{"id":65179,"date":"2013-03-18T00:01:36","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T04:01:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/?p=65179"},"modified":"2014-05-26T16:54:26","modified_gmt":"2014-05-26T20:54:26","slug":"easy-does-it-mercury-direct-and-the-aries-equinox","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/astro-daily\/easy-does-it-mercury-direct-and-the-aries-equinox\/","title":{"rendered":"Easy does it: Mercury direct and the Aries equinox"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercury stationed direct Sunday at 4:03 pm EDT in early Pisces. It\u2019s been a fascinating Mercury retrograde: for some, it\u2019s 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\u2019ll surface as Mercury moves forward through the section of Pisces where it was retrograde?<\/p>\n

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Chart section showing Pisces and Aries planets when the Sun enters Aries Wednesday. Note the numbers ’05’ and ’58’ next to Mercury; at its station direct on Sunday, the numbers were ’05’ and ’38’, indicating just how slowly Mercury is moving right now — only two-sixths of a degree. At its fastest, Mercury moves more than two degrees per day. Glyph key here<\/a>.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I know I\u2019m 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\u2019s errands (preventable, had a phone call been made).<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s 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\u2019re moving at a slower speed to begin with (or that hide a lesson if we\u2019re open to learning it).<\/p>\n

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 \u2018storm\u2019 phase, so easy does it. Despite Mars in Aries urging us to get on with it already as we approach the equinox (Sun\u2019s ingress of Aries) on Wednesday, it\u2019s still not the best time to push plans and big decisions (or the river) forward.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Bear in mind also that Mercury is spending some time hanging out between Neptune and Chiron. As it moves from its near-miss conjunction with Neptune to another exact conjunction with Chiron, you may experience a sense of gradual awakening followed by a more sudden one. Concealed information may yet show itself in these days; be mindful of factors you have not been considering.<\/p>\n

As mentioned, the preponderance of planets in Pisces and Aries is creating real tension between the \u2018easy does it\u2019 and \u2018get going already!\u2019 urges. And even though the moment of Mercury\u2019s station was yesterday, there\u2019s another factor related to that event that could play out today.<\/p>\n

At the moment of the Mercury station (the change in directions), the Moon was in Gemini conjunct Jupiter (the traditional ruler of Pisces). This offers additional emphasis on Pisces from another angle. It\u2019s about the relationship between mind and intuition, or between reason and creative process. So the Mercury-Neptune conjunction is directly connected to the Moon-Jupiter conjunction, making for a potent moment precipitating events today. What you do this day can have real leverage.<\/p>\n

Finally, as noted, the Sun enters Aries Wednesday, March 20 at 7:02 am EDT. Known in the Northern Hemisphere as the vernal equinox, it\u2019s the first day of spring for those who have been experiencing winter. The first day of solar Aries comes in the middle this week when day and night are of equal length. It\u2019s a tipping point and a time to gather momentum — though as noted, it\u2019s best to begin that momentum-building gradually. We\u2019re building toward a pair of truly potent Mars aspects as the week progresses, which we\u2019ll cover in the next Daily Astrology and Planet Waves FM installments.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mercury stationed direct Sunday at 4:03 pm EDT in early Pisces. It\u2019s been a fascinating Mercury retrograde: for some, it\u2019s 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 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":191,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":""},"categories":[1734],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/191"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=65179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/65179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=65179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=65179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/planetwaves.net\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=65179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}