rachelfrank

PHOTO: RACHEL FRANK

Mercury goes Retrogade in Pisces then Aquarius. Here are some wonderful insights and reflections on what this period from February 6th to February 28th will bring in the energetic landscape.
First from the wonderful Robert Wilkinson from his Aquarius Papers:
“Many people have heard of Mercury retrograde, but don’t know what it means, or how to make best use of these often misunderstood recurring periods….
“There are a lot of myths, suppositions, and confusion about Mercury retrograde. I have found there are many things one can achieve during these periods that occur three (and sometimes four) times a year…Mercury retrograde periods are great times to examine the Cosmic Magician and figure out some things that are not evident or may be obscured when Mercury is direct in motion.”
“…Briefly, it’s a time to take a new look at information, insights, and perceptions, and rework interpretations to prepare for the four month period that follows a Mercury retrograde….”
“Mercury goes back over ground it’s just traversed, but during the retrograde there is an entirely new angle of view that presents itself so that some things previously unknown or unnoticed can be factored in for the future. There are curious returns that allow us to re-think some things, and find a new rhythm of coordinating our life affairs.”
“…While it seems as though Mercury retrograde is associated with things that malfunction and miscommunications and delays, we must remember that in actuality, no planet or its influence is good or bad unto itself. We are the ones who determine our ‘destiny,’ based on our choices, which shape our character. In that sense, ‘character is destiny,’ and so we have the responsibility to determine whether we will be active or passive in responding to life’s challenges.
“We have free will and no planet or star ‘makes’ anything happen. They merely indicate the larger patterns we live within, and so by understanding these patterns and what they symbolize, we are in a position to be in harmony or disharmony with inner and outer ‘reality.’
“This is the power of our individuality to rise above inertia, superstition, and belief systems that are obsolete, inadequate, or fear-based.
“Mercury retrograde has been with us, and will be with us, for a long, long, time, as long as the planets have their present orbits around the Sun. So the more we learn about this recurring phenomenon, the more able we will be to take advantage of our ability not to get lost or bogged down during Mercury retrograde periods. We may experience delays or confusions or deflections, but we do not have to suffer while making our way through such things.
“By learning how to use Mercury retrograde periods wisely and consciously, even if our affairs are momentarily diverted in strange directions, coordinated in some unusual ways, or take some peculiar twists and turns, they often turn out for the best over the long run, whether we knew that or not during the retrograde period.
“Often we get useful information and insights we overlooked before the retrograde, and these times help us factor in different pieces of our life’s puzzles so we can operate more effectively after the retrograde period ends.
“Sometimes it may seem like it’s two steps forward, one to the side, one back, two to the side, and three forward. It’s all okay, since it’s showing you a different way to be guided to your truth and more effective way of being in the world. Often things don’t turn out the way we suspect, but that can be as good as it can be difficult….”
“The coming retrograde will be an extremely important one showing us how to navigate ‘psychic traffic jam’ in collective consciousness, and give us one look back so we can get clear about how to mobilize energy to overcome something that is ‘burning out of control.’ We can see what needed to end before now but hasn’t, and how to gather our energy to complete those endings.
We can get new insights into old motives, old betrayals, old sorrows, or old ambivalence. Some will get flashes into past life impressions that have been creating confusion or cross currents in this life…”
Expect big ‘forks in the road of destiny’ via Mercury in the global situation. Some of these were decided a while back, and now we get a new look at what worked and what didn’t. Now we get to review and reflect, blessing and letting go of old confusing or stalled situations, or old sorrows we no longer need to carry.
“…So expect a wild ride, and move through the confusion using your navigational skills you cultivated during the past 9 months during the time of the Water Trines. This one can help us understand some things that were confusing before now, and help us reorient and integrate some things as we move sideways into the future. Since much won’t make any sense and be thrown into some temporary confusion, or we’ll confront our own or someone else’s compulsions, kick back a little, let much pass without being confused or ambivalent, and keep transmuting your magnetism to deal with the constant dance of planets showing down and speeding up….”
“…While there will be some hard edges, this time should help us integrate our feelings with a new way to viewing how we feel what we know and know what we feel. This period can help us feel connected with others who share our ideals. There may be the return of old friends and allies, or ghosts from the past that need to be blessed and passed on.”
“While the last Mercury retrograde period was the beginning of a genuine renewal, this one helps us ‘let go, let God.’ We’re getting ready for a full mobilization of our powers and skills at the end of February that will determine how the Great Fracturing of April impacts us personally. Take a look at the new goals, ambitions, and friendships that opened in January, since we can capture that which is valuable in March.”
“…By mid-February, we need to stay open to a greater mental vision that shows us how to take a new look at how we’re managing our energies. This time helps us rehearse and/or research potential futures already showing themselves in symbolic forms. This is the beginning of an important phase shift in all our lives, as well as the threshold of a new way of living, feeling, and knowing.
“…Learn to monitor and steer the flow, adapt and adjust to the limits of the circumstances and ideals available at the moment, and bless everything that’s been a frustration or source of sorrow before now.
This will be an important retrograde, where the past is already on its way out, and the future isn’t quite as clear as we would like. It will help us rehearse or do the research we need to get ready to spring forward in early March, clear about our need to mobilize and rise to some occasion.”
“According to Dr. Jones, creator of the Sabian Symbols, this degree is one of “the ultimate illimitability of human relationships” in terms of “the personal … environment of everyday affairs.” He states “there are no potentialities of common self-interest that (we) cannot shape for the convenience and encouragement of a whole selfhood and a well-integrated community, but a high discipline is always necessary” for each of us as we develop.
“He offers us the keyword CONVERGENCE. He states when operating in a positive manner, this degree “is an unusual gift for organizing all transient enterprise in patterns of a rewarding and overall effectiveness.”
“As with all Mercury retrogrades, we can use this time to take a look back at whatever in the past has recently begun. This one in Pisces helps us re-shape our mind, perceptions, understanding, and methods by taking former insights into past feelings that connect us to all others across time, filling in some blind spots or elements we formerly didn’t understand that can help us forgive something or someone, or have compassion for something we went through that’s part of the universal human conditions. We can get new perspectives on old experiences and how we feel now as a result of them, as well as old motives, sources of suffering, or past behaviors that created sorrow….”
 “….So like so many other Mercury retrograde periods, this one will also be a ‘back to the future’ type of energy, where the Great Light shows us how to manage our energies in actions that help us find or strengthen our ties with our spiritual ‘group,’ as well as our ability to see clearly how our long term motives and connections within the field are helping us flow toward completion in a crucial area of our lives. This is a time of returns, reviews, rehearsals, and renewals that will have deep echoes for many months to come.”
“This is a time of feeling a lot, and very deeply. Allow your feelings and review of emotional experiences and growth to lead you to decisions and actions that result in a review of what we know or how we perceive and interpret things. Use deep feelings as a guide for action rather than the shifting perspectives of Mercury retrograde. Find new information via various forms of communication, research, rehearsal, or review.”
“This is showing you the way to a new vision, new understanding, and new ways of expressing yourself. This can help you understand elements of your quest that you’ve never understood before, so be compassionate and forgiving of yourself, and all those old sorrows and vague feelings that need to be blessed and released without a lot of words.”
Copyright © 2014 Robert Wilkinson
  From Molly Hall from About Astrology:
“The translator Mercury sees things through a poetic cast in Pisces.  So the month of love can be a time of looking back, and seeing with forgiving, compassionate eyes.  A soul wound that aches in certain weather can be re-framed — and a new understanding becomes a kind of balm.
“Poets and dreamers will see faces in clouds, and get chills at serendipity, or a sense that an unseen ‘presence’ is near.  This is a time for mystery, and re-enchanting your life.
“As Mercury then retro’s into far-sighted Aquarius, there can be unexpected ah-has that ‘change everything.
“One date blinking red is the zone of Feb 18-19, when Saturn is square to Mercury Rx.  A misunderstanding could cause an atomic chain reaction, with destructive results.  Cooler heads prevail, when you privately deal with all that’s stirred up in yourself or others.
“Often Mercury retrograde is NOT the time to act, but a time to observe and enjoy the view floating upstream…”
“….Mercury in Pisces has the potential to see as a mystic does, that everything has intelligence and is moving energy.  It’s a great time for surprise synchronicity or dreams of a lost love that feel real.
“Mercury will spend most of the cycle in airy Aquarius, the sign of the visionary.  I must say, it’s a favorable set-up for an awakening on a grand scale.  Or a quickening of the waking up to veiled realities that’s already underway in earnest.
“For the individual seeker, it’s one of those times to ‘change your mind, change your life.’  It’s a vacation away from ordinary thought streams.  So if you want to be that pioneer, shield yourself from the wave of memes that overtake the masses, and are as regular as tides.  When Mercury is in Aquarius, we’re emboldened to take the road less traveled. “
Copyright © 2014 Molly Hall
From the always thought-provoking Sarah Varcas from Astro-Awakenings.uk:
“This passage of Mercury retrograde begins by highlighting the unpredictable nature of communication – no matter how adept at it we believe ourselves to be! As it progresses it then shifts our attention to detaching from the outcomes of our communication and accepting that once ‘out there’, what it becomes is rarely in our hands..
“…we discover that what we said was heard as something entirely different. We meant A they heard Z, we thought we said ‘yes’, they heard ‘no’. We were fairly sure we made ourselves clear but they find us completely confusing in every respect! It is precisely this quality of communication which is brought to our attention in the first week of this retrograde passage. With Mercury conjunct Neptune at its station, there is no such thing as clear communication…” 
“We could let all this stress us out, desperately trying to dot the I’s and cross the T’s, seeking to eradicate any chance of misunderstanding. Or we could surrender to the fact that communication itself, as an exchange between two individuals each with their own issues and perspectives, pre-existing thoughts and feelings, is inherently flawed if what we want out of it is perfect accord and infallible understanding.
“If, however, what we want is simply to make a connection, to engage with another in a spirit of openness and enquiry, curious as to what may be going on in their mind and heart, then such communication is the most wonderful tool for engagement and connection.”
“…The better able we are to accept this fact but still be prepared to add our piece to the collective tapestry of thoughts, feelings and opinions, the richer that tapestry becomes and the more likely it is that each of us can find resonant companions on the path ahead.
Mercury in Aquarius brings us innovative understanding and new perspectives. When retrograde it reminds us how unwelcome those perspectives can sometimes be in a world where familiarity is embraced and difference can be cast aside as merely ‘wrong’. This month we’re challenged to both express what we must without fear whilst accepting that what we say, once out there, has a life of its own to live…
“This passage of Mercury retrograde ushers in a time of deep understanding about what communication really is and the part that it plays in our lives. The more open we can be to such understanding the better able we will be to communicate what matters to us in a spirit of openness and confidence whilst accepting that what others hear may be something altogether different and that’s fine too.
“Such is the nature of the global brain: seven billion people each with their own agenda, experience and world view….When we look at it that way, it’s no wonder communication can be such a minefield and an incredible source of deep connection, all in the same moment!”
Copyright © 2014 Sarah Varcas
Lastly from the always insightful Dipali Desai and her Celestial Space Astrology:
“Mercury in Pisces symbolizes a time to use compassionate communication and surrender into a ‘being’ state within the mind.  Being still, insights present themselves.  Mercury enters Pisces on January 31st, 2014, suggesting embracing inspiration and peace, anything that soothes the mind and mental energy…”
“…Mercury Retrograde phase is a time where the mental thoughts and linear logical thinking shifts into a more introspective phase. The nervous system needs a bit of relaxation from time to time and the mind needs to be emptied so to speak like clearing out the email inbox from excess information debris and this is the phase where this occurs. The Mercury retrograde is actually a precious time to allow perceptions to shift and stuck mental energy to clear away.”
Under any ‘Retrograde Phase’ is wise to get more rest, sleep, power naps and rejuvenate. This IS the flow now, slowing down. In this case it is the ‘Mental Energy’ and mind that requires rest.  If you rebel against it, it is possible to become more irritable, impatient and create more confusion.”
On February 6th, Mercury begins its retrograde phase in Pisces making a connection to transiting Neptune in Pisces. This suggests diffused thought, less logic and more intuitive way of thinking and even communicating. Mercury/Neptune suggests the potential for highly inspired ideas and healing. Though with the retrograde phase, each must learn to be fluid and adaptable to last minute snags, changes and mix-ups. It is possible people are not able to be fully decisive or are not as clear in communication… “
Majority of the retrograde phase happens with Mercury in Aquarius.  Mercury re-enters Aquarius on Feb. 13th during the Retrograde phase and goes Direct motion in this sign as well…As Mercury goes direct in Aquarius at 18 degrees, there is opportunity to become clear and objective again. Mercury in Aquarius invites each to be open minded and experimental. Mercury in Aquarius may bring out the logical steps and factual data to help talk about the inspirations and how they may influence life to have a happier future.
“Mercury in Aquarius brings out the inventive side of thinking and is able to help with new ways of communication and exchanging information. It may be a great time to meet new people, friends and network in groups which are of common interest.  As Mercury moves back into Pisces on March 18th, one then attunes to creative intuitive thinking and thinking like an artist. Thoughts move back into a non-linear space and compassionate communication is encouraged.
© Copyright 2014 – Dipali Desai All Rights Reserved
Grateful for the illumination each of these astrologers offers on an often misunderstood time. It is part of the natural rhythm of life for there to be inward moving times and outward moving times, in breath, and out breath. So let’s enjoy this inward cycle, to reflect, give the mental linear realms a rest, and dive deeper into our intuitive knowing, allowing for the space for insights and revelation to come.
Blessings to all!
~mm

 

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