Mercury stationed direct Sunday at 4:03 pm EDT in early Pisces. It’s been a fascinating Mercury retrograde: for some, it’s been easier than most and for others it has been emotionally wrenching; many have found its introspective potential to be richly rewarding, while others have felt too distracted by externals to really dive deep. Have you come to any profound insights about yourself, or are you hoping they’ll surface as Mercury moves forward through the section of Pisces where it was retrograde?
I know I’m not the only one whose dreams have been rich and varied (if often inscrutable), especially as Mercury has neared Neptune, and for whom the two storm phases (the days just before it stationed retrograde, and again these past few days) have held the greatest concentration of classic Mercury Rx shenanigans: mixed messages, wrong phone numbers, computer issues, unexpected detours and fool’s errands (preventable, had a phone call been made).
Here’s the important thing to remember: Mercury takes some time in getting back up to its usual speed after it stations direct, and so should you. Visualize a large ship pulling into a dock. It has been moving forward and its inertia would smash it into the dock if the captain did not reverse the engines to slow it down.
That’s rather like Mercury stationing direct and then beginning its apparent forward motion again, especially in Pisces. The water churns as it stops, and continues to churn to move it in the opposite direction. We experience the metaphorical churning as all these things that go wrong — things that might be preventable if we’re moving at a slower speed to begin with (or that hide a lesson if we’re open to learning it).
Bottom line: it will take a few days for the water to calm down again, so plot your forward movements carefully, continue to practice heightened awareness and listen to the little voice telling you to double-check something. The days immediately after the station count as part of the ‘storm’ phase, so easy does it. Despite Mars in Aries urging us to get on with it already as we approach the equinox (Sun’s ingress of Aries) on Wednesday, it’s still not the best time to push plans and big decisions (or the river) forward.
In fact, Mercury will not leave the degrees where it has been retrograde in Pisces until April 6, making these next three weeks prime time to listen for echoes of insights that have floated (or flooded) into consciousness during the retrograde. This time around, you might feel less overwhelmed (if that has been your experience) and more informed or empowered by the ideas and reflections, or more clear on what your next steps need to be if this has been a creative or spiritually fertile retrograde for you.