by Robert Wilkinson
Mercury goes direct in motion Sept 21, 10:31 pm PDT, Sept 22 at 1:31 am EDT, 6:31 am BST, 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 Virgo, 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 Virgo hold for us? Perhaps it would be useful to take a look back on what the last Mercury direct station brought us since May 2016.
You will recall that the last time Mercury went stationary direct, it was at 15 Taurus, exactly trine the January SD point at 15 Capricorn. That makes for a Grand Earth Trines as launch points throughout 2016!
So we used realizations to coordinate Capricorn traits in our lives from January through April, and Taurus traits from May to now. How we have used those realizations to incorporate Taurus traits into our lives over the past 4 months has shown us different ways of expressing our ability to show strength of character as we “braved the storm” leading us beyond old value systems.
This retrograde period featured Mercury going stationary retrograde at 30 Virgo, bringing us glimpses from the past of ways to rise to some occasion to “escape from a narrow destiny.” The Sun at this Mercury station is at 30 Virgo, showing the powering up of that theme during the months to come. With its out of sign conjunction with Jupiter, it would seem we have a grand adventure in front of us that will leave all our worlds transformed!
Stationary retrograde and direct points become “hot spots” set into motion by future transits. Interestingly, the Jan 2016 Mercury SD point at 15 Capricorn is the exact degree where Pluto goes stationary direct later in 2016, so we got a front end look at the large scale transformations promised by Pluto during between January and April. That period will be directly related to the next Mercury retrograde period that begins at 16 Capricorn, which will conjunct Pluto.
Now we face 4 months of being guided to our Soul using the qualities of 15 Virgo. How we use those realizations to coordinate the qualities of that degree into our lives over the next 4 months will show us a different way of expressing our cultural values and excellence in incorporating our spirituality into the art of our life, as well as the life in our art of living.
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 Virgo, it shows us that we’ll understand something about perfected forms of knowing the place and function of all things within a larger vision or understanding, and can reorganize our priorities based in what we know to be good, true, and beautiful. This marks the threshold of an entry into a new way of learning and teaching through experimental conditions.
The Sabian Symbol for Mercury’s Direct Station
The Sabian symbol for the 15th degree of Virgo is ““An ornamental handkerchief.” In the original notes from the Marc Jones class on the symbols, Rudhyar says this is a degree of the “ultimate fineness of spiritual values shading into the spiritual,” “schooled and aristocratic delicacy,” and “cultured restraint.”
In the Astrological Mandala, he says this degree involves “the quintessence of deeds well done.” He states that those who have acted “with determination, courage, and discrimination while following in the footsteps” of those they admire and aspire to emulate will receive a prize for proving themselves. This is about not allowing the past to block our way, so that “the mystic Beloved” can offer us our “spiritual garment.”
He says this ends the scene of Characterization, offering us a symbol of “the ultimate validity of the many efforts of generations of (beings) toward the building of a beautiful and significant culture.” Here we can express the flower of our lineage, or become a blossom of our spiritual community. He says it falls in the span of Idealization, and it’s the fifth and final degree of the individual, mental, and spiritual level of the scene of Characterization in the Act of Stabilization.
According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, the degree is one of our “self-quickening desire for an allegiance to a reality higher or finer” that the one we’re experiencing. He states “The knight in theory at least could never enter the lists of chivalry without his lady’s bit of lace as a talisman of the spirit, and every normal person feels rather lost without some continual reminder of his better impulses.”
He goes on to say “objects therefore are of value as they preserve meaning and help perfect action. He offers us the keyword of GRACEFULNESS. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is “an effective refinement of personal manner and a high achievement through an exceptional charm.”
So we now stand on the threshold of 4 months where “the Guide of Souls” offers us forms of flowering in our material and spiritual lives. Be dedicated to a higher reality, and find your “totem” that will serve as a reminder that you are on a quest of refining the best in each situation that arises. Live your integrity in a precise way, and your will become the flower of consciousness in your world. This fulfills a form of Divine Discernment, and leads to educational experiments.
Aspects in the Shadow Zone
We will also be re-tracing our Virgo lessons from now through October 7 due to Mercury still transiting its “shadow” span, ie, the span it’s in since it went retrograde at 30 Virgo. 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. As it hits its station, it makes a powerful semisquare with Venus, an exact biseptile with Mars, a vigintile with Jupiter, and an exact trine with Pluto. I’ll write more about the aspects made between the other planets in part 2.
Now that it’s going forward, while in its shadow zone Mercury will continue to make a close semisquare to Venus the entire time, showing a key closing point in an old cycle that began with their conjunction in July at 6 Leo. It also will make the biseptile with Mars through the end of the month. That will most impact those with planets or an Ascendant near 13-17 Virgo, 4-8 Scorpio, 25-29 Sagittarius, 17-21 Aquarius, 9-13 Aries, 1-5 Gemini, and 22-26 Cancer.
Other aspects Mercury makes as it moves forward through its shadow zone are a biquintile, then quincunx, then triseptile to Uranus, a binovile and quintile to Saturn, a tredecile to Pluto, a quadranovile to Neptune, and a trielftile to Mars. The biquintile and tredecile are specializing-interactive, the binovile and quadranovile are spiritual-gestative, the triseptile is cooperative-collective irrational interactive, and the trielftile is non-rational faith synthesizing and harmonizing within dynamic or frictional conditions.
The septile-series aspects belong to the 7th harmonic series. The novile series aspects are the 9th harmonic spiritual series, while the elftile-series aspects belong to the 11th harmonic series. The decile, quintile, tredecile and biquintile are all in the 10th harmonic series. If you want to know more about these aspects, when you’re done here please go to The Specializing Aspects Pt. 1 – Quintile, Tredecile, Decile, and Biquintile and The Spiritual Aspect Series – The Novile, Septile, and Elftile Harmonic Aspects where you’ll find more about the meaning of these aspects and the glyphs associated with them. Also, remember that all of these set up harmonic resonance void points all over our charts.
We’ll close today with a reminder that though Mercury is about to go direct and won’t be retrograde again until late December, the retrograde we’ve just experienced will affect the coming months until the next Mercury stationary retrograde at 16 Capricorn a few days before the December Solstice. That will be an extraordinarily important retrograde, since it will be exactly conjunct Pluto with an exact Jupiter/Saturn/Uranus opposition-sextile-trine. You can of course find out more about that coming retrograde, as well as all others past and future, by getting your copy of my award winning book A New Look At Mercury Retrograde.
Here's the Createspace link to where you can order your paperback edition of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. And here’s the link to where you can order an ebook copy of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde 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
Like an xmas tree, every time
At least I'm getting how this all pieces together.
Posted by: Matt | September 20, 2016 at 06:38 PM