MERCURIAL MACHINATIONS
A Summary Preview Look-Ahead of Mercury in Virgo, Libra, Rx, in Inferior Conjunction, Stationed & Back into Libra/with Major Aspects Occurring Now Thru October
As usual—Mercury is busy, and its movements detail, for us, gobs of information…
Currently, Mercury is applying an opposition to Neptune before ingressing into Libra—the opposition will occur through the 20th and 21st at 24*44’ Virgo/Pisces, and the moon will illuminate this by t-square; the ingress will occur on August 26th.
Mercury/Neptune, through any aspect, is complicated… Mercury represents how we think, what our priority focus is, how we learn, what we’re interested in, how we communicate—even what our voice is likely to sound like and how we speak! —and Neptune represents rabbit holes of endless thoughts that go nowhere, blurring priority with unnecessary and the like, learning in very obscured, confusing, and synesthetic ways while connecting the dots by detour rather than direct route and feeling more connected to the sound of chartreuse and the taste of the number 8, drawing interest in nearly anything and everything and never being able to pinpoint anything about anything… communicating in a way that sounds like a junkie, recently peaking from a hit—strung out and distracted, foggy, and inarticulately ethereal.
If reading that paragraph was enough to influence your eyes into crossing—exactly.
Mercury doesn’t enjoy the hidden, deeper meanings and riddles of Neptune, nor does Mercury have much patience for the surreal, subjective, or mystical, or philosophical…
Mercury works best with quick, direct, and entirely, unequivocally objective… and this is simply not possible with Neptune. Still, truly inspirational seeds of potential tend to find you when Mercury and Neptune collaborate…
Prepare for delays—even in traffic!—and confusions, slower-paced thinking-patterns, and even more lethargic behaviors from today through next Tuesday, potentially—as this opposition will peak over the weekend… this said, however—expect all things Mercurial in nature: learning, thinking, communicating, and exchanging, in addition to commerce, transportation, and technology to be somewhat amplified through this same time frame as Mars moves into Gemini on Saturday, which I will post for separately.
The degree through which this opposition occurs is associated with ‘public recognition’, which is interesting—the headlines we’ll likely get from this celestial arrangement… astrologer Dane Rudhyar described this degree as ‘the social acknowledgement of a job well done and a destiny fulfilled…’ which could possibly suggest—we’re dealing with Neptune, here, folks, so it’s all entirely subjective! —this could suggest an acknowledgement of a job unfinished, a destiny that remains unfulfilled.
Further, this degree of Virgo associates itself to all ‘public and political affairs’, as well as ‘the desire to leave a legacy to society; having the power to sway the masses or authorities…’ in addition to ‘coming together as a community or nation to share loss; judgment on one’s life; appraisals of deeds and character…’
There is very much a somber tone to this degree in that it regards ‘taking time to grieve…’ which only further suggests, here, the potential toward a job going unfinished, a destiny unfulfilled… an acknowledgement going unacknowledged.
Perhaps something is changing in your reality, or there is new information to convey—you may not be able to announce this for whatever reason, or if you’re able, perhaps this information will not compute, or be acknowledged… and the highly subjective suggestion toward loss, and grieving, could regard—quite simply—the natural upset toward this seemingly out-of-nowhere lack of clarity… with Neptune involved—it really is so difficult to guess.
Mercury will oppose Neptune again in retrograde, at 26*09’, through September 26/27th and proceed to station on October 1st through the twenty-fourth degree of Virgo—just two degrees from its opposition point—and begin moving forward from said degree on October 3rd… this is significant—as well as suggestively relevant toward whatever occurs through this first opposition… try to pay attention through the fog—it may actually manage to muddle together real meaning after-the-fact.
This degree represents ‘refinement’… keep this in mind—as I’ll refine this later…
{see what I did there?!}
I’m attempting to delineate these movements chronologically.
AND THEN…
Mercury will move into Libra on August 26th and immediately begin to apply its opposition to Jupiter Rx in Aries—to be exact September 2nd at 6*39’—a degree that regards the polarization of new potentialities…
Many of my recent posts have detailed, however vaguely, such new potentialities that have been emerging through these Dog Days of Summer—the August issue of the Planetary Planner mentioned as much a multitude of times… and with such newness emerging—contradiction and resistance naturally follow.
Astrologer Dane Rudyhar wrote of this degree that “the most basic ‘law’ of our universe is that every release of new potentialities brings about a polarization of effects—that is, the new potentiality will be used both for construction and destruction…” and so a separate transcription of this degree is of ‘nurturing, protection; being on the lookout for changes in the atmosphere; spotting problems of which no one else notices; over sheltering; and being firm…’
Above all, the ‘taking responsibility for things that are not normally yours’ pops out—particularly in alignment with the previous degree describing that which is unfinished, unfulfilled, and unacknowledged. Further, with Mercury previously in Virgo—an energy that inherently needs for things to be finished, fulfilled, and acknowledged, first and foremost—in Libra, opposite the expansion and/or inflation of Jupiter Rx… Libran energies always-always express polarizations, and with that—the dynamics between Self and Other; the potential of needing to pick up another’s slack in some way could absolutely be an appropriate literal delineation here…
Mercury, when in Libra, becomes a bit overwhelmed by the constant back-and-forth—which is typically Mercury’s specialty, in contrast to other energies… but Libran energies take this to the next level—everything is fair play in devil’s advocacy.
However.
I have another suggestion.
Mercury/Jupiter combinations are typically advantageous, really—and despite its opposition, which, in this case, merely mentions toward an exchange—when Mercury and Jupiter get together, they trade ideas… BIG, larger-than-life ideas.
Truly… ideas can be both constructive—and destructive. Or, sometimes—the idea itself is as innocent as apple pie—but what someone decides to do with the idea is seedy as hell… perhaps you consider a new way to protect something? —or, as mentioned above, simply notice something everyone else is overlooking?
From here… Mercury moves back and into an inferior conjunction with the sun at the zero-point degree of Libra—at 0*14’ Libra on September 22nd—which would suggest, then, something of a pause, or ‘suspension in time’… as well as a ‘transfiguration’… something is changing—however quite painfully slowly… think metamorphosis.
Again, Mercury isn’t too keen on slow… and when Mercury is so, so very, very close to the sun—Mercury’s essence is lessened, if not suspended, momentarily. In other words, Mercury—and all things Mercurial—is suspended, paused, lessened, weakened, and/or deflated.
Which is to say further—that whatever bigger than big, larger than life ideas you were following and nurturing, protecting, and expanding upon… this, too, will likely experience a pause, and a consequential transfigurement—it will morph into something else in some way, or need to… could it be inspired through the inherently influencing Libran energies which will be considering all of the worst-case scenarios?
Keep in mind, also, that from this point Mercury will be moving back into Virgo… in preparation of some much-needed refinement.
Full circle. Back to applying an opposition to Neptune… in a future post. Stay tuned.
Goldsmith, M. ‘The Zodiac by Degrees.’ Weiser Books; 2004.
Hill, L. ‘360 Degrees of Wisdom.’ A Plume Book; 2004.
Rudhyar, D. ‘An Astrological Mandala.’ Vintage Books; 1973.