by Robert Wilkinson
Happy Western New Year, and yes, it's THAT time again! Mercury is radically slowing down, preparing to go stationary retrograde at 2 Aquarius on January 5 at 5:06 am PST, 8:06 am EST, 1:06 pm GMT. This has important implications for all signs.
I'll be composing several articles about this Mercury retrograde in Aquarius and Capricorn 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 late January.
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 has already been slowing way down for a couple of weeks, 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 Aquarius and Capricorn, 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 Aquarius and Capricorn, or the last one in Libra, or the others in any other sign and the influence in the houses, it’s all in there.
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 will bring some sort of “cosmic visitation” that will “galvanize us into action” and “liberate us from adverse conditions.” Many will glimpse a greater effectiveness or find a way to reorganize to help things move forward in late January.
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 Aquarius and Capricorn, such as larger goals and aims, friendships, and our sense of responsibility and duty, and specifically all things related to the house(s) where we have 15 Capricorn to 2 Aquarius.
For example, we may get new insights or understanding about someone who used to be a friend, or someone who was a group colleague, or something related to our honor, public standing, or profession. Some will remember old goals and ambitions, or even why an interaction had the effect of showing us something that had to be re-examined in light of our goals at the time. It’ll be a good time to shift gears around old obligations, duties, and structures, and get free of those which have kept us in adverse conditions.
And of course, it should be a good time to see how our life structures hold up or not when confronted with a challenge, and quicken as things come to a head. Some will figure out a different emphasis in what they believe would fulfill them, and those who can be creative in seizing opportunity can shape the process to a desired end.
Mercury goes stationary retrograde in Aquarius just an hour after making its final square to Mars at 2 Scorpio. This is a very powerful square that we’ve experienced ever since the Solstice, and heavily affects everyone with planets in the beginning of Taurus, Leo, Scorpio, and Aquarius. From the Solstice through Jan 1, it mainly affected those with planets in late Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn, and once Mercury re-enters Capricorn on Jan 8, we can expect echoes of that late Cardinal sign square to give us new insights and understanding about the friction of late December.
As Mercury has been and continues to be in septile to Venus, this indicates that this time in late December and early January is one of very important choices in determining our destiny in at least a third of our life areas. The best thing about this retrograde is that once Mercury retrogrades back into Capricorn, it will again make a long term trine to Jupiter, which will keep that favorable Earth energy in play for many weeks to come! This should be an easier transit than the last one in Libra, which was in a powerful square to Pluto AND a semisquare with Saturn at the end of Scorpio, which indicated a not so easy transit!
As Mercury goes retrograde in the Air sign of Aquarius and then retrogrades back into Capricorn, it again shifts the elemental emphasis of Mercury retrograde. All the 2014 Mercury RX periods began in early Water signs, with Mercury retrograding back into Air signs. So in 2014 we danced between Feelings and Ideas, experiencing and relating. All the 2015 Mercury retrograde periods began in an Air sign and stayed in that sign the entire retrograde period, making 2015 entirely an Air affair!
In 2016, this shifts again, as this January Mercury retrograde begins in the Air sign of Aquarius, but retrogrades back through the last half of the Earth sign Capricorn. So here we dance between ideas and practical necessities, relating and taking a new look at what is in our “enlightened self-interest.”
This January RX is a transitional anomaly, since the April-May retrograde is entirely in the Earth sign of Taurus, and the Aug-Sept retrograde is entirely in the Earth sign of Virgo. It will shift to multiple elements again in the Dec 2016-Jan 2017 retrograde, since that one will begin in Capricorn and retrograde back into the Fire of Sagittarius. Of course I’ll explain more as each of these periods approaches. Until then, A New Look at Mercury Retrograde” will help you get a fix on all of the above and more!
In the next 3 weeks, we can see what life has prepared for us since the last Mercury retrograde in September-October. 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 well-rounded 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 vision, and for some how they can contribute to a better world through some sort of idealistic yet practical service. Others may get a new sense of group work, or a different overview of how past friends either helped us fulfill our goals or frustrated them. All of us will get glimpses of how our past experiences and choices resulting from the last Mercury retrograde have led us to a new view of possibilities.
Consider the next 3 weeks as an opening of liberating conditions that will sometimes abruptly move us into new directions and new work. Some will get new insights into old friends and public work done with others, and perspective 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 and public situations in our past.
Pay attention to the signs, signals, information, and ideas that come in this period, because the Mercury RX span is the same sector as Pluto will occupy between 2015 and November 2025! In some roundabout way, what occurs in this retrograde will sprout seeds of long term importance wherever we have the second half of Capricorn in our charts.
Of particular note is that 2 Aquarius is where Saturn will go retrograde in May 2020, followed by the extremely important Jupiter-Saturn conjunction at 1 Aquarius in Dec 2020, ending a 20 year synodic cycle and beginning another. The Jupiter-Saturn cycle is a major indicator of global events, so I suspect we’ll see the seeds of the “shape of things to come.” As the song says, “There are new dreams crowdin’ out old realities, There's revolution sweepin’ in like a fresh new breeze, Let the old world make believe It's blind and deaf and dumb, Nothing can change the shape of things to come…”
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! Get ready to leave the past behind!
We have a mixed bag of aspects showing major understanding and practical stability, with many novile (spiritual realization) series aspects in play. Besides Mercury septile Venus, we also have Moon septile Sun and Sun septile Neptune and conjunct Pluto, setting the Grand Irrationality into motion for this retrograde! Important changes are in the air, with dramatic culminations and major protection and efficiency. 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 late January 2016 through late April 2016. This retrograde is a time to review past ideas and ideals in prior friendships and ambitions, and take a new look at how these contributed to misunderstandings about what roles we were and were not playing with those people or in those collective efforts. Keep it friendly, detached, and responsible, and take a new look at why you had to withdraw from some relationships in order to launch new visions or conform to new truths in your life.
Here we take a new look at what’s behind us before moving forward anew at the end of the RX period in late January. We can get all kinds of new insights into future potentials, while seeing things in the recent past differently.
The Inferior Conjunction happens January 14 at 24 Capricorn. 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 third decan of Capricorn, and give us a new take on what “transcendent security” would mean for us.
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 Aquarius and Capricorn energy in our lives, see who our friends truly are, review and renew goals and ambitions, and see a new way to be effective within a group context. Take a new look at the ideas you got in late December, since we will capture the essential elements of understanding what we need to mobilize into action by late January 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 late January, and will begin a process of purifying everything in our public self-expression, moving into a more caring role or sprouting seeds of power.
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 late January. It will help us rehearse or do the research we need to get ready to spring forward in mid-February, 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
How very interesting and useful. When we have some awareness of how things work it amazes me the synchronicity of energies that are behind events and the illusion of the void we may feel at times. Helpful insights at a time of renewal, of changes, or risks that are really opportunities.
Thanks Robert and blessings be to all this approaching, almost here 2016!
Posted by: Nic | December 31, 2015 at 03:23 PM
please everyone love themselves and mother earth as this retrograde is preparing all of humanity for a rebirth. Love and light
Posted by: Gaia | January 05, 2016 at 03:28 PM