Tag Archives: Mercury retrograde

Reflections from the Perfectly Imperfect

By Amanda Painter

Have you ever looked at your reflection in the water with the Sun directly behind you? Your reflection ends up being mostly a silhouette that’s gently distorted by the movement of the water; and though you can’t see your own features very well, you can see all the color and detail of what’s behind you — it’s just softer than if you turned and looked directly at where you are.

Photo by Amanda Painter

It occurred to me this might be one way to think of tonight’s conjunction of the Sun with retrograde Mercury in Pisces.

Due to the compression of your perspective with the source of illumination, you may not be able to see yourself as others see you right now. Yet you might find a new, gentler appreciation for where you’ve been — a view with softer edges but no less imagination-sparking (or growth-sparking) insight.

After all, Mercury retrogrades really are about slowing down and reassessing more than they’re about everything getting glitchy and going to hell in a handbasket. As I saw suggested elsewhere, those hiccups are generally the result of us fallible humans refusing to slow down, pay closer attention, and retrace the steps that got us where we are now (or where we have been many times). It’s trendy these days, even for people who scoff at astrology, to blame everything that goes wrong on Mercury being retrograde — even when it isn’t.

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The Day of the Great Leap: Birthdays and Planet News

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If Your Birthday is March 12
The Day of the Great Leap: | Order Your 2019-20 Pisces Reading | All Other Signs

Focus on tying up loose ends before moving on to the next phase of your life. You can make your journey much smoother the less you leave unfinished; it can take energy to deal with matters you would prefer to be over, especially if they crop up unbidden. Sorting this out includes asserting your freedom from other people’s agendas. You can learn a lot by noticing who is willing to respect your boundaries, and who isn’t.
— By Amy Elliott

Written in the Planets

As the Pisces Sun moves into its square to Jupiter in Sagittarius (exact tomorrow), you may want to give yourself a reality check. Are you sure you’re being completely honest with yourself about a certain matter — especially something about yourself, which you may be unknowingly expressing? The flip side of this aspect is that it’s offering significant creative and spiritual energy right now. How will you use it to move something forward in your life?

Also, today Ceres in Sagittarius opposes Juno and the object Altjira in Gemini; Altjira was named for the Aboriginal creator god of the dreamtime. Overnight into tomorrow, the Gemini Moon will sweep through this aspect pattern. You may wish to pay particular attention to your dreams tonight. Anything related to your relationship needs, communication with a partner, certain friendships, or mentorship could try to get your attention in subtle, subconscious ways — or might be reflected back to you by someone else. Between this aspect pattern, Sun-Jupiter, and Mercury being retrograde in Pisces, it may be wise to fact-check what seems to be intuition before you barrel forward with it.
— By Amanda Painter

The View from the Other Side

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By Amanda Painter

At last, the major astrology of this week (this month, really) has occurred: Mercury is retrograde in Pisces as of Monday; Uranus is in Taurus as of yesterday, and the Pisces New Moon is separating. As I write this, it’s all so fresh that I’m still getting a feel for whether the edginess and sense of anticipation I’d been experiencing has dissipated.

Utility poles in Orkney, Scotland, the day after Uranus — the cosmic light socket — ingressed Taurus in May 2018. Photo by Amanda Painter

I’ve tried to think back to last May, when Uranus first dipped into Taurus, to compare how I felt and what was going on for me, to see if there are any correlations. I have to confess, though, I feel like last year’s ingress was easier somehow.

That could be more the result of time softening the edges of memory than an actual contrast. But I’m curious to hear whether anyone reading this has a similar sense of it all.

I know that last year, like this year, I was involved in a theater production; immediately after, I traveled to Orkney, Scotland, for an intensive workshop on voice and breath for theater. It was during that workshop that Uranus entered Taurus. I recall feeling busy before the trip; maybe a little overwhelmed; but when Uranus actually made its move, I was simply focused completely on the workshop and on exploring my surroundings when I was not exploring my own breath and voice.

So I’ve been wondering: was it partly being in a strange place, on an adventure of self-discovery, that aligned with the energy of Uranus and therefore seemed to smooth the change? Are my situation and activities somehow less in harmony with Uranus this year? Was it the resonance of a voice class with the sign Taurus (which rules the neck and throat)?

Or does this year’s edginess in the lead-up relate more to the succession of other planets we’ve had hanging out in the final degrees of signs? Maybe having Chiron in the sensitive first degree of Aries, conjunct Salacia, is providing more agitation than I’ve been giving it credit for?

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The Day of Creative Isolation: Birthdays and Planet News

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If Your Birthday is March 4

Order Your 2019-20 Pisces Reading | All Other Signs

Stretch into your visionary abilities: the power of your intuition and the breadth of your perception. There will always be moments when you are tempted to respond with a hot head, or to confuse emotion with philosophy. The present environment encourages that behavior. However, if you can keep in mind to pause and check in with your ethical compass, you will have access to a profound, wise and accurate source of inner guidance.
— By Amy Elliott

Written In The Planets
How’s your energy level — physical, mental, emotional, sexual, psychic? There are some agitating factors in the sky currently; yet we’re also just two days from a New Moon. So if you feel under pressure but also lack the ‘oomph’ to deal with it head-on (or in any way productively), there are correlations in the astrology. Namely: Mercury stations retrograde in the last degree of Pisces tomorrow; Uranus leaves the last degree of Aries to enter Taurus on March 6; and later that day the waning Moon meets the Sun for the Pisces New Moon. The New Moon is also square the polarizing Great Attractor (a deep-space phenomenon in mid-Sagittarius).

One way to deal with all of this is to go inward — to make a little space for yourself to settle down, settle in and take inventory of where you’re really at. Yet Jupiter is making a conjunction today to Varda, an object named after the deity associated with light in J. R. R. Tolkien’s legendarium. If you feel more called to express yourself outwardly, it appears that any offerings of light will probably go big. Just take your time to think everything through carefully, and mind previously identified boundaries. Mercury is entering trickster mode. Double-check all emails and texts before you click send.
— By Amanda Painter

The Day of Undying Loyalty: Birthdays and Planet News

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If Your Birthday is March 2

Order Your 2019-20 Pisces Reading | All Other Signs
Consider that you likely have more options than you realize in terms of shaping your reality. Thinking outside the choices immediately before you can offer a wider perspective, but when was the last time you truly did that? This is one of those instances when your intuition, synchronicity or dreams could offer the most useful insights. What would the ideal scenario look like to you? Ask yourself, then play with the metaphorical Crayola box of 64 crayons in your mind to envision the answer. This may do more to show what is possible than anything else.
— By Amy Elliott

Written In The Planets

Mercury stations retrograde in Pisces in three days. Have you backed up your computer yet? Even with this event happening in a watery sign like Pisces, which indicates some review of — and possible confusion in — more emotional facets of communication and creativity, it’s never a bad idea to begin following basic retrograde tech protocols, just in case, a few days ahead of time. Note that Mercury is in a square to Ixion in Sagittarius, and will still be so when it stations. How are your fantasy versions of a particular scenario matching up to the actual ethics involved? If you’re facing a second chance to behave with clear boundaries, are you taking it? Or can you already feel certain lines getting blurry? If ever there was a time to mean what you say and only say what you mean, this appears to be it.

— By Amanda Painter

Merging with the New Moon; Uranus Makes its Move

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By Amanda Painter

I feel like it’s been weeks now that I’ve been experiencing and mentioning some kind of edgy or energized sensation to the astrology; I do sometimes wonder if it’s just me, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the case. With only six days to go until Uranus leaves Aries and enters Taurus — and only five days until Mercury stations retrograde in Pisces — I think it’s reasonable to call out again an undercurrent of agitation or instability, mixed with a little mental and emotional fuzziness or diffuseness.

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A Mercury Station, a New Moon, and You Are Enough

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By Amanda Painter

Often misworded, the quotation “Do what you can, with what you’ve got, where you are” is also overwhelmingly misattributed to Theodore Roosevelt (Teddy did not come up with it; he quotes it in his autobiography, and attributes it to one Squire Bill Widener of Widener’s Valley, Virginia). Be that as it may, it struck me as perhaps a useful mantra for the current astrology as we head into the weekend. With Mercury stationing direct today, a New Moon in Sagittarius tomorrow, and various other planets interacting with those two events, you might be feeling a mix of push-pull on the one hand, and a lull in energy on the other hand.

Rocking chairs at the Portland International Jetport, Portland, Maine. Photo by Amanda Painter.

If that’s the case, I suspect it would be useful to stay in touch with your actual circumstances, resources and honest desires. I’m not only referring to the seeming ‘limitations’ of What Is, but also to something that you may sometimes push aside or not believe: your inherent enough-ness; that is, the fact that you are enough, as you are right now.

But, I get ahead of myself. Let’s go over the astrology in a little more detail.

As mentioned, Mercury stations direct in late Scorpio today at 4:22 pm EST (21:21:59 UTC). I don’t know about you, but the last few weeks (most of which Mercury spent in Sagittarius) seem to have been marked by a number of interesting things coming to light — both in the public/political realm, and also in my personal life.

Given that Scorpio is the sign of secrets (among other things), I’m very curious to witness what shakes out as it stations direct today. See if you can keep your awareness tuned to that sense of something being revealed, and make a note of what you discover.

Tomorrow, at 2:20 am EST (7:20:15 UTC), the Sagittarius Moon and Sun form their conjunction for the month, for the New Moon. They do so conjunct a deep-space phenomenon called the Great Attractor (you can read more about that here) and square Mars and Neptune in Pisces.

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Of Restlessness, Retrogrades, and Choices

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By Amanda Painter

How is this Mercury retrograde going for you? We only have about a week of it left (not counting a few days for things to shake back into place after it stations direct on Dec. 6); so hang in there. Personally, I feel like some of the other current astrology is contributing more to a sense of restlessness; but really it’s all part of the same environment, so it’s hard to say for sure.

Photo by Amanda Painter.

For one thing, we have several objects in the last degree of their respective signs, or about to be. In zodiac order, these include: retrograde Uranus in Aries, Venus in Libra, Mercury about to retrograde into late Scorpio, Pholus in Sagittarius, and Vesta in Capricorn.

Planets in the last (or ‘anaretic’) degree of a sign are often said to feel a little edgy; kind of like how we human beings can get a little edgy in anticipation of a big transition in our lives. Add in that some of those planets are making oppositions or squares to each other — aspects of tension — and the restlessness factor increases.

Plus, we have the Sun in the last sign of a season (Sagittarius), the civil-calendar year is almost over, and Mercury is retrograde in a sign that’s partly about forward intention (in a long series of inner-planet retrogrades this year). The sky seems to be reflecting a general sense of just wanting to get on with it — whatever ‘it’ might be.

So we end up with some questions. What absolutely ought to wait till Mercury’s direct, so that you don’t make more work for yourself than is warranted? What must you address or take steps toward so you can channel this energy creatively, rather than repressing it in unproductive ways?

What can you get started on — such as research, preparation, getting organized, making repairs, reviewing your progress — that might put you in a much better position to take bigger steps in the near future? What’s the different between being wisely cautious and giving in to crippling self-doubt or paranoia?

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