by Robert Wilkinson
Mercury goes direct in motion July 1, 5:50 am PDT, 8:50 am EDT, 1:50 pm Greenwich (BST), and speeds up for the next 10 weeks. This shows a quickening of the ability to coordinate, put things together, understand the whole and the parts, the process and the larger cycles. It is now stationary at 25 Gemini, affecting that area in our lives for 3 months to come.
Mercury, or Hermes, "the Guide of Souls," is also known as the Divine Trickster, as well as all lesser models. What does Mercury going stationary direct at 25 Gemini hold for us? Perhaps it would be useful to take a look back on what the last Mercury direct station brought us since February 2014.
You will recall that the last time Mercury went stationary direct, it was at 19 Aquarius, tredecile its previous station at 3 Scorpio. It is now trine its previous station, and makes a very favorable quintile to Uranus and tredecile to Neptune. It would seem that Mercury is harmonized to and from itself within the larger cycle of direct stations, with an added benefit of being in unique and gifting aspects with two of the outer invisible Spiritual planets.
Stationary retrograde and direct points become “hot spots” set into motion by future transits. Venus will offer pleasing or valuable experiences associated with this stationary direct Mercurial energy when it too crosses this degree in mid-July 2014, while Mars will definitely quicken activities related to the lessons of the coming 4 months when it crosses this degree in mid-June 2015. This implies we will be offered opportunities to realize and apply these Gemini techniques in mid-July, and then need to use them in productive activities next Summer.
Pay attention, since from now through October the lower mind (Mercury) can “know” through exploration and discovery what’s coming in July 2014 and June 2015. Over the next 3 months, we can find new ways of shaping our expression so it reveals to our world something of our inner life and purpose.
This will help us understand things from multiple points of view, preparing us for the next time Mercury goes stationary retrograde at 3 Scorpio. This continues the sequence of trines between stationary points.
That October 2014 SRX degree will be trine to the June 2014 SRX degree at 4 Cancer, trine to the Feb 2014 SRX degree at 4 Pisces and the same degree as the Nov 2013 SD degree at 3 Scorpio. We can use the next 3 months to continue to learn, adapt, and communicate, using the emotional intelligence we’ve been developing the past year that has been facilitated by these Mercury stationary points.
We’ve now activated new responses to the feeling-knowing (emotional intelligence) awakened during the radical shift humanity went through at Winter Solstice 2012. This feeling-knowing was stabilized for good or ill in the Summer of 2013, and should now be a part of our emotional makeup. We now enter a phase of externalizing recent discoveries, so keep learning about how to feel your knowing through knowing your feelings, and try to achieve fluidity in balancing your hemispheres.
Just as we’ve recently had opportunities to practice Mercury’s function of being “the Guide of Souls” using the qualities of 4 Cancer to weave together the higher and lower realizations we’ve awakened to since 2012, we now have the opportunity to be guided to our Soul using the qualities of 25 Gemini. Again, how we use those realizations to coordinate those into our lives over the next 4 months will show us our way to a deeper connection to our Higher Self and others over the next few weeks.
In any case, we should all start seeing, hearing, and understanding things that point the way to some Mercurial technique of how we have been and continue to be guided to our Soul. Given that it falls at 25 Gemini, it shows us some way to find connectedness on inner and outer levels that can make us more adaptable and open, getting ready to move in new directions opened this past year.
The Sabian Symbol for Mercury’s Direct Station
We are told the Sabian Symbol is "A man trimming palms.” According to Rudhyar’s notes from the Marc Jones class, this degree is one of the “Capacity in man to control his environment and the impulses of his most intense nature,” and “active care for possessions.”
In "The Astrological Mandala" he states the keynote is "Bringing under control nature’s power of expansion.” He notes “the intellect… is like a tropical planet in that it tends to expand ‘wildly’ in many direction, seeing direct contract with the sun’s rays.” Furthermore, he links it to the need a culture has “to contain the imagination of individuals within … traditional forms.”
He suggests this degree is one where we have “reached a level of fulfillment of the impulses which began at … 21 Gemini in a tumultuous upsurge of self-assertion and protest against the past. Now this upsurge has found its place in the evolution of … society,” where “the energies released seek constant expansion and therefore have to be controlled. There is a need for repeated pruning.” He states this degree is in the Span of Restlessness, and it's the culminating degree of the emotional-cultural level of the Scene of Exteriorization in the Act of Differentiation.
Marc Jones says 25 Gemini is a symbol of “the pride in effort by which (we seek) to leave (our) immortal stamp on the world around (us),” where we bend natural resources to our will, and enlist “every beauty and capacity of nature for the continuing revelation of the self’s aesthetic sense.” He goes on to say that the harmony between us and the materials we use to do our work “becomes gratifying evidence of the soul’s powers” in our “objective self-justification.”
He offers us the keyword ENHANCEMENT. He goes on to state that when this degree is operating in a positive manner, it is “an exceptional gift for bringing all things to an effective service in some special aspect of over-all achievement.
Aspects in the Shadow Zone
We will also be re-tracing our Gemini and Cancer lessons from now through July 16 due to Mercury still transiting its “shadow” span, ie, the span it’s in since it went retrograde at 4 Cancer. Of course there will be residual echoes for the next 14 weeks as well.
Mercury going direct will re-activate many of the aspects it's made over the past few weeks. At various times over the past three weeks, it's made important quintiles, tredeciles, and biseptiles with other planets, showing we’ve been getting a new look at recent gifts, unique interactive conditions, and information that will help us shape our destiny in the very near future.
It now begins to move forward. This direct period is interesting because Mercury immediately makes a strong tredecile to Neptune. This indicates serendipitous events related to where we have late Gemini and early Pisces in our charts, so expect unique blessings to come forth after the recent waiting period since late May.
Mercury then makes its third quintile to Uranus, which indicates we’ve all had unique gifts of insight and discovery over the past 6 weeks which are now going to be weaved into our “life song” in the next two weeks. Once it re-enters Cancer, it will make a sesquisquare to Saturn before it moves out of the shadow zone.
Of some importance is that between now and when Mercury leaves its shadow zone, Venus is trining Mars, which should bring solid harmony and understanding in all our communications and interactions that are still worth holding on to. We shall know more in the next two weeks as Venus semisquares Jupiter and quincunxes Pluto, followed by Venus quincunx Saturn and triseptile Pluto, kicking the Grand Irrationality into high gear!
That’s followed by Venus biseptile Neptune and biquintile Saturn, so things will definitely be jumping, and critical ideas and communications will show which way the winds of destiny are blowing! Of special note is that just after it leaves its shadow zone, Mercury immediately trines Neptune and tredeciles Mars just after Jupiter enters Leo.
In this Mercury SD chart, we have two septile-driven configurations involving Moon, Mars, Jupiter, and Uranus. So while the Grand Irrationality in not a factor in this chart, it will be triggered in the near future. Still, in this chart there are other non-rational zones of experience involving the above planets, where they are in our charts, and the houses they rule.
First, there is a Moon at 26 Leo septile Mars at 19 Libra. This affects our Aries, Cancer, Leo, Libra, and Scorpio sectors. Those most affected by this set of aspects have planets or angles in 24-28 Leo, 16-20 Libra, 7-11 Sagittarius, 28 Capricorn-2 Aquarius, 19-23 Pisces, 11-15 Taurus, and 2-6 Cancer.
There is also a very powerful Jupiter biseptile Uranus, marking a huge fork in the road between these two major forces in our lives! This is a turning point in our individualization process, where we will have to withdraw from something with as much dignity and poise as possible, though this may fall within “an intensification of elements” rousing us to radical action.
We will continue to have echoes related to these events throughout the last half of July and the first half of August due to the inner planet transits activating this aspect. Those most affected have planets or angles near 14-18 Aries, 5-9 Gemini, 26-30 Cancer, 18-22 Virgo, 9-13 Scorpio, 1-5 Capricorn, and 22-26 Aquarius.
Other Important Aspects
Besides the ones discussed above, other forming aspects of note when Mercury goes stationary direct are Moon semisextile Jupiter, binovile Saturn, and sesquisquare Pluto, and Mercury makes a semisextile to Jupiter along with the quintile to Uranus and tredecile to Neptune.
We also see Venus semisextile the Sun, trine Mars, semisquare Jupiter, and quincunx Pluto, along with the Sun trine Saturn, square Uranus, and opposed Pluto (T-square alert!) While the Sun trine Saturn is stabilizing and harmonizing, the T-square is very dynamic, releasing energy into 10-17 Libra, so practice your skills in staying balanced, poised, moderate, and reasonable you’ve been learning the past 6 months!
From a place of emotional stability, we’ll know how, when, and where to flow, and can now move into a new sphere of interactive feeling-experience. We shall express some fulfilled part of Self in a form of self-transcendence, culminating in a sense of relief, an imaginative searching for what we need to do our thing, and begin a process of contemplating how we’ve retired from some old dramas and can now be at peace with those areas of our past life experience.
Other aspects include Mars sesquisquare Neptune, Saturn quincunx Uranus and tredecile Neptune, and Uranus novile Neptune with the seemingly perpetual square to Pluto lurking in the background. Of these, Saturn quincunx Uranus will force some hard adjustments, sacrifices, and corrections in life areas involving Aries, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Aquarius. Open to new ways of understanding, thinking, and communicating, and when the volcano erupts, remember it’s merely your “will to wholeness” that is “breaking up old complexes” and allowing some deep inner pressures to be released.
In this chart, there are two “final dispositors” with Mercury and Neptune in their home signs, and one mutual reception between the Sun and Moon. Of these, Mercury dominates, since it is the final dispositor of itself, Venus, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and Pluto. This will shift dramatically when Mercury re-enters Cancer, making the Moon its dispositor.
From Here We Move On
As noted, by July 16 Mercury will move out of its shadow span and enter its next "unknown zones" where the themes of this retrograde will be played out in forward motion. So for the next three weeks, expect some very productive intersections of past and future, with a promise of a many things beginning to pull together that require our immediate attention.
Here we prune some things back, including our ideas as well as social-emotional involvements. If you feel like getting out and circulating, and not just taking certain ideas and opinions for granted, then do it! This is the time to listen and share ideas and views, and be willing to suspend judgment until you see how you can turn the momentum to your advantage while simultaneously equalizing whatever is unfair or out of balance.
We’ve now done the internal and external arguments between the relative validity of the old way juxtaposed with the new way already in flow, and can reshape our feelings of togetherness or separateness and prune some things to prepare for a wholehearted embrace of our new life. We’ve now seen or understood something differently, and can now re-shape our potential response as a benefit of delays, the misunderstandings with others (and ourselves!) we’ve worked through, and how we view our uniqueness and the unique conditions of our lives.
Some have gotten glimpses or reviews about ideas, perspectives, and family responses in the past, as well as hesitancy, ambivalence, or reticence in moving forward in a crucial way. Many have remembered useful views and attitudes, while others have gotten crucial information about things that were unclear, or perhaps self-serving attitudes in others where some things were definitely being taken for granted or based in an unwarranted assumption.
This is now the time to move into a new vision of social self-expression, based in a new sense of what’s fair, what’s elegant, and what’s been moderated the first 6 months of this year. Actually, the balanced approach that will work best was shown to all of us these past 4 months as a result of Mercury’s last stationary direct degree at 19 Aquarius.
From here we should be able to find a new self-confidence based in what we trim from our lives so we can express what matters to us. This is the time to communicate directly based in things now seen in a different light. So now that we've done our rehearsals, reviews, revisions, and/or research on how we can coordinate the parts of this emerging process during the past 3 weeks, it's again time to get it on!
Here we face the future, and do what we must to weave elements of that future into our current life and affairs. We will continue to see ever-greater pictures of potentials, and over the next few weeks will mobilize toward a future that will explode in creative expression when Jupiter enters Leo on July 16.
The Good To Come
There are many good things promised by this direct station. The Sun trine Saturn shows a stable course in front of us, where we can express some culmination of our skill while trusting our inner Truth and our self-reliance. This can help us reveal ourselves to the world in a way demonstrating the cooperation between our spiritual Self and worldly self. This will be very favorable for those with planets in the middle decan (10-20 degrees) of Cancer, Scorpio, and Pisces.
The numerous semi-sextiles should provide a generally harmonious flow, and as noted, the tredeciles should bring serendipity to many people. Venus quincunx Pluto requires adjustments in relationships, and some will have to pull out of a nosedive while remembering their “experiment” nears completion. Many will have reunions with kindred spirits, and find a certain peace in knowing they’ve turned tears of sorrow into sparkling jewels of liquid sunlight.
We now begin to ride the edge of extremely dynamic change, finding new forms of thinking and feeling connected to the new life archetypes we’ve been living since the Summer of 2010. Mercury direct will open many views and perspectives over the next 3 months, and the insights we receive and weaving we do in that period will lead us to a natural and powerful new feeling-expression related to our understanding of our individual flow within the larger collective flow by October 2014.
Past Mercury Retrogrades and What They Taught Us
In the 2012 Mercury retrogrades, we went through a process of learning how to look at the past with different eyes, seeing the storms and trials we had overcome as rehearsals for what was yet to come. Through retrospection, we called up old powers in new ways that helped us in late 2012. Mercury retrograde in November 2012 put us on the threshold of being able to know without thinking, directly experiencing communication rather than having to go through a linear evaluation of hearing and interpreting words.
Due to the Mercury direct point at 6 Pisces in March 2012, the same degree where Neptune went stationary retrograde in June 2012, we awakened to a new dedication, a new set of motives, a new intuition, and a new way of bringing closure to old ghosts. We then finished letting go of those ghosts, and after the June-July 2013 Mercury retrograde in Cancer, we felt a new permanence, a new courage, a new fearlessness, and a new way of knowing how to live whatever “Ageless Wisdom” is ours to live.
The Oct-Nov Mercury retrograde in Scorpio helped us reorient and focus, and eliminate desires and stuck feelings we no longer needed to carry. We found a deeper togetherness with people and experience, and found an ability to cooperate with others in building something.
The February 2014 Mercury retrograde in Pisces and Aquarius gave us new insights into collective consciousness, and through a sequence of “graduating into a new realm of being,” rose to a challenge and cooperated with others to bring a metaphoric “forest fire” under control. We saw our interconnections, examined our deeper feelings and aspirations, and found new ways of managing our energies at the close of an old life cycle, all of these wherever we have 19 Aquarius through 4 Pisces. in our charts
On the whole this retrograde period has been one of arguing pros and cons relative to a major life shift that has already occurred, and involved a lot of adaptation, patience, and willingness to go back over information one more time to prepare to move forward in July 2014. Whether through direct or indirect information or realizations, we’ve also gotten insights, returns, and understanding about things we didn’t know about before the retrograde began.
So as Mercury now goes direct in motion, open up and be receptive to a more authentic self-expression, and a different way to communicate in social setups. We have now begun a different way of communicating feelings, and different ways of feeling ideas. This is the final look back before we enter the Jupiter in Leo era, which will be MUCH different than the last year when Jupiter’s been in Cancer!
As the Sun trine Saturn is front and center, keep moving into your higher dedication and more perfect self-expression, and remember that having heard a call to renewal, you’ve quickened and now are a master of a realm you weren’t before now. Accept the challenge of allowing what inspires you to take you to a higher level of living and functioning.
This is the last look back at a “challenge to transformation” set into motion in February-March 2014. Those who accepted the challenge have experienced knowing themselves to be “a particle of Light within an infinite Field of Light,” or perhaps “a particle of Love within an infinite Field of Love.” Since it should be obvious to many that a new identity has already been made manifest, it’s time to go with the flow, learn all you can about harmonious ways to understand and express feelings, and get ready for an acceleration in the pace of a new life adventure that’s already prepared for you.
We went through a grounding and mobilizing period where we understood many elements of our emotional intelligence we developed between June and November 2013. Over the past 6 months we’ve moved forward through the final phase of stabilizing and harmonizing that emotional awareness. We’ve seen how to navigate the “psychic traffic jams” recently pervading collective consciousness, and can now operate from a higher vision.
Now that we’ve done our internal and external arguments, we can see what to cut back, what to withdraw from, and what we need to regenerate. We’ve now reoriented in fundamental ways, and can now move forward on the basis of the insights we’ve gained these past several weeks.
Things related to Mercury will speed up considerably for the next three months, so flow with the greater vision and understandings that have been revealed and will continue to be revealed over the next weeks and months. We’re now at a threshold state, where we can see how we have linked “the above and the below of our existence.
This has shown us our worth via the linkage between our personality and our Higher Self, and now know new ways to get beyond old stuck situations. While it may entail “spiritual linkage through emotional stress,” it’s also a time to expect blessings after the death of useless things.
From here we move forward into a clearer, more exciting future! Stay balanced as you move through revolutionary developments, and express the acme of your cultured personality. We’re in a long wave process of seeing events of the past from a higher symbolic angle that show us a new identity has been crafted, and we can now feel more connected and see more clearly what that is and how we can live it wholeheartedly.
And as usual, here are links to recent articles on what this June 2014 Mercury Retrograde in Cancer and Gemini has been about:
The Guide of Souls in June 2014 - Mercury Slowing Down Preparing to go Retrograde at 4 Cancer
© Copyright 2014 Robert Wilkinson
Mars 26 Leo 10th, Saturn 28 Capricorn 3rd, Venus 15 Taurus 7th...
Divine mother final conjunction of North Node penultimate degree of Leo in 10th, sextile 0'Cancer Sun and hearing her encouraging me to "reach".
Posted by: debbie | June 30, 2014 at 04:32 PM
oh yes and Uranus is opposing my 14 Libra moon and then Natal Neptune 8' Scorpio 1st house...not just another "airy fairy" unknowing occultist yet just me :)
Posted by: debbie | June 30, 2014 at 04:36 PM
This has been perfectly spot-on, Robert.
This particle of Love within the infinite field of Love salutes you.
Terri in Joburg
Posted by: Aquila ka Hecate | June 30, 2014 at 08:10 PM
I couldn't have read this at a better time, I am currently turning tears of sorrow into sunlight and it has been achingly beautiful. Lots of growing pains in my relationship. I really need to figure out if it's a nosedive or just some unruly turbulence. It's interesting that a process that was birthed by lies and deceit has turned into an instrospective experience that I am valuing as I get to analyze my life and my future. Thank you, Robert for this. I sometimes steer away from hear but whenever I find myself in a tricky situation, I always find some answer or at the very least an explanation of why I find myself there. Again, thanks!
Posted by: Eo | June 30, 2014 at 09:59 PM
Very clear and comprehensive. As usual, the map or blue print has been clearly exposed and we can make the best of all that is to come and is happening now.
Blessings be to all,
Posted by: Nic | July 01, 2014 at 08:55 AM
Thank you for posting this. It sounds very promising indeed, a hope for a brighter future. Maybe things can finally start moving again after such a long hiatus of activity.
Posted by: Realist Idealist | July 01, 2014 at 12:04 PM
The season of tag-team RXs are over!! Full speed ahead...
Posted by: Matt | July 01, 2014 at 05:44 PM