At 2:41 pm EDT, retrograde Mercury will make its interior (or more technically, ‘inferior’) conjunction to the Sun in Cancer. This is Mercury passing between the Earth and the Sun, the most basic way to describe what Mercury retrograde is about. The pair will be making a 150-degree aspect to the minor planet Juno in Aquarius, which in total could be summed up with the theme of how your relationships exist in the context of the people that surround them.
Juno has been traveling through Aquarius since mid-March, and will be there for the rest of 2013. One thing that aspects to Juno in Aquarius keep bringing up for consideration is the sense that socially institutionalized forms of relationship and partnering are ripe for restructuring, generally along the idea that form should follow function (that is, individual needs) — rather than the reverse.
Aquarius, ruled by Saturn (traditional) and Uranus (modern), is a sign where the breaking of old forms and crystallization of new ones is continually at play. There may be astrological configurations where Juno in Aquarius represents that more Uranian part of the cycle (the new idea breaking through).
In the case of Juno’s current aspect to Mercury and the Sun, however, it seems to symbolize the social pressure to relate a certain way, to follow the rules; in both roles, recognition of the social dynamics around relationship is part of the picture. In contrast, Mercury conjunct the Sun represents individual needs — particularly related to emotional security or a sense of being at home in one’s own skin; your feelings.
The aspect that Mercury and the Sun are making to Juno is a quincunx, which is one sign off from an opposition. It’s an aspect that asks for continual adjustment as you try to find what feels right to you, negotiating back and forth between two nearly opposite possibilities.