by Robert Wilkinson
In this article we explore more about this phenomenon that usually occurs 3 weeks at a time 3 times a year. At the end there's a table so you can find which house(s) this May-June 2015 Mercury RX period falls in relative to your Sun sign. Then you can find out how this transit affects you personally by consulting my article How Does Mercury Retrograde Affect Us In The Different Houses? Of course, if you know your Ascendant, you can also use this to see how it affects those houses as well.
Like all Mercury retrograde periods, these three weeks offer a chance to reorganize in the areas of our life ruled by Mercury. These are the houses of your chart ruled by Gemini or Virgo, any planets in these signs in your chart, and the house occupied by your natal, progressed, or solar return Mercury. And of course, the house Mercury RX transits will be where these work out in specific life affairs.
All retrogrades show us that sometimes it is more important to be inwardly oriented than outer-directed. These are times when our previous activities "echo back" information about what we've already experienced during a planetary direct motion phase.
When the inner planets are retrograde, our personal life is most subject to review, reflection, re-doing or getting a new angle on those affairs. When the outer planets are retrograde, we get the same process of review but it impacts our place in the larger scheme of things, whether social, cultural, or transpersonal-global.
When retrograde, Mercury, the "Guide of Souls," challenges us to cultivate our personal understanding of our "fellowship with the Eternal," explore our deeper issues and useful but overlooked details in what's being discussed or asserted, take an unusual view, and allow ourselves to be led by the future implications of what's happening. It’s a time when we truly get a new look at many things and come to a different understanding of how the various affairs of our inner and outer life are coordinated, or need to be.
We can get different perspectives and insights into prior events, messages, and signals, and can fill in important gaps in our understanding. Sometimes it may seem like it's one step forward, two to the side, one step back, one to the other side, then two steps forward, but often we find that we are offered entirely new and crucial perspectives and knowledge that can help us when it's time to move forward again after the retrograde is past.
The period before Mercury goes retrograde is important in getting your paperwork and other life areas in shape, so take note of what was presented in the last week of September and first week of October and see what hit a threshold and now requires a delay, research, or renewal.
For now, while Mercury is retrograde, please take this period to re-trace ground covered in recent weeks, get new information and interpretations of old ideas and perceptions, and find new points of view. All these are great things to do while Mercury is retrograde.
We are now in a three week retrograde period to deal with things we've put off, or take care of things from the past. This May-June 2015 Mercury retrograde is giving us new understanding about the events of the past four months and indirect insights into what we'll be dealing with from June 11 through September 17.
Once Mercury is retrograde, we often experience that communications and other Mercury ruled areas are slower than usual. It's time to re-do, review, rehearse, research, and take a new look at many things that evolved to a threshold during the period before Mercury goes stationary retrograde. So during this time we can again reconsider, reinterpret, and rework Scorpio issues and activities, seeing their significance from new angles of understanding.
So in what House(s) does this Retrograde Occur for my Birthday?
By learning about these recurring Mercury retrograde periods, we can understand how to deal with them productively, as well as the months afterward, which they also indirectly influence. Since this Mercury retrograde begins at 14 Gemini and retrogrades back to 5 Gemini, you can learn a lot about this coming period by reading all you can about Mercury retrograde in Gemini, and all the possible ways these signs manifest in the world. I've already offered a lot about the degrees and energies at play in this retrograde period in previous articles in this series.
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 pioneering book A New Look At Mercury Retrograde. The first major work on Mercury retrograde ever written, it 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. If you want to know what we can expect from Mercury retrograde in Gemini, as well as all the other signs and houses, it’s all in there.
The great news is that it is again available as a paperback! Yes, we managed to get it published in time for this retrograde. The paperback is available through Createspace.com, so if you want the newest edition go there and order your copy. Of course, it’s also available as an ebook through Amazon Kindle or Barnes and Noble Nook. I've included links to both sites.
As I’ve mentioned before, it is written for both astrologers and laypeople. I have just about everything you could want to know about Mercury retrograde, including how it works, what it means, celebrities who have it in their charts, historic events that happened during Mercury retrograde, and what signs are involved in future Mercury retrograde periods.
By knowing more about 2014's Mercury retrograde periods in Pisces/Aquarius, Cancer/Gemini, and Scorpio/Libra, as well as 2015’s Mercury retrograde periods in Aquarius, Gemini, and Libra, you may see patterns in what was going on in your life, what you were taking a new look at and why, and how this "looking back" influenced your choices as you moved through past events.
Here's the link to where you can order your copy of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde to check out possible ways this Mercury retrograde effect could play out over the next 4 months.
You can also get some very useful ideas of how it works by consulting the article that I linked to in the first paragraph of this article titled "How Does Mercury Retrograde Work in the Houses." The ideas I offer in that article really do work, whether you're referencing the natal or Solar charts. That article is a brief take on what I expand on in “A New Look at Mercury Retrograde,” and the two pieces together give a comprehensive overview of the many possibilities that could show up when Mercury is retrograde in any house in your chart.
To that end, the houses in astrology show us the specific areas of our worldly affairs where we experience a given planetary influence. If you know your natal chart, then read the corresponding house in the article. However, whether you do or don't know your chart, you can find out Mercury's approximate position in your solar houses (created by your Sun sign position) by consulting this table:
For birthdays between:
May 2 to 24, read Mercury retrograde in the 1st house.
May 25 to Jun 2, 12th and 1st houses.
Jun 3 to 24, 12th house.
Jun 25 to Jul 3, 11th and 12th houses.
Jul 4 to 25, 11th house.
Jul 25 to Aug 3, 10th and 11th houses.
Aug 4 to 25, 10th house.
Aug 26 to Sep 3, 9th and 10th houses.
Sep 4 to 25, 9th house.
Sep 26 to Oct 4, 8th and 9th houses.
Oct 5 to 26, 8th house.
Oct 27 to Nov 3, 7th and 8th houses.
Nov 4 to 24, 7th house.
Nov 25 to Dec 3, 6th and 7th houses.
Dec 4 to 24, 6th house.
Dec 25 to Jan 2, 5th and 6th houses.
Jan 3 to 22, 5th house.
Jan 23 to Jan 31, 4th and 5th houses.
Feb 1 to 21, 4th house.
Feb 22 to Mar 2, 3rd and 4th houses.
Mar 3 to 23, 3rd house.
Mar 24 to Apr 1, 2nd and 3rd houses.
Apr 2 to 22, 2nd house.
Apr 23 to May 1, 1st and 2nd houses.
This table is approximate, and if your birthday falls near the edge of two possible positions you may need to read both to know which applies to your Sun sign. Of course, one should always have a correct natal chart calculated professionally in order to know where the planets are situated, as this helps clarify your exact cyclic pattern.
Previous articles in this series:
The Guide of Souls in May 2015 - Mercury Slowing Down, Preparing to go Retrograde at 14 Gemini
Copyright © 2015 Robert Wilkinson
Interesting, in tune with RX in 10 and 11. Just some subconscious twists in play not mentioned, but intuited. Matches up with last solar return in a strange unique way. Thank you for the read.
Posted by: nancy | May 22, 2015 at 10:03 AM
Hi Rob, during a Mercury Retrograde is it safe to buy a piece of exercise equipment if you have owned that same make / model in the past? On one hand, it seems safe since I've owned it before in the past. But on the other hand, it's still an expensive piece of equipment and I'd hate to have to return it because of issues. What do you think?
Posted by: Ondrea Delio | May 25, 2015 at 03:50 PM
Hi Rob, one more question. Have you ever written any articles which cover the Mercury Retrograde "storm period?" Are there certain things that are "safe" to do during the storm period which are less safe during the retrograde? If you're buying something big / expensive, or making an important decision, do you really need to wait until after both the retrograde and storm period are over?
Posted by: Ondrea Delio | May 25, 2015 at 03:53 PM