Mercury direct in Aries: Translate Ideas into Action

Mercury stations Direct & enters the Post-Shadow phase

When any planet goes direct after a retrograde, we are invited to consolidate the changes that have taken place inwardly by allowing them to ripple in our external reality. Mercury is now at a standstill and has slowed down to the point of appearing still from our perspective. In the next few days, it will appear to move forward again at a slower pace than usual.

Mercury’s shift of motion invites us to take action according to how our perceptions, our mindset, and our way of thinking shifted during the retrograde. Around this time and in the upcoming weeks, new information is likely to become accessible and will help us make more informed decisions.

Mercury is now entering the post-shadow phase of this retrograde cycle: the post-shadow is the final transit of a planet through the area of the Zodiac where it retrograded, and represents a period of integration and adjustment. In this case, the degrees involved are between 15º58’ and 27º13’ of Aries: the post-shadow phase is going to last until May 13. 

During this time, the invitation is to slowly resume forward motion in the areas of our lives that have been slowed down by Mercury’s retrograde, integrating the information that is now available and making decisions from a new level of understanding. The post-shadow phase of a retrograde is also a time to clarify and solve any miscommunications and misunderstandings that might have happened and bring our focus back on anything we might have postponed or paused in the past three weeks.

Mercury in Aries conjunct the North Node: Translating Ideas into Action

Mercury’s journey through Aries has been longer than usual this year and is offering us plenty of opportunities to reflect on our relationship with self-assertion, expressing anger, taking action on our ideas, and following the guidance of our instincts and desires.

The Messenger’s retrograde period through the sign has invited us to ask ourselves different questions, challenge what we think we know, and reflect on what is actually triggered when we feel the impulse to respond or talk back aggressively. 

Mercury’s last weeks in Aries offer us an opportunity to refine our ability to be assertive and authentic and speak our truth while being mindful of how we deliver it. This transit challenges us to establish adjustments in our communication style, be creative when it comes to translating our ideas into action, and change our course of action with courage if needed. After the retrograde, we have access to a new level of awareness and the challenge for us is to be bold in following the desires, visions, and ideas that emerged while Mercury was in apparent backward motion.

Mercury is stationing direct while exactly conjunct the Lunar North Node in Aries and opposing the Lunar South Node in Libra. This alignment is an invitation to embrace curiosity, independent thinking, and open-mindedness, and allow our desire to learn to guide us in the direction of our higher purpose. The current planetary configuration invites us to release outdated ideas, thinking patterns, and communication habits and motivates us to continue to renew our mindset and the way we see ourselves, others, and the world at large.

The Mercury-Chiron Final Conjunction in Aries

During its journey through Aries, Mercury has crossed Chiron twice, on March 20 and April 15, and the two celestial bodies are going to meet one last time, on May 6, at 21º of Aries. Their conjunction is already active, and we have been feeling it to some degree throughout the entire retrograde period.

On April 15, retrograde Mercury met Chiron on the 19º of the sign, where the New Moon Total Solar Eclipse took place just a few days prior, and offered us an opportunity to access a new degree of understanding of what that event has been about and the journey that it set in motion.

On May 6, Mercury crosses Chiron again, and the process that began on March 20 is going to come full circle. The final conjunction between Mercury and Chiron facilitates our purification from thinking patterns, communication habits, and ways of perceiving the world that no longer serve us. This alignment underlines the need for self-compassion and self-forgiveness in our healing journey. The Mercury-Chiron conjunction invites a renewal of our relationship with our mind, with words, and with learning, and facilitates radical changes in both our inner dialogue and our communications with others.

Mercury direct in Aries: Making Courageous Changes

Mercury is approaching the last chapter of a self-discovery journey, facilitating a new understanding of what the past weeks have been about, offering us opportunities to see our reality through a different lens and gain clearer awareness of what needs to change in our communication habits, in our relationship with anger, in our style of self-assertion, in our way of thinking, speaking to ourselves, and motivating ourselves.

A clearer awareness of our desires, a newfound connection with our inner fire, and a deeper trust in our instincts will guide us in the journey of integrating all the lessons that Mercury retrograde taught us.

Our task is now to allow our external reality to shift according to how our inner reality has shifted: because this is all happening in Aries, the invitation for us is to be proactive and courageous about making changes, yet without being overly forceful, aggressive, or abrasive.

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