The Guide of Souls in December 2016 - Mercury Slowing Down, Preparing to go Retrograde at 16 Capricorn - Aquarius Papers

by Robert Wilkinson

Yes, it's THAT time again! Mercury is radically slowing down, preparing to go stationary retrograde at 16 Capricorn on Dec 19 at 2:55 am PST, 5:55 am EST, 10:55 am Greenwich. This has important implications for all signs.

I'll be composing several articles about this Mercury retrograde in 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 early January.

The coming RX period will pick up where the last one in Virgo left off. This will help us take the initiative to act on the available group power that has resulted from our “liberation from a narrow destiny” that’s happened since mid-September.

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.

A New Look at Mercury Retrograde

Since Mercury has already been slowing 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 Capricorn, as well as all the other signs and houses, if you haven't already gotten your copy, you may want to get the new expanded 2nd edition of my award-winning 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 Capricorn, or the previous 2016 retrogrades in Capricorn, Taurus, Aquarius, and Virgo, 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 see how this year’s retrogrades affected sectors in your chart 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 purchase a paperback edition of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. You can also get a Kindle ebook at that site, or go to Barnes and Noble for a copy on Nook. (Please note that if you go to amazon, make sure you're ordering the 2015 edition, and not the earlier one. There are plenty of used ones for sale, but they are far inferior to the newest edition.)

An Overview of the Retrograde

The coming retrograde will show us a new look at recent signals and information that we sent or received, and we’ll have opportunities to get clear about This one will show us new ways to do our Being as we stand on the threshold of a new practical era.

This one teaches us what types of “exercise” we need to do to get ready for some kind of group activity. Mercury will show us what we have to prepare for, and what parts of present comfort must be surrendered to get ready for what’s coming in the future. Greatest harmony, stability, and understanding comes from precision, adaptability, and humility as we glimpse short cuts to personal evolutionary progress and find peace in eternal rather than transitory things. Many will glimpse a greater effectiveness or find a way to reorganize to help things move forward in January.

As with all Mercury retrograde periods, this will give us a new look at recent signals and information that we sent or received, and 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 Capricorn. We may find different forms of self-discipline that will help us train for some sort of group work, or take a new look at what we believe our duties, responsibilities, and limitations have has been, having left old ways behind since the last Mercury retrograde, specifically all things related to the house(s) where we have 29 Sagittarius through 16 Capricorn.

For example, we may get new insights or understanding about a training, discipline, or dedication we embraced between Dec 2007 and October 2008. This RX period may bring new insights into the Cancerian things that have been shut down since the Solar Eclipse of July 2010 or the Capricorn Solar Eclipse of January 2011. This is another “back to the future” retrograde, since Mercury’s dispositor is Saturn in the sign of Sagittarius.

In the chart, we have a very strong Fire trine, very strong Earth trines, and a very strong Air trine. This RX period should harmonize all planets we have in the middle and latter parts of Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius, and Aquarius.

Along with numerous quintiles and an extremely fortuitous tredecile of the Lights at the stationary RX time, this promises a harmonizing, stabilizing, and specializing period, strengthening inspiration, relatedness, and practicality. As there are NO squares, it seems this will be one of the more productive building periods in recent memory. I’ll discuss more of the aspects at work in the next article.

Mercury Retrograde Is Shifting Element Emphasis

As Mercury goes retrograde in the Earth sign of Capricorn, it continues this year’s run of Mercury retrogrades in Earth signs which began with January’s retrograde which was mainly in Capricorn. The Taurus and Virgo retrogrades were entirely in Earth signs, and this one shifts the pattern.

In this RX period and the ones in April/May and August/Sept, Mercury goes RX in Earth signs and goes direct in Fire signs. This one goes from Capricorn back to the Fire sign of Sagittarius, while in 2017 April’s begins in Taurus and goes direct in Aries, and August’s goes RX in Virgo and goes direct in Leo.

To give you a sense of the larger pattern, 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 shifted again, as the January Mercury retrograde began in the Air sign of Aquarius, but retrograded back through the last half of the Earth sign Capricorn. So we danced between ideas and practical necessities, relating and taking a new look at what is in our “enlightened self-interest.” That completed a run of Air sign retrograde emphasis.

As noted, the April-May retrograde was entirely in the Earth sign of Taurus, and the Aug-Sept retrograde was entirely in the Earth sign of Virgo. It now shifts to multiple elements again since this begins in Capricorn and retrogrades back into the Fire of Sagittarius. So we begin a year of a blend of Earth and Fire energies during Mercury retrograde. Until then, A New Look at Mercury Retrograde” will help you get a fix on all of the above and more!

A Bit More

In the next 3 weeks, we can see what life has prepared for us since the last Mercury retrograde in August and September. 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 find a new way to see what we’ve trained for, or what we need to train for, in the way of effective and practical group work. This will be a working period, where we can get a different take on how we want to organize or reorganize something. This one is definitely future oriented, and will be VERY fortunate for those with planets near the middle degrees of the Air signs.

Some will experience returns of people from the past who were spiritual Brothers and Sisters, or they will be of some service in the present. Some projects will have to be postponed, or a new way found to make something work. This can give insights into more efficient or effective ways to get something done, and favors practical rehearsals before “doing it for real.” 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 a review of how to make things work better than in the past, reshaping and refining our process of being “liberated from a narrow destiny” that has occurred since the last Mercury retrograde in Virgo. We’ve gotten insights into those who share our cultural values, and in this one we’ll get new information about group activity, or how we have let go of old responsibilities to create a void so new ones can present themselves.

We now have new methods to accomplish the mundane duties of life, and we’ve all been educated on the mental or philosophical level to be more practical or dedicated in some way. Open to new perspectives on all things related to Capricorn people and experiences. This will help us renew some form of training, so that we will wind up more “goal fit” by the end of January.

This Mercury retrograde will give us many signs and signals for what will dominate Mercury-ruled areas from early January through early April 2017. Here we take a new look at what’s behind us before moving forward anew at the end of the RX period in early January. We can get all kinds of new insights into future potentials, while seeing things in the recent past differently.

The Inferior Conjunction happens on Dec 28 at 8 Capricorn, about 12 hours before the New Moon at the same degree. 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 synthesizing degree of the social-cultural phase of Crystallization, and give us a new take on how to relax into playing the roles we were born to play and enjoy being who we are, doing whatever we do best.

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 Capricorn energy in our lives, see how our lives are effectively functioning (or not!), and review how we’ve been educated on a practical level since last August. Despite the retrograde, it’s a great time for practical inspiration and inspired practicality, as well as seeing how to combine beauty and functionality while making key decisions related to expectable conditions down the road. Take a new look at the ideas you’ve had or information you’ve received since early December, since we will capture the essential elements of understanding what we need to mobilize into action by early 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 see what to do and how to do it in group activities.

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 2017. It will help us rehearse or do the research we need to get ready to spring forward then, clear about what we know, what we need to know, and what must happen if we are to move forward into living a new effective role in our world.

Renewals, returns, reconnections, reunions, and new beginnings are promised by this retrograde. And of course, more on this Mercury retrograde period will come soon!