Mercury is out of Retrograde on Wednesday, the 11th of February. Are you ready for a "RE-Do?"
Mercury is now Direct in Aquarius.
The Skinny: Mercury stopped moving forward and went 'backward' in the sky on January 21st. Today - Wednesday (Mercury's Day-Of-The-Week), February 11th - Mercury will stop moving 'backward' - Pause - and then go forward in the sky, again. Mercury affects communication, thinking, and expression. Imagine that all going forward, then stopping cold, then going backward, then stopping cold, then going forward, again. Now you know why you can't put three words together these past few weeks. Today we're waking up from all of that...with a slight hangover. But starting Tomorrow, we all get a "RE-do" in various places in our lives.
The Path of Mercury: moving forward from January 5th-21st(Pre-Shadow); stopping on January 21st; Going into Retrograde motion on January 21st-February 11th; stopping on February 11th: Going into Direct motion on February 11 (Begin Post-Shadow); On March 3rd-4th Mercury will be catching up to where S/He was on January 21st and finally moving past that point (End Post-Shadow).
The Fat: Mercury is wearing the mask of Aquarius as He/She moved backward through the Aquarius constellation. Aquarius is the sign of non-traditional community and inspired innovation. Social Networking is a perfect example. A Retrograde Mercury in Aquarius tests all of that. Our Twitterpating/Facebooking/Instagramming activity needs to take a chill pill while we focus on RE-storative communication in our social web-worlds.
Mercury (☿ is its sigil) goes Retrograde 3-4 times a year. Each time, Mercury will transit a different sign in the sky. This is a "resting" time for Mercury. Retrograde motion lasts 3-3&1/2 weeks, but the whole cycle is longer - over 5 weeks. With 52 weeks in a year, 3 of these 5+ week cycles takes up about 1/3 of the entire year. That's the same amount of each 24-hour day we (on average) spend sleeping: 8 hours. Mercury Retrograde is a time in the year for our communication and expression command centers to chill...to sleep...and especially...to dream.
The best way to do this is to put a "RE" in front of everything and let go of focusing on "moving forward." RE-organize your contacts in your phone, RE-connect with old friends, RE-vise or RE-write an important document. But, if you Must "Move Forward" expect the dreaming god Mercury (☿) to have you do it (at least) twice before S/He wakes up to participate. Breaking up with your "future-ex"...? You might have to do that again (...and Again!) if you chose to do it on or after January 21st. There's more to talk about, whether you like it, or not.
So...what to do Today and moving forward as Mercury wakes up from the Dreaming? Aquarius is the sign of "Visionary Activism." That's what Awesome Astrologer Caroline W. Casey would call Entertaining the Possibilities Beyond what we THINK is possible...and Allowing ourselves to act "outside of the box." Publicist-Maven Melanie Vesey says, "When you're inside the box, the directions to get out of it are on the outside." Luckily, we were just outside the box reading those directions BEFORE Mercury(☿) went Retrograde. All we need to do is Remember what it was like when we weren't in this predicament. If we can't remember the "facts," we can feel the FEELING of what it's like to feel free. The feeling will reflect the "get-outside-the-box" directions as clear as a mirror. This is our "20/20 Hindsight" Moment from today until Tuesday, March 3rd.
What is it like to be inside the box and to intuit the "exit directions" that are outside of it, you ask?
VH-1's "Hindsight"
Well...it's kind of like the new TV Show "Hindsight" on VH-1 about a woman who is 45 in 2015, passes out and wakes up 25 in 1995. She gets to RE-do Everything she ever did in those 20 years. Ours isn't a 20-year time trip; it's just a few weeks...and it certainly doesn't let us RE-do EVERYTHING that happened since Wednesday, January 21st. But a Mercury that was Retrograde in Aquarius and is now Direct will let us RE-say almost anything to anyone in our social world...no matter how far away.
We have this window until Tuesday, March 3rd to RE-Say and RE-Express and RE-Tell all the things we wanted said better, the first time. We can RE-view the unfortunate things we said and RE-address them, using the knowledge of what happened the last time we said them. As Mercury RE-turns to forward motion today, most people will be so glad that the Retrograde is over that they'll miss out on the opportunity to RE-Do crucial aspects of their lives. That won't be you; you're forewarned and forearmed.
Here's a Guide to Which days you'll be "RE-living" an aspect of your life and when you'll be "RE-living" it. The first column shows the dates for what is going on NOW into the future. The second column shows dates for what we did while Mercury was Retrograde (that we NOW get to "RE-Do"). The third column shows dates for what we First Did before Mercury went Retrograde:
☿ Direct POST-Rx ☿ Retrograde(Rx) ☿ Direct PRE-Rx Degree & Sign
20/20 Hindsight date: Retrograde: Pre-Retrograde: Degree & Sign
February 11 February 11 January 5 1˚ Aquarius
February 12 February 10 January 6
February 13 February 10 January 6
February 14 February 9 January 6
February 15 February 9 January 6
February 16 February 8 January 7 2˚ Aquarius
February 17 February 7 January 7
February 18 February 6 January 7 3˚ Aquarius
February 19 February 5 January 8 4˚ Aquarius
February 20 February 5 January 8
February 21 February 4 January 9 5˚ Aquarius
February 22 February 3 January 9 6˚ Aquarius
February 23 February 2 January 10 7˚ Aquarius
February 24 February 1 January 11 8˚ Aquarius
February 25 January 31 January 12 9˚ Aquarius
February 26 January 31 January 12 10˚ Aquarius
February 27 January 30 January 13 11˚ Aquarius
February 28 January 29 January 14 12˚ Aquarius
March 1 January 28 January 15 13˚ Aquarius
March 2 January 27 January 16 14˚ Aquarius
March 2 January 26 January 17 15˚ Aquarius
March 2 January 26 January 18
March 3 January 25 January 19 16˚ Aquarius
March 3 January 24 January 19
March 3 January 23 January 20
March 3-4 January 22 January 21 17˚ Aquarius
The Technical: Mercury went Retrograde in the sign Aquarius. This happened when it was about 1/2-way into Aquarius. Mercury stopped at 17˚ (out of 30) degrees Aquarius on the 21st. Mercury then moved backward to the place where it was on Monday, January 5th (1 degree Aquarius). Today, Tuesday, February 9th, Mercury is at 1˚ Aquarius. Mercury stops moving backward on Wednesday, February 11th and then starts moving forward again. But Mercury will not get past that 17 degree Aquarius mark (Remember...? The place where it first went backward in our sky on January 21st...?) where it started at until Tuesday, March 3rd. That part of Mercury's journey that is NOT Retrograde but, rather, tracing/retracing its previous place in the sky is called "Shadow."
The first Mercury Retrograde of this year - 2015 - happened at Seventeen Degrees and Five Minutes into the sign Aquarius (17˚5") on January 21 at 3:54PM Greenwich or Universal time, 10:54AM Eastern time and 7:54AM Pacific time. Mercury enters Direct Station in Aquarius (1˚18") on February 11 at 2:57PM Greenwich Universal Time, 9:57AM Eastern Standard Time and 6:57AM Pacific Standard Time.
