Last Quarter Moon, Mercury direct check-in

Today at 2:55 pm EDT is the last quarter Moon — the halfway point between the Aquarius Full Moon and the Leo New Moon, when the Leo Sun and Taurus Moon square each other. The next week is traditionally the time to move projects toward completion. It’s also the first full day of a newly direct Mercury, moving ever so slowly through the second degree of Leo. How was yesterday’s station direct for you?

Simplified chart section showing the Moon in Taurus square the Sun in Leo. Also shown is Mercury (green glyph with horns) direct in Leo. Ceres in Gemini is sextile the Sun, offering some nourishment to balance out our responses to the triple conjunction in Sagittarius (not shown), if we’re willing to consciously choose it. That is, be aware of what you feed your mind.

Did you get over-eager and try to rush things too soon? Or did you relax and get your bearings? Mercury stations often come with a sense of the truth coming to light. With that truth beaming through Leo, which is ruled by the Sun, did any new information feel especially potent or valuable?

I ask partly because the last few weeks have been pretty intense news-wise. For some, the emotional pressure of the last nine months of continual inner planet retrogrades has felt relentless. Yet at the same time, I’ve read many comments in this space from readers who have discovered and embraced many beautiful — and even deeply profound — insights about themselves.

I count myself in that group. As much as miscommunication and disjointed thinking can dog me during a Mercury retrograde, overall I feel incredibly grateful for the things I have learned about and begun to heal within myself as Mercury, Mars, Venus and then Mercury again have danced backwards since November. I have a feeling many of us have set processes in motion that are only beginning to unfold within us — and ripple out to those we relate to socially and intimately.

Those inner evolutions and their effects are things that may be even more important to keep in view these next few years as the Uranus-Pluto square repeats its exact contacts, calling us to be agents of change in the world. Today’s quarter Moon, too, comes with a sense of inner challenge and tension. It’s the kind that will be best resolved through action, but that action asks you to keep the more beautiful insights you have come to — including your potential to have a positive impact on those around you — in view as a guiding principle.

The Leo Sun is currently making a trine to three minor planets that carry some weight: Hylonome, Ixion and Pholus. The three are in a triple conjunction in Sagittarius. Their themes describe our response to grief, injustice and the sense of things being out of control — personally and collectively. Those phrases describe our responses to the news lately. We’ve borne witness to mass killings; the execution of a mentally disabled man by state that used the character Lenny in John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men as its rule of thumb; drought and wildfires; a massive power outage in India. Mitt Romney’s absurdity seems to know no bounds, yet neither does his fundraising.

The trine of the Sun to Hylonome, Ixion and Pholus is giving our consciousness direct access to these responses to grief, injustice and the sense of things being out of control. They’re flowing in, but what is actually pushing us is the square to the Sun that the Moon is making.

Leo and Taurus both have something to do with what we value, and they’re both fixed signs. As Mercury slowly gets up to speed, ask yourself how committed you are to acting on your values, versus how committed you are to any holding pattern you may be in (these are fixed signs we’re talking about, after all). The awfulness we’ve been witnessing shapes us, often in ways we do not notice because it is so pervasive. The healing insights we’ve come to in recent months shape us, too — though it takes conscious choice to let them guide us more than the external influences surrounding us.

6 thoughts on “Last Quarter Moon, Mercury direct check-in”

  1. I felt greatly relieved by the direct motion finally taking place yesterday. It was palpable to me. Thank you for the insight concerning the triple conjunction-trine that is supporting our healthy integration of the chaos and breakdown assailing us–is it monthly? weekly? daily? That is on the social /global scale. Personally—sometimes hourly. Thank you, always./_\.

  2. Amanda: This piece is a triumph, it really is. i doubt that this particular first lunar quarter has found a better, more complete expression anywhere. From the recent milestone of personal planets all direct, to the continuing epochal theme of Uranus and Pluto, to a beautiful and sublime synopsis of three minor planets in a major conjunction, all brought together through the field of luminary tension – wow. Thank you. Please give yourself credit for a job well done with this very informative, useful and perceptive read.

  3. I rajouterais Amanda we are at the crossroads of two worlds between the dream that inspires Neptune and the reality with Saturn that receives March… thanks for this very nice article

    Good weekend to you

  4. “I have a feeling many of us have set processes in motion that are only beginning to unfold within us — and ripple out to those we relate to socially and intimately.”

    Yes, Amanda, most definitely, and what an amazing unfolding it is. The Venus transit especially – what a gift! – seems to have rolled though me and opened a floodgate of deeper compassion, boundless opportunity, and a new relationship with love itself, all of it flowing as much toward me as out of me. Not too shabby.

    Still so much work to do, and against some pretty big odds yet to overcome – but the struggle has come to feel much, much less like a struggle and more simply all in a day’s work. That, I guess, is what is meant by ‘healing.’ 🙂

  5. Here’s my share: a medical diagnosis that allows everyone in the story to be held blameless including myself. Now it’s just a matter of working with it instead of trying to be different than I am. Bemusement that I needed an expert to tell me what I already knew to be able to let myself off the hook. Huge sense of relief and freedom and progressive integration.

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