by Robert Wilkinson
Mercury goes direct in motion at 5:12 am PST on January 18, 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 9 Capricorn, 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 9 Capricorn mean? Perhaps it would be useful to take a look back on what the last Mercury direct station brought us since early October 2022.
You will recall that the last time Mercury went stationary direct in October it was at 25 Virgo, the last of three retrogrades which began in early Air and ended in late Earth. The first Mercury RX of 2022 began at 11 Aquarius and went back to 25 Capricorn; the late Spring 2022 RX began at 5 Gemini and went back to 27 Taurus, and the last one began at 9 Libra and ended at 25 Virgo.
This retrograde period began at 25 Capricorn, and gave us a review of a) recent new developments in our lives related to Capricorn things and ideas, b) 2022 as a whole, since the year began with Mercury stationary direct at 25 Capricorn, and c) how the cycles which began with Jupiter conjunct Pluto at 25 Capricorn twice in 2020 have developed since then. Of course, all this action is wherever we have Capricorn in our birth charts.
We’ve now done a journey through parts of our Capricorn past, remembered many things about responsibilities past and present which may have changed our understanding of those choices and events, and gotten a different perspective on many Capricorn things these past 3 weeks. From here we move forward into a new expression of these energies which will echo for many months to come.
We’ve now re-traced ground that we first saw via Mercury’s first pass from December 12 through 29, and re-examined via the RX from then to now. An important point in time will be when Mercury goes back over 25 Capricorn on February 6, because then it moves into unknown zones, carrying all its RX lessons forward until its coming April-May retrograde when we review what works and what doesn’t in some new realm of experience awakened by Uranus since May 2022.
Now we face 4 months of being guided to our Soul using the qualities of 9 Capricorn. 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 finding individual spiritual effectiveness within our unfolding group work.
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. The area in our chart where we have 9 Capricorn will be where the past gives way to the future.
The Sabian Symbol for Mercury’s Direct Station
The Sabian symbol for the 9th degree of Capricorn is “An angel carrying a harp.” In the Astrology of Personality, where Rudhyar uses the original Dr. Jones' class notes on the symbols, 9 Cap is said to be a symbol of “the basic harmony of fulfilled selfhood” and “realizing harmony in everyday life through detached and lofty understanding.”
In The Astrological Mandala, he says this degree involves “the revelation of the spiritual meaning and purpose at the core of any life situation.” He offers that “this picture simply says that ‘heaven is within us.’ All we have to do is to be open and listen to the total harmony of life, a harmony in which we play a part that is necessary to the completeness and meaning of the whole.”
He continues that to find this, we must “surrender our separative ego-consciousness and flow with the universal current” showing us the Path Spirit is revealing to us. He tells us this is a technique “of attunement to the rhythm of universal life. Angels are … considered personalizations of various aspects of this life, and totally subservient to its rhythms and purposes. He says it falls in the span of Illusiveness, and it’s the technical degree of the emotional-cultural level of the scene of Crystallization in the Act of Capitalization.
According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, the degree is one of “the eternal and unabated interest of the human spirit in the simple potentialities of experience, and of the unconditioned enthusiasm of all human motives in their original inception.” He says this provides “a continuing sense of spiritual source as it pervades (human) consciousness, enabling (us) to avoid the limitations in any given situation” to achieve self-fulfillment.
He tells us “there is an over-all harmony of which each individual remains essentially a part,” and offers us the keyword ATTUNEMENT. He states that when operating in a positive manner, this degree is "a special gift for inspiring others to accomplishment and for realizing the ultimate dreams of self as a consequence.”
So the Mercury platform launching the next few weeks will help us see clearly how to be organized in attuning to our invisible helpers, find harmony of fulfilled selfhood in higher understanding, and best of all, we can surrender our “separative ego-consciousness” and learn to flow with the Divine Will. Open to being guided in attuning with the Higher Law of the moment. This is a degree of inspiring others and being inspired by others, so see what’s opening on the social, emotional, or cultural level in your life, accept your power to make a constructive difference, and enjoy focusing your will power, backed by courage, to find the harmony possible in each moment.
From Here We Move Forward
9 Capricorn is now a launch point for entering into a new (and somewhat familiar) realm in the Gemini and Virgo areas of our chart via Mercury’s placement in the Capricorn decan of Capricorn with an extra dose of Jupiter. We now move forward, having done our time of going inward to reflect on what “transcendent security” we’ve found up to now, and how the larger cycles of purification and transformation set into motion when Jupiter conjuncted Pluto has yielded the opportunities which opened up in 2022. We now have a new understanding of things past and present in our Capricorn chart sector.
Mercury now begins to chase the Sun toward their next Superior Conjunction, bringing all its reflections and reviews into the NOW. We’ve finished the first of this year’s Earth sign retrogrades, and have new ways of understanding our Gemini and Virgo areas, as well as the Earth sectors of our charts.
We’ll close today with a reminder that although Mercury is now direct and won’t be retrograde again until mid-April, the retrograde we’ve just experienced will affect the coming months until the Mercury retrograde station in December 2023 at 9 Capricorn. At that point we’ll have a look back at what we’ve discovered in November and December, as well as the entire year, since 9 Capricorn is Mercury’s direct station now. That means the theme of this year involves tuning into the invisible world and our helpers there, and finding harmony in some form of fulfillment.
Of course you can find out more about past, present, or future retrogrades by getting your copy of my book A New Look At Mercury Retrograde. Here's the Amazon link to where you can order A New Look at Mercury Retrograde to check out possible ways this Mercury retrograde effect could play out over the next 4 months. That link will also allow you to order an ebook copy on Kindle. Just make sure you get the 2016 2nd edition with the book award on the cover and not the 1997 Weiser first edition.
In part 2, we'll continue to examine what we can expect over the next 3 months now that Mercury is direct.
© Copyright 2023 Robert Wilkinson
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