Mercury Retrograde April-May 2016 - Retroactive Reversal
April 28th is coming up on us, and we've got that magical time again: Mercury Retrograde. This one is considerably different than most, considering that when it goes backwards from our perspective on Earth, we will have five planets in retrograde motion at the same time! The last time this happened was about ten years ago, and this is about a 4% of the time occurance.
The first thing that strikes out at me is the Minor Grand Trine between Moon and Mercury/Vesta, apexing at Chiron. Now fortunately, Chiron is in the focus of a beneficial pattern such as this, so in this case the Wounded Healer is likely to start bringing us some healing rather than wounding. Chiron itself, however, is square Ixion, so from what I see, themes of infidelity or betrayals is going to be a theme of that healing. Maybe false allegations thereof. I don't know. With Ixion itself retrograde, perhaps you thoguht yourself to have betrayed some trust before, and during this cycle perhaps there's a healing and a clearing of the air where things may not have been quite as bad as thought, or circumstances have changed. I'm not imagining a flagging marriage being one of these where one or both partners cheated, but maybe something like a bad assumption or series of bad assumptions being worked over right now.
We do still have the T-Square between Neptune opposite Jupiter Retrograde, apex Saturn Retrograde. This is also a time where we will be facing some of our illusions, and facing some hard truths within ourselves. Let's use Chiron's influence to start healing this. Perhaps the hard truths are related to the Chiron/Ixion retrograde square, and perhaps there's an underlying reason some of us have fallen into the bad assumption pattern.
To put a personal perspective on this: Recently I just had an assumption blow up in my face, though there was a buffer zone given for this. I assumed my contract job was going to last until at least June and give me some more time to save up a little more for that eventuality (or the hopeful possibility of a contract extension, or even conversion to full-time). Guess what: Instead I got a two-weeks notice, and this was with a slight extension (details I'm going to skip over for now). To be fair, my manager and contact are looking high and low for colleagues that need someone with my skills (which would be most-accurately described as Full Stack Developer, though I was brought on as a UX developer. I've done front, middle, database stuff, so yeah Full Stack it is. But I digress...). What this is also revealing on a personal level is that I have support from others who have worked with me and are pulling for me. There's a few options, but right now, I need to evaluate very carefully given my situation.
Back to the matter at hand: Mercury Retrograde's beginning. Let's moved on to Mercury and the Fixed Star: Algol is out of range. YES. Algol is a very unfortunate star, but as Mercury is farther than two degrees away, close to three degrees away, it's just out of range. So let's gloss over that one! Trust me, this could be far worse. About a degree and a half from a conjunction with Vesta, we're going to be reviewing and reflecting on what is sacred or special to us, what we hold highly in regards to our beliefs.
We do also have a Trine between Pluto Retrograde and Mercury Retrograde, and though this is about a six degree orb, we have a slight influence with Pluto's internal devestation and rebirth meshing with Mercury retrograde's review and slowdown. What do we truly value in life? What are we going to let go in this cycle? Grudges? Crushing defeats? That's up to you.
Mars Retrograde is another fun point of this, and is within orb of activating its own T-Square with Neptune and Jupiter Retrograde. So where Saturn is one apex where we face our illusions, Mars retrograde as another apex is going to slowly burn this illusion out.
We need to also consider Mars Sesquiquadrate Uranus/Hekate/Eris/Dejanira. Where do we feel like we've been victimized in our lives? Is it because of going against the grain? Have we victimized others, and is karma about to roll its wheel right over us? Is justice to be done for this rebellious victimization? As part of a news thing I just saw... Bill Cosby may be seeing his day in court very soon, and could face up to 10 years if convicted once this goes to trial. We shoould also note Venus conjunct 99942 Apophis, with Apophis representing destruction. In Cosby's case, I think we're about to see some interesting times ahead with that story. Also note Venus/Apophis trine Pholus Retrograde. Pholus is like a detonator, and also like an intoxication asteroid. In this case, I think we're about to see an implosion from previous destructive lustful actions.
I can't wait to see what this means for the Presidential Campaigns... and I do not like most of the results I saw Tuesday... Let's just say two of the candidates I really did not want to see hit the White House... are in striking range of clinching the nomination of their respective parties. But this is getting to be a quintuple-retrograde period... what fresh hell of surprises are all of the campaigns about to see? We'll find out between now and May 9th, perhaps.
Finally, Sun Quincunx Mars. The Quincunx is a strange animal, it's not a trine, not an opposition, but somewhere in between. It's like in this case, fixed Earth to mutable Fire. Sorta like a slowly simmering volcano, but when it goes off... it's going to go off. We could see some very harsh words come out, followed by some major apologizing. Expect some mood swings this Mercury Retrograde cycle. Some of those mood swings are needed, though, just don't take it out on loved ones. Mars retrograde in this mix suggests we really shouldn't take it out on ourselves either. I'd recommend physical activity like running or hitting the weights as opposed to driving a fist into the drywall, because drywall repair isn't fun and neither is scaring your friends and loved ones. That and punching a wall hurts like hell, especially when you find that stud in the wall that's considerably more sturdy than the plaster. And court-ordered anger management training isn't something that's considered fun by many, so try to keep your cool.
I'm out of time for now, but I'll leave this here as a Part 1. Part 2, I haven't decided if I'll get into other asteroids, or if I'll just go to look at the Mercury Direct phase that comes later in May.
