Mercury Direct May 2016 - Long Road
I'm a wee bit behind on getting this article up, so do bear with me! But yeah, you wouldn't know it but Mercury is finally direct, and as of the time I'm writing this article, it is less than a week until it exits the post-retrograde shadow period. For the Mercury Retrograde period we just exited, refer to the April-May 2016 Mercury Retrograde article, which serves as a part 1 to this sequence. Consider this article you're reading right now as part 2.
First off we had an Earth Grand Trine between Pluto retrograde in Capricorn, Jupiter in Virgo, and Mercury station direct in Taurus. This is normally a quite fortunate alignment. We have communications, travel, document-signing (Mercury) in a benefic trine with expansion, good fortune (Jupiter), and both are making a positive aspect to enable us to tear down our own inner detritus that no longer serves us and rebuild (Pluto retrograde) for a better time of things.
However, we have a bit of a wet blanket with the T-Square between Jupiter opposing Neptune, apexing at Saturn retrograde and the Moon. During this time, despite the benefic aspects listed above, we have a bit of a conflicting give-and-take between daydreams, illusions, the esoteric (Neptune) and the aforementioned expansive benefic nature of Jupiter. Both those are getting hammered by Saturn having us take an inward look at our own failings and constrictions, and this was causing us to feel a bit uneasy (Moon) and likely either look gift horses in mouths, or potentially miss out on some good opportunities.
Mars retrograde opposite Sun was also putting us at odds with our own ambition, our own ego, and likely some self-doubts as to whether we were embarking on the right path or not... Since then, Mars has reentered Scorpio, and I should likely do an article on that itself as well, to say nothing of when Mars leaves again. (We don't hae too much longer of Mars retrograde, as that itself ends around June 20th). Sun is also in a wide off-sign conjunction to Venus, which as of the Mercury turning direct was near fixed star Algol. We likely had some rude awakenings and some struggle in what we value in relationships, and our own self worth as far as jobs and what we do from day-to-day to serve others was probably at odds with what we really want to do, what we yearn for (Venus opposite Mars retrograde).
Mercury quincunx Saturn retrograde further put the brakes on us even with Mercury going direct, as we started feeling like a bit of raring to go, but "is this really what we need to do? Is this really what we're supposed to be doing?" A bit of a give and take and it's somewhat uneasy, it's like we don't know if we really wanted to go down the rabbit hole as some were likely afraid of taking a big step and falling on our face. A bit of fear of failure, yet an uncertainty of what happens if we didn't take that chance. Since the Mercury direct, have you gone forth and started on that path anyways?
Chiron conjunt 114 Kassandra, both sextile 99942 Apophis near Algol, showed that this wasn't necessarily a bad thing, as now we can see what we're needing to discard or stop in our lives to bring about some necessary healing, to get us back on the right path, a bit of catharsis as it were. But were we listening to ourselves, about what needed to be destroyed in order for us to get onto the path we needed to be on?
433 Eros off-sign conjunct 149 Medusa, this conjunction reared its ugly head as well, and squared Mars retrograde to boot. Relationships started the moment Mercury went direct were likely hot and heavy, and a caution of betrayal might have been good ahead of time. 4386 Lust conjunct 875 Nymphe also amplified this, though those were widely trine Saturn retrograde, so we might have stopped a little and listened to that inner voice asking if this is really what we want... and then might have gone forward and done it anyways. Or pursued it.
Ixion and Pholus conjunct, with Pholus near Galactic Center, this could have been a time where hospitality may have been questioned or taken advantage of as well. Again, awareness of those who make advances on your significant others would be something to take stock of, and likely would be good to ensure that we're aboveboard in our relationships with those significant others as well. For those of us who were single, it's likely we were drawn to someone who wasn't available. For those of us employed, may have been greatly tempted to seek greener pastures elsewhere. For those of us unemployed, likely looking fever-pitch for another position where positions aren't available.
37117 Narcissus opposition 55 Pandora was a warning to be cautious of our egos, and look out for those with big egos and be wary of getting too involved, lest we open a Pandora's box of regret. (I know of at least one example where this occurred, unfortunately. Not me directly, but it wasn't pretty).
6583 Destinn square 157 Dejanira, during the Mercury direct turn, showed that some of us were fighting fate to not become victims, or were struggling with having had occurences happen to us. Dejanira sextile Nessus/Pallas, however, I would interpret as showing that we're not alone, and that whatever victimized us will not be allowed to destroy us if we don't allow it to (also see above Chiron sextile Apophis).
This is a quick and dirty article, but it's up. The New Moon article for a couple days from now should be up tomorrow (June 3rd). Lots going on right now, for sure!
