Retrograde season is officially upon us!
Mercury just stationed retrograde at 23 degrees Taurus on Thursday, April 28th at 1:20 pm Eastern time. Now he’ll be traveling backwards till May 23rd, when he stations again at 14 degrees Taurus.
He’s locked in a Grand Trine in Earth with Jupiter in Virgo and Pluto in Capricorn. Jupiter and Pluto are both moving retrograde already, and now Mercury will be joining them. This Grand Trine in Earth invites us to examine and evaluate the physical structures in our lives, and evaluate their load bearing capacity.
Mercury’s job is to analyze, improve, and communicate. Is the structure solid, reliable, and dependable? Or is it actually flimsy?
Flimsy isn’t safe. Ask Jupiter to help you pour a new foundation and put in some reinforced steel beams – or else, condemn the whole thing, tear it down, and build something new in its place. Ask Pluto to dig deep into the earth below to make sure the ground is strong enough to support you. You don’t want to build your house upon shifting sands.
Because of the Grand Trine in Earth, this Mercury retrograde will manifest in an especially PHYSICAL way. Expect breakdowns and collapses of various material objects and structural situations in your life. Appliances give out, cellphones die, or computers crash. Make sure you back up your files, and take the car to the mechanic to check out that clanking.
This retrograde also has a potential for enormous revelations. Mercury is stationing at the degree where Saturn buried his secrets in February and October 2014. The God of Communication will be dragging up the bodies and telling you things you maybe didn’t want to know. But now you know! Pay attention to the information you receive on this Mercury retrograde. It is CRITICAL to the next stage of your journey.
Mars is retrograde too, till the end of June. He’s in Sagittarius: not technically a part of the Earth Trine Building Crew, but interested in helping with the renovations nonetheless. Mars wants us to examine our belief systems and the interpersonal agreements that undergird our structures. You may be letting go of some previous commitments or relationships that no longer support you.
Just to mix in whole new metaphor . . . these aspects remind me of training wheels. Remember training wheels? When we’re learning to ride our first bicycle as children, a kindly adult will often put training wheels on our bike to keep it from toppling over while we get the hang of it. But once you’re used to training wheels, it can require a leap of faith to take them off – even though you KNOW you can do it without them! You have learned to ride the bike! In fact, the ride will be FASTER and SMOOTHER if you take off the training wheels.
Still, when they ask you to take off the training wheels, you might say you’re just not ready. That’s the emotional response we’re all having right now through May 22nd. You aren’t going to crash, but it feels like you will. You have until May 22nd, when Mercury stations direct, to work up your courage and get ready to take them off. (Truth be told, Dad might unscrew your training wheels around May 9th, but if that happens you probably won’t even notice – and more power to you!)
Here’s to riding with the wind in your hair.
