by Robert Wilkinson
As you know by now, Mercury has begun to slow down, preparing to go stationary retrograde at 24 Leo on Jul 25 at 10:03 pm PDT, Jul 26 at 6:03 am BST. Today we take a look at some primary factors.
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 take a new look at ways to concentrating spiritual force, or see how we must focus on the inner, even at the expense of the outer. This one will give us multiple angles of understanding about how our past created our present, or how our present will create our future.
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 reviewed, re-examined, reevaluated, 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 Leo.
We may find different ways of seeing our creativity, our social interactions and what they inhibit or release in us, or an alternative view of what turns us on or stimulates our enthusiasm. We may understand how the past brought us to where we are now from a different angle of seeing where to put our energies, or how chasing past pleasures distracted us or put the focus on the form instead of the essence.
The next 3 weeks will give us a new take on emergent developments, and what must be reviewed and released, or research and rehearsed to prepare us for September. Because of the “back to the future” quality of Mercury retrograde, we may also get glimpses of how the last 3 months have given us a new look at our potential and who we might be if we chose to be a unique individual acting according to our authenticity and integrity. We got insights into “the power of our spiritual ancestry” related to the house(s) where we have 14-30 Sagittarius between December and March. Now our imagination has opened higher potential in each of us since April.
So we enter a time of review, reflection, rehearsal, and new angles of concentrating and focus on the inner life, preparing to fulfill our Leo function in some important ways. We are finding new ways to see how to “gather our power,” focusing our hearts and feelings as a prelude to linking “the above and below within us,” examining these from angles we didn’t consider before. These will work out wherever we have 12-24 Leo in our chart.
Mercury Retrograde Is Shifting Element Emphasis
Though I touched on this yesterday, this may explain more about the importance of the element Mercury’s in when retrograde. The Mercury retrograde in December 2017 ended a period of 3 retrogrades which began in Earth signs and ended in late Fire signs. These periods began in the practical considerations of Earth, but ended in the inspiration of Fire.
The Dec 2017 RX began in late Sagittarius, and was a “tag team messenger,” as it picked up one degree from where Mercury went direct in January 2017! That retrograde was entirely in the sign of Sagittarius, heralding the Mar-Apr Mercury RX which was entirely in Aries and this Jul-Aug retrograde entirely in Leo. The theme of this year is a “looking back and within using inspired mind,” as well as finding a way to understand old inspirations in new ways, or find new inspiration by taking a new look at old loves.
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 2016 retrograde was entirely in the Earth sign of Taurus, and the Aug-Sept retrograde was entirely in the Earth sign of Virgo. In December 2016 it shifted to multiple elements again since it began in Capricorn and retrograded back into the Fire of Sagittarius. That began 2017’s blend of Earth and Fire energies during Mercury retrograde.
A Bit More
In the next 3 weeks, we can see what life has prepared for us since the last Mercury retrograde in April 2018. Besides the more recent past, the coming retrograde period can also give us a new perspective on what’s shifted in our view or understanding since August 2017, since that powerful Total Solar Eclipse at 29 Leo had its NN at 25 Leo. This retrograde will trace the span of the NN from September 2017 through April 2018, giving us a chance to reflect on how we’ve grown since last Summer’s Solar Eclipse.
The next 3 weeks are a good time to review recent adjustments, sacrifices, and opportunities to demonstrate a more mature persona in some social setting. These will be required again, or a new understanding of these will come forth, in the first 10 days of August. This is a transformational, “awakening” retrograde period which will demonstrate our ability to focus our enthusiasm and heart energies effectively, and use admiration and respect to diffuse confrontational tensions.
This Mercury retrograde will give us many signs and signals for what will dominate Mercury-ruled areas from mid-August through mid-November. Here we take a new look at what’s behind us before moving forward anew at the end of the RX period as Mars begins to speed up and go SD at 29 Capricorn.
The Inferior Conjunction happens on August 8 at 17 Leo. That “fusion of life and mind” will give us interesting insights into what in our lives has renewed as a result of turning to different life activities in April and May. It happens just before the Solar Eclipse at 19 Leo, and conjuncts last August’s Full Moon Eclipse at 12 Leo/Aquarius. And Mercury will go SD on the exact degree of the Sun at that Lunar Eclipse, showing that the endings of August and September last year will provide a “platform of understanding” how to move forward in late August and September.
As the coming Inferior Conjunction is tredecile the stationary points at 29 and 30 Sag, you can bet we’ll get unique insights about how the truths opened and blessings received these past two years are impacting what we want to express now. It shows that by concentrating on the inner, and participating in forms of “group rebirth,” we will find serendipity through unique interactions, realizations, and very “lucky” events.
Since April, we’ve caught glimpses of our Soul’s flight across space-time, and saw forms of “cosmic order,” even if they are not yet mature enough to be grounded. This will help us see how our minds have been inspired by the insights we’ve had these past 3 ½ months.
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. This one allows us to review and get a new look at how we’re using Leo energy in our lives, and review how we’ve moved forward since last April. The retrograde is a great time for new insights into how we’ve been guided to our Souls, as prelude to clearer guidance after mid-August.
We’re already living a future that took hold in 2017 due to the strong Sagittarius presence in the retrogrades that year. We got heart strength, inspiration, blessings, and glimpses of “the power of our spiritual ancestry” last year we have been called to develop as spiritual tools during 2018’s Fire retrogrades. The March-April and this retrograde are giving us a look back at the Fire trines of last year, and incorporate them into our Mercury tool kit during this year.
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 mid-August, and move into a new dimension of Being by September.
This will be another important retrograde, where the past will be reviewed so we may reorganize what moves us and why, and our need to concentrate if we are to focus our heart power or creativity. The coming weeks are both a look back and a rehearsal, a time to see past “concentrations of power” as giving our minds the ability to create what we needed to in the outer world. The SRX point is the technical degree on the social-emotional level of “Release,” showing we’re all reviewing techniques of expressing ourselves emotionally and socially.
So we begin by learning or reviewing techniques of concentration, take a new look at ways we need to be “reborn socially,” en route to becoming a different sort of “adult” in our world. We’ll all be getting signs and signals of our Heart’s Way, but we must slow down, take a look back and up, and see why some things in the outer world don’t matter as much as how we’re relating to our hearts.
Renewals, returns, reconnections, reunions, and new beginnings are promised by this retrograde. And of course, more on this Mercury retrograde period will come soon!
Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend
Because Saturn is now in its home sign of Capricorn for the first time since 1991, it is the final dispositor of all planets transiting Capricorn and Aquarius from now through 2023. It was the ruler of the Jan-Feb eclipses, making it an important factor for the next few years, and it continues to play a different and powerful part in world affairs between March and November because Mars will be transiting those signs during that time. That makes Saturn a major force to be reckoned with in 2018!
As Saturn and Uranus are in trine between May and October involving Capricorn and Taurus, it’s a great time to learn how to blend past and future together, crafting your future destiny in grounded practical ways. After the 2017 Fire trines between these planets stabilizing Electric Fire (Aries) and distributive “Fire by Friction” (Sag), this will provide practical grounding to our efforts.
In 2017, we stabilized Electric Fire, harmonized with Distributive Fire by Friction, and learned to express it in loving, creative forms of Solar Fire (Leo) between July and September during the Grand Fire trines, as well as every month when the Moon was in Leo. 2017 was the next step in understanding the movement of Fire in our lives, which we can now revisit and examine from the current Leo retrograde angle. We now get to look back at Saturn's fire trine with Uranus as the stabilizing force for the Leo energies cut loose last Summer.
Now that they're in Earth, we are in a great season of organizing and simplifying our Saturn-Uranus “dance of individualization” in our charts. I cover this and in my book Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend. Saturn helps us give form and structure to our quest for Self-realization, and in Capricorn, will help bring an “organized personal structure” to the Uranian energies infused with concentrated doses of spiritual energy that is making our spiritual life come alive.
Our inner Saturn gives us the power to take command of our lives and destiny. Saturn shows us how to become spiritual adults and fulfill our purpose for being alive on Earth. By knowing our Saturnian strengths, we can overcome fear and any sense of victimization or powerlessness.
It was written for both astrologers and non-astrologers, and gives the reader the power to understand why some things happened when they did. Throughout the book, it offers ways for us to “make friends” with this part of our existence and take command of our destiny. As you read each chapter, you’ll become more aware of all the factors assisting Soul growth through understanding how our Saturn lessons relate to Dharma (our Highest Spiritual Function) and various types of karma, both those we cause and those which are "Sacred Wounds" leading us to a greater compassion and understanding.
This is a book you will reference many times for many reasons, and each time you pick it up you’re sure to find undiscovered gems of insight on each page. This book can help you throw off all the attitudes and memories which have held you back from finding and living the life and purpose you’ve been searching for since you were young. Welcome to the journey of self-discovery, and finding your power to live your life on your own terms, fulfilling your reason for being alive as an Eternal having human experiences!
Please order your copy today! You can go to the Saturn: Spiritual Master, Spiritual Friend page and order your copy of either the paperback or the ebook. It's also available as an ebook on B&N's Nook. I’ve been told that people who live overseas can get their copy much faster by going through Amazon. And if you would, please write a review on the Amazon site, since the more reviews, the bigger the boost on their site.
© Copyright 2018 Robert Wilkinson
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