Overnight into Wednesday morning, Mercury returns to Scorpio at about 3:03 am EST in retrograde motion. About three and a half hours later, the Moon follows up its eclipse of the Sun by occulting Mercury in the last degree of Scorpio. An occultation is an eclipse-like event in which one astronomical body passes exactly in front of the other. In this case, the Moon briefly covers over Mercury. It’s rather perfect, actually.
Mercury is moving backwards, returning to the deep end of Scorpio’s emotional, transformative pool. Mercury retrogrades are review periods anyway; when they involve moving back and forth between signs, the sense of returning to an earlier time or deeper place within to peel back a layer is often more tangible.
Today, just as Mercury dives back into Scorpio — already the repository for many of our most cherished taboos around sex, death and money, and associated with their related secrets — the Moon provides some cover. Mercury gets to slip in the back door while a shadow is being cast. And who knows what lurks in the heart of Scorpio? Yep, that’s right: the shadow knows.
Moon-Mercury conjunctions (an occultation is just a special type of conjunction) generally allow the consciousness and feelings to work together, especially if it occurs in a hospitable sign. Scorpio can be a little challenging for the Moon. Mercury, however, acquires power, quickness and sharpness in this sign. It seems that beneath any perceived brooding or moodiness this morning, you may have an opportunity to cut right to the heart of a matter — or at least perceive some clues about how you’re really feeling about it.
The mind is getting a free pass to slip beneath emotions and consider their deeper source. Chances are these clues will relate to how you tend to react to sex, death or money — or some combination of the three.
Or maybe it’s more like Mercury is slipping into a lunar disguise for a few hours? The Sabian symbol for the last degree of Scorpio (from Dane Rudhyar’s book An Astrological Mandala, his interpretation of the channeled symbols for each degree of the zodiac) is: “Children in Halloween costumes indulge in various pranks.” He gives it the keynote, “The periodic outlets society still furnishes within traditional limits to still-immature energies.”
It sounds like the Moon is giving Mercury — the zodiac’s trickster — a chance to jump in and play a little. It may not have any true pranks up its sleeve, but consider giving your mind some kind of Scorpionic outlet today. How freaky can you let your fantasies get? How willing might you be to dare yourself to try on a new attitude or perspective about one of these taboo subjects? If you are rooting out some of your less-conscious reactions to the taboo, which can be an emotionally tense endeavor, can you find a fun way to release some of the pressure in your mind?
The Moon can also represent ‘mother’. If Mercury is sneaking back into Scorpio behind Mom’s back, what might you see that has been hidden up till now by her imprint on your beliefs about sex, for example? Have her feelings been shielding you from your own ideas on the subject?
Note that the Sun’s square to centaur planet Nessus, which has been part of the New Moon/eclipse configuration, is exact today moments before noon EST. Nessus, like Chiron, brings things to consciousness for the purposes of healing. Squares ask us to take action to resolve tension.
Could it be that your adult ego-consciousness is finally ready to put a stop to whatever unnecessary, unhelpful, inherited and potentially toxic sub-marine emotional impulses Mercury is rooting out from beneath the Moon?
Be: I’m an Australian.
I follow as much of US politics as I can, thanks to PW more than the media
Will try to source the footage you are referring to!
Kelly,
Better believe it. Did you see how the President responded to criticism of his (possible) nominee to replace Hilary Clinton? Then that clown Republican who responded to him? touchy touchy!
be
Talk about toxic… an old “friend” I’d excised from my life due to his toxicity has tried to reestablish contact with me today. Tried to “friend” me on FB, and then asked a common friend to pass along a message to me. He says he’s clean and clear and doesn’t have any more of the yuck that caused me to cut him out. But he’s not. He thinks the last few years were it, but it started well before that. Each time I let him back in, things in my life went down hill, very quickly.
Even today, on the way to my pre-op appt, my new acupuncturist called to cancel my appt with her today, because she’s sick. And my what-I-thought-was-simple surgical procedure is now anything but. I don’t believe anything actually changed, I just wasn’t aware of the full scope. Enough so, that the surgery scheduler (who also does all the consent forms) says, “Wow, I’ve never had to fill out _this_ many consent forms, like ever.” Gee, that’s encouraging, thanks.
*sigh*
Hard work ahead. Old sub-patterns include wanting to be nice to excised person because I’ve had people cut me out of their lives before, and it sucked and it hurt me. That doesn’t make it any less justified what I did to him, but the sympathetic part of me doesn’t like it.
I had lost my intuitive power and I notice that he returned, thank you retro mercury square Neptune, I feel like the Galactic power door and with the moon it passes in the message of the magic… Thank you Amanda for this nice sharing
Could it be that your adult ego-consciousness is finally ready to put a stop to whatever unnecessary, unhelpful, inherited and potentially toxic sub-marine emotional impulses Mercury is rooting out from beneath the Moon?
YES!!! Sun lit up my ascendant and natal Saturn on its way to rendezvous with the moon last evening. Over this weekend, all my old muck got dredged in a spontaneous healing!
The thing about healings is they do usually leave a mess to clean up. Got my mop and broom in hand. And a shovel and a dumpster. It’s big!
Lovely Amanda!
And guess who popped his head up at my work on Sat? My father. I guess its one more go at this – or not. I’m trying to be calm, detached, and centered. I’m actually not surprised given all the aspects lately. He is my shadow. How does one work with ones shadow? Understanding its powerlessness, not reacting, understanding and recognizing those shadow qualities in myself, and then with love and acceptance of my own material – and with firm resolution – let it go.
Kelly,
Given the detritus hitting my inbox, that’d be my guess…
M
Be: I wonder if that would make Mercury really antsy
Thanks for this fantastic piece, Amanda!
Add insult to injury. . the Moon is in Perigee (its closest approach to earth) at 29 Scorpio 42, and emotions are even more potent than usual. That would be about. . . . . right now! Then later on today the Sun is semi-square Pluto, so more intensity. Be prepared like the boyscouts used to say.
be