by Robert Wilkinson
Mercury is rapidly slowing, preparing to go retrograde soon! Lots of Aries action ahead!
The shadow zone is defined by the span between where a planet goes retrograde, and where it goes direct after the retrograde period. In this case, Mercury goes retrograde at 28 Aries on April 1/2. It will retrograde back to 16 Aries, where it goes stationary direct on April 25, 2024.
That puts the shadow zone between 16 and 28 Aries, and around 6 am PDT on Monday, March 18, Mercury enters 16 Aries, the degree where it’ll go SD on April 25. I’ll be writing quite a few articles about the coming retrograde which will post as it comes closer.
So we now begin an 8 week run of three passes over the span between 16 and 28 Aries. We’ll have returns related to Aries people and events which impacted our lives in the past. This will be “a look back” at past times of dynamic activity and/or impulsive or rushed decisions and activities.
We may get “echoes of memories of perceptions of echoes of memories of perceptions of echoes of…..,” or flashes from the past of times we glimpsed truths which opened new doors of perception and action. Some will be reminded of past times when they turned to new actions, new approaches, new enthusiasms, and new ways of doing their own thing in their own way. This one brings memories of prior Aries experiences so we can get a different angle of understanding.
Mercury retrograde always gives a new take on whatever it’s transiting, and this period is going to reveal what we’ve learned about the new identity we’re living, which may involve facing certain facts and/or busting an illusion, whether our own or another’s. Because the retrograde begins at 28 Aries, we may get echoes of the period from 2014-2019 when Uranus moved through this RX span related to its direct stations at 29 Aries which bookended 2017-2019 and impacted the subsequent year.
Those awakened realizations about our autonomy to sing our own song in our own way in “the Cosmic Choir” has helped us express our genius in some way wherever we have late Aries in our charts. While Mercury will give us a look back at the span from 28 to 16 Aries this year, because sometimes a Mercury retrograde will give us a “roundabout look” at the future, because in 2027-2028 Saturn will move through this span, even going SRX at 28 Aries in August 2027. Clearly the insights and reflections we’ll get from now through late May will give us signals about the lessons of 2027-2028!
During Mercury retrograde, we often see how we dealt with something in the past and come to new insights about how it affected our ways of relating to similar things since then, or we could come to a new way to apply those old insights into life experiences. The sign(s) where Mercury “looks back” opens us to new ways to view those things, giving opportunities to weave, unweave, or re-weave our understanding of how to apply our “second sight” as we are “guided to our Soul.”
Since Mercury last went stationary direct in January, we’ve been in a period of being “immigrants entering a new land,” opening to new ways of living life and crossing a threshold from old perspectives and possibilities into a brand new world of wider potential. We have had new openings to the degree we’ve been willing to risk the lesser self for the sake of greater Selfhood. All of us reoriented in 2023 and now are moving forward, free of the traps of the past.
Aries moves the Fire forward, so open to new ideas and interpretations, new lines of study and investigation, and new ways of simply doing whatever you know needs to be done, doing it in your own way. Of course this has impacted our Gemini and Virgo sectors of our charts and we now have a greater freedom and a wider view of the future in those areas.
The coming Mercury retrograde period will definitely bridge the past, present and future! We’ll take a new look at the near past, and no doubt will see many things in a new light. Be bold and direct in seeing things as they are, making adjustments as needed during the first three weeks of April This retrograde period will allow us to back through the parts of Aries where we’ll revisit the individual mental-spiritual, social/emotional, and actional levels of “Potency.”
Time To Adjust to A Different Pace
The Mercurial data you notice over the next 3+ weeks will be clarified after the Sun crosses the Mercury SRX degree on April 16-17, almost a week after the Inferior Conjunction at 23 Aries on April 11. That begins to quicken the information cycle, since Mercury goes direct on April 25, speeding everything up substantially. So in the coming weeks, adapt to the slowing pace of things, get all your papers in order, finish what you can, and prepare to put some things on hold for a little while.
Take a look at what's been set into motion with an eye to building in delays, rehearsals, or more research before things again begin to move forward in mid-September. 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.
With Mercury’s retrograde station at 28 Aries, get ready to go inward and review what moves you to act quickly and directly when you feel the urge. This period can help us take a new look at how we use power instinctively, how we can be more direct in our communications, as well as how to see the roles we’re playing in a new light. We’ll be more or less “backing into new views of recent beginnings” as prelude to catching a wave into a new life, a new day, and a new confirmation of our faith in late April when Jupiter conjuncts Uranus. I’ll give you more about Mercury’s SRX degree in a week or so.
if you want to know more about Mercury retrograde and how it operates in Aries and how it affects your chart, please get your copy of the 2nd edition of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. You’ll find out all you need about this retrograde, as well as past and future retrogrades. Here's the Amazon link to where you can order the paperback 2nd edition of A New Look at Mercury Retrograde, and if you want an Kindle ebook copy you can get it there as well. Just make sure you get the much improved 2nd edition with the award on the cover rather than the earlier one from 1997.
See you soon with more on the coming Mercury retrograde on a degree of “A large disappointed audience.”
© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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