by Robert Wilkinson
Mercury is rapidly slowing, preparing to go retrograde soon! Lots of Virgo and Leo 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 5 Virgo on August 4/5. It will retrograde back to 22 Leo, where it goes stationary direct on August 28, 2024.
That puts the shadow zone between 22 Leo and 5 Virgo, and around 1 pm PDT on July 16, Mercury enters 22 Leo, the degree where it’ll go SD on August 28. 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 22 Leo and 5 Virgo. We’ll have returns related to Virgo and Leo people and events which impacted our lives in the past. This will be “a look back” at past times of elevated awareness which led us to understand a message we had to give to our world.
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 service or creative expression. Some will be reminded of past times when they turned to new forms of play or self-expression, or children in the past who impacted them. Perhaps there will be reviews or reflections on old work or play, old “self-transcending” insights and actions, or old times of “spreading a new word.” This one brings memories of prior Virgo and Leo 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 see how our imagination is revealing previously unknown realms, or leading us to contact inner life energies. Because the retrograde begins at 5 Virgo, we may get echoes of the period from October 2006 through February 2007, mid-June through mid-October 2007, and March 2008 through early July 2008 when Saturn moved through this retrograde span. We also may get flashes of understanding related to when Venus was in this span in July and early August 2023 and again in the first half of October 2023.
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.
Leo and Virgo are the entry signs to the interpersonal realm of life, and so the Fire of Leo and the Earth of Virgo helps move the initial pulse into a new area of expression. Open to new forms of self-expression, new ways to be creative and/or playful, and new ways to adjust to conditions and elevate the sense of what we’re here to do or what we’re here to serve. This will impact our Gemini and Virgo sectors of our charts where we’ll see things differently, preparing to deliver a message of some sort.
The coming Mercury retrograde period will definitely bridge the past, present and future! We’ll get a sense of the Virgo energies to come while looking back on the Leo energies we’re experiencing. We’ll take a new look at the near past, and no doubt will see many things in a new light.
From July 23 through 28, Mercury makes quincunxes to Neptune and Pluto, creating an out of sign Finger of God with the nozzle at 30 Leo and 1 Virgo. We’ll get another Yod between August 12 and 17 when Mercury retrograde makes the same configuration. The last one will happen between September 6 and 9 when the Yod will be focused in Leo when Pluto is back in Capricorn. These are all “expansion through sacrifice” types of adjustments wherever we have late Leo and early Virgo.
We’ll also have inspiration in play when Mercury is square Uranus around August 1-2, August 16-18, and September 6-8. Mostly we just have to go to sources, see what holds everything in our inner and outer world together, and stay detached, friendly, and as visionary as possible. This retrograde period will allow us to revisit the actional-physical part of “Characterization” and the individual mental-spiritual and social/emotional levels of “Release.”
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 August 26-27, almost a week after the Inferior Conjunction at 27 Leo on August 18. That begins to quicken the information cycle, since Mercury goes direct on August 28, 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 late August. 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 5 Virgo, get ready to go inward and review how your imagination works to reveal new realms from time to time. This period can help us take a new look at how we analyze and classify things, and the routines our imagination uses to express itself. We’ll be able to “back into new views of recent beginnings” as prelude to catching a wave into a understanding of a message we’ve received and have to give to others in September, October, and November. 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 man dreaming of fairies.”
© Copyright 2024 Robert Wilkinson
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