By Marina

On the 15th July Mercury stations retrograde at 12º Leo. Difficulties with Mercury retrograde really depend on how comfortable you are with letting your intuitive, right brain take over for a while or wether it touches a sensitive spot in your chart. An afflicted planet or angle being hit three times is apt to rub one raw if you are not prepared.  You can read more here; Mercury Retrograde – Meaning. This retrograde period has Mercury cruising between 1º – 12º Leo. Thankfully the celestial route is not filled with sea monsters or anything too scary this time around.

Mercury Enters Retrograde Zone

Mercury is holding hands with Venus by sextile as it enters shadow zone on June 27. It has every reason to because at first glance this is a mess of a chart. At some point today depending on your time zone, there will be a grand cross in the sky between the Sun, Moon, Uranus and Pluto.

A Hades Moon on Facies, the penetrating stare of the archer, with Uranus it can be cold and heartless. This is the grand cross of fascism and cruel dictatorship. There is even a torturous rack in there too with Venus stationing direct, like she is finally turning round and slamming the door. It’s a day of ultimatums, crossroads and feeling you are being stretched in all directions. So Mercury is gaining courage from Ceres who is now close to the Solar eclipse degree, on notorious Alcyone. On a personal level, sex scandals or on a galactic level, anything goes, contact from Pleiadians?! This square is boiling up some of that Uranus square Pluto revolutionary energy.

Mercury makes a beneficial trine to the North Node on June 30 when things calm down and it also sexiles Jupiter/South Node. A learning experience and help from an old soulmate/mentor who owes you one. July 4 Independence day and we get a very Persephone Yod to Pluto with Mercury. Is Mercury going to rescue our fair maiden from the underworld? It’s a pretty stunning formation with a minor grand trine involving Uranus too. All at 8º! Anyone with anything important at 8º should experience something major on this day. Maybe it is indeed freedom from tyranny and true autonomy. Mercury is on Praesaepe gives help from your wise old ancestors. If you can’t tap into this yourself go see a psychic! Messages may be profound. 8º Capricorn, the finger of fate is pointing at you! This Yod is in orb from July 2-7, so an exciting week and Mercury hasn’t even gone retrograde yet. A taste of what’s to come.

Mercury Station Retrograde

Mercury stations retrograde on July 15 at 2.16am GMT. The retrograde chart has a cooperative Mercury sextile Venus and an interesting Lilith/Sednaconjunction on the beheading arm of Perseus. In the wider world a tyrant could get deposed, in our personal lives we are slaying off bullying demons that have been holding us back. Mars trine Jupiter gives military success and great courage, particularly to 7º air signs. Sun square Saturn in the chart reminds us that these demons can be of our own making that we project onto others. This manifests in blaming our partner for controlling us and making us fearful. Or blaming our parents for making us addicts, failures, shy, fat, ill.. Ditch blame and take Saturn responsibility.

Mercury retrograde is an ideal time to look at how much our mind is telling us “I can’t” and to realise we can re-program it with a little bit of help. The Sabian symbol for the moment Mercury turns retrograde is “An old sea captain rocking on the porch of his cottage”. After the days of adventure or intense activity, this symbol is telling us to sit back and take time out from the Neptunian rough seas. Seek peace and quiet. Sun square Saturn in this chart may actually need solitude, so if it’s a real effort to socialise, just give yourself a break and don’t push it.

From July 24 – Aug 1 we get some potent Yod aspect patterns again when Mercury goes back and once more creates the Persephone Yod that occurred during the direct phase early July. This time Ceres is replaced by Jupiter though. But that’s not all. This time get another Yod from Chiron sextile Pluto to Mercury Rx. Now the finger of fate is also pointing at you 9º Leo! These intertwined Yods can be a messy business. To me they are like Siamese twins. In order to move forward the two must be separated from each other. During this time some of us may experience the tricky operation of detaching ourselves from enmeshed relationships. A structure of dependence that is so interwoven, that to break it would be too traumatic.

So just like separating Siamese twins, the risks with these Yods are great. Blood will need to be spilt, but the rewards are greater longevity for the relationship in the long term. In the case of a Mercury retrograde here, it was like the two were joined by the heads! Whatever the relationship, parent/child, husband/wife, songwriting team, business partners. This Mercury retrograde calls for them to allow each other to have different ideas, interests, avenues to explore other philosophies and political thinking. Pluto on Facies in both Yods and being aspected by Mercury three times makes this retrograde period about liberation from intellectual dictatorship and mind control.

Mercury Station Direct

Mercury stations direct on August 8  at 6.40am UT. What a beautiful stable geometry this chart has. It looks like the separation of the twins was a success. Mercury and Venus stand at the doors of this Tardis. A pattern that appears to grow as one goes further into it. This duo sucks in knowledge and then disperses it, but they are both separate entities. They are both drawing from Neptune’s well of wisdom and North Node on Dschubba, the forehead of the occult Scorpion. The Black Moon is on the Lilith star Algol in this chart too. This is the first time in 9 years (Exact August 10), so I think this is a potentially magical turning point for those that grab this opportunity. The collective South Node is on Mirfak in heroic Perseus, the demon slayer. Negative programming from past generations is successfully exorcised.

This Tardis, (or “Trawler” pattern as the Hubers commonly call it) lasts until August 12. Mercury becomes the apex of Chiron/Pluto Yod once more, but no tangles with the Persephone Yod this time. She has grown up and gone her own merry way. Now there is only healing and the way forward is clear. The finger points to.…7º Leo once more! Only this time Mercury is direct and this shows the resolution and purpose of the Yod energy. The mission is found. Have a look and see where this Yod is pointing in your own chart. The house will show the area in life where the way ahead is clear now after some entanglements and confusion. This is an area that needs healing. Like the Sabian symbol I mentioned earlier, it is the place in our lives that need some peace, quiet and meditation.

If one has a planet or angle at 6º- 9º Leo, the need for TLC here is even more emphasised. This sore spot has taken some planetary hammering recently. You will also be experience the effects of Uranus square Pluto as a personal sexual revolution which may complicate matters further, though the trine from Uranus at 8ºAries will bring you the much needed change. August 19 this Mercury trine Uranus is exact, so enjoy the head rush and the visionary ideas that will strike like a thunderbolt down to 8º Leo. An exciting day of innovation and inventiveness for all.

Mercury Leaves Retrograde Zone

The grand finale is on August 22 when Mercury leaves the shadow zone and forms a perceptive eye pattern with Venus at the midpoint of the two lovers of learning Mercury and Jupiter. Mercury starts how it finishes this retrograde story, in aspect to Venus. Love and wisdom conquer all. We learn the ability to allow intellectual space and growth to those we love. Relationships cannot flourish if the people involved are not allowed to have differences in opinions. If they cannot then maybe it is time to admit “artistic differences” and part company.

This is an exciting Mercury retrograde with great opportunity to rewire our brains free of our own limiting dictator demons. It may be that an intellectual bully or skeptic is literally dominating us, in that case then you might have to accept that you cannot fight left-brain mentality with symbolic right-brain arguments. It will be like speaking Shakespeare to a five year old. So take time out, do your own thing, lock yourself in a library, liber-ate with books, join with people who think like you do for moral support and avoid becoming enmeshed in trivial and draining mind games.

Mercury Retrograde Dates

June 27 – Mercury enters retrograde at 1ºLeo 26′
July 15 – Mercury stationary retrograde at 12ºLeo 33′
August 8 - Mercury stationary direct at 1ºLeo 26′
August 22 – Mercury leaves retrograde zone at 12ºLeo 33′