by Robert Wilkinson
At 3:42 pm PDT on July 25, Mercury enters Virgo, one of its home signs. This ends the 3 week Leo backdrop to planets and houses we have in Gemini and Virgo, and brings Distributive Earth to the forefront of those planetary Lights and life houses.
Mercury is slowing down as it prepares to go stationary retrograde at 5 Virgo on August 4. It will then retrograde back into Leo on August 14, eventually going stationary direct at 22 Leo on August 28, remaining in Leo until it re-enters Virgo on September 8/9 where it stays until it enters Libra on September 26.
Get your affairs in order, as this phase when it’s “crashing into retrograde” marks a time when everything Mercurial will slow down. It will be at its slowest at the Inferior Conjunction with the Sun on August 18 at 27 Leo when it will again begin to speed up.
Take a good look at the details and meaning and adjustments to be made from now through its RX station, since that’s the span we’ll get a new look at between now and August 14 when it retrogrades back through the first 5 degrees of Virgo. We’ll get another look at this span around September 9-12 when its direct and moving through the first face of Virgo for the last time this year which is when we can put it all together as we run through it a third time. As Mercury transits affect our ability to coordinate things, discover things, give and receive information, and see things from multiple points of view, keep it grounded and practical.
While in Virgo, Mercury is in one of its home signs. Therefore Mercury is in its own first house, as well as in its own 4th house of Gemini, the other sign it rules. So Mercury in Virgo is natural to itself as well as grounded in its own practical attention to details and order which brings structure of its Gemini traits. I explain more about how Mercury functions in various signs in my pioneering work A New Look at Mercury Retrograde. Since it’s about to go retrograde, if you want to know about Mercury retrograde in various signs and houses, as well as how it functions in worldly events, please get a copy. It’s both fun and informative, and will give you “a new look” at all things related to Mercury retrograde!
Until the next Inferior Conjunction, Mercury will be out in front of the Sun, bringing signs and signals of things to come in August. It stopped “leading the light” when it made the Superior Conjunction with the Sun in mid-June at 25 Gemini, and will not “lead the light” again until the Inferior Conjunction on August 18.
Mercury in Virgo will help us organize, reorganize, rearrange, and take note of details we might not have noticed before. For now, we’re still under the influence of the last Superior Conjunction “fusion of Life and Mind” at 25 Gemini. This has been giving us a new look at past things that helped us shape or re-shape our expression or show “active care for possessions.” We are all “pruning and shaping” our “garden of Life and Mind” so that we can externalize something in the next year, triggered as Mars transits 25 Gemini in August and Jupiter transits the same point next Spring.
Also, remember Mercury now rules Jupiter, so each sign change Mercury makes affects how Jupiter expresses itself. While Mercury in Cancer gave Jupiter a Watery backdrop, and Jupiter got the Fire of Leo backing its expression up to now, it now gets the practical humility and efficiency of the Earthy Virgo energy.
As Jupiter “leads the Light” until the Mars/Jupiter conjunction in mid-August, this also gives Mercury more power as it affects Jupiter’s expression in Gemini, so Mercury’s in the background of the planet leading the Light. Mercury will also rule that Mars/Jupiter conjunction, and will again “lead the light” at the Inferior conjunction after August 18.
Keep in mind that its recent retrograde between 28 and 16 Aries in April had the theme of “facing facts” and seeing the appearance of a “new identity.” Many have had “a new light shed on cherished ideas” and/or had to have a “fearless, constructive and public facing of the facts of existence.” This has played out in our lives wherever we have the last half of Aries in our charts.
So enjoy the pace, get plans in place, be as flexible as you feel you need to be. Things began to slow down rapidly when Mercury entered its shadow zone at 22 Leo on July 16. It goes retrograde at 5 Virgo on August 4, and makes its Inferior conjunction at 27 Leo on August 18, after which it will again begin to speed up.
Also, pay attention to those times when Mercury is between 13 and 29 Leo, since that was Venus’ retrograde span in the Summer of 2023. This coming Mercury retrograde season will no doubt give us flashes of insight about many relationship developments this past year!
For now, face forward and prepare for a different pace over the next few weeks. We’re already feeling the retrograde effect since it entered its shadow zone, so take a new look at old business wherever you have 5 Virgo, since that will be the source of new insights into you, your work, your health, your service, and ways to allow your creative imagination to take shape in the future. I’ll write more about the coming retrograde next week.
© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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