On October 2, 05:07 AM ET, Mercury stations direct at 24º11’ Virgo after being in retrograde motion since September 8. This shift facilitates changes in our perception and new understandings of what took place during the last few weeks.
Mercury retrograde is a phase meant to inspire us to look back, revisit the past, and evaluate how we are dealing with it: it is an opportunity to explore new solutions, find closure and resolution, and maybe make the decision to deal with something we have been avoiding for long. As Mercury prepares to move forward again, we gather the lessons, insights, and ideas we got during the retrograde, and focus on how we can take action and organize ourselves accordingly, respecting and honoring our new awareness.
Mercury stationary direct: Preparing to Move Forward
When planets are stationary, they have been progressively slowing down and, from our perspective on Earth, they have come to a standstill. They are in a pivotal moment between the retrograde and direct motions and their symbolism is stronger.
From now on, as Mercury slowly moves forward again, we have a chance to establish and consolidate adjustments in our way to communicate, organize ourselves, in our thinking patterns, and in our perception of reality. Mercury is now entering its post-shadow phase, lasting until October 16, when it will be transiting for the third time between 24º Virgo and 8º Libra. The post-shadow phase offers us opportunities to gain a new understanding of what happened while Mercury was transiting in retrograde motion over this portion of the Zodiac, and represents a time to integrate and digest our experiences.
Mercury direct in Virgo: Changes in Perception
Named after the mythological Messenger of the Gods, Mercury is the planet associated with the rational and logical mind, with our way of speaking to ourselves and others, our thinking patterns and mindset, our problem-solving style, and our way of learning, assimilating, and gathering information. Mercury rules both Gemini and Virgo, and it’s rulership of the latter is associated with the function of discriminating useful information from information that isn’t useful and applying what we know practically. The Virgo side of Mercury is in charge of categorizing, of choosing what to focus on and what to take in, what details are relevant and which ones we can leave behind, and it expresses a reflective, inward-focused quality.
Mercury in Virgo is a great transit to improve our discernment, refine our daily organization, and establish adjustments to how we channel our intellectual energy and focus. This combination of energies can correlate to feelings of existential anxiety and reflect a tendency toward overthinking, due to the clear awareness of what can be improved, what can be refined, and what can be better planned. Mercury retrograde period in the sign might have tested us in this sense, as retrogrades are a time meant to remind us that nothing is in control and that we can’t impose our plans on Life. This awareness is likely to keep coloring the upcoming days, as Mercury is stationing while in opposition to Neptune in Pisces and trine to Uranus in Taurus.
Mercury opposite Neptune, trine Uranus, & square Mars
Mercury in Virgo is perfecting an opposition to retrograde Neptune in Pisces, an alignment that challenges us to integrate our intuitive perceptions and energetic sensitivity with logical and rational thinking. Oppositions can feel polarizing and we may be inclined to gravitate from one energy to the other without getting to integrate the two, especially since Mercury and Neptune are very different archetypes. For this reason, our perceptions may feel blurred and colored by a general sense of confusion, and we may have a hard time separating facts from fiction. Due to Mercury’s reduced speed after the retrograde, the planets are going to remain aligned for longer than usual. The Mercury-Neptune opposition represents a chance for us to explore how to bridge the rational and the irrational, the logical and the intuitive, and it offers us opportunities to complement our logical reasoning with intuitive insights and subtle perceptions.
Stationary Mercury is also trine retrograde Uranus in Taurus. This is a harmonic aspect that facilitates change and open-mindedness, catalyzing a desire to explore new ways of doing things as well as an emergence of innovative insights and ideas. As the alignment is happening in Earth signs, these are likely to easily find practical applications.
Mercury is forming a square aspect to Mars in Gemini, offering an invitation to be mindful of any tendency to communicate combatively and work on detaching from a belief that we need to fight in order to be listened to or for our ideas to be taken into account. This is an opportunity to work on healthy self-assertion, avoid forgetting that words have a weight, and gain awareness of how speaking impulsively affects the outcome of a conversation.
Mercury back to Libra: Redefining Communication and Relating Patterns
On October 10, Mercury enters Libra for the second time, continuing its post-shadow phase and completing the final stage of this retrograde cycle that began in the sign of the Scales. As we are still experiencing the effects of the post-shadow phase until October 16, new information could emerge around this time, and inspire us to reevaluate our communication needs, our boundaries, our values, and our non-negotiables, particularly in relationships.
Mercury’s second entry into Libra will give us more opportunities to explore, refine, and redesign our communication patterns with other people, our mindset surrounding relationships, and our ideas and perceptions of balance, harmony, and peace.
Mercury in Libra aims to create win-win solutions that satisfy everyone and strives to generate equality and fairness while reconciling opposites and extremes. This transit is a favorable time to practice conflict resolution, diplomacy, mediation, and non-violent communication. It is an invitation to explore new ways of communicating our inner experiences, thoughts, and perceptions to others, making an effort to listen to them according to where they are coming from rather than according to where we are coming from.
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