In the lead-up to the Virgo Full Moon (3:26 pm EST Monday), Mercury will make its first station retrograde of this year on Saturday. This Mercury retrograde will be entirely in Pisces, and all three Mercury retrogrades of 2013 occur in water signs. We could call this ‘getting our feet wet’, except Pisces is kind of the deep end of the pool.
Plus, Mercury begins its apparent backwards journey (the backstroke?) at 4:41 am EST on Feb. 23 with some strong company nearby.
First, a little refresher on basic Mercury retrograde ‘best practices’ just in case its effects are appearing in your life already.
Mercury rules the mind and communication. That alone says: stay aware of when you’re not aware.
For example, the difference between locking yourself out of your house when you’re in a rush versus not doing so is to notice when your mind is on things unrelated to the task at hand. If so, pause, refocus, consciously check for the things you need (keys, cell phone, etc.), and proceed slowly.
In fact, pausing and proceeding slowly are two other basic guidelines. Rushing during a Mercury retrograde often results in work you have to redo, extra time spent getting un-lost while driving, and apologies for speaking rashly.
Those potential pitfalls are especially strong this weekend (beginning today, as we enter the ‘storm’ phase comprising the couple days on either side of the station) due to that ‘strong company’ I mentioned at the beginning. Mercury will be stationing retrograde functionally conjunct Mars in Pisces (exact at 4:09 am Feb. 26).
At the moment, Mercury is further into Pisces than Mars. That means that since Mars is moving forward and Mercury is moving backwards, the conjunction is getting closer.