by Robert Wilkinson
Yes, it's THAT time again! Mercury is radically slowing down, preparing to go stationary retrograde at 16 Libra on September 17 at 11:10 am PDT, 2:10 pm EDT, 7:10 pm BST. This has important implications for all signs.
I'll be composing several articles about this Mercury retrograde in Libra 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 early October.
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 a good time 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.
Since Mercury is slowing, we’ve already begun to experience a quality of “Mercury crashing into retrograde.” If you want to know what we can expect from Mercury retrograde in Libra, as well as all the other signs and houses, if you haven't already gotten your copy, you may want to buy a copy of the new expanded 2nd edition of my pioneering book A New Look At Mercury Retrograde, the 2015 winner in its category of The Indie Spiritual Book Awards.
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 Libra, or the last one in Gemini, or the others in any other sign and the influence in the houses, it’s all in there.
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, or 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. And you can get a heads up by taking a look at the coming 2016 Mercury retrograde periods in Aquarius/Capricorn, Taurus, Virgo, and Capricorn/Sagittarius. It’s all in the book!
Here's the Amazon link to the page where you can order your paperback or ebook copy of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. It is an invaluable resource for understanding past, present, and future Mercury retrogrades, so get your copy today. Just make sure you get the 2015 edition, and not the 1997 first edition, since the second is a far superior product!
The coming retrograde will show us a new look at recent signals and information that we sent or received, and get clear about what roles we're playing and not playing. This one actually can help us repair something, or reconstruct something so that we can reverse the energy and start anew with a new “perfect form” in early October.
As with all Mercury retrograde periods, things from the past will be reevaluated, re-examined, or understood differently. We can get a new look at ideas, ways we’re communicating and understanding what others are communicating to us, and get new insights into all things ruled by Libra, such as relationships, opportunities, pleasing ideas and ideals, and our sense of “equalness,” and specifically all things related to the house(s) where we have 1 to 16 Libra.
For example, we may get new insights or understanding about someone who used to be a personal or business partner, or someone we thought was our equal at a prior point in our lives. Some will remember things that were out of balance a long time ago, or even why an interaction had the archetypal influence it did on our lives.
And of course, it should be a good time to do inner “repair work.” We can also get insights into past relational unfairness or imbalances and find joy in repairing any inner damage that may have been done then.
Mercury goes stationary retrograde in Libra just after making a powerful productive sextile to Venus, ruler of Libra, and septile to Mars, promising us that this period is one of very important choices in determining our destiny in at least a third of our life areas. It also is in a constant semisquare with Saturn at the end of Scorpio right now, and will also retrograde back to a square to Pluto. This is not an easy transit!
As Mercury goes retrograde in the Air sign of Libra and stays in that sign the entire retrograde period, it continues the big shift between this year’s and last year’s Mercury retrograde periods. Last year’s 3 retrograde periods all began in early Water signs, with Mercury retrograding back into Air signs. So last year we danced between Feelings and Ideas, experiencing and relating, while this year it’s entirely an Air affair!
In the next 3 weeks, we can see what life has prepared for us since the last Mercury retrograde in May-June. This can give us a new perspective on what’s shifted in our view or understanding since then, and this will give us a look back so we can find a more balanced perspective as we come to a new understanding of those past events. This Mercury retrograde will offer us opportunities to look back and distill a different sense of perspective and/or proportion in our understanding of our past experiences and choices resulting from the last Mercury retrograde.
Consider the next 3 weeks as an opening of new ideas and ideals, repairing of old relationships or perspectives about what happened in a prior time of life. This time will bring interesting insights through looking back or within about prior interactions, misunderstandings, or miscommunications, and why certain things came down the way they did in relationships in our past.
Pay attention to the signs, signals, information, and ideas that come in this period, and see if they related to lessons, responsibilities, or new roles that began between Nov 2009 and March 2010, July through December 2010 or March through September 2011. You may see alternative views of what opened then, or find a new way to articulate those lessons of maturity and which roles you would and would not play after that.
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 offers a huge number of extremely important aspects indicating what’s up both for the period of the retrograde station, as well as the entirety of the retrograde period. When Mercury goes stationary retrograde the major forming aspects include Moon square Venus and triseptile Uranus, Mercury semisquare Saturn, biquintile Neptune, and square Pluto, Venus conjunct Mars biseptile Saturn, trine Uranus and biquintile Pluto, Sun sextile Saturn and tredecile Pluto, Mars square Saturn and sesquisquare Pluto, Jupiter binovile Saturn and trine Pluto, and Uranus novile Neptune and square Pluto.
These are a very mixed bag of aspects showing a lot of gear grinding and offering us the chance to see how to move in a different direction. I’ll explain more in future articles on this Mercury retrograde period.
This Mercury retrograde will give us many signs and signals for what will dominate Mercury-ruled areas from early October 2015 through early January 2016.. This retrograde is a time to review past ideas and ideals in prior relationships, and take a new look at how these contributed to any misunderstanding about what roles we were and were not playing at points in our past. Keep it balanced, joyous, be willing to see how you may have repressed some genuine and powerful parts of yourself, and take a new look at how some of your past relationships helped you join with others to overcome a phase of coldness in life.
Here we take a new look at what’s behind us before moving forward anew at the end of the RX period in early October. We can get all kinds of new insights into future potentials, while seeing things in the recent past differently.
The Inferior Conjunction happens September 30 at 8 Libra. That indicates the coming “fusion of life and mind” will help us to a new look, new interpretation, or new understanding of the issues associated with the end of the first decan of Libra, as well as what Saturn taught us in Sept-Oct 2010 about new life rebeginnings.
So welcome to many things being reviewed or coming back up to surface these next three weeks 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 views, misunderstandings, dilemmas, paradoxes, and dualities.
This one allows us to take a look back at how we’re using Libra energy in our lives, see who our equals truly are, open to a different balance in our life activities, and repair old damage while understanding how things in the past served as “construction materials” for where we’re at right now. Take a new look at the ideas you got earlier in September, since we will capture the essential elements of understanding what we need to mobilize into action by early October based in our insights these next 3+ weeks.
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. All of us will have a new understanding of multiple elements of our lives by early October, and will begin a process of accepting a more ideal role in our world, exemplifying some sort of “perfect form” of transfigured Being-ness.
This will be another important retrograde, where the past will be reviewed to see what we can and cannot bring with us into the future in early October. It will help us rehearse or do the research we need to get ready to spring forward in late October, clear about what we know, what we need to know, and what must happen if we are to move forward in our lives.
Renewals, returns, reconnections, reunions, and rebeginnings are promised by this retrograde. And of course, more on this Mercury retrograde period will come soon!
Copyright © 2015 Robert Wilkinson
The book is very helpful master piece! There was time, years ago, I used to fear Mercury retrograde periods. I would get frustrated that nothing works properly or goes right, but through reading your website and later the book I learned to see the potential it brings and to derive the most positive of the moment it occurs. Now I see Mercury retrograde as opportunity. Thanks to the book, last October (retrograde in libra again), happened the "miracle" and we solved years long neighbor war. :)
The funniest is that I received the paper copy as a gift from someone without any astrological knowledge during Mercury retrograde period.
The messenger already sends weird messages. :) Today after I received a SMS on my mobile from unknown number saying "Add me", what I deleted, I received a call on my house number from automated system what told me I got a message from this unknown number...freaky! That's virtually impossible. The only thought that crossed my mind was "Mercury retrograde playing pranks" , what conjuncts natal Pluto 3H by round 2.5°. Surely these were fraudsters.
Posted by: Maggie | September 15, 2015 at 10:48 AM
Time to review. Time to reconnect. Interesting times ahead!
Blessings be to all
Posted by: Nic | September 16, 2015 at 11:03 AM