by Robert Wilkinson
Today we take a look at important Sabian Symbols, aspects, and other important factors in play the next three weeks as Mercury is retrograde in Scorpio and Libra.
This Mercury retrograde begins Oct 4, 10:02 am PDT, 1:02 pm EDT, 6:02 pm Greenwich (BST). This retrograde moves from 3 Scorpio back to 17 Libra, with the Inferior conjunction of Mercury and the Sun occurring at 24 Libra on Oct 16, 1:40 pm PDT, 9:40 pm BST.
The Sabian Symbol for Mercury’s Stationary Retrograde Degree
Where Mercury goes retrograde indicates a threshold from which we take a look back, or get a newer understanding from multiple points of contrasting views. The degree for 3 Scorpio is “A house raising.” In "the Astrology of Personality," where Rudhyar uses the original Dr. Jones' class notes on the symbols, 3 Scorpio is said to be a symbol of “the constructive sharing of experience which builds social values,” “interchange of efforts,” and “necessity to learn cooperation.”
We are told in the Astrological Mandala that this symbolizes "the feeling of community demonstrated in a basic joint effort,” where we find helpers with whom we can build something together and cultivate a sense of community through the shared effort. We are told this is part of community building, where “feeling becomes activity,” and “the past and its memories are repolarized in terms of the expanded social consciousness.”
The goes on to state that this expanded social awareness will result in “a new sense of reality,” and the keyword is cooperation. He says it falls in the Span of Retention, and it’s the synthesizing degree in the actional level of the scene of Communion in the Act of Group Integration.
So we'll be using our Mercury function to catch glimpses of things we’ve built in the past that taught us cooperation or resulted in a feeling of being part of a community, or perhaps we will be “reinvited” to build something with someone that helps us recapture that community feeling. Here we take a look back and reconsider some feelings about things, especially things and people we’ve lost in the past, or those with whom we once shared something of value.
According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, this degree is one of our need to allow our spirit to reach out in “simple cooperations in everyday living,” which will result in our “realization of (our) own inherent divinity as (we) seek (our) fulfillment” through activity involving others. He says “there is joy in common enterprise which strengthens (our) efforts for personal gain, and also a sense of well-being in the sure dependence (we) may place on family and neighbors whenever an emergency arises.”
He offers us the keyword HELPFULNESS. He states when operating in a positive manner, this degree “is an exceptional power of accomplishment through a consistent success in winning the good will and enlisting the services of others.”
So What Are We Reviewing?
As with all Mercury retrogrades, we can use this time to take a look back at whatever in the past has recently begun. This one in Scorpio helps us re-shape our mind, perceptions, understanding, and methods by taking former insights into past feelings that connect us to old losses, old desires, and old defeats that led us to new strengths, whether we know it or not.
As with the last two Mercury retrogrades which also began in early Water signs, this one can help us take a look back at the emotional intelligence we’ve developed since June-July 2013. We can discover new perspectives on our feeling-experiences since then, and perhaps get a new sense of what we can and cannot attract and why, or why some things had to die so we could grow emotionally.
Once it is retrograde in Libra, we can get a new understanding of old relationships, old perspectives, old ideals, or old imbalances between us and others. This look back, or new look, can help us see dues that we paid, repair work we needed to do, or reconstruction of past interactions to find a new perspective.
Perhaps we’ll revisit past relationships that may not have been what they seemed and get new insights, new vision and a new understanding of how that helped us find a new perspective that we can now adapt for current conditions. We can get new insights on old close associations, and some may find themselves reconnecting with old friends in a new way of seeing the interactive dance.
These reviews and new points of view will be activated in major ways as the Sun moves through this Mercury retrograde degree span in Libra and Scorpio over the three weeks Mercury is retrograde. This will illuminate the Mercury lessons we first saw when Mercury was approaching this retrograde period. Now that Mercury is retrograde, we’ll get a new look at these things.
Again, of some importance is that we’ll also get to review or re-think the long wave movement of our larger social reality associated with what Saturn taught us when it traversed the span from 17 Libra through 3 Scorpio from December 2010 through early March 2011 when it was around 17-18 Libra, as well as when it move forward through this span of retrograde degrees between September 2011 and October 2012. This of course was also reworked and re-experienced when Mars occupied that span both direct and retrograde from January through April 2014, and again between late June and late July 2014.
So this Mercury retrograde point is going to echo the early degree Grand Water trines of early June through late July 2013, specifically Saturn lessons presented in October 2012. And it trines the degrees Neptune has occupied between 2012 and now, which can give us new insights into this entire period by referencing the emotional intelligence we’ve developed these past 16 months.
All these Mercury water trines are linking and stabilizing an emotional energy in all of us. Here’s where we get to look back and see how our feelings have been reshaped, or how these feelings reshaped our lives and relationships in terms of knowing what we can and cannot hold on to.
So this continues the Mercury station sequence of trines, since it closely trines the June Mercury SRX point at 4 Cancer and the February Mercury SRX point at 4 Pisces, as well as the November 2013 SD direct point at 3 Scorpio and the Mercury SD point at 6 Pisces in March 2013. Much of this will become clearer during the inner planet transits to this degree in late October and second week of November.
So pay close attention to the signs and signals this Mercury retrograde in Scorpio is giving you. This will help you deepen your understanding of the forms of emotional intelligence you’ve learned via the Grand Water trines of last Summer, and can help you to a greater or deeper sense of what you really want, how you deal with loss and regeneration, and how you can feel more connected to your life, your work, and your relationships.
All Mercury retrograde periods are great for returns, reviews, rehearsals, reversals, and seeing things from unusual angles. This one offers us unique skills by rearranging how things are related within a larger process, even while navigating some important forks in the road of destiny that will seem extremely weird at times.
Behind the Scenes in this Cancer Retrograde
While in Scorpio, Mercury is ruled by Mars. So the initial part of this Mercury retrograde period has as its backdrop energy the very powerful Mars in Sagittarius in a Grand Fire Trine with Jupiter in Leo and Uranus in Aries, fed by the Air sextile from the Sun. This will help us prepare for the future by extrapolating old cycles and seeing the bigger picture or larger trajectory of what’s happening. This will give us a look back so we can cut loose into the future!
Once Mercury retrogrades back into Libra, it will be ruled by Venus, also in Libra, one of the signs it rules. That effectively makes Venus the final dispositor for all the other planetary energies until Venus enters Scorpio followed by Mars entering Capricorn between October 23-26 at the time Mercury goes stationary direct. That shows that while the initial focus of the retrograde is Fire and Water, the main body of this retrograde period will be heavily Air, or relationship and idea oriented.
Aspects
Overall, because of the quantity of both frictional, specializing, productive, and non-rational aspects, this will be an extremely important retrograde, even if it makes no sense how or why things have arisen as they have. Saturn is biseptile Neptune, triggering the Grand Irrationality, and though Mercury makes no septile series aspects, when it goes retrograde the Moon is septile Uranus and Venus is septile Jupiter, putting more than a few areas of our lives at critical forks in the road of destiny.
”Hard,” or frictional aspects that will require some immediate decisions that blunt, block or turn the corner on fears, rules, restrictions, feelings, and habits that need adjustment include Moon square Saturn, Mercury semisquare Mars, and the Sun and Venus opposed Uranus and square Pluto, creating another Cardinal T-square throwing the void into Cancer. These will impact those with planets or angles around 5-15 Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, as well as planets or angles around 18-23 Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius.
Specializing aspects include Moon tredecile Mercury, Mercury quintile Jupiter and Pluto, and Jupiter biquintile Pluto. The productive aspects include Venus conjunct the Sun, the Sun sextile Mars and Jupiter, and the Grand Fire Trine mentioned earlier.
The specializing aspects will bring gifts and unique circumstances to the greater productive harmony indicated by the trines and sextiles, which can be released through the squares and oppositions. Trust your feelings, see what’s needed, and you can receive gifts and blessings from Spirit for going through what you must to show courage, strength, imagination, and determination. The Moon tredecile Mercury brings serendipitous interactive conditions and gifts, showing that many will be blessed by Spirit both during the next three weeks as well as into November.
At the stationary point, Mercury goes retrograde semisquare Mars and quintile both Jupiter and Pluto. This will prove very harmonious for those with planets or angles around 11-15 Capricorn, 23-27 Pisces, 5-9 Gemini, 17-21 Leo, and 29 Libra-3 Scorpio. The semisquare may entail some inner reconsideration about what we need to attract or eliminate to secure a future that will present itself in early December.
The Moon septile Uranus will bring tremendous fulfillment for those affected by this non-rational “destiny creating” aspect. It will specifically affect areas in our charts related to Aries, Cancer, Capricorn, and Aquarius, and involves involves degree spans around 19-24 Aquarius, 11-16 Aries, 2-7 Gemini, 24-29 Cancer, 15-20 Virgo, 7-12 Scorpio, and 28 Sagittarius-3 Capricorn.
Venus septile Jupiter will also open forks in the road of destiny requiring choices in the areas in our charts related to Taurus, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, and Pisces. Those with planets or angles near 10-14 Taurus, 2-6 Cancer, 23-27 Leo, 15-19 Libra, 6-10 Sagittarius, 28 Capricorn-2 Aquarius, and 19-23 Pisces will be most affected.
After the Inferior Conjunction on October 16-17, Mercury begins to speed up gradually, and goes stationary direct on October 25 at 17 Libra. During the last half of October, Mercury constantly holds the sextile to Jupiter and quintile to Mars, bringing highly specialized mental perceptual gifts to those affected. The degrees most affected are approximately 16-20 Libra, 28 Sagittarius-2 Capricorn, 10-14 Pisces, 22-26 Taurus, and 4-8 Leo.
As noted, Saturn biseptile Neptune at this Mercury station puts the Grand Irrationality front and center during the time the retrograde is in influence. This will again bring global pressure for transformation, this time through the mind, perception, and what is externalized, in the way of an outreaching transformation of vitality into the power to build ideas.
As it involves Saturn, it’s a “bottom line” type of time involving collective consciousness doing what it knows is right by refusing the dictates of authoritarian social energies. Those most affected by this configuration at this time have planets or angles near 10-14 Capricorn, 2-6 Pisces, 23-27 Aries, 15-19 Gemini, 6-10 Leo, 28 Virgo-2 Libra, and 19-23 Scorpio.
So like so many other Mercury retrograde periods, this one will also be a “back to the future” type of energy, where the Great Light shows us how to both rededicate ourselves to what brings light and warmth to life, as well as how to emerge from the depths and lead a more natural existence. We will look back even as we are productively propelled into our future in rhythmic ways. This will be a highly gifted transformative period, where we can take graceful initiatives as we survey what we’ll need in the coming 4 months. This is a time of returns, reviews, rehearsals, and renewals that will have deep echoes for many months to come.
Because of the preponderance of Water and Fire, we are still in a time of feeling a lot, and very deeply. Allow your feelings and review of emotional experiences and growth to lead you to decisions and actions that result in a review of what we know or how we perceive and interpret things. Use deep feelings as a guide for action rather than the shifting perspectives of Mercury retrograde. Find new information via various forms of communication, research, rehearsal, or review.
This is showing you the way to a new vision, new understanding, and new ways of expressing yourself. This can help you understand elements of your quest that you’ve never understood before, so be courageous as you see what had to die to create space for a new experience of community, or what must be eliminated so you can go deeper in your feelings and relationships with other.
Action and a sense of urgency will be in the air. Build the outer structures, as well as the ego-structures, you need to actualize your purposes. Feel your way to a decision and act on it. Find newer, more up to date information and ways of viewing things.
Do not cling to old conceptions of anything. Use your practical experience to teach others, or remember how you did something and give it a new application. People will be important. Who makes you feel good?
In future Mercury retrograde articles, we’ll explore more about various elements of what’s in play during the next three weeks, how its transit in various houses will affect each of us, what Mercury retrograde in Scorpio and Libra may be good for, the coming Inferior Conjunction and what it means, and what we can expect between late October and mid-January 2015 after it goes direct several weeks from now.
If you haven’t already, you can find out a lot more about these very important 3 week periods by getting a copy of the new expanded 2nd edition of my book “A New Look At Mercury Retrograde,” available on Amazon kindle as an ebook. Also, it will soon be available as an iBook, as well as via Barnes and Noble’s Nook for those who don’t want to do amazon kindle. This work offers in-depth information about Mercury retrograde people, Mercury retrograde in the various signs and houses, and what the entire Mercury Retrograde phenomenon is about.
Previous articles in this series:
The Guide of Souls in October 2014 - Mercury Slowing Down, Preparing to go Retrograde at 3 Scorpio
Copyright © 2014 Robert Wilkinson
I've been always amazed of how you're able to put in words our soul experiences.
The above article describes in details what was going on last 2 days and I feel it's more to come.
In my natal I have affected 5 planets (including the sun) and all my angles, additionally I'm just about to have my north node return. It was the weirdest moment in my life ever. As if there was a power who arranged all events in a way to create the scene. Every single detail seemed put on purpose. The periods of time you give are absolute correct. In short, there is someone, in the very close environment, who decided from the first sight to be enamy. I couldn't understand the irrationality. Powerful, obsessed and agressive person. I lived in fear for all this time. My inner balance was completely destroyed. I tried few times to resolve the conflict but unsuccessful.
When on 1st of October this someone came to my door aggressively tuned a miracle occurred because of how the situation unexpectedly happened to be. And the aggression transformed to cooperation. The weirdest thing of all were the few hours spent with this one yesterday. As if I was standing in front of myself, as if I was hearing myself talking. We discovered we are so identical, we have the same interests, same hobbies, same spiritual experiences, same things happened in our life. My brain is still in shock how it is possible from enemies at once everything to be fixed and suddenly we like so much one another? That's freaky! Absolutely scary! Was that resonance? And as we know when the sound resonates at high level can brake glass. So were we resonating at such high frequency that created the black hole we entered in the past?
I can't wait for your eclipse articles. Especially the solar one. It seems is going to be of great importance. All the house degrees of the eclipse chart will align with my natal houses and lot of my planets will be affected. Pondering over, should I fear and be scared or should I be happy and at last going out of the darkness.
Thanks again for what you do for all visitors of the site with your insights and guidance
Posted by: Maggie | October 03, 2014 at 01:44 AM
Hey Robert, are there any good books/discussions regarding natal Venus Rx that you can recommend?
Posted by: Diana | October 03, 2014 at 02:15 PM