Mercury resumed direct apparent motion this morning to begin 12 days of learning. Today’s direct station concluded Mercury’s slowest retrograde of the year, 24 days to retreat less than 10 degrees.
Now, Mercury will continue its pedantic trend by taking 12 more days to traverse the last 6 degrees of Gemini for the third time in less than two months, to challenge and (potentially) reward you.
If you have ever had the experience of seeing a movie, reading a poem, or taking instruction on the same material three times in succession you know both the challenge and the reward.
The challenge is to be patient, both with yourself and the material. The reward, at least potentially, is to thoroughly understand and master what you have been repeatedly exposed to — if you can handle the challenge.
Because Mercury rules Gemini, it’s emblematic correspondence to mind, intellect and communication is well expressed while moving through mutable air. Hence, the learning you receive between now and July 13 (when Mercury enters Cancer for the second time in less than two months) promises to be both thorough and useful.
The teachings your life offers over the next 12 days will be implicitly thorough because Mercury will be taking more than twice as long as usual to deliver its messages. The learning you receive (depending on how patiently you receive it) will be inherently useful because it will correspond to what the last degrees of Gemini have come to mean.
The latter degrees of Gemini oppose the center of our galaxy, located at 27+ Sagittarius on the zodiac circle. For scientists, a galactic core represents the largest example of things we take for granted (like a center of gravity, or an axis of rotation) as part of our everyday reality. On a scale larger than galaxies the universe gets unrecognizably weird, just as it does on a scale smaller than an atom.
For astrologers, our galactic core has a meaning similar to what it has for scientists. As Phil Sedgwick put it years ago, the center of our galaxy gives us information about “whatever is behind all this” in a form that is “at least workable.”
In addition, the latter degrees of Gemini have characterized the astrology this century at least as much as any other factor. It began with an airplane and a building in New York City on Sept. 11, 2001, when the Moon was at 28+ Gemini. It continued yesterday when the Supreme Court of the U.S. took a giant leap backward just as Mercury was taking its final, smallest step backward in late Gemini.
Time after time, some of the most disturbing — yet still important to learn from — events of the 21st Century have featured the late degrees of Gemini prominently occupied.
That’s the sort of learning the next 12 days will likely offer. It may be material you are sick of seeing over and over again. It may be subject matter you would just as soon ignore or deny. Nevertheless, it will probably be vital that you pay attention. For whatever it is you need to grasp conceptually and master mentally now, the next 12 days may very well give you the opportunity to finally learn.
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Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
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Getcalm: You are most welcome.
Len, exactly what I was looking for! Many thanks … those clear dates allow me to watch the events along the path of each of the three passes during Mercury retro cycles. Big thanks again for the clarity.
be: Thank you for the bottom of my heart for astutely illustrating how “Chiron Comprehension 101” nearly always comes with a new level of maturity. i LOVE you for that! Ah, the cherry tree sent to its tumble by a squirrel – i remember. Did you ever get a new one? And, finally, thank you for helping us to remember that the Mercury-Jupiter conjunction (tumbling cherry trees and all) is due up again soon.
“Unrecognizably weird” might just be an understatement for what the Universe is getting to be Len. At least for some of us in some parts of the Universe. Still, I praise the Universe for providing the language of astrology to us mortals so we can save our sanity through times like these. And it’s never too late to learn. Even now, I’m deciphering lessons the Universe provided me in 1995 when I was not as deft (daft maybe but not deft) at reading the signposts. That would come under the title of Chiron Comprehension 101.
This business of Mercury retrograde though, it has an insistence to it’s lessons, an immediacy of application that requires one’s full attention, even if the poor little trickster has to do handstands to get it. He is indefatigable isn’t he? Well, I still think right now he’s tying up loose ends to the cycle he started a year ago with Jupiter at 23 Gemini 12. For me, that started with my cherry tree falling over dead. That cycle had Moon at 6+ Capricorn sextile Saturn at 6+ Scorpio forming a yod with Sun at 6+ Gemini at the apex. That cycle also had Neptune at 5+ Pisces trine Saturn (as well as trine the U.S. Sibly Venus), sextile Moon and square Sun.
Each of us would have had a personal lesson or message within these symbols and their patterns, but for the U.S. I believe the most important lesson would be from the sextile between the Moon (The People) and Neptune (Compassion) as it formed a yod with the U.S. Sibly chart’s north node at 6+ Leo. NN being the way forward into becoming evolved, and in the sign of Leo it would be about learning generosity. A good example of this lesson can be seen in the way the children running for their lives from Central America are received by citizens in the U.S. We (as a whole) have a lot of evolving to do. And so it is that the new Jupiter-Mercury cycle will begin at 3 Leo 51, square Mars in Scorpio.
The new cycle will contain another yod, this time between Askalaphus the Informer at 16+ Virgo sextile Saturn the Law at 16+ Scorpio forming a yod with Uranus the Awakener at 16+ Aries at the apex. The new cycle includes Chiron in Pisces forming a grand water trine with Venus in Cancer and Saturn in Scorpio, and an opposition to Askalaphus. In this cycle compassion will win over misinformation (and the fear it generates) but it may take the whole year to do so.
This new cycle also will contain the group that’s been traveling together for a while now, Mars, Vesta, Ceres and the north node. This time the group also includes the Moon in Libra. With Mars leading this group at 4+ Scorpio another grand water trine is formed with Neptune at 6+ Pisces and Hades (what we don’t want to face but must) at 3+ Cancer who conjuncts the U.S. Sibly Venus (symbol of love and values). Those who didn’t “get it” from this cycle of Jupiter-Mercury coming to an end will have to face it during the next cycle, even if Mercury (in Leo) has to swing from the chandeliers!
be
Chief Niwots Son: i feel for you, sincerely. It’s frustrating at best, and scary at worst to lost data on a computer. It’s almost as bad as losing a wallet. You have my empathy and support as you work on recovering your files.
Strawberry: You have my empathy and support as well. Most of all, you have my thanks for being such an excellent example of how to go with the flow of unexpected changes.
yonlyoganidra: Thank you for your informed and encouraging perspective, as well as your prescient understanding of our Galactic Core.
getcalm: Thank you for your question. Mercury began its first shadow phase just before Midnight EDT on May 22 when, in direct motion, it passed the point where it would eventually station direct at 24+ Gemini. The retrograde station was at 3+ Cancer on June 7. The station direct, July 1. In direct motion once again, Mercury will re-enter Cancer on July 13. The second shadow phase will end just before Midnight EDT on July 14 when it passes the station retrograde station degree. Please let me know if my answer was not satisfactory.
suzapalooza: Thank you for sharing your processing and progress. Yes, your interpretation does “hold water”, and after July 13 should you (through the symbolic water of Cancer) find additional insights, please feel free to share them as well.
StrawberryLaughter- feels like I got kicked in my entire being. Certainly a large reconfiguration, laptop and otherwise! And you point about running with fewer psychic, physical and somato-emotional ‘bugs’ is well taken, thank you!
PS- It remains to be seen if I’ve lost contact with my contacts.
My natal sun is conjunct the GC and I’ve been having the strangest week…or three. It’s this odd combination of knowing and not knowing, acting with total confidence and waiting motionless, giving and receiving in the same breath. I’m usually very prompt but right now time means absolutely nothing to me, it is standing still. And that’s not driving me nuts at all. I am grateful for the suspension because I definitely sense the opportunity to finally, FINALLY grasp some lessons that have been elusive for decades. For some reason I feel like it’s a process that started with the Venus transit of the Sun two years ago. I have absolutely no idea if that holds any water astrologically, but in my own personal symbology it really resonates so I’m flowing with it. Thanks, Len, for your wise words. You always give me so much to think about.
Len, what day did the shadow period for this retro begin? The “first pass” over this terrain, if you will. 🙂
With my natal Sun 23+ Gemini and Venus 21+ Gemini, both in the 7th house, my life has been one long exercise in acknowledging that when I join another, the 3rd being or the partnership and, the person with whom I join, can only be influence by my presence, not controlled by.
And likewise, I cannot be controlled by them. Unless I agree to it.
I have learned to be my own partner first, and anyone else’s second.
My sense is that the Galactic Center is the biggest WOMB we know of…regardless of the supreme courts ruling, I feel we are about to hear a voice from the other side.
Sometimes we have to be pushed down to really learn how to stand up. And sometimes, how to stand forourselves.
Thanks Len, I am ready for the review. I plan on Acing this examination, however long it takes.
Yeah, those life reboot moments have a tendency to feel a lot like a boot to the backside, don’t they, Chief Niwots Son? Going through one myself, I have to admit that I’m starting to see the lightness of living with less. I wonder if that’s what Mercury has been trying to teach me all this time. That maybe my System would run better if I were loaded down with less psychic & physical debris. Best wishes with your laptop! And remember, you may have lost your contacts, but they haven’t lost you.
Oy Vay! Mercury makes station on my midheaven. The other day I quipped in one of Eric’s offering that it would be akin to a re-boot to my life. Naturally my laptop went freaky, I got it back from the Genius Bar today with the OS re-installed. All my contacts, saved websites, passwords, etc. are gone. Not the re-boot I was hoping for. 🙁
Thank you, Carlos! That is quite a correlation.
Thank you for the “Mercury Storm” fix, Amanda!
fyi — if you tried reading this post and it seemed to cut off abruptly, that code error has now been fixed. just a little mercury station saying “hello!”
This mercury direct period roughly fits into the 13 day “trecena” of 1 Owl to 13 Rabbit. The SCOTUS ruling for Hobby Lobby was on 1 Owl. Owls are supposed to be wise, but the SCOTUS was not so wise this time. What messages could this bring from the Underworld? I hope we can reconcile our differences between man and woman and between lack and abundance. If we do, we will be “spoiled rotten” on 13 Rabbit!