Retrograde Mercury

Mercury retrograde 12/01/2009 - 02/02/2009

Mercury goes retrograde regularly. What is retrograde?  It is apparent backward motion of a planetary object. Wall Street Weather has quite a few articles on retrograde mercury concerning the money picture and finance. 

Mercury resonates with:

thinking, ideas, short journeys, local communications, work with the hands, general daily tasks, neighbours, close relatives, siblings, talking, writing, reading, phonecalls, pathways, roads, rail, letters - these things have a MERCURY symbolic value. URANUS is the higher "octave" of MERCURY. Thus, Uranus rules long distance communications, electricity, longer journeys - particularly those through air. 

Mercury and Hermes have alot in common, as do magic, slight of hand, tricks and spoken lore. 

You can often pick "mercury rising" people - they often have hand movements with their speech,  seem somewhat alert to conversation, possibly with communications and short journeys prominent in their lives.

Looking at the SUN as the centre of the solar system, the next most relevant planetary body is the moon. 

IN the traditional astrology chart, with the sun ruling the fifth house, LEO, you will see that the MOON rules the fourth house, and that, either side of both those houses and signs, lie the 3rd and 6th houses - both RULED by MERCURY. 

The 3rd house is GEMINI and the 6th house is VIRGO. 

It is in these houses ( or spheres of human activity) that, after the spirit manifests, and takes form, the communications and daily life patterns occur. This is the daily business beyond love  (LEO and 5th house, enjoyment, children, creativity) and nurturing (CANCER and the 4th house, home, hearth, beginnings, endings, shelter). 

Mercury daily business is about communicating, travel, health, general diet, ideas, thinking, pathways, both inside and outside our home and heart's door and inside our body and mind.

When Mercury goes retrograde (apparently backward in it's movement through the sky), these things symbolic of mercury can appear a little retarded, sluggish, slow, thwarted, hesitent, indecisive, tricky, cumbersome, frustrating, memory filled).

Mercury retrograde is, in essence, a reminder to go over what we have been doin, because we get a second chance to refine what has happened, and once mercury has finished appearing to go backwards through the sky, it will , after passing MARS in the sky, start its movement forwards again. At some point, the MOON will reach Retrograde MERCURY and MARS in the sky. This pass is on 25th January, 2009 at about 10am EST (11am daylight saving) east coast of Australia. 

****A month later, on 23rd February, 2009, early in the morning (Australia Eastern seaboard), about an hour before the sun actually rises, Mercury will be close to the Moon, Jupiter, and Mars.  Neptune will be just rising with Chiron, also, but not seen by naked eye, before the sun finally rises. This morning promises many fine moments for prayer and meditation.

****On February 2nd, Mercury finally goes DIRECT again, but by this time, it has passed MARS in the sky, and so , as it moves faster than Mars, it will again pass MARS during the  2nd and 3rd of of March 09, and should be visible in the morning sky with luck, very close to the horizon, just before the sun rises.