by Robert Wilkinson
Following up on the general meaning and function of the "Inferior conjunction" between the Sun and Mercury, today we explore specifics of the current Inferior conjunction of November 17, 2012 at 26 Scorpio.
Because this particular Inferior Conjunction is an extremely important event due to when and where it's happening, this is a long article that will pull together a comprehensive overview of what's been going on for the past three years.
The inferior conjunction is when Mercury (mind) conjuncts the Sun (life) while retrograde. This indicates that signals, messages, and ideas from either outer sources or subconscious sources will fuse with the life principle, setting the tone for the lessons involving how our minds are relating to our lives during the next four months. Since Mercury is retrograde, the degree of the inferior conjunction shows how our lives will merge with our perceptions and bring forth a new understanding of our light.
This degree is said to be "Indians making camp.” Rudhyar says this symbolizes an “ability to feel at home in any outer or inner environment,” “efficient functioning,” and “retreating into the familiar and the known.”
He goes on to say in The Astrological Mandala that this refers to “the ability to adjust swiftly to a new situation by tuning in to its requirements.” He states this is about being “in harmony with nature, moving on as new needs arise” and finding ourselves “intuitively at home everywhere.” We are told that this concerns identifying ourselves with the biosphere, and functioning at peace wherever whenever however.
He further tells us that here we get a “message of peaceful adaptation to nature, and through adaptation, efficient functioning in all life situations.” This degree falls in the Span of Appreciation, and is the initial degree in the Scene of Faith on the individual-mental level.
Dr. Marc E Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of our “inexhaustible capacity for self-establishment” and finding what we need in practical terms. Here “reality is the result of each individual’s choices and rejections in (our) everyday dealings with the world at large,” where experience provides us with what we need. He goes on to say that our “alertness to the potentialities of (our) being becomes the secret of (our) true self-fulfillment.”
He offers us the keyword EXTEMPORIZATION. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is “unusual resourcefulness and a gift for finding real opportunity in the least promising of situations.”
So this is a degree of learning to adapt to be at peace anywhere we find ourselves, and our ability to choose or reject whatever to find what we need in the moment. We can all learn a new efficiency through adaptability, and many will find themselves curiously “at home in the known and familiar.”
The next four months are a time to see that which needs to be eliminated and what needs to be regenerated or attracted. We should be able to become more efficient in some way, or through looking back via the Mercury RX we can see how we adapted in the past to achieve a greater efficiency of living. Some of what is glimpsed or remembered deals directly with lessons from November 2006, and will prove significant in the lessons and responsibilities to come November 2014
We may move from current vision "back to the future," and gain a new perspective on the past 8 months since this Inferior conjunction point trines the stationary direct point of early April 2012 and biseptiles the stationary retrograde point of mid-July. This may resemble something we glimpsed in the Spring and brought us to a fork in the road of destiny in July and August.
Perhaps it will bring a strange return of and old desire, or show us how an old loss helped us be more adaptable and efficient. We can see how to adapt old forms of being and self-awareness to current circumstances, or conversely, through the retrograde lens see how this has happened in our lives before now.
Mercury introduced these energies when it first crossed this degree on October 24-25. The Inferior Conjunction now makes this a "hot spot" for months to come. One major factor at work in the chart for the Inferior Conjunction puts the spotlight on Jupiter biseptile Neptune and triseptile Pluto, triggering the Grand Irrationality. As Mercury is the ruler of Jupiter in Gemini, it will give a Mercury retrograde flavor to whatever important choices and forks in the road of destiny we’re experiencing at this time.
We will find that the next 4 months are very important around the set of lessons and challenges indicated by these aspects. With the Grand Irrationality front and center, the next 4 months will show some hard-edged choices and changes affecting almost every part or our lives. I discussed more about this, along with what degree zones are most influenced, in the recent article on the Solar Eclipse in Scorpio.
Forming aspect show future conditions. Other significant forming aspects are work influencing the next four months are Moon biquintile Jupiter and quintile Uranus, Mercury semisquare Pluto, Venus sextile Mars, trine Neptune, and quintile Pluto, Sun square Neptune, Mars sextile Saturn, square Uranus, and conjunct Pluto, Jupiter biquintile Saturn, and Saturn sextile Pluto.
Overall these indicate great productivity and some highly specialized gifts and interactive situations that will bring forth very unique events and developments for all of us. In fact, there are so many quintile series aspects (Fifth harmonic) at work, it’s safe to say this will be a very unique time where some highly specialized forces are at work across all signs.
The Inferior Conjunction between Mercury and the Sun is the second step in a two-conjunction process. The first step is when Mercury conjuncts the Sun in forward motion after its retrograde period. This is called a “Superior conjunction.” Most recently this occurred at 19 Virgo on September 10, 2012.
That “Superior conjunction” featured the Sun and Mercury semisquare Venus, septile Mars, and tredecile Pluto, showing that the period since then has brought about major internal changes, unique interactive seeds of very favorable things that have come or will come, and hard edged choices and changes profoundly affecting everyone with planets around 18-21 Virgo, 10-13 Scorpio, 1-4 Capricorn, 23-26 Aquarius, 14-17 Aries, 6-9 Gemini, and 27-30 Cancer. Somehow these choices and changes were directly related to shifts we went through in 2008 and 2009.
As Mercury is faster than the Sun at any “Superior Conjunction,” after that event Mind again outraces Life, gets ahead of the Sun, and explores ideas and perceptions of experiences yet to occur. That’s what we experienced between mid-September and early November.
After Mercury gets as far forward from the Sun as it can, then Mercury slows down and goes stationary retrograde. It then moves into the second step when Mercury again conjuncts the Sun while retrograde. This is when Mind is being absorbed by Life, or Life takes on the results of subconscious or collective ideas returning to source. Eventually Life gets as far from Mind as it can, Mercury goes stationary direct, and begins to speed up preparing for the first step anew in a different part of the zodiac.
In an interesting "co-incidence," many recent stationary points and the Inferior Conjunction points trine or make significant aspects to other points in previous Mercury retrograde periods. Perhaps by studying the sequence of retrograde, conjunction, and direct points we can see how Mercury, a.k.a Hermes, the Cosmic Magician and Guide of Souls, is steering our long range perceptions, understandings, and coordinations toward Soul understanding.
For example, the last Inferior Conjunction occurred in late July 2012 at 7 Leo, which is tredecile this Inferior Conjunction in Scorpio. Taking a look back (always a good thing when Mercury is retrograde!), we were told by Rudhyar that 7 Leo is the second and counterpoint step of Combustion on the Emotional-Cultural level of experience within the span of Assurance. This energy has been in play since late July for all of us.
To understand more, that “fusion of life and mind through looking back” related directly to major Saturn lessons that began September 2005, and took significant shape as long term realities, lessons, duties, or limitations between February and May 2006. Those structures and realizations will become the source of new adventures and truths in August 2014.
This Inferior Conjunction of mind "looking back" into life will help us reinterpret experiences we've had which showed us what we needed to do to embrace the new future indicated by the last one in Leo. This would imply that either a) we can examine how we previously found permanence and enduring patterns as we entered new ways of life as signals for the future, or b) we need to get back on track through examining how the past few months have shown us the way to resurrect past understanding of these more permanent patterns, views and actions perfect for what has come over these past 4 months.
In the same way, this one at 26 Scorpio will help us take a look back to examine how we’ve adapted and/or become more efficient in our functioning since late 2006, or we’ll find a new way to regard those adaptive challenges helping us become more effective by moving on in some way. We can get back on tracks with our ability to find a home in any environment, and perhaps find new ways of understanding, perceiving, or interpreting the circumstances in our lives helping us learn these.
The fact that the Inferior Conjunction falls with the Moon at 18 Capricorn would imply that through the "looking back" and alternative views and understandings, we will get insights into the promise or adventures opened between February and November 2008 when Jupiter was on or near that point. We may get glimpses of how we’ve been protected, or need to acknowledge a greater authority that has kept us safe since then, or we may awaken a new authorship or group work over the next 4 months directly related to what we learned and embraced during those months.
The Moon brings forms through reflection. The Inferior Conjunction is about efficient functioning through adaptation. The Inferior Conjunction is ruled by Mars making it a very powerful factor in coordinating events so we can be led to our Soul. As Mars’ duality is "Grace/Sin," we will see how our ways of responding and acting are manifesting as hitting or missing the mark, and how to be graceful in applying our energy with precision and discipline.
As the backdrop to how our mind and life relate to each other, perhaps we can learn how to deal with Mars energies in ourselves or others from a different angle of view, organizing or reorganizing so we can see how to claim power in a group setup. This is about claiming authority, and mobilizing the individual will to power in a way that is perfect for the group that needs a “chief.”
All in all, the coming 4 months will bring interesting returns of power, magnetism and the ability to attract what we need or repel what we don’t. This could bring the regeneration of some telepathic power or ability, and help us to adapt in a disciplined way to increase our effectiveness within some group or social environment. This one will help us see the value in what has ended since August, where we can glimpse the rhythm and beauty of the larger natural process.
Generally, the 11 days before the inferior conjunction (fusion) of mind and life is a good time to take a new look at how you can bring out your inner wisdom by adjusting to a future vision or broader perspective that's opening for you. It's also good for getting a new point of view regarding what your imagination is willing to consider and how to coordinate your life to reorganize it productively.
It's great for intuitive flashes, insights into the larger collective consciousness and unconsciousness, and seeing how you're being led to see elements of your Soul you may not have recognized before now. So think back on what's happened in the past couple of weeks, and find a new way to view how those things may symbolize the future somehow.
Just remember during retrogrades, especially Mercury retrograde, that often things that don't turn out one way lead directly or indirectly to other things somewhat related manifesting down the road. It's as though nothing should be taken at face value, and often what we do or think during Mercury retrograde creates odd echoes in the future that take different shapes, or different functions related to the original intention.
And as usual, here are links to recent articles on what this November 2012 Mercury Retrograde in Scorpio is all about:
Copyright © 2012 Robert Wilkinson
Thank you for this great article Robert!
Posted by: Max | November 18, 2012 at 05:20 PM
Great article, thanks. When I was reading about the inferior conjunction that occurred in late July 2012 at 7 Leo - it made me realize that my own Ascendant is 7 Leo and my life has been really strange this time.
Posted by: Becks | November 18, 2012 at 08:56 PM
Hi Max - You're most welcome.
Hi Becks - That would imply that you have a different self image since then as a result of the fusion of life and backward looking mind that has impacted the past 4 months. As Mercury rules your 11th and 2nd and it impacted the ruler of your Asc, it would also seem that some of your self image changes and reflections and remembrances have to do with money, values, friends, goals, or group work.
Posted by: Robert | November 19, 2012 at 04:56 PM
Hi Robert, thanks for the reply :) Yes, this is very true my self image has changed alot especially in the areas that you mentioned. I am starting to feel like a stronger person, after feeling vulnerable for a long time. My life has also changed and I have changed along with it.
Posted by: Becks | November 19, 2012 at 09:04 PM