Mercury’s Reversal

Mercury has stationed retrograde in Capricorn today. Second to full moons, Mercury retrogrades are pretty common knowledge. Those of us who even follow astrology loosely know that Mercury retrogrades can impact communication, technology, and transportation. This can show up as a computer failing, cracking the screen of your phone, getting in a car accident, or contractual issues. These of course are astrological generalizations.

Mercury rules not only those topics, but medicine, science, business and markets, astrology and esoteric arts, and amongst other things speech, music, and games. A lot of significations have been given over to Hermes throughout the ages, and Hermes was known to be a trickster and a psychopomp, being able to travel equally between men and the gods. 

Not all retrogrades of Mercury will be felt by everyone, as always it is natal chart dependent. For myself, Mercury is the ruler of my 1st and 10th house, houses that pertain to topics like self, body, health, psychology and career, daily practice, myself in the public sphere. These are also angular houses in my chart, therefore more potent and active.

Mercury is also my time lord this year, in terms of annual profections. Mercury rules over my chart and will impart his blessings and challenges throughout the year more than any other planet. In a sense, he is my personal daemon, or spirit until my next birthday. Mercury walks, or flies, with me and shares his wisdom. Annual profection is an ancient timing technique that astrologers use to find more nuance in a chart and creates more layered and targeted predictions in the year. Technique aside, whatever planet is your time lord, or personal god, for the year, you want to play close attention to the planets transits and aspects. Mercury will trigger my chart and life in a more sensitive manner.

Today Mercury stationed retrograde, in theory, my day should be more sensitive and receptive to Mercury slowing down. Did I notice this stationing effect today? Yep!

Last night, I first made a revision (retrogrades can have you retrace, revise, redo, reverse actions) first to a new year commitment I had made professionally, realizing it was out of alignment with goals I had set and was causing unnecessary stress. It was a challenging decision, but I know internally it was right and more aligned with personal promises I had made to not overcommitting or loosing sight of where I am headed.

This morning, with the stationing now underway, the first two trips outside the house both involved near accidents, and in both, my car was parked and I was outside of it. The first one involved the car next to me pulling in and then reversing his vehicle as my leashed dog and I had gotten out of our car and were walking past. The vehicle nearly ran my dog over with the front tire. I noticed just in time to tighten her leash and pull her in, but it was so odd, he saw me get out of the car and unload my dog, and decided then to reverse.

The second trip out of the house again involved my parked vehicle, and I was loading bags into the grocery cart.  In the middle of the loading, I noticed my car moved, even though no one was in it. I looked forward and a car had just pulled in and parked, and in doing so her front bumper hit mine. I looked at her and mouthed, you just hit my car. She rolled her window down and said, “No I didn’t”.  I had her look at her car, and said humorously “Our bumpers are kissing.” She looked in disbelief and said oh my gosh I didn’t even notice. 

So there it is, few moments under the stationing of Mercury, and both are involving my vehicle, misunderstandings and confusion, and public spaces. I mentioned stationing degrees in an  earlier post this week, and this is the most potent aspect of the retrograde. The stationing degrees bookend the retrograde cycle, as a planet reverses and when it moves forward. The station at the beginning of a retrograde will tend to be more negative or annoying, and the turning direct, will sort of iron out the details that were confused. 

Another personal story, dovetailing the annual profection theory, is that under two different mercury retrogrades this year, my daughter has had her orthodontist appointments to correct her narrow palate.  Mercury rules speech and communication, and the narrow palate is affecting her ability to make certain sounds in speech. She also has Mercury ruling her 1st house of self and body. One appointment under a retrograde addressed the need for a palate expander, and yesterday we had another one to review the palate structure after having the expander in for three months. Happy to report her mouth is looking great, the expander is doing its job, and she can stop turning the device much sooner then they anticipated. 

Remember retrogrades ask us to slow down, possibly, review, revise, or redo. Mercury will remain retrograde until January 1, 2024, starting off the new year in forward motion!!

Let me know in the comments below if Mercury in reverse is asking you to reflect, revise or reverse.