by Robert Wilkinson
Today we take a look at important Sabian Symbols, aspects, and other important factors in play the next three weeks as Mercury is retrograde in Taurus.
This Mercury retrograde begins April 28, 10:20 am PDT, 1:20 pm ET, 6:20 pm BST. This retrograde moves from 24 Taurus back to 15 Taurus, with the Inferior conjunction of Mercury and the Sun occurring at 20 Taurus on May 9.
The Sabian Symbol for Mercury’s Stationary Retrograde Degree
Where Mercury goes retrograde indicates a threshold from which we take a look back, or get a newer understanding from multiple points of contrasting views. This retrograde station is the same degree as the Sun at the 2014 Wesak Festival. That implies we’ll be looking back at the Wisdom and theme of the World Teaching for 2014, and we’ll no doubt get echoes or variations on those wisdom forms over the next few weeks.
The Sabian Symbol for the 24th degree of Taurus is “A mounted Indian with scalp locks.” In the original Jones class notes from “The Astrology of Personality,” Rudhyar says this is a degree of “Forceful intrusion of elemental energies in over-conscious selfhood,” “Return to primal values,” and “Conquest of inhibitions.”
In the Astrological Mandala, he goes on to say that this degree symbolizes “the aggressiveness of human instincts when fighting for their earthly base of operation,” where we find aggression and force “are basic components of human nature at the level of the emotions and of a deep-seated identification with a particular culture” which sees those who are different as potential enemies. I have found this degree as representing the expertise needed to be an administrator of others’ energies, or perhaps a place where we find we need to defend our life mission, and/or see the broader context of our life mission.
He says this symbol confirms our difference from other people, where our need for “differentiation of human behavior and collective values is still strong.” Beware of those who are excessive in their use or show of force! He says this degree falls in the Span of Enjoyment, Act of Differentiation, and Scene of Confirmation on the Emotional-Social level.
Dr. Jones says this is a degree of “pride in personal prowess,” suggesting “an exceptional capacity for gaining and administering authority.” He states we can find an appreciation of potential in nature, and our “senses as they can be brought to the full service” of our aspiration and ambition. He says “the conquest of an enemy becomes no so much a momentary supremacy over him as an acquisition and subsequent use of his particular genius.”
He offers us the keyword COMMAND. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree “is an unimpeachable control over life through a discipline of the self and its powers.”
So we’ll be using our retrograde Mercury function to send and/or receive impressions and ideas related to command and control over nature or others’ expertise and skills. Some will remember past experiences with those who were violent, or unnecessarily brutal in their aggressiveness, or made us mobilize to defend who we were or what we stood for.
Here we get insights and returns related to what confirms our skills, something about ourselves on a social or emotional level, and/or our life mission in a way suited to our individuality. This is a time to take a new look at stabilizing some skills, expertise, or ability to take charge in order to make our social or emotional existence more secure.
During this Mercury retrograde period, pay attention to the roundabout signs and signals opening you to noticing these subtle impressions. These lessons will be illuminated when the Sun crosses this degree May 13-14, and remain in focus through the time Mercury re-crosses this degree around June 6-7, when it finishes its forward motion shadow transit.
It should be a great time to see things we didn’t understand before, or perhaps reclaim something from the past. Here we take a look back and reconsider or renew some prior values, or remember some things we used to draw on to support our sense of self. We can find a new angle of perspective on what we value, why we value it, and how to use it in a different way.
Past, Present, and Future Mercury Retrograde Reviews
As with all Mercury retrogrades, we can use this time to take a look back at whatever in the past has recently begun. This one in Taurus helps us re-shape our way of expressing Taurus energy in the house where that sign is active in our chart. As it retrogrades back to 15 Taurus, when our review of the 2014 World Wisdom teaching is done, Mercury will be sitting on the degree of the Moon in the Nov 2014 Scorpio-Taurus Full Moon, which was also the degree of Mars in the Solar Eclipse of May 2013. So this retrograde will bring memories or returns related to all of these events.
Elements
As I said in part 1, we have entered a new Mercury Retrograde element period. All 3 Mercury retrograde periods in 2014 were entirely in Air signs, making the houses where we have Aquarius, Gemini, and Libra in our chart the focus of those retrogrades. That means we looked back, or got new understanding, around all things that were Air-related.
The last one in January 2016 was a transitional Mercury retrograde pattern, where the retrograde period began in an Air sign but ended in an Earth sign. That means the period we just finished was grounded in the Earth of Capricorn. This Mercury RX period and the next one in August-September are entirely in Earth signs. Get prepared to do reviews and rehearsals in all things related to the practical arena of existence in 2016!
These reviews and new points of view will be activated in major ways as the Sun moves through this Mercury retrograde degree span in Taurus over the three weeks Mercury is retrograde. This will illuminate the Mercury lessons we first saw when Mercury was approaching this retrograde period. Now that Mercury is retrograde, we’ll get a new look at these things.
So enjoy this period featuring Mercury retrograde in Earth signs, which will last until the Dec 2016-Jan 2017 transitional period when Mercury begins in early Earth and retrogrades back to a Fire sign. So one good thing to do during this retrograde is to take a look back at the Mercury RX Air influences in 2015, and see how it affected the Aquarius, Gemini, and Libra sectors in your chart. It may give you hints about what you can expect as it retrogrades through your Taurus and Virgo sectors!
Current Positions Related to Past Stations
An interesting feature of retrogrades is that often the SD and SRX points are on or near previous SD and SRX points. This one breaks the pattern we’ve had since 2014, since 24 Taurus is nowhere near any Mercury SRX or SD degree. However, it is within a trine for the coming 30 Virgo SRX degree, and this one goes SD at 15 Taurus, trining the Jan 2016 SD point at 15 Capricorn as well as the Sept 2016 SD at 15 Virgo. So this RX period both continues the middle Earth emphasis that began in late January, and bridges it through the Sept retrograde, showing that 2016 Mercury SD influence is entirely Earth oriented.
Looking back, the 2014 sequence had Mercury stationary direct at 19 Aquarius in February, 25 Gemini in July, and 17 Libra in October. In 2015 Mercury went stationary retrograde at 18 Aquarius, 14 Gemini, and 16 Libra. So in 2015 all the stationary RX degrees conjuncted and/or trined all the SD degrees of 2014. If you want a more comprehensive perspective on the Mercury retrograde effect in your life in 2015, take a new look at what began at those 2014 stationary direct points.
In 2015, Mercury went stationary direct at 2 Aquarius, 5 Gemini, and 1 Libra. The January 2016 SRX degree was 2 Aquarius, conjunct or trine all of those forward moving points. This year moves the trines into the Earth signs, and in December 2016, Mercury goes stationary retrograde at 16 Capricorn, literally 8 minutes of longitude from the January 2016 Mercury direct station at 15 Capricorn!
In 2017, all of Mercury’s RX stations will be in Earth signs and retrograde back into Fire signs except for the period in December 2017, which will be entirely in the Fire sign of Sagittarius. There are far reaching implications in how these patterns affect our lives, since over time they eventually trigger every element in every house in our chart.
As I offered in previous articles, all Mercury retrograde periods are great for returns, reviews, rehearsals, reversals, and seeing things from unusual angles. This one offers us deeper understanding about prior periods when we had to accept certain kinds of defeats to attain “true spiritual victories,” and adjust to being open to hearing our part to play in the greater life in which we live and breathe and have our Being. This time is a “cosmic pause,” where we see how to make our lives, or others’ lives, more stable, enjoyable, or pleasant, or remember how we did this in the past.
Behind the Scenes in this Taurus Retrograde
While in Taurus, Mercury is ruled by Venus in worldly realms, and TransPluto in the spiritual realm. During the time Mercury is RX, Venus is in Aries and Taurus. At this station it’s 29 Aries, “The Music of the Spheres,” giving us the backdrop of learning to listen to our inner voice to know our part to sing in the “Cosmic Choir.” When it moves into Taurus on April 29 at 5:36 pm PDT, it will become the final dispositor for all the other planets but Neptune.
As Venus enters Taurus, it will begin to secure those energies in a natural stable form. As it enters the zone of the Grand Earth Trine, it should “make real” the promise of what this Mercury RX Grand Earth Trine period is all about. And because it is chasing the Sun, whatever the Sun powers up and illuminates when it makes the Grand Earth Trine will be secured as Venus follows.
Aspects
This should be another extraordinary retrograde period, with the extraordinary harmony of the Grand Earth Trines along with the very powerful Mutable T-square formed by Jupiter opposed Neptune with both squared by Saturn, along with a “Hammer of Thor” configuration made by Venus in a double sesquisquare with Jupiter square Saturn. This will hammer a lot into shape, and primarily affect those with planets and angles near 11-17 Gemini, Virgo, Sagittarius, and Pisces, 26-30 Cancer, Libra, Capricorn, and Aries, and 1-2 Leo, Scorpio, Aquarius, and Taurus. So even though the Mutable friction will shake up and perhaps even fracture a lot, we’ll still have a Grand Earth Trine to help us pick up the pieces and put them together in a stable, practical form.
At this Mercury station, we see the Moon in Capricorn trine Mercury, square Venus, and semisquare Mars, and Mercury quindecile Venus, trine Jupiter, quintile Neptune, and trine Pluto. These are overall very harmonious, with the Moon able to help release the energies of the Hammer of Thor in harmonious practical ways.
Other significant forming aspects besides the ones already mentioned include Venus biseptile Pluto, the Sun trine Jupiter, biquintile Saturn, vigintile Uranus, sextile Neptune, and trine to Pluto, Mars sesquisquare Uranus and novile Pluto, and Uranus novile Neptune. Overall these indicate various degrees of specialization, realization, irritation, and of course, Venus biseptile Pluto shows this to be yet another powerful and profound fork in the road of humanity’s destiny, since that aspect triggers the Grand Irrationality.
This will profoundly affect the houses where we have Aries, Taurus, Libra, Scorpio, and Capricorn. The current zones of the Grand Irrationality are near 13-17 Leo, 4-8 Libra, 25-29 Scorpio, 17-21 Capricorn, 9-13 Pisces, 1-5 Taurus, and 22-26 Gemini. Expect events and ideas from the past to be understood in new ways, and remember when you felt like you fit in and could both learn and teach without pressures and distortions inhibiting your freedom.
So the Grand Earth Trine builds practical stability, and though offset to some degree, involves a wide range of harmony for those with planets between 12-26 degrees of Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricorn, and Pisces. Jupiter releases its energy through Saturn and vise versa and the Moon releases its energy through Venus and vise versa, showing that the Mutable T square and Hammer of Thor, while both dynamic and potentially frictional configurations, also can release tremendously stabilizing and harmonious practical energies.
Mercury has great aspects, with Mercury quintile Neptune showing we all can cultivate the special connections between our lower mind and collective consciousness. Unique flashes of intuition will give tremendous realizations to those who can tap into these energies. Most affected are those with planets or angles near 22-26 Taurus, 4-8 Leo, 16-20 Libra, 28 Sagittarius-2 Capricorn, and 10-14 Pisces.
The quintile, biquintile, vigintile, and quindecile are all specialization aspects, and the noviles are gestative aspects that promise spiritual realizations at some point for those who are inclined in that direction. The strong spiritual novile between Uranus and Neptune is helping everyone to unique realizations appropriate to their generation. You can find out more about the spiritual aspects by referencing this brief overview of the Spiritual aspects, complete with glyphs for all of them, or purchasing the much more extensive in-depth class on the spiritual aspects, including the septile (7th harmonic) series, novile (9th harmonic) series, and elftile (11th harmonic) series aspects. If you want the class with powerpoint graphics and accompanying recorded tracks, email me.
The hard aspects challenge us to take a broader view of things, and see what must be done now that can make things easier down the road. At least as we head toward the Great Fracturing of June via the Grand Mutable Crosses formed throughout that month, at least during this RX period we have many harmonious aspects to afflicted planets showing us the positive function to be released through the frictional aspects.
Other Influences
Because of the element distribution, practical inspiration will be very high due to 4 planets in Fire and 5 in Earth. Neptune is the only Water planet, and there are none in Air signs.
That shows whatever sense of feeling and relatedness we need will have to come from within, since this retrograde period is emphasizing the inspiration of Fire and the grounded energy of Earth. This distribution dominates this time period, since we won’t have more Air or Water until planets move into Gemini and Cancer, which will trigger the Grand Mutable Cross and then a powerful Cardinal T-square.
The Lunar Sabian symbol shows the need to conform to something that will ensure a “spiritual victory” despite the appearance of defeat. The semisquare to Mars will create a bit of edginess, but overall the Moon will “understand” and harmonize with Mercury due to the very strong trine between the two.
The Sun is on a Sabian symbol of “the ability to create inner happiness in dark hours,” showing the Light of this retrograde is a technique of creating an “antiphonic” hopeful tone to whatever gloomy atmospheres we may encounter. We are told this is a degree of “immortality through giving of self to the race,” and “the promise which outer life offers to the pure in heart.” As the Sun is biquintile Saturn, some highly specialized interactive unique events can be expected for those with planets or angles near 7-11 Taurus, 19-23 Cancer, 1-5 Libra, 13-17 Sagittarius, and 25-29 Aquarius.
As is usual for Mercury retrograde periods, this one will also be a “back to the future” type of energy, where the Guide of Souls will give us a new look at things, people, values, resources, and how to use what we have to greater effectiveness. Here we look back even as we are productively propelled into our future in inspired ways.
This helps us to a new stability as we begin to deal with the friction of the Mutable squares and oppositions that are beginning to dominate the atmosphere, and we should see ways to defend what we need to as we navigate the coming 4 months. This is a time of returns, reviews, rehearsals, and renewals hat will have deep echoes for many months to come.
In future Mercury retrograde articles, we’ll explore more about various elements of what’s in play during the next three weeks, what Mercury retrograde in Taurus may be good for, the coming Inferior Conjunction and what it means, and what we can expect between late May and early June after it goes direct several weeks from now.
A New Look At Mercury Retrograde
If you want to know what we can expect from Mercury retrograde in Taurus, 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 award-winning 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 Taurus, or the last one in Aquarius and Capricorn, or the others in any other sign and the influence in the houses, it’s all in there.
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 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!
Previous articles in this series:
Mercury Retrograde – Time For A New Look at the Guide of Souls
The Guide of Souls in April 2016 - Mercury Slowing Down, Preparing to go Retrograde at 24 Taurus
Copyright © 2016 Robert Wilkinson
Thanks Robert. Full of information that connects so much with personal current events and what is coming in the very near future.
Re-reading your book on Mercury Retrograde has been of great help to better understand and place all the information from your Mercury Rx posts!
Blessings be to all.
Posted by: Nic | April 29, 2016 at 02:55 AM