The Guide of Souls in June 2013 - Mercury Slowing Down, Preparing to go Retrograde at 24 Cancer

by Robert Wilkinson

Yes, it's THAT time again! Mercury is radically slowing down, preparing to go stationary retrograde at 24 Cancer on June 26, 6:08 am PDT, 9:08 am EDT, 2:08 pm Greenwich. This has important implications for all signs.

I'll be composing several articles about this Mercury retrograde in Cancer 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 mid-July.

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 what we care about, where our “line of supply” comes from, and who is part of our Spiritual Family. We shall learn how to achieve harmonious ways of relating to others, as well as parts of our inner nature.

We may find insights directly related to lessons we learned in late 2003 through 2004 when Saturn transited this degree. As Saturn went stationary retrograde at 14 Cancer exactly conjunct the star Sirius in October 2003, we will no doubt have some kind of direct line between what we were learning then and where we will set sail after Mercury goes direct in mid-July.

In late June and early July, we can see what life has prepared for us since the last Mercury retrograde. This Mercury retrograde will offer us opportunities to look back and distill wisdom from our past experiences even as we navigate the Grand Irrationality set into motion at the last Gemini New Moon and the coming Venus transit through the Leo zone of the Grand Irrationality in early July.

This retrograde will help us take a new look at what we need and our sensitivities so that we can come to a new understanding of our interdependence with those in our environment. Here we learn indirect or roundabout ways to relate our feelings to our minds and bodies, or perhaps take a new look at how our feelings are or aren’t bringing us what we like and value.

Consider the next 3 weeks as a bridge to a new year, where we will find many interesting insights based in looking back or within. Here we see what is coming between August 2013 and June 2014, so pay attention to the signs, signals, information, and understanding that comes through your feelings and introspection, since Jupiter will be expanding them, or showing us opportunities to be had through them, beginning August 2013.

Trust your final insights more than your initial ones, and see what is emerging and integrating, or what needs nourishing or caring for. This is where we get to look back on what has been and what is happening right now in order to get insights into what is to come. 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 day that Mercury goes stationary retrograde, the Sun makes its very powerful Grand Water Trine I’ve been writing about since earlier this month. Add the Moon trine Mars and Jupiter, and this retrograde should bring both a stable flow and some great ideas, connections, and interactions!

Given some of the aspects, expect major choices and changes throwing us forward into a greater vision or social effectiveness! We will all see some consequences for activities, feelings, and thoughts we set into motion before now, which may be related to major lessons in 2011. The choices and changes we’ve been through in June has brought us to these decisions. This is the threshold of a new stability or a new inertia in our lives.

In the stationary retrograde chart, Mars is on the same degree as the last New Moon, boosting those lessons involving finding “seed knowledge” that can help us find wisdom beyond our previous self-expression. As it will be exactly separating from a biseptile to Neptune, it indicates that the Grand Irrationality has been in full swing for the week before Mercury goes retrograde!

To refresh you, if you have a planet or angle in any of the 7 zones of this configuration, expect some heavy decisions and events forcing you to see some things that will determine your future direction. 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 the Moon triseptile Mercury and septile Uranus. Again, that puts many signs into play, given we have non-rational aspects happening involving the Moon, Mercury, Mars, Uranus, 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 the Moon, Mercury, and Uranus at 1-5 Gemini, 23-27 Cancer, 14-18 Virgo, 6-10 Scorpio, 27 Sagittarius-1 Capricorn, 18-22 Aquarius, and 10-14 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, and we should see things intensify when Venus moves through the early Leo zone of the Grand Irrationality. Expect things to take shape the first week of July, and especially July 5 when the Moon is in the Gemini zone.

This stationary retrograde chart has many of the same major aspects of the recent Summer Solstice chart, so please check out that article to know more about the aspects in play right now. For example, Mars was exactly triseptile Pluto, setting the Grand Irrationality into motion for the period of late June through late September. This stationary retrograde chart just continues that pattern.

So while it may be a wild ride from time to time, we should be able to reorient and integrate some things as we move sideways into the 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-July 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 July 9 at 18 Cancer, just after the New Moon at 17 Cancer, the coming “fusion of life and mind” will show us how to fulfill our responsibilities in a natural way while finding what we need to nourish and sustain our life activities. That New Moon will help us all integrate our knowledge with higher truths, and our experience into a more perfect Spiritual personality vehicle.

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 the Moon, Mercury, and Uranus in septile series aspects. Welcome to many things being reviewed or coming back up to surface thanks to the retrograde quality of the time. Some will review past efforts to see what still needs to be integrated into the life, and/or there could be returns, rehearsals, or echoes of the past and its needs, habits, and personality structures.

While there will be some hard edges, this time should help us integrate our feelings with our sense of alternatives as we approach a threshold of some sort. We will have to mobilize during this retrograde, but it should be pretty obvious what we have to do. Keep it balanced, organize with others to make something fair or more ideal, and keep seeing the big picture while flowing toward a new life allegiance.

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 and caring self-expression and find seed-knowledge that we can use to bring something back under control that threatens to explode out of control. Open to exchanging views and information to come to balanced dynamic actions about things that require repair or reconstruction, and rehearse and/or research potential futures already showing themselves in symbolic forms.

This is the beginning of an important phase shift in all our lives, as well as the threshold of a new way of living, feeling, and knowing. 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 to the limits of the circumstances and ideals available at the moment, and don’t get frustrated by the cross currents and abrupt plunges into a new flow.

This will be an important retrograde, where the future is consolidated in some roundabout ways, or relate to some structures we set into motion or lessons we learned 9-10 years ago in 2003-2004. It will help us rehearse or do the research we need to get ready to spring forward in mid-July, freed to live a fearless, timeless truth that comes straight from the “Sun of our Sun,” the Star Sirius, said to be the source of all of the wisdom-traditions on Earth.

This retrograde marks a review and incorporation of a new receptivity to a greater spiritual wisdom. New feelings, new understanding, new ways of living, and new personality integration experiences are promised by this retrograde. And of course, more on this Mercury retrograde period will come soon!

Copyright © 2013 Robert Wilkinson

Comments

[Claudia]

It was the week from hell -- last week

[Piscezzzz]

What Claudia said ^

[Katie]

Hi Robert! My husband has a job interview scheduled for tomorrow, the day when Merc goes stationary retrograde, and it's his current "dream job". He applied for it a while ago, before Merc went into the shadow period, and had his first interview by phone on Monday. Do you have any suggestions or ideas on what that could mean for his chances on getting the job & having it go well? Also, Merc is going stationary retro RIGHT on my ASC degree (a few minutes before, in the 12th). What does that mean? I need to "rework" my persona? Thanks for any insights you can share, and thanks for your wonderful blog!

[QueenJ]

Hi Robert It sure was a messy week eww!