by Robert Wilkinson
Mercury goes direct in motion January 25, 1:50 pm PST, 4:50 pm EST, 9:50 pm GMT, and speeds up for the next 10 weeks. This shows a quickening of the ability to coordinate, put things together, understand the whole and the parts, the process and the larger cycles. It is now stationary at 15 Capricorn, affecting that area in our lives for 3 months to come.
Mercury, or Hermes, "the Guide of Souls," is also known as the Divine Trickster, as well as all lesser models. What does Mercury going stationary direct at 15 Capricorn hold for us? Perhaps it would be useful to take a look back on what the last Mercury direct station brought us since October 2015.
You will recall that the last time Mercury went stationary direct, it was at 1 Libra, introducing new archetypes, new “perfect forms,” and some form of transfiguration for all of us. 2015 introduced us to many new ways of seeing and expressing the areas of our lives where we had early Air, and helped us embrace new ways of living an ideal.
This retrograde period featured Mercury going stationary retrograde at 2 Aquarius, the same degree where it went stationary direct in February 2015. These two degrees taken together have put all of us through some form of “Nature’s challenge,” and some type of “cosmic visitation” that galvanized us into action!
Stationary retrograde and direct points become “hot spots” set into motion by future transits. Interestingly, this SD point at 15 Capricorn will be the exact degree where Pluto goes stationary direct later in 2016, so we’ll all get a front end look at the large scale transformations promised by Pluto after then during the next 4 months. Those who pay attention will be able to suss out what’s coming on the world stage down the road.
Now we face 4 months of being guided to our Soul using the qualities of 15 Capricorn. Again, how we use those realizations to coordinate those into our lives over the next 4 months will show us our way to a different way of expressing our ability to show “tender care” for our dreams and manifestations of new initiatives in our lives over the next few weeks.
In any case, we should all start seeing, hearing, and understanding things that point the way to some Mercurial technique of how we have been and continue to be guided to our Soul. Given that it falls at 15 Capricorn, it shows us that we’ll understand something about perfected self-expression, group work, and ways of being the fulfillment of a form of power. This marks the entry into a new idea or ideal in how we want to live and represent our sense of perfect action to our world.
The Sabian Symbol for Mercury’s Direct Station
The Sabian symbol for the 15th degree of Capricorn is “Many toys in the children’s ward of a hospital.” In the original Jones class notes, Rudhyar says this is a degree of “the goodness of life in the tragic trials of first attempts at self-regeneration,” “administered responsibility; or escape.”
In the Astrological Mandala, he goes on to say that this degree symbolizes “the responsibility of society to ensure the welfare and total health of the new generation.” He says this is a degree where “the sociocultural process must look to the future as well as to the past,” and having created harmful environments, these must be repaired “through love as well as through physical care.”
He tells us to take “tender care” of our “dreams of future growth” through using skill to neutralize the destructive potential of destructive tensions in our social world. He says this degree falls in the Span of Illusiveness, Act of Capitalization, and Scene of Crystallization at the culmination degree of the Individual-Mental level.
Dr. Jones says this is a degree of “the inescapable richness of life” demonstrated “through its ample rewards on the social and ideal side.” He speaks of the “physical and psychological limitations” which come to us all for no apparent reason, and which seem unfair, but “they are always an unrealized opportunity for a deeper fellowship.”
In an interesting turnabout in conventional thinking, he states “Experience is real in its fruits, rather than in the means to its ends.” He offers us the keyword ABUNDANCE. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is our “ability to develop (ours and others’) real potentialities despite every transient accident of circumstance.”
So we now stand on the threshold of 4 months where “the Guide of Souls” will in some way lead us to forms of individual-mental crystallized forms of power, where we participate in more humane social structures and conditions that lead to greater rewards. This is about overcoming some inner or outer limitation and finding true abundance and a greater realized potential, or a greater potential to realized.
Aspects in the Shadow Zone
We will also be re-tracing our Capricorn lessons from now through February 14 due to Mercury still transiting its “shadow” span, ie, the span it’s in since it went retrograde at 2 Aquarius. Of course there will be residual echoes for the next 14 weeks as well.
Mercury going direct will re-activate many of the aspects it's made over the past few weeks. Now that it’s going forward, it will continue to make a powerful conjunction with Pluto, and septile to Neptune, showing the Grand Irrationality will be a factor in what’s happening between now and late April. Expect major global changes, especially in the political realm!
While in its shadow zone, Mercury will also make a square to Uranus, a trine to Jupiter, and a semisquare to Saturn. So all the energy built through Uranus can be released through Mercury, and the trine to Jupiter will open voids in Taurus that will be revisited and fulfilled once Mercury hits Taurus and goes retrograde in that sign in late April. So pay attention to what’s happening in early February, since it’s directly related to what will happen in late April through late May.
We’ll close today with a reminder that though Mercury is about to go direct and won’t be retrograde again until April, the retrograde we’ve just experienced will affect the coming months until the next Mercury stationary retrograde at 24 Taurus in late April. You can of course find out more about that coming retrograde, as well as all others past and future, by getting your copy of the new 2nd edition of my book A New Look At Mercury Retrograde.
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! It's a great resource to check out possible ways this Mercury retrograde effect could play out over the next 4 months.
In part 2, we'll continue to examine what we can expect over the next 4 months now that Mercury is direct.
© Copyright 2016 Robert Wilkinson
Well, I'm not sure but I was trying to get out of my too expensive apartment that I had moved into in August 2014! By the end of the month I got fed up with my landlord whose a nice guy but because the place is difficult to rent he was trying to keep me there. I just could not afford it anymore. I found a great but really inexpensive place to move to right at the end of Ictiber 2015 and signed a new lease. I moved in November 29! I'm much happier and I can manage things much more easily. It's five times smaller and a million times easier to care for! But Meecury would have been sailing in my fifth but if I look at the progresses chart it would have been in my 4th rolling over progressed mercury conjunct Venus in Capricorn.
Posted by: Micheline | January 25, 2016 at 01:52 AM
It is interesting to see how it all pans out very clearly, at least for me, during this period. I may feel like a boat a drift or experiencing a becalm and the a current flow taking me to where it goes and with hindsight at times and with the understanding of what is at play, sense and even surprises appear during this cycle of deep changes.
Many thanks for your help that is a light in an often unknown (not necessarily bad) landscape.
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | January 26, 2016 at 10:43 AM