by Robert Wilkinson
Following up on the general meaning and function of the "Inferior Conjunction" between the Sun and Mercury, today we explore specifics of the Inferior Conjunction of January 14, 2016, at 24 Capricorn. This “fusion of life and mind” will impact the rest of the retrograde period, and many weeks after.
Because this particular Inferior Conjunction is an extremely important event due to when and where it's happening, this is a long article that will pull together a comprehensive overview that ties together past, present, and future.
The inferior conjunction is when Mercury (mind) conjuncts the Sun (life) while retrograde. This indicates that signals, messages, and ideas from either outer sources or subconscious sources will fuse with the life principle, setting the tone for the lessons involving how our minds are relating to our lives during the next four months. Since Mercury is retrograde, the degree of the inferior conjunction shows how our lives will merge with our perceptions and bring forth a new understanding of our light.
The Sabian Symbol for the Inferior Conjunction
The Sabian Symbol we’ve been given for the 24th degree of Capricorn is “A woman entering a convent.” In the section on the symbols in The Astrology of Personality, taken from Jones’ class notes, Rudhyar says this is a degree of “Protective kindness of life to weary hearts,” “quiet undercurrent of real existence,” “compelled assistance,” and “timely rescue.”
In the Mandala he goes on to say this is a degree of "total commitment to a transcendent goal,” representing a quest to find some space the community makes available for us to reach a “world transcending state of consciousness.” Regardless of the motive for trying to find this sort of “safe space,” this symbol represents the concept that any community must provide for times and spaces which are outside and beyond the normal social patterns of existence.
He continues that this represents a paradox by stating that human nature “contains in seed the possibility of overcoming and transcending itself in acts of complete denials and of surrender to a ‘higher’ Law or quality of being,” where discipline allows us “pure inner freedom” in a process of attaining “transcendent security.” He says this degree falls in the Span of Dependence, Act of Capitalization, and is the technical degree of the Emotional-Cultural level in the Scene of Group Performance.
So “the fusion of life and mind” available via this Inferior Conjunction is through the Light of an alternative way of viewing or understanding what freedom is, what security is, what a surrender to a transcendent way of life is, and a new way of living that brings us a type of inner security. Here we look back to move forward into a greater inner freedom to live in a way that brings us a new level of security.
Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, says this is a degree of “the soul’s characteristic dependence on some deep-stirring challenge to its potentialities, and of the fact that life can have no satisfaction for the individual unless (they) are able to develop and maintain some enduring allegiance of an overall significance.” He offers that in this symbol there is “a measure of that cosmic insight through which the self knows that of itself it is nothing, and that it can find itself only as it somehow can feel itself a participant in all-self.”
He states that our “talents are exalted only by a dedication to eternal ends,” and offers us the keyword CONSECRATION. He states that when operating positively, the degree is “the irresistible power of a true inner vision.”
So we enter a time of the fusion of life and mind that offers us new insights about previous life challenges, and how they sharpened our sense of being consecrated to some allegiance of the Soul. This one can lead us to a deeper satisfaction to what we are dedicated to fulfill, participating with others in a transcendent way of security and freedom.
The period ahead will transfigure us in some emotional or social way, so check out your expectancies and take a balanced view of how your past can assist your future. And remember that due to the Mercury retrograde effect, signs and signals may come in roundabout ways, like echoes from the past, or memories coming up from the subconscious mind. This can help us all find a renewed and inspired inner point of focus and equilibrium.
This Inferior Conjunction can fuse hindsight and life experience to see how new forms of light, life, and perspectives have come forth in collective consciousness the past. The next four months are a time to embrace a quest for a greater freedom and security through seeing the past through different angles and interpretations and finding alternative views or understanding.
Because this “fusion of life and mind” takes place in the last third of Capricorn and in a close trine to Jupiter, open to a greater practicality applied to your material existence, embrace an understanding of what to do to attain a greater security and protection, and move away from aggressive people while seeing a broader context to what you believe you are consecrated to. This Inferior Conjunction in some indirect way will bear a direct impact on what visits us in 2020.
A benefit of Inferior Conjunctions is they offer us views of how we prepared in the past for current attitudes and ideals, or conversely, through the retrograde lens see how past attitudes and ideals led us to where we’re at right now. When Mercury gives us a backward look or alternative view and understanding of something from the past, it also in a strange way prepares the ground for the future when other planets cross this degree.
Aspects in Play
Remember that in any celestial event, forming aspects show the future, and separating aspects show the past. Because this Inferior Conjunction falls so soon after the recent New Moon at 20 Capricorn, all of the outer planet aspects are identical. You can find more about the outer planet aspects in The New Moon in Capricorn Pt. 2 where I explain some things about the novile series aspects involving Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto.
Inner planet aspects of note include the Moon sextile Mercury and the Sun while opposing Jupiter, greating a very tight a powerful opposition-sextile-trine throwing a very favorable void into 23 and 24 Cancer. This will help all of us make progress despite headwinds, and will prove extraordinarily stabilizing in the world of practical and social affairs. The coming period will bring concrete gains for those who have planets or angles in late Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces.”
Mercury is quintile Mars, trine Jupiter, novile Saturn, square Uranus, semisquare Neptune, and conjunct Pluto. Venus is semisquare Mars and square Jupiter, the Sun is binovile Mars, trine Jupiter, semisquare Saturn, and binovile Uranus, and Mars is semisquare Jupiter, decile Saturn, quadranovile Uranus, and trine Neptune. The semisquares show points of internal change and a crisis of decision, and the squares will help us turn corners and/or release the potential of the planets in square.
All of the novile series aspects set up major spiritual breakthroughs, and fulfillment of gestation periods in some form of awaited realization. The aspects noted above create a huge area of spiritual influence involving 3-9 degrees of the Water signs, 13-19 of the Fire signs, and 23-28 of the Earth signs. This inferior conjunction will bring some things out of gestation into the light of a new view, a new understanding, or something that has been stalled for a while should harmonize very quickly.
Since the Sun and Mercury seem to be doing a handoff with each other with one making forming aspects the other just made, as well as the separating aspects the other made, their aspects are important. The Lunar aspects to the Sun and Mercury, coupled with Jupiter, show a major stabilizing and harmonizing energy at the end of a cycle of activity. This will also move some things from June 2014 to front and center in our lives, where preparations we made then will yield results over the next 4 months.
The element spread is similar to that in play at the last New Moon, with the only change here of the Earth Moon there becoming the Water Moon here. This yields 3 planets in Fire, 4 in Earth, 3 in Water, and 0 in Air signs. And as with the New Moon, Pluto leads the Inferior Conjunction, indicating a major purification phase of our existence. Just stay alert to extreme conditions and people, and show care as you move through the chaos.
What’s the Jones Pattern, and the Backdrop to What’s Happening
As with the past several New Moons, we're pretty much in a constant off-set Bowl Jones pattern, except when the Moon is in Gemini and Cancer. I explain more about how this operates in the linked New Moon article. Jupiter in Virgo leads the occupied segment at this time in history, and will continue to through the Spring. Because the Inferior Conjunction falls in Capricorn, it makes Saturn the worldly ruler of the conjunction. As Saturn is in Sagittarius, it’s ruled by Jupiter in Virgo, which is ruled in turn by Mercury in Capricorn. I discussed this “chain of dispositors” in the New Moon article.
So Just How Does the Process Work?
The Inferior Conjunction between Mercury and the Sun is the second step in a two-conjunction process. The first step is when Mercury conjuncts the Sun in forward motion after its retrograde period. This is called a “Superior conjunction.” Most recently this occurred at 25 Scorpio on Nov 17, 2015.
That “fusion of life and mind” marked the beginning of Mercury getting out in front of the Sun. That has given us “explosions of heart power,” or inspiration, or bursts of activity since then. Now we are in a different Sun/Mercury phase of operation, where we confront a time of hope and renewal. The “pulses” of the Inferior and Superior conjunctions of the Sun and Mercury constitute an entire field of research unto themselves.
As Mercury is faster than the Sun at any “Superior Conjunction,” after that event Mind again outraces Life, gets ahead of the Sun, and explores ideas and perceptions of experiences yet to occur. That’s what we experienced in late December 2015 when Mercury began to slow down.
After Mercury gets as far forward from the Sun as it can, it begins to slow, eventually going stationary retrograde. By then it is slowing rapidly. That marks the second step that leads to the point when Mercury again conjuncts the Sun while retrograde. This is when Mind is being absorbed by Life, or Life takes on the results of subconscious or collective ideas returning to source.
Then Mercury, still slow in speed, becomes distant from the Sun anew as the Sun moves forward while Mercury is still retrograde. Eventually Life gets as far from Mind as it can, Mercury goes stationary direct, and begins to speed up preparing for the first step anew in a different part of the zodiac. I explain this process in greater detail in A New Look at Mercury Retrograde.
Mercury, or Hermes, the “Guide of Souls”
All Mercury retrograde periods teach us about how Mercury functions. Mercury’s duality is “Life/Death,” so we can get a new look at how our consciousness and responses are either creative, destructive, or both, to cite the venerable Kabalistic Arhat Paul Foster Case. Mercury is where we learn if our mental processes are creating chaos and disorganized scattered conditions through ambivalence, and thus come to see how to use discernment to coordinate various functions to bring forth perfect knowing how to do whatever needs to be done.
As the backdrop to how our mind and life relate to each other, perhaps we can learn how to deal with Mercurial energies in ourselves or others from a different angle of view, organizing or reorganizing or ideas, perception, interpretations, and way of communicating. As this inferior conjunction falls in Capricorn, it should provide us new ways to understand, communicate, or interpret the signs and signals of our existence through looking back on the discoveries we made and views we acquired in past cycles when Capricorn was prominent.
All in all, the coming 4 months will bring interesting returns, reflections, and rehearsals of how and what we’ve dealt with in the realms of what we are learning about how to use Capricorn energy productively. This includes all the usual Capricorn keywords, such as ambition, public standing, profession, self-organization, or group work, and how we need to organize or reorganize to further our future security and freedom.
Capricorn shows us how we take responsibility to our duty in the life area with that sign on the cusp, and any planets we may have in that sign. So the new views, understandings, and reinterpretations shown by this inferior conjunction should be considered in the light of the house in which this retrograde and inferior conjunction is happening. We can see our ideas from a different angle, find a new focus, and make progress in some form of transforming initiative that will be the source of much information and activity in the next few weeks.
Once the Inferior Conjunction happens, whatever has seemed delayed, postponed, or dragging along will move forward soon. This can bring forth a greater holistic vision of how events and people are connected, as well as why we must rethink some things, people, and plans.
Generally, the 11 days before the inferior conjunction (fusion) of mind and life is a good time to take a new look at how you can bring out your inner wisdom by adjusting to a future vision or broader perspective that's opening for you. It's also good for getting a new point of view regarding what your imagination is willing to consider and how to coordinate your life to reorganize it productively.
It's great for intuitive flashes, insights into the larger collective consciousness and unconsciousness, and seeing how you're being led to see elements of your Soul you may not have recognized before now. So think back on what's happened in the past couple of weeks, and find a new way to view how those things may symbolize the future somehow.
Just remember during retrogrades, especially Mercury retrograde, that often things that don't turn out one way lead directly or indirectly to other things somewhat related manifesting down the road. It's as though nothing should be taken at face value, and often what we do or think during Mercury retrograde creates odd echoes in the future that take different shapes, or different functions related to the original intention.
A New Look At Mercury Retrograde
Because we’ll still be dealing with Mercury retrograde through January 25-26 (and to some extent for the 2 weeks after that while Mercury is still in its shadow zone, if you haven’t already, you can find out a lot more about these very important 3 week periods by getting a copy of my TISBA Award winning 2nd edition of A New Look At Mercury Retrograde. As you know by now, 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 Capricorn, as well as all the other signs and 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, 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. And taking a look forward beyond the current retrograde in Aquarius and Capricorn, we see Mercury retrograde in Taurus in April-May 2016, Mercury retrograde in Virgo in August-September 2016, and Mercury retrograde in Capricorn and Sagittarius in December 2016 and January 2017. 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!
And as usual, here are links to recent articles on what this January 2016 Mercury Retrograde in Aquarius and Capricorn is all about:
Mercury Retrograde – Time For A New Look at the Guide of Souls
The Guide of Souls in January 2016 - Mercury Slowing Down, Preparing to go Retrograde at 2 Aquarius
Copyright © 2016 Robert Wilkinson
Thanks Robert,
The Guide of Souls and the Teacher of Ego has Wings on his Feet...
How Symbol and Life are merging is amazing to me...
Posted by: sue | January 15, 2016 at 06:55 AM
Thanks Robert,
Have had Internet and phone problems lately (and car too) but not necessarily be linked to Mercury retrograde! hehe. Good to be able to read you again.
I just finished reading A NEW LOOK AT MERCURY RETROGRADE. A fantastic reading that prompted lots of insights and new ways to see different aspects. Makes a very smooth and interesting reading. Specially at these times of transition.
Blessing be to all.
Posted by: Nic | January 16, 2016 at 09:51 AM