I’ve got the first monthly new moon installment of 2016, A Ritual For Renewal: New Moon in Capricorn, which explores the astrology of the lunar cycle from January 9th – February 7th. It will include a personalized reading for each sign on the impact of the cycle’s astrology, and a new moon renewal ritual and full moon meditation for each sign.
Any planet that is stationing retrograde wields ultimate cosmic power for that moment. Imagine a car slowing to a stop on a freeway. It gets our attention. We need to watch out for it. It evokes a response from us. It demands that we alter our course of action. In Mercury’s case, this has to do with our communications, our thoughts, how we make meaning out of the information we take in and how we relay that meaning and integrate it into our lives.
Mercury will station retrograde on January 5th at 5:06 AM PST at the very beginning of Aquarius. Aquarius wants to innovate knowledge, to take what is known and further it for the good of all. Aquarius is reasonable and refuses jumping to rash conclusions without a thorough and thoughtfully weighed review of data. It’s not one to get swept away in the hype and hoaxes of the latest fashion. It frowns upon pop culture’s wildly misunderstood and mismanaged understanding of Mercury retrograde as something to fear.
Mercury retrograde is an invitation into the underworld. An invitation to relinquish our agenda, our importance and our egos. An invitation to strip down and get to what is most important. Through this transit we may be given major and minor communication blips but most times, if we take heed, such minor issues are signaling to us that our plans are not as important as we think they are. We are not as important as we think we are. Mercury retrograde can complicate the day to day. Missed phone calls, texts that never arrive, wrong directions, misunderstandings and delayed departures seem to soak up endless hours of our precious time. Perhaps it’s the only way to get us to pay attention to what really matters. Perhaps getting our way isn’t the only show in town. Perhaps our agenda isn’t the only thing worth paying attention to.
If you get caught in one of these communication breakdowns, take it as a cue to see what else is happening. Use it. Become a student of the moment and a student of how you deal with life and its varying speeds and sequences.
On January 5th, Mercury will square Mars as it is stationing retrograde. A square from Mercury to Mars in Scorpio can induce many a dramatic conversation. Mars is extremely powerful in Scorpio. It’s in its own sign. It has all its own tools at its disposal. It’s cunning. It’s sneaky. It does not shy away from conflict. It’s out to win but plays for the long haul. With untold patience, Mars in Scorpio will wait until the moment is right to strike, because it strikes to win (some may say kill). Scorpio has the patience of a million well-formed plots for long-term revenge, so it’s not about to act without a strategy.
Mars in Scorpio also has a Jessica-Jones-like determination to seek justice and retribution for innocent victims of cruelty while still acknowledging that it itself is all kinds of problematic. Mars in Scorpio isn’t trying to win accolades for purity. It isn’t trying to distance itself from the paradox that can occur when we find ourselves embroiled in a battle for peace. It isn’t asking for neat and tidy answers. Nor should we.
Since Mercury’s retrograde is set up with this kind of intensity, we can assume that anything less than brutal honesty with ourselves can bring worlds of pain upon us. Denial and danger are a good mix only for those hell-bent on destruction. If you want this Mercury-Mars combination to work, let the truth surface and sit with it until you know what the appropriate course of action is for you. This is the kind of combination that won’t let us rest with half-baked truths but much of the information that we would usually have access to is withheld from us during a retrograde. Make room for not knowing. Make room for discovery. Make your fear your apprentice, not your boss. Acting impulsively out of a need to quell our fear and fix everything will make a mess right quick.
By January 8th, Mercury slides back into Capricorn. Capricorn wants to utilize what it has access to. It wants to make something out of what it has been given. Since most of the retrograde will be in Capricorn, this Mercury retrograde will have use reviewing how we relate to the resources we have access to as well as the house in your chart that Capricorn occupies. Mercury’s retrograde ends as dramatically as it began. With a square to Uranus (January 20th) and a conjunction to Pluto (January 22nd), before it stations direct on January 25th, there is a theme here of purging the old and outdated defenses we are normally too good at rationalizing. Once direct, Mercury will hit up these two again. Mercury will conjunct Pluto on January 29th and square Uranus on January 31st.
This is an unsettling, revolutionary, profound revolt.
Setting off the Uranus/Pluto duo does no favors for those who fear conflict. Uranus and Pluto leave no conversation cloaked in costumes of contentment. This is real talk or nothing at all. This Mercury retrograde is about facing the conversations, revelations and facts we may fear the most. But the funny thing about fear is that it usually seems way worse than it is. It is usually keeping us from our autonomy in some way, holding our courage captive and distorting our view of ourselves and the world.
This Mercury retrograde will peel back the layers of the part of our life that it touches until it’s gotten down to the core of what it has in store for us. May as well go willingly.
See you on the other side,
xc