It will be a busy weekend for Mercury, and by implication for your mind. Just after 1:30 am EST on Sunday morning, Mercury will enter Capricorn for 20 days after having been in Sagittarius for over two months. In the process, between Saturday morning and Sunday evening, Mercury will aspect every major (sign-ruling) planet outside the orbit of Mars. That’s a lot of activity. As that activity corresponds to your life, you may expect to receive a rapid series of mixed signals from your environment. You may not be able to modulate either the frequency or consistency of those signals for the time being. What you can do is know your own mind well enough to find it in all the hubbub and express yourself coherently until things settle down.
You may have noticed that coherency has been problematic as of late. That would correspond to an unusual situation. In the two weeks since the Capricorn solstice, Mercury and Sun have been in different signs. That is a long time for Mercury’s archetype of mind and its expression to be on a different page from the solar representation of consciousness and self-awareness. By this time next week the situation will have stabilized quite a bit, but first things will probably go through one last disconcerting episode. That episode would correlate with two aspects Mercury will make on Saturday, just before leaving Sagittarius.
On its last day in Sagittarius, Mercury will form sextile aspects to both Saturn in late Libra and Neptune, which will be in the last degree of Aquarius. Sextiles are generally considered to be affirming, supportive and validating relationships between objects and signs. Concurrently drawing to an odd couple like Saturn and Neptune, however, can only contribute to incoherency. We are reminded of Robert Hand’s observation that “Neptune dissolves whatever Saturn builds.” While a sextile from Mercury to Saturn favors the critical faculties of the mind, the same aspect to Neptune just hours later would seem to set us up for some sort of mental whiplash, pulling our thoughts the other way. The situation is not lost, however. There is some consolation in a dichotomy taking place on the threshold of Capricorn.
Capricorn is where the fiery ideals of mutable Sagittarius find grounding and manifestation. Once Mercury crosses the boundary into cardinal earth, it will be a fresh start, a new season for the mind. That new season offers an opportunity to consolidate and reconcile the contradictory as Mercury, symbolizing how we think, and Sun, representing self-awareness, are finally reunited in the same cloth. The serendipity of Mercury’s earth trine to Jupiter in Taurus reinforces a return to congruity, and reinforcement will come in handy when Mercury encounters the aspect of our epoch.
To enter Capricorn is to become part of what Eric referred to as “The defining aspect of our era in history.” That aspect, is, of course the preternaturally continuous cardinal point square between Pluto in Capricorn and Uranus in Aries. For Mercury to enter Capricorn just as 2012 begins is a form of conscious initiation into that era for all of us. This is what two arduous months of Mercury traipsing back and forth across Sagittarius has prepared us for. This is the destination before the journey. It is almost as if each one of us is Mercury, relaying a message to the center on the edge.
The message we carry is that of personal experience. Everybody reading these words has borne witness to the days, weeks, months and years that have brought us to this passage. On this approach our task is to carry both sides of perception, from Saturn to Neptune, intact and integrated by Jupiter’s wide embrace. If we can each use the coming days to consciously encounter and begin healing the schisms within, then we will be prepared for the next leg of the journey carrying the message of collective unity without.
Offered In Service
Len, this helps me better understand events of recent weeks, many of which have left me at a loss to understand them. Incoherency describes their nature well. I find myself grappling with their fallout as the new year unfolds. Yet knowing some of the background to their genesis helps me to find a bit more acceptance in the midst of confusion and loss. Through that gift, I can perhaps move on more cautiously, intending greater clarity with each step. Thanks for your thoughtful and dedicated approach toward clearing away the fog from phases of our personal and collective journey; you do us an important service indeed.
Len – thank you, once again for your wise and wonderful words. Aword – in his amazing book Who dies?, Steven Levine addresses this grief you talk about – I really recommend it, think you’ll find it comforting and uplifting.xxx
aword: lifelong unmitigated grief due to inability to “find my meaning” here/now” Vesta is exactly conjunct my North Node and I still don’t get it or don’t like what it is?, in any case, the soul pain is and has been constant with its intensity shifting from barely tolerable to unbearable
WOW–those are the words! How to describe. Thank you, if you find any answers or relief, let me know, until then, if it helps, in the soul pain you describe with those words you are not alone it……may the reason, meaning and releif come to us both—hopefully in our lifetimes :>) )<:
Wordsmith, as always, your head's up will probably save my butt this weekend at work and ((((Len))))
I think you’re right Len.
Aiko: To affirm and validate is one of highest goals of service. It gives me joy to know you found my service affirming. Thank you.
be: Thank you for acquainting us with yet another composed aspect (in addition to your mastery of the yod). It raises an interesting question as to whether the aspect or its components have primacy in the interpretation. My intuition favors the components.
Carrie and aword: Thank you for your kind words.
Truly I am currently embracing what feels like lifelong unmitigated grief due to inability to “find my meaning” here/now. I believe this could be a growing pang.
Thanks so much for the Mercurial insights, Len – shedding light, as always, on current feeling.
As the for the cradle, Be, the rocking is both turbulent and reassuring – both are welcome; Thanks for that.
Thanks, Len. As always, you are articulate, understandable, and giving practical, usable information.
Jupiter would work too, just out of sign a little.
ooops. . looks like the cradle needs another sextile which would also be an opposition to either Saturn or Neptune. In other words a cradle is 4 planets, not 3. So here’s your choice for Saturday: QB1 at 26 Aries 4 rx, or Isis/Transpluto at 29 Leo 59 rx. This is one deep cradle.
Personally, I’d sleep soundly with just 2 sextiles to rock me.
be
Hi Len,
I vaguely recollect an astrological pattern called ‘cradle’ which consisted of a trine between 2 planets and a 3rd planet in the middle creating 2 sextiles, one with each of the trining planets. Have you ever heard of that one? It would make sense. Being cradled on either side with a protective sextile would give one a sense of safety and security. If each of us is almost a Mercury, and Mercury is able to talk out of both sides of his mouth (and think with both sides of his brain) then I can’t imagine a nicer place to be over the weekend. Even with Saturn and Neptune rocking the cradle; it might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but for Mercury, it will be a piece of cake.
Thanks Len! It HAS been an arduous two months hasn’t it? I’m looking forward to being on the same page as anybody frankly. This gives me something to look forward to after my own Pholish escapade has me a bit lost in the weeds. What page did you say we were on? I’ll google that ‘cradle’ aspect and let you know what I find . . if anything.
be
Len, your piece today was very affirming to me. The last several months have made sense to me finally. Thank you.
Aiko