by Robert Wilkinson
Each Mercury Retrograde period is unique, yet related to other Mercury RX periods, usually because the signs are harmonized with those of past Mercury retrogrades. This one is entirely in the Water sign of Scorpio. What does this mean for all of us?
We get 3 or 4 Mercury retrograde periods each year. Each one has its elemental qualities, which usually relate directly to past Mercury retrograde element qualities. Today we take a look back (a perfect Mercury retrograde thing to do!) to connect the dots of what we’re currently reviewing, remembering, rehearsing, or rethinking, and see how Mercury past has built the present.
Mercury Retrograde 2007-09
Looking back, we got Cancer insights during the Summer 2007 Mercury RX, and Scorpio insights during the Autumn 2007 Mercury RX. That implies that all subsequent Mercury retrograde in Cancer periods are related to this one and others, so in some way the June-July 2013 Mercury retrograde in Cancer gave us flashes and insights from Summer 2007! Also, since Jupiter is currently in Cancer, we are seeing larger truths and possibilities that in some way relate to previous Mercury retrograde in Cancer periods.
We then 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.
New angles of perception, new understanding of indirect or roundabout signals in relationships, a whole new way of viewing goals, friendships, and a higher aspiration were featured during the time Mercury was retrograde in the Air signs. Many of these were furthered, expanded, and/or stabilized when Jupiter was in Gemini.
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.
Mercury Retrograde 2010
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, via the life affairs of the house where this Taurus retrograde fell, and mobilized in some way that has been cooking steadily since then. Those Taurus insights were key to the opportunities and truths that came forth when Jupiter was 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.
So December 2010 Mercury moved from Earthy Capricorn back to Fiery Sagittarius. That opened 2011 to a mix of Mercury retrograde energies, since the one in March-April 2011 was entirely in Aries, a Fire sign, showing a focus on inspiration and initiative, but the retrograde period in August 2011 returned to the pattern of December 2010, in that Mercury RX began in the Earth sign of Virgo and retrograded back into the Fire sign of Leo.
Mercury Retrograde 2011
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 2011 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 2011 began a series of Mercury retrograde periods where the emphasis varied, with the Fire element predominating over the following 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.
Mercury Retrograde 2012
So while the November-December 2011 Mercury RX was entirely in the Fire sign of Sagittarius, the next one in March-April 2012 again featured a mix, as it retrograded from the Fire sign of Aries back into the Water sign of Pisces. The July 2012 period was in Fiery Leo the entire time. The November 2012 began in the fire sign of Sagittarius, and wound up in the Water sign of Scorpio.
So during 2012 there was an elemental blending, with the Spring 2012 Mercury RX beginning in Aries (Fire) and retrograding back to late Pisces (Water), going direct on the exact degree Jupiter went stationary direct in November 2010. While the July 2012 retrograde was entirely in Leo (Fire), the November 2012 period began in early Sagittarius (Fire) and retrograded back to mid-Scorpio (Water,) anticipating what we’re confronting now.
As noted in an article at the time, Mercury’s stationary direct point at 19 Scorpio in November 2012 was the exact degree where Jupiter went retrograde in March 2006. We could expect insights, flashbacks, and returns of some sort related to those threshold Jupiter awarenesses we experienced in 2006.
Mercury Retrograde 2013
2013 Mercury retrograde periods are entirely in Water signs. That would imply that in some way 2013 will be related to 2007. It puts the focus on feelings, experiencing a greater flow or connectedness, and learning to navigate in the world of changing states between solid, liquid, and gas.
The one in Pisces (late Feb through early March 2013) echoed, replaced, and/or renewed the Spring 2006 and Spring 2007 Mercury retrogrades in Pisces. Obviously we also got insights or flashbacks related to the period when Uranus and Jupiter were in Pisces a few years back.
The one in Cancer in the Summer of 2013 in some ways anticipated what has been or will be expanded by Jupiter during the time it is in Cancer during this Autumn through the Spring of 2014, so consider the experiences of June and July 2013 as indirect or roundabout signs and signals for things to come!
The retrograde in Cancer gave us a new look at the qualities of Cancer (described above) as we need to live them in positive ways. Cancer represents the up-close-and-personal feelings we live with on a day to day basis, our basic security or insecurity as we move through time, space, and experience.
The Summer retrograde in Cancer allowed us to research, re-think, or get a new look at old forms of what we care about now relative to what we cared about in the past, as well as why we have had certain habits or feelings and responses to personal interactions. This could bring the renewal of an old way of caring or feeing, or even the return of an old habit or experience in a new form.
This Mercury retrograde is entirely in Scorpio, so again the focus is to take a new look at our feelings, especially those we share with others. We’re also getting a review or returns concerning old losses and/or old desires, as well as new information via deaths and losses. We get to take a look at why some things had to be cleared out of our lives, or what we need to clear out in order to move forward unencumbered.As I mentioned above, this period Mercury went SRX at 19 Scorpio, so obviously it will also bring echoes of what the late 2012 retrograde was all about, and no doubt many will connect some dots to what Jupiter taught or opened in 2006. Take a look back to see how those Scorpionic experiences helped stabilize a condition or understanding that was set into motion this past Summer.
Future articles in this series will cover what Mercury retrograde in Scorpio is good for, when the Inferior Conjunction will occur and what it means for the future, and what we can expect when Mercury goes stationary direct at 3 Scorpio on November 10, 1:12 pm PST, 9:12 pm Greenwich (UT).
Previous articles in this series:
The Guide of Souls in October 2013 - Mercury Slowing Down, Preparing to go Retrograde at 19 Scorpio
Scorpio 2013-2014 – Mercury Retrograde Helping Us Take A New Look At Deep Parts of Our Being Pt. 1
© Copyright 2013 Robert Wilkinson
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