by Robert Wilkinson
Mercury goes direct in motion at 1:22 pm PST, 9:22 pm GMT on December 6 about 10 hours before the next New Moon, 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 28 Scorpio, 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 28 Scorpio hold for us? Perhaps it would be useful to take a look back on what the last Mercury direct station brought us since August 2018.
You will recall that the last time Mercury went stationary direct in August, it was at 12 Leo, showing we’ve all become more “adult” in some way, and have had opportunities to polish our social skills. August through November gave us all opportunities to open to seeing how to distribute heart energy in larger ways or in a larger social field, and we’ve had many things develop from Leo reflections, reviews, rehearsals, revisits, and insights from which we’ve moved forward since mid-August.
This is the transitional Mercury retrograde that begins in Fire and ends in Water. 2017 featured a Mercury retrograde pattern of beginning in the first half of an Earth sign, and ending when Mercury is in the final degrees of a Fire sign. 2018 retrogrades have been entirely in Fire, and have brought echoes of previous SRX and SD points also in Fire signs.
This retrograde period featured Mercury going stationary retrograde at 14 Sagittarius, bringing us glimpses of a) things from the past that showed us “the power of our spiritual ancestry”; b) techniques of going inward from the past we need to use right now if we’re to tap into our genetic wisdom; and/or c) we just had opportunities to reflect back on the wisdom we’ve learned this past year so we can understand what’s expanding at this beginning of a long adventure.
We’ve now re-traced ground that we first saw via Mercury’s first pass from Oct 28 through Dec 16, and re-examined via the RX from then to now. Of major importance will be when Mercury goes back over 14 Sagittarius on December 23-24, when it moves into unknown zones for the year while carrying all its RX lessons forward.
Many things related to this RX period is being heavily activated or re-activated between now and the second week of January 2019, because Jupiter is transiting the RX span. And we shall see “echoes of memories” in January 2020 when Mars transits this RX span.
Now we face 4 months of being guided to our Soul using the qualities of 28 Scorpio. 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 shaping our minds to become more receptive to current and future new qualities of Being.
Reflect on recent redirection of energies from outer things to inner things; take a new look at your need to focus inward in order to project a focused, centered, caring compassion to your world. All of this involves focusing your “devotion to the One,” as per the Sabian Symbol of the SD degree.
We should all start seeing, hearing, and understanding things that point the way to some Mercurial fulfillment related to how we have been and continue to be guided to our Soul. Given that it falls at 28 Scorpio, it has qualities of a deep individualized faith and a clear understanding that all transformation begins when we identify at the core of our Being with the Oneness of “All That Is.”
The Sabian Symbol for Mercury’s Direct Station
The Sabian symbol for the 28th degree of Scorpio is "The king of the fairies approaching his domain.” In the original notes from the Marc Jones class on the symbols Dane Rudhyar published in The Astrology of Personality, he states this degree is about “necessary respect for symbolic values holding vital forces integrated” and “Self-realization through devotion to the One.”
In The Astrological Mandala,, Rudhyar offers this degree involves “the capacity in (us) to recognize and to pay homage to an integrating Principle at the core of all existence.” He states this symbol is related to “creatures of a spiritual world” beyond the realm of the ego, showing our “intuitive consciousness” something we should give allegiance to. These “entities are seen as multiple aspects of a central Power and Consciousness,” representing life forms within the unity that humanity strives to experience.
He tells us that the unifying principle is the Higher Self, and “at this stage the presence of a spiritual unifying factor begins to be sensed by the individual perhaps weary of the outer shows of his culture,” where “an inner allegiance begins to polarize the consciousness.” He states that this symbol falls in the Span of Appreciation, the Act of Group Integration, and is the synthesizing degree of the Individual-Mental level of the Scene of Faith.
According to Dr. Jones, this degree is about “the eternal promise underlying all inner self-realization,” since our completeness “is independent of the passing state of affairs in a world of time and space.” He warns us of “the futility of (our) common reliance on people and things through some mere accident of contact.”
He continues “outer reality takes the form with which (we) endow it as (we) exercise (our) sovereignty over its various potentials in the creative realms of (our) own imagination.” He offers us the keyword ALLEGIANCE. He says that when positive, this degree is “special competence of inward vision and a consequent outward perspective of high effectiveness.”
So the theme of this direct station is going inward and finding Oneness in Self-realization, and self-realization in Oneness. We now can begin to “sense a unifying factor” in our lives and affairs which will “polarize our consciousness” helping us feel whole and complete. So we’re now on a threshold of 4 months to come where “the Guide of Souls” offers us the ability to use our Mercury function to find ways to live in new ways and BE a new person.
Aspects in the Shadow Zone
Mercury will transit its “shadow” span, i.e., the span it’s been in since it went retrograde at 13 Sagittarius, through December 24. 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, we see it’s still in an exact septile with Pluto, novile to Saturn, and quincunx to Uranus. These will hold for about a week.
In addition to these major aspects, we also see Mercury quindecile Venus, conjunct Jupiter, semisquare Pluto, biseptile Mars, with the very end of the shadow period giving us Mercury sesquisquare Uranus and square Neptune, activating the Resonant Rhombus Diamond configuration. You can find out more about this long wave frictional “cutting, grinding, and polishing” energy in my Lunation articles.
We’ll close today with a reminder that although Mercury is now direct and won’t be retrograde again until March 2019, the retrograde we’ve just experienced will affect the coming months until the next Mercury stationary retrograde at 30 Pisces, a degree of “dreaming the archetype and seeing it made manifest.” I write an article about that exact degree every March 19-20, so if you want a preview of what that RX period sets into motion, please go to the article in the archives.
Of course you can find out more about that coming retrograde, as well as all others past and future, by getting your copy 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 will help you figure 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 2018 Robert Wilkinson
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