, 10th and 11th houses.
Jun 14 to 26, 10th house.
Jun 27 to Jul 14, 9th and 10th houses.
Jul 15 to 28, 9th house.
Jul 29 to Aug 13, 8th and 9th houses.
Aug 14 to 28, 8th house.
Aug 29 to Sep 13, 7th and 8th houses.
Sep 14 to 27, 7th house.
Sep 28 to Oct 15, 6th and 7th houses.
Oct 16 to 28, 6th house.
Oct 29 to Nov 14, 5th and 6th houses.
Nov 15 to 27, 5th house.
Nov 28 to Dec 13, 4th and 5th houses.
Dec 14 to 26, 4th house.
Dec 27 to Jan 12, 3rd and 4th houses.
Jan 13 to 25, 3rd house.
Jan 26 to Feb 11, 2nd and 3rd houses.
Feb 12 to 23, 2nd house.
Feb 24 to Mar 12, 1st and 2nd houses.
This table is approximate, and if your birthday falls near the edge of two possible positions you may need to read both to know which applies to your Sun sign. Of course, one should always have a correct natal chart calculated professionally in order to know where the planets are situated, as this helps clarify your exact cyclic pattern.
Here’s what I’ve composed on this Mercury Retrograde so far:
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?
A New Look At Mercury Retrograde in Aries in March 2012 – What Is It Good For?
Copyright © 2012 Robert Wilkinson
Robert, thanks. Lots of unexpected insights here...I gather there is a pattern extending over a year or two of Mercury retrogrades in the same houses ...so there is an introduction to the new ideas, a complete focus on the new ideas, and then an integration and closure. That certainly deepens one's understanding of the long term impacts of Mercury retrograde.
My former husband and I divorced 25 years ago, I certainly thought that phase of my life was long gone. But I can see on reflection that Mercury Rx in my 8th house last year, a few months after his death, released something that had been holding in my subconscious. Just amazing.
Posted by: Jo Garceau | March 15, 2012 at 02:34 PM