Mercury enters Sagittarius at 9:42 pm EST tomorrow promoting inspiration. It will not be the actual planet acting on you. It will be in how you act regarding Mercury’s symbolism and position. Begin with how Mercury’s symbolism, combined with the cycles and patterns of its real and apparent motion, manifest in your life.
Then extend to the role of awareness — your awareness — in determining the outcome. Awareness alone makes a big difference, but you can make an even bigger difference by how you act on it. Ultimately, how you build and act upon the awareness of Mercury’s ingress to Sagittarius will determine how you are inspired and what you inspire in others.
The actual planet Mercury orbits the Sun on the inside lane of the solar system. That fact alone confers both the symbolism of Mercury as mind and its appearance to inhabitants of Earth as the fastest moving planet.
When you consider that the actual Sun is most fundamentally day and light to inhabitants of Earth, it makes sense to interpret the Sun symbolically as the light of consciousness. Following from that, it also makes sense to interpret the closest planet to the Sun as your fast-moving mind.
That’s because consciousness and mind are never very far apart, just as is the case with the Sun and Mercury. By the same token, they are not the same. The light of consciousness is a requisite for mind, just as the Sun is the first requirement for the existence of Mercury and other planets.
On some level you “get” that because you are part of the solar system, riding on one of its planets. That’s how the cycles and patterns of Mercury appear to act on you and others, but that’s not what is actually happening.
What is happening is simply parts of a system moving together. Hence, your movements (in particular, movements of your mind) can be expected to be synchronized with the movements of another part of the same system that correlates with the mind: Mercury.
The idea is to be more consciously aware that you “get” it and build on that step with the information astrology provides. In so doing, instead of being along for the ride, you evolve into being an active and empowered participant with the solar system. That’s where Mercury’s impending ingress to Sagittarius comes in.
Shamanic astrologer Sheila Belanger interprets planets as “archetypes” (another word for symbols that serve as patterns), and the sign a planet is traversing as the “costume” through which the archetype is expressed.
The costume represented by Sagittarius is very different from the Scorpio raiment that Mercury (and emblematically, your mind) has been been wearing for about two months now.
Mercury has cruised through the fixed waters of Scorpio that long because of a retrograde cycle. That cycle combined to make Mercury’s motion appear to slow while also apparently retracing part of its voyage three times as the actual planet passed between Earth and the Sun on the inside lane.
The illusion of retrograde produced by Mercury effectively lapping Earth and its inhabitants corresponds to your own experience with slowing down and repetition. Both those actions facilitate examination and integration if you are patient enough to make the most of it.
Assuming you have been patient enough to make the most of it, the last two months or so have afforded your mind the chance to examine its relationship to, and to integrate with, other things that are close to your consciousness but associated with water. Such things would include your emotions, your intuitions and your feminine traits.
The fixed quality of Scorpio, in turn, combined with Mercury’s unusual length of time in that sign to support a deep and long-lasting impression on how you think; but that would depend on whether you were thinking in the first place. The consequences of having your mind express through the mutable fire of Sagittarius after being so long inured to Scorpio will depend on whether, and how, you are thinking as well. That’s where awareness comes in, because Sagittarius is opposed to Gemini.
Gemini is one of two places in the zodiac (along with Virgo) where Mercury rules. In other words, Gemini is a costume through which the cosmic archetype representing your mind is most clearly, authentically and strongly expressed. In the estimation of astrology, the sign opposing a planet’s rulership is, by contrast, a detrimental costume.
Hence, if you are just along for the ride rather than being a consciously aware participant, Mercury’s ingress to Sagittarius could correspond to some detrimental thinking on your part, which could lead to an outcome detrimental to you. Having read this far, however, you now know it does not have to be that way.
Now you know astrology is not destiny. Now you are aware that the fiery elemental component of Sagittarius could serve to ignite your inspiration rather than contributing to your unwitting self-immolation through “stinkin’ thinkin'” (as Senator Al Franken’s Saturday Night Live character, Stuart Smalley, used to put it). Now you know that you can participate in promoting the inspiration to build on the last two months of wading through self-examination, swimming in deep impressions, and dissolving to integration, by extending the experience through to manifestation in a more highly evolved you.
Now you also know that a short, swift three weeks through the mutable quality of Sagittarius can serve to make a new you, rather than undo you and at least two months of of your life. That’s the difference awareness can make. It can make for actual progress which, believe it or not, is actually possible — and you can prove it.
You can follow your promotion of inspiration by employing it. You can employ it by simply thinking, and expressing your thoughts with awareness until Mercury enters Capricorn a few days after the Sun does. If you can do just that, you will have concluded this year as a palpably evolved being who inspires other earthly inhabitants to emulate your example: stepping up to co-create your own destiny as an active participant in the patterns and cycles of the vast cosmic system of which we have always been a part. If you think about it, that really would be an inspiration that everybody can “get.”
Offered In Service
Len is available for astrology readings. You can contact him at lenwallick [at] gmail [dot] com.
Mercury arrives at the Trine of Uranus, excellent to change its hardware 🙂
Amanda, aword, P. Sophia, Bette Loreen, Strawberry, be-autiful be, suria, and Chief Niwots Son: Apologies for being so long in thanking you for your comments. i have been on the trail of something – something you all contributed to inspire – and it will be expressed on my next blog (of Thursday, December 5). So, please accept my thanks to you for these comments, and please also accept how your supportive and inspirational words have contributed to my next offering in service.
Strawberrylaughter: “Never. Not. Shocking.” Understood! Thanks for explaining about your heavily aspected Mars, I mistook those sparks for the Aurora Borealis! 😉
Chief Niwots Son, do enjoy whatever warmth you can find down south! I’ve lived in Montana most of my life, and I have to say, minus 10 (minus 20 before morning) is just never not shocking. Never. not. shocking. It’s early for that kind of cold here. However, I’ve got Mars so heavily aspected right now, it’s sending sparks into the stratosphere. I’ll find a way to keep warm 😉 Love and light to you.
Len- I’ve landed in a Hall of Mirrors, because while Mercury is in his detriment in Sagittarius, my Geminian Mercury dwells in the 9th House, which is of course ruled by Sag. So putting one more flip in the astrology makes my Mercury happy to be “home” in Sag, the fiery inspiration feels much nicer than the doldrums of fixed water. And the lovely square to Neptune in Pisces feels like the challenge/opportunity to articulate the ineffable (Energy Healing- Strawberrylaughter’s favorite pastime), which is my work assignment this weekend, I feel supported by the Stars.
Strawberrylaughter- Stay warm up there, I headed south to the Land of Enchantment on assignment this week, so I missing the brunt of this storm. Brrr!
Thank you, Len. Words that bring cheer. Yes, progress I can believe in (not the current dominant economic model of progress though). Capricorn? Yes, please! I know, all in good time….
– In the meantime, still needs more work but getting somewhere! The difficulty I’m having is in expressing all types/aspects of relating as being the same though seemingly different, just different perspectives. I know how it feels if I am writing poetry and while it is easy for me to say there is only one love, it is very difficult to know if anyone I may say that to has the faintest clue what I’m talking about.
To hold onto (Memoria) the freedom (Magdalena) of one aspect of an incarnate being (Apollon) at the expense of another aspect creates a distortion [in being] and attending to this distortion may then distract from a greater healing task (Chiron) by its focus on the polarities of duality (Logos): the realisation, far-reaching, that each expression (Elatus) together as the collective (Uranus) is a part of one song (Siva).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAIDTMJEjTc
Now that the last of the personal planets (save the Moon) leave Scorpio (and therefore water) for a couple of months, I’m becoming more “aware” of why that is important for life. There is something about water, fluid though it is, that holds or confines or contains which can be very comforting, but can also – mostly unconsciously – lead to a desire for escape. Let’s face it, water can suffocate. There is probably a connection between the latest train derailment (other than Neptune in the U.S. Sibly 3rd house of short-distance travel) and a desire to rush to escape which Mercury leaving Scorpio evokes. Mercury is a clever mult-tasker but Mercury loves speed and movement above all.
TV news tells us that the engineer of that train referred to his state of mind at the time his train was speeding to its separation from the tracks as “highway hypnosis”. Who can’t relate to that feeling, whether behind the wheel of a speeding vehicle or in front of a monotonous video sitcom. The mind is in a zone all its own. All water signs are comforting when comfort is needed. You can feel protected and defended and safe from some impending threat, however, when the threat passes, or you summon the courage to stand up to it, water can restrict. You feel unsteady just trying to stand in deep water. The mind might speed ahead but if mind isn’t connected to consciousness you can become derailed. They must stay in synch.
Fire signs, on the other hand ARE inspirational, and probably why they always follows a water sign. They motivate the mind AND the heart. Sagittarian mutable (transitional) fire follows Scorpio fixed water, probably the hardest water, at least when one is trying to “distance” oneself from something needing to be overcome. Being inspired to transition from one state of being to another state – one which will start a new (cardinal) beginning of some kind – seems so logical you would think it was all part of a plan!
Thanks Len, I think I DO “get it”.
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So odd. I have more trouble finding myself when the sun is in a fire sign than any other. And yet, I have a lot of fire energy in my natal chart…. This solar Sagittarius ride has been confusing so far; perhaps Mercury joining the fiery ranks will help (my own Merc is in Leo). It may just be the adjustment from all that water, which I was really digging (or that it’s seriously hit winter here, with 18 inches of new snow & -5 degrees tonite). Maybe it’s that drive to create a “tangible relationship with the intangible” that I’m finding confusing. Everything feels so ephemeral these days. I can remain open to inspiration, tho. Neptune is still within 2 degrees of square my own; Merc activating that may have something to do with this mentally detached feeling.
Anyway. Variety.
Beautifully said, Len. Although, like aword, I found the Scorpio waters fine (if not always pleasant), & useful, as Mercury see-sawed across my Scorpio moon & Venus, I too am ready to move on & work with the Sagittarian energy.
Being a Sagg, with Mercury placed later in Sagg, this is familiar territory, but also new, given the rest of the changing sky & changing me. My natal Mercury is retrograde, & I find that although I have always seemed to express that sort of mind (active, inquiring, seeking inspiration), I have been more reflective, contemplative, less outgoing than many with Sagg
planets are. As I grow older, my lifelong timidity seems to be fading, though, & I am able to speak up more, caring less what any “they” might think. It feels a lot more honest & authentic.
If there is anything I might hope for during the upcoming Mercury & Sun transits, it would be that my Muse would return – my poetry one – seems she left town a few years ago when my life was a bucket of misery, & has rarely been glimpsed since. Life’s sane & serene again, after a few years of work & grace, & the other creative work seems quite accessible & possible. But the words, other than an isolated line now & again, do not become poems. Perhaps she may choose this winter’s cabin fever season of long nights to reappear. I shall remember to invite her.
Thank-you, Len, for your gentle counsel & the breadth & depth of your vision. This old astrologer learns a great deal from you & everyone whose words I find here on PW. So glad you’re out there!
Amanda – thank you for your beautiful addition which I just read and love,
“..but sometimes it’s simply time to light a fire under one’s you-know-what, towel off, and light some sparks!”
You got that right! It actually sounds like ‘Ophiuchus’. And as I reread my description of him, although inspiring to me and my endeavors, it is also exactly the type of man I would like to create some sparks with! Here’s hoping it’s time.
Technically our minds are riding over ‘Ophiuchus’ Constellation for 19 days. Even though we cannot see it at night, it guides us in the sky during these days.
In keeping in awareness, I believe we should at least acknowledge our 13th sign here (one of the original ancient Babylonian signs before the zodiak was changed thousands of years ago). After all, the Constellation of Ophiuchus is the only sign of the Zodiac which is linked to a real man.
Ophiuchus’s story- ‘Serpent Holder’, Enki, a Sumerian god, truly is a rrepresentation of inspiration to us. Of great healing ability, he brought the art to mankind. He is recognized for his wisdom and bravery (standing over the Scorpion), of great passion and of power.
Thank you Len for this inspiring article, it is true – appreciating our developing attributes and inspiration is the first step. And now aligned with our New Moon’s push to progress in action/creation, the timing is good. We can harness that power in wisdom with Mercury help!
I was enjoying the swim and transitioned some important waters during this Merc Retro in Scorp — the water was fine and I was not feeling any inkling of desire to get out. But we all know that sooner or later too much water and we begin to wrinkle like a prune – and there must be some symbolic metaphor for that! lol.
Suddenly, upon reading your article Len, sitting ’round a fire sounds nice and maybe a mug of warm tea – rather than full-body immersion – to stave off a chill and contemplate time in the water and what I am bringing forward with me from that swim into the next leg of my Merc-journey, this time on land.
Thanks, Len.
“Now you are aware that the fiery elemental component of Sagittarius could serve to ignite your inspiration rather than contributing to your unwitting self-immolation through “stinkin’ thinkin’” (as Senator Al Franken’s Saturday Night Live character, Stuart Smalley, used to put it). Now you know that you can participate in promoting the inspiration to build on the last two months of wading through self-examination, swimming in deep impressions, and dissolving to integration, by extending the experience through to manifestation in a more highly evolved you.”
my favorite part…
ok, actually my favorite part is, more specifically, the stuart smalley reference. what can i say? that character was brilliantly hilarious…
i have a feeling the inspiration, once Mercury’s past the square to Neptune, will be quite invigorating after all the swimming i’ve been doing in the deep and of the pool. i *do* love to swim — but sometimes it’s simply time to light a fire under one’s you-know-what, towel off, and light some sparks!