a message from Kachina Houska
Saturday, 26 March, 2011
~MERCURY TURNS RETROGRADE~
Mercury turns retrograde on March 30th @ 25° Aries with direct station occurring April 22nd @ 13° Aries. The current phase of retrograde comes to closure on May 11th when Mercury clears the shadow of retrograde.
Representative of our thinking aptitudes and perceptions, Mercury rules all forms of communications, methods of transport and commerce. During retrograde periods glitches can occur within communication systems, modes of transport and commerce related dealings that require us to slow down and reassess our approaches and choices.
On a personal level cognitive skills are often challenged and making decisions generally requires extra patience and time. While MercuryRx periods are generally not considered favorable for making contractual agreements or committing oneself to new projects for anything begun from scratch during this time often needs to be reworked later or just doesn’t get off the ground at all. This period is conducive to putting efforts into ongoing projects through a whole slew of “RE-words” such as: reorganize, reedit, renegotiate, re-navigate, reformulate, reconsider, redefine, reprocess, reinstall etc, etc.
When faced with retrograde related snafu’s sometimes the best choice is to just release and relax until the “roadblocks” clear!
*************
“I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.” ~Voltaire (Mercury conjunct Ruler of Aries, Mars)
This is the first Mercury Rx period of 2011 and occurs entirely in the fire sign Aries. As an extroverted sign, Aries is driven, individualistic and initiating and has a difficult time accepting “no” for an answer. An “I can and Will do it” attitude is the fortitude of Aries and acceptance of defeat does not come easily, if at all, within this sign. Mercury within Aries can be passionately driven to sharing viewpoints with little concern for social proprieties. This can be a positive attribute for it tends to foster inspiration coming to actualization much quicker than those that would seek the popular majority vote and/or get caught up in the rhetoric of “political correctness” while seeking to bring their thoughts to form .
While some Mercury retrogrades periods are quite benign, and come and go with few snarls and frustrations, I don’t believe this one in Aries is going to be of that nature. Aries detests being held back and with so many planets lining up in the Sign of the Ram for April this Ram is going to be seriously juiced up.
With co-rulers of Aries, Mars and Pluto, squaring one another from Aries(mars) to Capricorn(pluto) for most of the retrograde period we have the potential for these fiery energies to be put into play in some very volatile forms. I wouldn’t be surprised if many feel like a rubber-band stretched beyond it’s comfort zone. On the plus side, if you reach the end of each day with your personal rubber band still intact than you’ll never again doubt that you’re meditation practices, fitness routines, stress-reduction classes etc. truly were worth the time and effort you put into them.
A bit of caution for the weeks ahead: I think it would be wise these next weeks to stayed tuned in to your environment and avoid as much as possible the company of those that don’t give a darn about how well, or not, they handle their personal volatility. So says the Moon-Pluto-Mars t-square gal…
On a final note, Mercury while traveling retrograde will be making numerous aspects, time frames/events are listed below. Mars and Pluto will be square from April 3rd-20th while applying and separating.
Notable Mercury Aspects while Rx
April 3rd/4th: Widely conjunct the Aries New Moon
April 8th-12th : Applying tightly to the Jupiter-Saturn opposition
April 9th/10th: Sun conj. Mercury exact (inferior conjunction)
April 12th: Mercury conj. Jupiter exact
April 17th-22nd: Applying tightly to conjunction with Mars, opposition w/Saturn, square w/Pluto
April 19th: Mercury conj. Mars exact
********
From March 30th-April 22nd we’ll be reworking our thoughts and projects where needed and getting a view from a new angle. Slow down when necessary and don’t expect to be sharp as a tack for we seldom are during Mercury Rx. The weeks following April 22nd until Mercury clears his shadow on May 11th bring the space of integration and far-less snafu’s to deal with!
Blessings~ Kachina Houska
