Note to Readers: on Thursday I published a weekly horoscope that covers Mercury retrograde for each of the 12 signs. All readers may access that here. Below each sign is a five-minute preview of my audio Mercury retrograde reading.
Image by Marina Morales.
Tonight is the Taurus New Moon. It snuck up on us in the midst of much other astrology. The exact Moon to Sun conjunction in Taurus happens Monday morning at 12:13:13 am EDT (4:13:13 UTC).
That will be followed by Mercury stationing retrograde in Gemini less than 24 hours later, Monday at 9:49 pm EDT (Tuesday at 01:49 UTC). The two events are happening close enough to be considered one meta event.
The main difference between the charts is that for the Taurus New Moon tonight, the Moon is obviously in Taurus. For Mercury stationing retrograde, the Moon is conjunct Mercury in Gemini, though the Moon’s emphasis speaks more of similarity than difference.
It’s as if the Moon bridges the two events. In the Mercury retrograde chart, for example, the Moon is in a very close square aspect to Neptune, emphasizing the point that perception requires a rational analysis, fact-checking and other forms of verification.
The message of Mercury retrograde is: don’t take anything for granted. Confirm all arrangements till you’re satisfied that everyone has a grip. Do not assume, especially about how people feel, including how you feel. Feelings will change as aspects develop.
Keep an eye on your money and on your Internet security. I’ll have more to say about this in Tuesday’s morning Core Community edition and Planet Waves FM.
Of note, tonight’s New Moon is the first in recent memory that does not take place within one day of the Sun changing signs. This takes the pressure off of things — there’s already enough activity around the Sun’s sign change without having the Moon change signs at the same time. For reference, the Sun ingresses Gemini later this week, on Thursday, May 21 at 4:45 am EDT (8:45 UTC).
It does, however, describe a phase of transition. After tonight’s Moon to Sun conjunction, both bodies are done making major aspects in Taurus (the ones recognized from ancient days — the conjunction, sextile, square, trine, and opposition). But the New Moon does make a 150 degree aspect to the Pallas-Pholus-Galactic Core conjunction.
To me this is saying focus on the background as much as the figures in the foreground. With this aspect in play, study the environment around you; study what you think of as normally being invisible. Look at what you don’t usually look at — that which is behind and around who and what you do normally focus on. Whatever it is may be holding a lot of energy and influence.
In addition, you must be mindful of Mars in Gemini. That seems to be the placement associated with something going off the rails (see my coverage of the two train crashes at Frankford Junction in Philadelphia). Do not count on some kind of automatic brake system intervening. You need to know what the gas and the brakes are, and use them at the appropriate times.
This blend of factors could lead to a somewhat confusing week; a week of transitions that you cannot quite give a name to. To mitigate this, I suggest you make your moves one at a time and remember that everything is set in the context of everything else. A discussion you have with a close same-sex friend is related to what you say to an intimate opposite-sex partner (and every form of vice-versa you can think of). Everything is in the context of everything else. You are in the context of everything else.
It’s VERY easy to forget this in our world of “every man for himself,” where it’s often considered weird to widen your view and look at the whole landscape instead of just the few things we’re conditioned to fixate on.
What our lives need the very most right now is context. To the extent we feel lost, adrift or overwhelmed, the thing needed is context.
(What our lives need the very most right now is context. To the extent we feel lost, adrift or overwhelmed, the thing needed is context.)
Eric, that is the focus now. You nailed it! You are close to the absolute truth. We are now living in quicksand and if we keep expecting solid ground to manifest – we just might drown. Finding our own true perspective is (I think) the only solution. And we must speak honesty to project that perspective into our world.
The control factor will continue to disallow. We are truly now here to decide. Will we? Or will we follow? That is the question.
Well said. Context helps break down the world into pieces, and makes everything seem a bit more manageable. Seeing context is like watching the gears of a clock. Maybe in our digital age, where digital clocks have no gears, context gets lost. A lot goes into making things work, yet we only see the finished product, something you talk a lot about Eric. I have a friend who said something once, and I’m paraphrasing; “you don’t know what a table is until you build one”.
Exactly! “The message of Mercury retrograde is, don’t take anything for granted”. Being born in this space, I find the most life pain has arisen from my taking things (institutions, roles, expectations, systems generally) for granted and with the years i now know some times of the year, everyone else gets a slice of this. My home base.
Aside from the electrical problems — give the robots a break? — mRx is my shiny time.
Eric: Thank you for an excellent and holistic set of guidelines to help us discern and work with all that which we will probably encounter this week, but struggle to name. Context, proportion and degree are superb perceptive tools, as are your cogent and timely reminders.
Thanks Eric for a great Monday article and for sharing the weekly link at the top as a bonus feature!
Tomorrow is Primary Elections Day in Kentucky with focus on selecting party candidates to run for Governor. I’ve searched, on line, the sites of 2 of the 4 main TV stations, and the Courier Journal newspaper site. None of them list the voting locations for Louisville, although they always do during the main elections.
Because the Democratic candidate is basically already been picked, no TV advertising from this party has flooded the airways, unlike the Republican candidates have done. I almost get the sense that they don’t care whether anyone votes, at least here in this city. I’ve voted for 57 years and only missed a couple of primary elections, but I almost missed tomorrow’s opportunity to express my values regarding how the government is run.
Is this Mercury retrograde? Venus square the nodes? Vesta opposite the U.S. Neptune? Neptune conjunct the U.S. Nessus? Or is it the inertia of a Taurus New Moon square the U.S. Moon in Aquarius? My neighbor who usually goes to vote with me isn’t going because she doesn’t think he will win in the November election, so why bother. I so hope you are right and that feelings will change as aspects develop. Sigh.
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Thank you Eric. I loved the “foreground-background” reference and your comment about how every thing is in a “context” of everything else. And, perhaps that context has been framed by our conditioning.
Everything really is in a context, with in a context, within a context… all the way out to the great beyond.
Here’s to this Mercury Retrograde’s “RE” being about the big RE-conditioning of our body-mind-heart-spirit connection!