Mercury plunges into Scorpio Sunday at 7:38 am EDT to prove small things matter. Furthering that proof, Mercury will promptly enter the echo (or “shadow”) phase of its next retrograde cycle about 48 hours after this ingress to fixed water. With the beginning of the shadow phase, October will also begin, and with it some big astrology. Regardless of how big corresponding events may be, Mercury’s role in October implies nothing and nobody will be too small to make a difference.
At some point, you may have been told (or believed) that you are too small to make a difference. If that should happen to you in October, think of Mercury, and think again.
Mercury is the smallest planet visible to the unaided eye, but judge it not by its size. It is also the closest planet to the Sun. Because the Sun symbolizes consciousness (among other things) for astrologers, Mercury often corresponds to what you are most aware of.
In other words, you notice its manifestations in the world as if it were big.
Mercury’s proximity to the Sun also confers rapid apparent motion because its orbit around the Sun has the inside lane on us. As was its namesake in mythology, it is astrology’s representation of speed. That correlates neatly to what, such as thought, is closest to consciousness. Most of the time, only the Moon moves through the signs more quickly than Mercury, and most years Mercury catches up to pass us three times.
When Mercury passes us from the inside lane, its apparent motion appears to slow, then temporarily reverse for several weeks before returning to direct motion and slowly getting back up to speed again. That’s how the famous (or infamous, depending on your point of view) Mercury retrogrades happen. It’s a familiar illusion if you have ever passed a train running parallel to the road your vehicle is on.
Illusions though they may be, most folks would agree Mercury retrogrades get your attention. They get your attention not because of anything you can see in the sky, but by how they manifest on Earth. That phenomenon is among the things that make Mercury the small planet that matters a lot, and matters often — especially this year. This year is special because all three of the innermost planet’s retrogrades take place entirely in water signs.
Apropos to its trickster nature (another characteristic that makes the swiftest planet play bigger than its size), Mercury retrogrades exhibit a pattern of moving backwards through the elements over the years. From water signs, to air signs, to earth signs, to fire signs and back to water again.
In many years, the arc of Mercury’s retrograde travel crosses sign cusps to integrate water and air, air and earth, earth and fire, or fire and water signs. Sometimes, an entire year’s worth of Mercury retrogrades take place in only one element. When that one element is water, it seems that small things matter most. Take a gander at the events of 1967 and 1776 for just two examples.
We have already been through two water-sign Mercury retrogrades this year. The passage through Pisces from February to March took you deep, and let you know what you were in for. The voyage through Cancer from June to July took you back, and let you know what you could be. The final sail through Scorpio will be your chance to step up as the equal of any other, or any event for that matter. October and November will be your opportunity to make this a year when the small matters as never before, and continues to do so.
Because the emotional and intuitive nature of elemental water is not consistent with Mercury’s frequently intellectual associations, you will have to both feel and think your way through this one. You will have to feel the big power you may have denied, and apply it thoughtfully.
Think about how a kind word to somebody in public may contribute to a house of peace, rather than a house of pain, upon that person’s arrival home. Contemplate how an encouraging word to somebody at home may send her into the world feeling like she matters, making a difference that nobody else can — because she is who, what and where nobody else can be.
Meditate on the fact that kind words are just the beginning. Think about that when Mercury enters Scorpio Sunday. Then, on Tuesday, as Mercury enters its echo phase (passing the point where it will eventually resume direct motion), use your imagination. Consider that your imagination (another expression of elemental water in the world) can move as quickly, and matter as much as Mercury’s manifestation in thought, and you will both rise and lift others like small waters come together and matter as never before.
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Flavia: My thanks to you in turn. Just as you have noted, and just as it is in most fields of human endeavor, answering questions about astrology serves more than anything to raise more questions. That is how the learning, and the evolution never stops. Also, yes, my sense is that asteroids with names corresponding to planets frequently share a resonance with their namesakes.
Thanks for your reply Len.
I appreciate your asking if your answers work for me.
Your answer to my first question works in the sense that it helps me clarify what my questions are!!!!. I was looking for distinctions and criteria for distinctions. I’m not (never…) happy with the generic, and was trying to break it down some. Stuff such as: how does the retrograde transit affects natal retrogrades in contrast to natal directs? nocturnal vs. diurnal mercuries? does distance of natal mercury from the Sun make a difference at all (mine is 27+ degrees, almost as far as it goes, and I’m wondering about that)? As I sit here and write that I realize I could just keep jotting one question after another, no way any one answer would satisfy my questioning…So thanks for stimulating my learning process.
To Hermes & Mercury: yes, you’ve given me something new to think/feel about – that the energy that Mars represents gives a focus to the relationship between them right now. Don’t know if that’s a good way to put it, but it somehow feels right that their relationship has foci or themes that keep changing – is that right? And do you have a sense if that is true of other pairs too, such as Neptune and Poseidon, Jupiter and Zeus and so on?
I first became aware of Hermes as it was opposing my name asteroid a couple of months ago and it’s been uncanny, whenever I check on him, he points me to something really interesting to look at – it’s like he’s teaching me! I’m somehow experiencing him as closer, more relationally intimate than Mercury – and that felt sense got tingly when I saw that he’s actually a dual asteroid.
Hermes was already retrograde when we “met” consciously, so I’m really curious to see how he’ll affect me now that it turned direct and if I’ll be able to tell it apart at all from Mercury and its retrograde. They’re only 5 degrees from each other in my natal chart, both in Virgo and both direct.
Again, thanks for the food for thought!
DeBellony: Thank you for the link. Welcome. May your house be a house of peace always.
Bette Loreen: It gives me great joy to know my service has been useful for you. My intent is to serve further so that you continue to find use in my offerings.
Len, thank-you so much for the suggestion to track the progression of my natal retrograde Mercury – I’ve worked with my progressions, but not looked at them in quite this way before.
It seems that when Mercury turned direct by progression, I was 17 – entering second year university & locked in a bitter difference of opinion with my parents. They insisted I train as a teacher, while I wanted to pursue fine arts. I capitulated, did some serious rebelling (including some “fail-for-spite”), taught school briefly before pursuing a career in writing/graphic arts. It wasn’t until Mercury’s forward motion by progression reached its natal position (age about 31) that I feel I truly embraced my adult self with some confidence.
As for the progressions of my other natal retrogrades, well, Mars doesn’t turn until I’m 80, & Saturn, Uranus & Pluto not in this lifetime. This has been a useful addition to my understanding of my chart, & it’s much appreciated.
Thanks for this post! I enjoyed reading it. By you ending talking about “imagination,” it inspired me to share this beautiful remix of John Lenon’s “Imagine”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RNVz7mHRlrs
Hope you all enjoy it and it contributes to a “house of peace” somewhere out there like it did for me!
Guidance
Chief Niwots Son, I don’t know how to thank you for this: “To be clear, you are not looking for something you lost, you have always been Divine.” It speaks so powerfully to a fear I can hardly stand to name — that I’m presuming to claim a Divinity I have no right to.
We’ve allowed a great deal to be taken from us in the name of “God.” Layers upon layers of our own inner light being extricated, that we might give our souls to those who allow us to worship what we once knew to be within us.
Reclaiming that Divinity, however, is a reward in itself great enough to wipe out the pain & resentment over the loss.
Kelly and jinspace: You are very welcome. Thank you in turn for your kind words.
Patty: Thank you for the smile and the depth of your perception.
Chief Niwots Son: Thank you for your continued support to others who comment. My prayer is that my offering serves you well and results in the best possible outcome.
Bette Loreen: Thank you for your kind words and useful advice. A retrograde natal Mercury is a useful tool for perspective if you do a secondary progression to the date it stations direct and consider what happened to you at that (corresponding) age. Could be that will reveal a turning point in your development as a young person.
Len, thank-you so much for this: “Astrology is not destiny; your choices are.” I never had such a precise way of responding to a person asking me something like “Will it work out with this new guy?” – though of course the person had to be told that the charts can’t
tell all that, & the decisions belonged to those involved.
I was born with Mercury retrograde (in Saggitarius, sextile Jupiter (happily), opposing retrograde Uranus (somewhat prone to anxirty) – but I’ve never found natal retrograde Mercury particularly difficult to work with. Most of my professional life, I worked with words – writing, editing, proofreading, & was considered good at it. I think I learned to work carefully, & maybe that was a gift of the retrograde.
Transiting Mercury retrogrades I try not to test, & I try to avoid optional trips, postpone decisions, etc., but have found them excellent times for “homework” & preparations for post-retrograde actions. Following through & finishing something that was already underway has tended to work out fine.
Strawberrylaughter: The Goddess was never AWOL, she had been buried under the “shock and awe” of the patriarchy- as a whole and within every Woman. Your awakening from the shock of your own life is part of the resurgence, and a beacon for other women who are also emerging from the long shadow cast by a demented worldview. To be clear, you are not looking for something you lost, you have always been Divine.
And snow!! I wish I could have stayed in the next rectangle North of here for another week to enjoy the first of the season. We’ll have some by morning on the nearby peaks, but it’s not the same as having it on the ground outside the door.
Len: Enjoying a thoroughly waterlogged year here, first internally then externally (turns out we had 18 inches of rain in 5 days!). Now another round of soggy Mercury, so I will orient to your prognostication of “stepping up” to carry me through. In light of the astrological timings Eric shared today, and how those dates cross-correlate with my personal and professional schedule for the next few months, your offering may in fact be the only possible outcome.
Arms merchants – ha! I laughed out loud on this one Len. This weekend we are selling Native American sinew backed bows and quivers of arrows – articles of war as art, and vice-versa. I have Mars and Venus in Aries, so have to admit I admire the artistry of the tools of war, while I stand ever ready to jump to someone’s defense. Maybe I’ll take a different line of attack this weekend, a glass of wine, soft music, high heels in bed…..the huntress.
ha – in my dreams I’m as bad as I want to be. 🙂
Strawberry: Your question – not sure if it is rhetorical. If not, i would say hard work makes anything possible, and you have been hard at work.
Flavia: Thank you for your questions. Both good questions. First question (the one with the upper-case words): Astrology is not “one-size-fits-all”, but mundane astrology does assume that we all have much in common. It begins with how we all come into the world (and what with), and how we leave it (and with what) – very much in common there. Also, everybody got to eat, etc, in between. In working with the general astrology, it helps to know how it transits your natal (a consultation with an astrologer can help). It also helps to accept responsibility for being what poor “W” only imagined himself to be – the decision maker. So, in a very real way, you ultimately answer your own question based on the guidelines of astrology and the awareness those guidelines provide. Second question: The thing that has consistently been (to use a phrase of Eric’s) “proven” about asteroids is that the name nearly always means something about the astrology. Given the validity of that, 69230 Hermes – another name for Mercury (and currently in Capricorn, near the Mars exaltation degree) and Mercury (about to enter Scorpio, where Mars is the original ruler) appear to be in sympathetic resonance right now. That is reinforced by the fact that Saturn (ruler of Capricorn) is on a long (about 2 1/2 years) transit of Scorpio since October 5 of 2012, as well as the fact that Hermes is a main belt asteroid between Mars and Jupiter. It is as though Hermes and Mercury have some reciprocation or alternation going right now as to the energy Mars represents – one handing off to the other, perhaps. Please, do those answers work for you?
Thanks for your answer, Len. I have a further question, though…when you say:
“Also, for any Mercury retrograde, make any move you need to make or have to make (don’t put urgent things on hold), and postpone any move you don’t need or have to make ”
Is this a precept that is valid for EVERYBODY, ALL THE TIME and the SAME WAY? I’m interested in the distinctions – are there times when it’s more true than others? are there people/natal mercuries for which this is more true than for others?
And one more: How about Hermes retrograde? Do you have observations about that – and it/how it relates to Mercury retrogrades? Hermes is now going direct soon.
Again, thank you very much!
“The passage through Pisces from February to March took you deep, and let you know what you were in for. The voyage through Cancer from June to July took you back, and let you know what you could be. The final sail through Scorpio will be your chance to step up as the equal of any other, or any event for that matter.”
I feel like I’m just beginning to process what got started in June (I’m actually in denial that it’s no longer July, even though there’s snow on the ground this morning >:( ). But going back through my journals, the through-line of these Merc retrogrades is so clearly about liberating, making peace with, and becoming the Goddess, it takes my breath away.
How is this possible? At this time last year, I wasn’t even sure there was a Divine Feminine. If what I’m experiencing is in any way representative, she is most certainly returning. To, as you said some time ago, Len, “save our butts.”
This “sail through Scorpio” promises to be very. very. interesting.
Len – Thank you, thank you… thank you.
Len, thank you so much for some of the information you have presented on Mercury in Scorpio. I never considered Mercury to be a transformer. (I have this placement in my chart)
nilou: My thanks to you in turn for the masterful verse, the update, and the words of a truly wise fellow in soul.
susyfreelove: Thank you for your kindness and welcome to Planet Waves.
Lunesoleil: Yes, it is for certain you are inhabited by a spiritual force. As you approach what i understand to be your solar return, please accept our thanks for your insights (and for your reminder of Mercury’s applying water trine to Neptune).
aword: Thank you once again for sharing how transits to your natal chart have this knack of lighting up the mundane astrology. You are one of the most connected people ever. We are lucky to have you.
be: Thank you for your questions. First, as i understand it, the regression of Mercury retrogrades backwards through the elements over the years is something akin to the net (but not constant) retrograde motion of the heliocentric nodes, but not quite, in that it is apparent motion, from the point of view of Earth, which is also moving and making its own contribution to the net phenomenon. As far a symbolism, it is a trickster symbol for me. Next, thank you for the EXCELLENT observation of Mars conjunct Atlantis (in Leo) fire trine Pholus (in Sagittarius) – that would add some layers to the Venus-Mars square Amanda wrote about so well, and bring Jupiter, and Elatus, and Ixion into the equation as well – this might well have to do with some well known arms merchants playing both ends against the middle. By golly, you are one great astrologer, with a finger on the pulse of the Zeitgeist.
Flavia: Thank you for your question, and welcome. The advantage of any Mercury retrograde is the advantage of reading a great poem three times. The first time, it affects you, the second time you gain understanding, after the third time you are ready to write one of your own. Also, for any Mercury retrograde, make any move you need to make or have to make (don’t put urgent things on hold), and postpone any move you don’t need or have to make – if it does not endanger your well being. Astrology is not destiny, your choices are.
Be, your post reminded me of the quotation that came through today from ‘Inspiration Peak’. Thank you.
Never give up
No matter what is going on
Never give up
Develop the heart
Too much energy in your country is spent
developing the mind instead of the heart
Develop the heart,
Be compassionate
Not just to your friends but to everyone,
Be compassionate
Work for peace in your heart and in the world
Work for peace, and I say again
Never give up
No matter what is happening
No matter what is going on around you
Never give up.
Tenzin Gyatso
14th Dalai Lama
Nice, Len and Be – I was wondering about what’s advantageous at Mercury retrogrades, and Be’s answer seems to say: depends on the sign, and if it’s water, it’s a 2nd chance to process, this time emotionally. Is that right? Can you recommend readings on advantages of retrogrades? I’m about to make a move which would coincide with this retrograde and a bit hesitant about it – just because of the conventional view on retrogades. It might though be the exact best time for me! I have a very strong Mercury in Virgo just 4 mins above my DC and also exact square my MC. It’s at the end of a stellium incl Uranus, Pluto and my Moon. Thanks!
Len,
You always have some interesting tidbits that makes the curious among us want to explore further. Today it was Mercury’s backward movement through the elements as he retrogrades (a time where he again appears to move backward) and I’m sure there is a logical scientific reason for that. To my thinking, it begs to be studied for the symbolism. Right now, I am wondering if it might be compared to the nodes who travel backwards; always. It’s just one more clever way the trickster has to stimulate our thinking process.
The whole Zeitgeist focus now is about “thinking with your heart” and perhaps these water retrogrades is Mercury’s way to get us to take a second look at things we processed with the left brain. Using the right brain functions of feeling and imagination, or better still, both sides of the brain, could be a very enlightening experience once one got the hang of it.
Something too about your “small things” urged me to check out where transiting Pholus (a small thing turns into a big thing) was today and I discovered that he is trine Mars who is conjunct Atlantis. What do you make of that symbolism?
be
Mercury may be small, and as you point out Len, there is nothing small about his transit onto my IC and natal stellium of Jupiter/NN/Neptune squaring natal Venus. No doubt he and Venus will have another intimate word or two as they dance the Scorpionic dance some days after Merc communicates with the transiting NN and Saturn. As you say, his usually quick run-about isn’t slowed by his retro here is Scorpio, but rather is a deep dip into the pools of thought and feeling.
Rise and lift it is then, thank you.
Let’s start Len to meditate, to bring closer us to the depth of thought. Release us mysteries of Genesis and enter white paradise.
We will marvel from the inside, ah yes mercury in Scorpio inspires me to a high point. I currently live phase 12 of my cycle of revolution solar before embarking a new cycle with to start a Sun in 12 and yes I have a Scorpio ascendant… Do you feel Len I am inhabited by a spiritual force? This is my second nature that just take the relay… and the Neptune Trine mercury I love this feeling of wonder, I need
Good Weekend 🙂
I AM SMALL AND I MATTER
Love this
thank you
Thank you, Len, master helmsman,
Everything (all-at-once) seems to be heading into completely new and unexpected territory for me. Your guidance is welcomed and comforting as the new season begins, and a cut and keep copy of this piece will soon be in my kit bag. Also, in my kit bag is a reminder of the pleasure of cheesecake, raspberries and a cup of tea (i think this is an english thing); and when i need to relax i have 27 hours of ‘Thunderbirds’ on disc – did you know it was set in 2065? One of my favourite episodes is ‘Danger at Ocean Deep’.
Lots of love, nilou
in this unfamiliar place
may i find the courage to create a better way
just as at dawn, i see the start of a new day
and do not mourn the passing of the night gone by.
day ending
week ending
seasons’ endings
let me be still.
for, each moment that I breathe with ease
that easily, i find
i am.