Mercury’s recent Retrograde and its Meaning within Eclipse Season
When Mercury is retrograde, we are asked to slow down and prioritize reflection and recalibration over forward movement and decision-making. It is a time of redirection and reassessment, a time to take care of unfinished business from the past and reconsider previous decisions. Retrograde planets always invite us to question ourselves and explore unfamiliar paths and perspectives rather than move forward on autopilot.
This Mercury retrograde cycle began at 9º of Aries, one degree away from the point where the New Moon Solar Eclipse in Aries occurred, just a week ago. Moreover, Mercury stationed retrograde just a few hours after the Lunar Eclipse in Virgo, the sign ruled by Mercury. We can easily see that the Messenger has had and still has a key role in the current Eclipse season, and its recent retrograde has invited us to challenge deeply ingrained perceptions, narratives, and ways of thinking.
Mercury has gradually slowed down until coming to a standstill. When the Messenger is stationary, either retrograde or direct, it is asking us to pause and look around, to stop for a moment and pay more attention to the details and data that surround us. As Mercury slowly resumes forward motion, a new awareness relative to the meaning of recent experiences becomes available and easily accessible.
Mercury direct in Pisces: a New Awareness
The Messenger’s shift of motion invites us to shift from reflection, contemplation, and inner exploration to action, intentional movement, and decision-making. As Mercury begins to move forward again, completing its post-shadow phase, we are encouraged to act in alignment with the inner and outer changes that occurred during the retrograde.
These days, more information is likely to become available: we may come across new data that can help us make more informed decisions or see any problems we may be dealing with from a different angle. As Mercury travels for the third and last time between 26º of Pisces and 9º of Aries, we have an opportunity to digest and integrate the insights during the retrograde phase and apply this new awareness in our daily lives.
Mercury conjunct Saturn, retrograde Venus, and the North Node
Mercury stations direct in Pisces while conjunct Saturn, retrograde Venus, and the Lunar North Node. The conjunction with Saturn is an invitation to commit to making long-term changes in our mindset and thinking habits, to practically apply the lessons learned, and to take responsibility for bringing our dreams and visions down to Earth. It is an invitation to make sure we are in integrity, and that there is coherence between what we think, say, and do.
The conjunction with retrograde Venus is particularly important since the Messenger stationed retrograde while conjunct Venus, already retrograde in Aries at the time. Venus and Mercury have been traveling together from Aries to Pisces, giving us an ongoing opportunity to examine, question, and reframe relationship matters and financial issues, while refining our ability to express what we think and feel. The connection between Mercury and Venus has been inviting us to reconsider our values and reflect on any issue of self-worth and self-love that repetitively comes up in our lives.
The presence of the North Node, also in the late degrees of Pisces, underlines the fated nature of these times and their relevance for our personal and collective evolution. The Messenger is also stationing direct within orb of a conjunction with Neptune, now at 0º Aries. Mercury and Neptune have already met twice while they were both in Pisces, and the upcoming one will be their first conjunction in Aries. Exact on April 17, the Mercury-Neptune conjunction in Aries could reveal some illusions and delusions we believed to be true, shedding light on where we might have been deceiving ourselves or others or living in denial. This alignment can inspire us to act on our ideas, dreams, and visions while reminding us to make sure we are acting from a place of clarity and intention.
Neptune sometimes called a generational planet, because it is changing signs only every 14 years, is entering Aries. To help you align with Neptune in Aries energy we wrote an e-book for you. It is a gift that will walk you through Neptune’s shift, evolutionary opportunities, history, important dates, journaling questions, the meaning of Saturn-Neptune conjunction, and the meaning of Neptune’s ingress into Aries in each House of the natal chart. You can find your Neptune in Aries e-book here.
