Today is Thursday, Nov. 24, 2011. The waning Moon is in Scorpio today, but the main event is that Mercury stations (or stationed) retrograde in Sagittarius at 2:19 am EST. We’ve been anticipating this event for weeks; hopefully you have made any important electronic purchases already, have left yourself extra travel time if you have to go anywhere today, and are mentally prepared to take communication snafus with a grain of salt.
At the basic level, your typical Mercury retrograde advice applies for the next three weeks or so. Don’t assume you’re getting snubbed if you don’t hear back from someone; try them again, and perhaps try a different method of communication, such as phone instead of email. Make sure you check your gas gauge, your directions and the weather forecast before you head off anywhere. If something seems broken, see if you can work around it until Mercury stations direct, and then see if it still needs to be replaced or repaired. And despite the fact that ‘Black Friday’ — the biggest shopping day of the year — is the day after this Mercury station, be aware that something isn’t a ‘bargain’ if it never gets used; be selective about any purchases you make tomorrow if you do go shopping.
More specifically, and personally, every Mercury retrograde has a slightly different flavor and focus; some are less challenging than others, or in different ways. The location of this event is 21 Sagittarius, a degree symbolized by a boy and a dog wearing borrowed eyeglasses. This would seem an utterly bizarre image. Eyeglasses are symbols of intellectual development. Dane Rudhyar in his commentary on the degree symbols describes a tribe where the chiefs wore eyeglasses without lenses to evoke the feeling of a race of ‘superior’ beings. As ridiculous as this seems, there is the message that we need someone to look up to, or at least something to aspire to. This image may imply is the importance of choosing that object of aspiration carefully — though of even greater importance may be how fully we use our imaginations to envision ourselves as what we can become. Play is an act of creation.